Page 118 of The Heart We Guard
He taps a few keys, and the name Gauge appears twice.
“Paul ‘Gauge’ Thomas is forty-five and looks like a meathead jacked up on steroids,” Vex says. “He’s done time for aggravated assault and has a sealed juvenile record. I can dig some more.”
“You got a photograph of him you could send through, plus any other details about who he is and where he lives, please?”
“On it,” Vex says.
“I’ll message you.”
When I finally make it back to the porch, I’m back under control. Enough that, when I see Greer sitting at the porch table, mug of decaf coffee in hand, she’s all I can focus on.
She has her phone tucked beneath her ear. “I got all the basics,” she says. “Blood pressure cuffs, pulse oximeters, glucometer. That stuff is easy. But it’s the big decisions. Like, should I get a portable ultrasound or EKG?”
She laughs at whatever the person says on the other end of the line and gathers the edges of another of my flannel shirts, pulling it tight around her.
“Then, start looking. If you can find me one for under a thousand bucks second hand, I’ll name my kid after you.”
Another pause.
“You’re right, I won’t be saddling my kid with the name Wade. But I’ll make you godparent or something.” She sees me and waves. “I gotta go, Butcher’s back…yeah, I’ll tell him you said hi. Bye.”
She ends the calls.
“Morning, babe,” I say, standing behind her to kiss the top of her head while I slide my hands inside the shirt and down over her tank top, having a playful grope of her tits before wrapping my arms around her.
“Morning,” she says. “I’m making a list of supplies for the mobile medical unit and figuring out where I’m going to go. Wade offered to help me find equipment on the cheaper side. I want to keep my capital investments, overhead, and other costs as low as possible.”
I chuckle and reach for her coffee. When I take a sip, I realize it’s nice. Much nicer than the shit I usually have. “I like that you’re planning. But that totally sounded like you telling him to find it for you, rather than him offering.”
“Well, you should know I’m good at putting the men I know to work.”
I put the cup down on the table, and Greer squeals when I pick her up and carry her into the house and over to the sofa with me.
“Steady, old man,” she says. “You might pull something.”
“The day I pull something carrying you, you should just take me out to the pasture and shoot me.”
“Oh, hush. I’ll still want you around when you’re using a walker.”
I settle the two of us onto the sofa, and she curls up against me. There’s shit that needs doing, but there’s something incredibly…soft…about sitting here with her while all the chaos of the world happens outside.
My life can be like this from now on. Maybe quietly meeting with Grudge every week to help him find his feet, out of sight of the others so he keeps his pride.
“You know I have money,” I say suddenly. “You don’t have to work until after you’ve had the baby, if you don’t want to. Hell, you don’t have to work at all, if you don’t want to, although, I know better than to think you’ll stop working forever. I have more than enough to cover us.”
Greer stretches out her legs. “I’ve got enough to cover us too. I’m fine for money. But what good am I to the world if I do nothing? I’ll rot, Butcher. I’ll drive myself to the point where my sanity breaks.”
“Working out, some yoga, a massage here and there to look after you and the baby, isn’t enough?”
She rolls her eyes. “Can’t imagine anything worse. I’m not even sure I’m going to be a good mother.”
I slip my finger beneath her chin and kiss her lips. “I know those feelings, Greer. And it’s understandable you have them because we all do. But you’ll do your best, and it will be enough.”
“I think my best will include a nanny.”
I shrug. “Then, we get a nanny. Or I stay home with the baby.”
Greer chuckles at that. “Yes, I can see you spending the day here, teaching the baby how to dirt bike at four months.”
