Page 70 of Cold Foot Croc

“Well go on then. What news?”

“Well, I…” Raynah swallowed hard. “I’m not asking for anything at all from any of you. I just wanted to say I had a little baby girl a couple of days ago. I just thought you should know.”

“A little girl?” her mom whispered. Her words were tear-stained now.

“Yeah. She’s amazing. And I was just thinking about all the things you taught me, and I just wanted to try the old landline and see…if…well, see if anyone picked up.”

“What’s her name?”

“Breah.”

“Breah is a beautiful name. The dad’s good to you?”

She thought of Garret and smiled. “Yeah. Very good.”

Her mom inhaled deeply and let off a long breath. “My husband is good to me, too.”

Raynah didn’t know how to respond.

“Ain’t no man hit me since…you know. I changed what I was looking for. I figured I owed it to you, after I was out of my angry phase.”

“I’m…” Raynah’s voice cracked, and she had to swallow a lump in her throat before she tried again. “I’m sorry for any hurt I caused you, but you should know I’m not sorry for what I did to that asshole. I would do it again, and just the same.”

“Good. We wrote you. Mace and I wrote to you. Did you get our letters? And our Christmas cards? They never came back tous, but you never responded. We figured you were angry at us after everything that shook down.”

“Wait, you wrote to me? While I was in Cold Foot?”

“Every month. One from me, and one from Mace. Once the dust settled and we realized the sacrifice you made, and when my life started improving, and when I lost that fear of Harold and accepted that he was really gone, we started writing to you. It was after the trial. The guilt ate me up something terrible. It still does.”

“I never got your letters.”

A pained noise escaped her mother. “We heard you got out of Cold Foot. Heard there was some bad stuff in there. Mace tracked down some sealed court documents that said something happened in a program you were in, and there was a lawsuit. Oh, honey, I’m sorry. I’m sorry that happened if it was true.”

Eyes overflowing, Raynah looked down at Breah’s face. She’d fallen asleep again. “I’m not sorry. I ended up all right. I have a Crew, and a good man, and this sweet little baby, and I’m not looking in the rearview anymore. There’s nothing for me there. I’m only looking straight ahead these days.”

“Can you send me a picture of her?”

“Raynah?” Garret called from below.

“I’m upstairs,” she called to him. To her mom, she said, “Of course I can.”

Her mom gave her a cell phone number, and Raynah sent over a picture of the day she’d had Breah. Sasha had taken a picture of her and Garret leaning on each other as he held Brea. Raynah looked a mess, but no one could deny the happiness in the photo.

“Oooooh,” her mom crooned. “I got the picture, Ray. I got it. You sure did get yourself the life, didn’t you?”

Garret made it to the top of the stairs and looked at her with worry in his eyes, but she patted the bed beside her, and smiled at him.My mom, she mouthed.

His eyebrows shot up and he removed his baseball hat, bent the curved bill in his big strong hands as he sat on the edge of the bed.Holy shit, he mouthed back.

“Garret just got here,” Raynah said. “He’s my…my…well, he’s mine.”

“Hi, Raynah’s mom,” Garret said near the phone.

Her mom laughed thickly. “Hello, Ray’s man. It’s nice to talk to you.”

“I’ll send you more pictures, okay?” Raynah offered. “If you want them.”

“I do. Give me a million. I’ll be giving your number to Mace too, if that’s okay. He’s probably going to start planning a trip for us to come see you. Would that be all right?”

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