Page 53 of Dark As Coal

What was she talking about? If I had seen her before that day, my entire world would have aligned much sooner.

“You were walking out of the grocery store, you had a bag of apples in one hand, and you were glaring at a woman who almost ran over you because she was too busy texting someone on her phone.”

That was when my mind went back to that day, and I recalled seeing a flash of the prettiest head of her hair I had ever seen.

Now that I really thought about it, I should have known something was right in my world when for the first time in my life, someone made me want to take a second look.

And that second look, as she was getting in her car, a head of hair was all I had seen.

“I remember you. You know, the only thing I saw of you was your hair, and you were the only person in my thirty-four years of life that has ever made me want to take a second look.”

***

Adeline stayed in the hospital for a week and a half.

It would also seem that something I never thought I would do… I would only do it for my Soulshine.

Because when the nurse tried to bathe my woman, I vehemently refused and did it myself. That included washing her hair and conditioning it.

I also had to think of every single gross thing I could muster when she moaned every time my fingers scratched her scalp.

And yes, I promised her I would wash her hair for her, anytime she asked.

Which she asked frequently in the following four weeks while she was healing.

But there was something behind her eyes that I couldn’t make out.

I knew there was something else she wasn’t telling me, but what it was, I didn’t know.

And honestly, I had a feeling she didn’t know what it was either.

But I put all of that to the back of my mind.

None of that was important.

Not a single bit of it was.

What was important was smiling down at my woman after she got out of the shower, her little baby bump looking adorable as I massaged lotion, hoping to prevent as many stretch marks as I could. But not for me.

Nope.

I didn’t give a flying fuck about the marks.

They were fucking warrior marks as far as I was concerned, and the more of them the better.

“So, do you want to find your father? Between the two of us, our kids won’t have any other family.”

She smiled at me, brought her hand up, and caressed the side of my face, my head automatically pushed into her touch, loving it. Needing it. Always.

“Our baby has tons of aunts and uncles, a couple of cousins, and our baby already has a grandfather. The right grandfather. He or she doesn’t need someone that knew where I was and didn’t care. No, what he or she needs is to be looked upon the moment they open their eyes and see what pure love really looks like. And they will when their grandfather smiles down at them.”

I was smarter than this. I really fucking was.

And my woman, seeing the weird battle I had going on in my head, smiled, winked, then unraveled the mystery.

I could have kicked my own ass for not realizing who she was talking about.

“Piney.”

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