Page 150 of Dirty Rock

It rang twelve times before the lazy fucker answered.

“Getting your dick sucked or something?” I asked through a smirk before I took a drag of my smoke and blew it out into the wind.

“Nah, man, I’ve been put on rations. Apparently, asking for it more than three times a day is giving her a funny shaped jaw.”

“Tess is a lucky lady.”

“You ain’t kidding,” Presley chuckled. He grunted, as though he was repositioning himself somewhere, and I thought I heard Tess scurry away in the background, which told me he probably was getting his dick sucked. When he came back to me, he blew out his breath and I heard him relax. “Everything okay with Jules?” he asked carefully.

“Yeah.” And I couldn’t control my shit-eating grin for any amount of money. “She’s great.”

“What’s that?”

“What?”

“That smile in your voice. Have you just nailed her to the bed?”

“Something way better than that, bro.”

“Consider me intrigued.”

“Julia’s pregnant.”

Those two words floated around me, and the wind seemed to pick up, the waves crashing harder, and the birds going crazier above. Or maybe that was all in my imagination. It was the way I saw the world now. Me sitting on some crazy merry-go-round version of my life. A ride I didn’t want to get off.

“Did you just say…?”

“Yep. My woman is carrying my child. We’ve done four tests, each one positive. She’s having my baby, man.”

“Well, fuckme.”

Presley West was, for the first time in a long time, shocked to the point of being almost silent. His words were barely a sound, which only made me smugger as I took another drag of my cigarette.

“How long have you known?”

“Not even a day.”

“Did you fuck it up?”

“No. I held her. Told her I was happy. I promised I’d take care of her forever, and then I fucked her something good.”

“Jesus, Rhett. And you meant it?”

“It surprised me, too. I knew I loved her, but I didn’t know this was how I’d feel if she was to tell me I’d become a father soon.”

“And how do you feel?”

“Like this is the biggest gig of my life, and I’m pumped to see how much I can make this the gig I’m remembered for when I’m six-feet underground.”

“Love maketh the man,” he said through a smile I could tell was smug. “You get it now. I’m happy for you, bro.”

“Cheers, Pres.” I blew more smoke out and watched as a wave hit the shore. “Do me a favour and don’t tell anyone else, okay?”

“I’m the first to know?”

“Always.” I flicked the smoke under my boot and crushed it down before I picked it back up and looked around for a bin. “Gotta go.”

“Be steady. I think that sea breeze is turning you into one of us.”

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