Page 56 of Hendrix

“I knew it,” Bones muttered to himself, his eyes flicking over me thoughtfully. “Psychoanalyst’s dream.”

My hand went to my forehead, and I rubbed at the ache there.

These fuckers were driving me insane.

“He’s always had a thing for redheads,” Dad continued. “Even lost his cherry to one when he was nineteen. I mean, the girl had great hair, but she had one of those Kardashian asses except more jiggly.”

Slowly, I closed my eyes.

For fuck’s sake.

“Nothing wrong with a bit of jiggle, Will,” Bones pointed out. “And there ain’t a Kardashian sister alive who I’d kick outta bed.”

“You’re right,” Pop agreed. “Except Jameson’s girl looked like she’d been beaten in the face with an ugly stick a few times.”

Freya lifted Anna’s top to expose her rounded belly and sighed. “You shouldn’t talk about women’s looks that way, Will.”

“Just callin’ a spade a spade, girlie,” Will replied, waving off her reprimand. “I mean, she was nice an’ all, but she reminded me of that English singer from the sixties, Cilla Black, you know, the chick with those buck teeth.” He shook his head, his eyes glazing over as he thought back. “Glad she never gave my boy a blowie. She’d have probably shredded his dick to pieces with those gnashers. Though admittedly, he was no oil painting himself at nineteen. Skinny arms, bandy legs, and the acne—” His eyes went big, and his mouth twisted. “—Let’s just say it took him joining the military before he came into his looks.”

Anna rolled her lips inward to stop herself from laughing.

Freya rolled her eyes.

“Dad!” I barked. “Shut your fuckin’ mouth, please...” My eyes caught movement on the sonogram screen, and I did a double-take, my words trailing off because of the wave of long-forgotten feelings punching me square in the chest.

It was there as clear as day.

A fucking baby.

I could see the outline of a perfectly shaped head, a round belly, and little stick-like legs kicking out all frog-like. A sense of awe fell over me, and my jaw dropped at the innocent, pure beauty before my eyes.

Suddenly, my throat clogged up with emotions I hadn’t let myself feel in years.

This was a human being untouched by anything dark or evil. All it had ever experienced was its mother’s nourishment, goodness, and pure heart.

Experience had taught me the world was filled with evil people who did vile, vicious things to each other. I’d witnessed the worst of humanity and believed this life was our Hell because we all went through it at some point.

But this tiny, pure person was a blank canvas, a clean slate, a precious thing who could be molded into somebody clean and decent who could bring beauty to the world.

“Aww,” Freya murmured. “He’s got hiccups, look. You can see him blowing bubbles.” She pointed to the outline of a tiny circle coming from the little nipper’s mouth.

Mesmerized, I leaned forward to take a closer look, and my heart flipped over before melting into goo. He was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen, barring his mother. Something about him called to my soul. Even looking at the pixels of his sonogram image made me feel something profound, like I was always meant to be here to protect him.

That was when a revelation hit me.

Maybe everything me and Anna had been through was meant to happen the way it did, just so we could get to this point. God knew kids weren’t in my future, so what if this was always my destiny?

What if he was always meant to be mine?

And what if I was always meant to be his?

Anna turned her misty eyes on Freya. “Does everything look okay?”

Freya ran the sonogram wand over Anna’s belly and clicked a few buttons on the machine so she could highlight and zoom in on certain areas. “Everything looks great. Baby’s got a strong heartbeat, he’s growing right on schedule, and we can all see how active he is.”

“He’s so precious,” Tristan exclaimed excitedly. “I can’t wait to tickle that cute lil’ belly and hear his sweet baby giggle.” He leaned over and gently clasped Anna’s shoulder. “We’re gonna have so much fun all raising him together in Wyoming. It’ll be so nice to have a little one running around the salon again. Sunny, Gabby, and Kady are getting older now. They don’t wanna spend time with their Uncle Trissy like they used to. Now, it’s all about the social media apps and TikkyTokky dances.”

An ache gripped my insides at Tristan’s words, and a low growl escaped my throat.

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