Page 37 of The (Maybe) Murderer Who Knocked Me Up

My heart sinks. “Because you don’t want them?”

“No. Because… I’m a grizzly shifter.”

I glance his way, not sure what he means. “And grizzly shifters don’t usually have children?”

“Well, it’s like I said. We only fall in love once.” He still doesn’t look at me. “So, unless… you and I. But it’s okay. I don’t expect anything from you, Quin.”

Does Slade really love me or is our unresolved bond confusing him? If I had waited to ask him if he wanted to bond to me, like I should have, then I would know.

“If we ever bonded… I mean, I’m not saying that’s still possible. I don’t know. But if we did, would you want to have a child?” I internally cringe. Could I be any more obvious?

Slade turns his enormous body in my direction. “Yes.”

I’m surprised by how direct his answer is. I expected him to say something like, “Only if you wanted to” or “if the circumstances were right.”

“But any child we had would only be able to shift into a raccoon. That’s how it works,” I explain.

“I know.” His lips quirk up. “You’re beautiful as a raccoon.”

My cheeks grow hot. It’s hard to not be affected by all his compliments. Especially because Chime has the exact same fur pattern that I do.

I think he would love her.

Goddamn it. This is complicated.

“So you’ve been running your own business,” Slade says. “That’s great. What else have you been up to since high school?”

Being a single dad. But I can’t say that.

“I, um, help my aunt with her animal rescue. And I hang out with my brothers as much as I can. Which is fun, mostly. Link became a quarterback for the NFL last year. As you can imagine, he’s insufferable these days.”

Slade chuckles. “Even more insufferable than he was in high school?”

“I know it’s hard to believe, but yes. He does shower more though, which we all appreciate.”

We talk about our brothers the rest of the way there, which is nice. He asks about each of mine individually, and listens while I tell him about Coin’s new band, Tin’s favorite horse, and Silver’s cozy house in San Antonio. I have to stop myself from blurting out details that include Chime several times.

It feels wrong to omit her. Maybe the way I’ve handled this whole thing is wrong.

I hope my moms can help me sort out this mess.

18

SLADE

The trailer park is exactly the way I remember it. Crumbly gutters without sidewalks. Mrs. Avery’s well-manicured lawn and cheery flower boxes next to Mr. Jamison’s yard cluttered with rusted cars and weeds. The main difference is the husk of the house next to Quin’s where Georgina used to live.

They searched her place when I got arrested. The stuff the cops found was Dalton’s, but she took the fall. She wrote me letters from the women’s correctional facility outside Houston for three years before she got out.

I guess she didn’t return to the trailer park. The boarded-up windows suggest that no one’s been living there for a long time.

Quin’s house, with the wooden bench swing on the porch and the wilted shrubbery makes my heart ache. I can clearly imagine him standing next to the car I was fixing on his birthday, proudly telling me he was legal. I wasted too much time holding myself back from him. We could have been together long before our single night together.

I follow Quin up the front stairs. He’s no longer holding his ripped jeans behind him, which means I can properly see the“Easy Lay” on his ass. He glances down at the welcome mat, then hurriedly steps on top of it, but not before I read what it says: “Grandkids spoiled here.”

Quin didn’t mention having any nieces or nephews. That’s strange. He told me the names of all of Tin’s horses. Surely, he would have brought up any children his brothers had.

Before Quin can knock, the door swings open. His omega mother, with her dozens of bangle bracelets and earrings, smiles at us with a flushed face. “Here you are.” She glances down at the welcome mat and winces. “We were just getting things ready. Apparently, there were a lot of things that were… not ready. Hi, Slade. It’s good to see you. I don’t think we’ve ever formally met. I’m Ruby.” She holds her hand out to me, and I shake it gingerly. I don’t want to give her the impression that I intentionally intimidate people with my size.

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