Page 45 of Inflame Me
“But a baby in the club?” Mearna says through her tears.
“Princess grew up just fine. She’s been around the guys since she was born. Have you seen Casey yet?” She shakes her head. Princess is a badass bitch, and I’m proud of the way she turned out, smartass mouth and all. “That’s Bam’s kid and GT’s ol’ lady. She’s in college, doing well.”
“Ma did a great job with Princess,” she says through a hiccup.
“You would have done a great job here, too, with me.” Fuck, I sound like a fucking pussy. Someone needs to strip my fucking man card. “It’s in the past now. Tell me about Tanner.”
The overwhelming sobs slow as she sniffles into my shirt. “She was born at midnight, not a minute before or after. Even the doctors and nurses said they hadn’t had a baby at straight up midnight in a long time.” She sighs. “She came out screaming bloody murder, and I knew she was my girl. Looks-wise, she was perfect, but she did have a small defect.” Mearna’s head shifts up a bit, and my stomach drops at the word defect. “She was born with a cleft palate. Inside your mouth, you have a roof as they call it. Well, she was born without it. So there was a hole from her mouth to her nose. No one could see it from the outside, but inside, there was no denying it. Feeding her was difficult because everything that went in her mouth came out of her nose.”
Holy shit!
“And you dealt with all that by yourself?”
“For the most part. Tanner had to go under surgery to repair it. Two, actually. Each time, they had to put stilts on her arms at the elbow to make sure she didn’t put her hands in her mouth and mess up the stitches in there.” Mearna settles back into me. “After the second surgery, she was perfect. She was able to eat and drink without anything coming out of her nose. I took pictures, but I’m not sure if I grabbed them when we left.”
I rub my hand up and down the softness of her arm. “How was she as a kid?”
“Trouble.” She chuckles. “She was intoeverything. We had a small apartment, and I did my best to baby proof it, but she always found a way to get past it. Even locks. I have no idea how she figured them out, but she did and opened them with ease.”
“Sounds like she has some of me in her.”
“More than you think. Growing up, she had friends, but only certain ones. She liked being alone. She wasn’t a social butterfly and still isn’t. All through school, she got decent grades and ended up learning to do hair after high school. She works at a shop in town and says she loves it.” Pride swarms within Mear’s words, and I can’t help feeling it, too.
“So she’s happy?”
“She never liked James.”
“Smart girl.”
Mearna chuckles. “Yes.” She stops laughing and almost stills. “The first time he hit me, it was bad, but I hid most of it from Tanner. Then it happened a few more times, and I stayed because he scared the ever-loving shit out me. The time that Tanner saw it, she was livid at me, but not as mad as I was at myself for putting up with it.”
“Go on,” I urge.
“Tanner told me that, if it ever happened again, she would get me out, and she did. That kid is the light in my life.”
“I can see that.”
“Sometimes, I worry that she’s so put together because she’s afraid I’ll be disappointed in her or something. Truth is, I just want her happy. I don’t care how it comes, just happy.”
“Even with Rhys?” I ask. He’s my brother and I love him as such, but if he hurts my baby girl, hell will rain.
Mearna lets out a deep sigh. “If that is who makes her happy, then so be it. I will stand by her no matter what she chooses.”
“What about you?” I feel like a fucking idiot as soon as the words leave my mouth, but fuck it. I’ve always been balls to the wall.
“Me what?”
“What makes you happy?”
Mearna rises off me so she is now sitting next to me. “Too much time has passed. We are different people now.”
“True, babe.”
“I’m getting old, Dagger. I’m done with the games and the broken promises. Whoever is going to make me happy is going to be straight forward and get to the point quickly. I’m not into all that courting or dating crap. It’s been too long.” Her arms wrap over her body protectively. “And I don’t look the way I used to anymore.” So that’s what this is really about.
“I’m ditching Flash, and you’re in my bed from now on.” She gasps. “I’ve seen your body when the doc checked you out, and you’re perfect to me. Is that straight enough for you.”
She stares at me like a doe-eyed deer, and it takes everything in me not to burst out laughing at the sight.
