Page 74 of Desert Thorns

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Okay, girl. Take a breather and calm down. You don’t even know if you’re pregnant for sure. Get that test done, and if you’re pregnant, you can go back to panicking.

I took my own advice and inhaled deeply. Pregnancy or not, God would be with me. No need to panic about anything. He had it all figured out.

“I’ll get a pregnancy test for you, you stay with her.” Rome gestured at Bella.

“And please some ice cream.” I had a feeling I’d need that.

And then Rome was gone for the longest thirty minutes of my life.

Chapter 30

Kingsley

I’d done it. I’d made my decision to leave Saint James behind and return to civilization.

The last month had been much more challenging than I’d expected. Not having the bell for orientation left me without any sense of time, wearing normal clothes was uncomfortable, and not having my usual schedule left me disoriented. Worst of all, though, was the sense of loss. I’d lost my brothers, who’d grown closer than family over the past nine years. We’d done everything together. Now I did everything alone.

Brother Samuel no longer existed. I was Kingsley Grady again, the guy I had run from for almost a decade. Now that there was nowhere to hide, I had to reinvent myself.

“How are you holding up?”

Layne’s voice drew me around. I hadn’t heard her approach over the waves rolling onto her and Keaton’s private beach. My brother had warned me that she was a ninja, and it had proven true over the past weeks I’d been living with them. “Managing. How are you?”

“Still have a pulse. I’m no doctor, but I think it’s a good sign.”

I chuckled. People often perceived her as sweet because she was soft-spoken, but in truth she had a really savage sense of humor.

Her face scrunched up ever so slightly when she settled in the sand next to me and lay on her side. The sun had disappeared behind the jungle surrounding the property, painting the gathering clouds red and orange. A cool breeze rustled the palm trees overhead. Looked like a storm was moving in.

“Are you having a rough day?” I asked, glancing back out at the ocean.

“Something like that. Actually, coming down here was quite the battle. Keaton’s gonna kill me if he finds out I overdid it. But I wanted to check on you.” Her speech sounded slow, as if talking was exhausting.

From what Keaton had told me, myalgic encephalomyelitis was a vicious illness. For Layne, every day was a battle against her own body, making a normal life impossible. The fatigue and pain had been so crippling last year that she had barely been able to eat. But she was a warrior, and Keaton took good care of her.

“I can give you a piggyback ride so you don’t have to walk back,” I offered.

She smiled, her dark eyes glowing. “That would actually be nice.” She pointed at my head. “You cut your hair.”

“Yeah.” A buzz cut in hopes people wouldn’t recognize me when I had to leave the house. “And you let yours grow out again.”

“Yup, Keaton washes and brushes it for me so I can keep it long.”

“That’s good.” My words came out raspy, and I cleared my throat. Living with them, witnessing their intimacy and love, continuously rubbed salt into my Harley-induced wound. I avoided them as much as I could, either staying upstairs in oneof the guest bedrooms or outside. Wentworth had offered me to stay at his place at Fort Vickers, but he and his teammates had just returned from a deployment, making their home crowded enough as it was. Maybe once they got spun up again I’d move there.

“Did you talk to her?” Layne asked. “Harley, I mean. Unless you have another woman in your life.”

I inhaled a lung-full of salty ocean air. “No and no.”

“Why not?”

“Because . . .” I cleared my burning throat. “I don’t even know.”

“Are you scared she’ll turn you down or something?”

I lifted a shoulder. Possible.

Layne sat up. “Bitte säg mer du bisch nöd dä glich Holzchopf wie dä Keaton.”