Page 21 of Freedom Ride

“What?” I laughed. “You look like you’re about to cry.”

“Probably because she is five seconds away from crying.” King sipped his coffee and leaned against the door frame. “Five, four, three...”

“Stop!” Meg wailed. “I can’t help it that it makes me sad to know you were in prison for six years, barely living.”

“Oh, I was living, it just was pretty shitty.” I sat down next to her and sighed. “Which is how it should be in prison, Meg. I did something I shouldn’t have, and I needed to pay my time.”

“Aaron Gibbs was a piece of shit who killed Layla and deserved to die.” Meg wiped her nose with the back of her hand and slumped in her chair. “Fucker.”

I wasn’t even sure Meg had even met Layla before she died.

Hell, I barely knew Layla, but I had been working on getting to know her. Aaron Gibbs had stopped all of that. I saw spending the rest of my life with Layla, and like most good things I ever had, it had been taken away from me.

My parents, and then Layla.

Gone way too fucking soon.

“Babe,” King chuckled. “You can’t be sad and then call someone a fucker.”

“I can, and just did,” she sniffled. “I’m sad Layla is gone, and Aaron Gibbs is a fucker who then took Snapper away from us.”

I shook my head. “I’m responsible for my own actions, Meg. I beat the shit out of Aaron, and it’s debatable that I was the reason he died.”

“I think a fucking concrete pillar is the reason he died, but the DA is an asshole who needed to pin his death on someone so the hospital didn’t look bad for hiring some psycho.” King pushed off the doorframe and grabbed a banana.

“We all know Aaron was going to die from his injuries from the accident. Snapper just made sure he did.” Meg sighed and wiped her tear-stained cheeks. “But that’s all over now. Snapper is back home, and Aaron Gibbs is very much dead.”

“Thank fuck,” King muttered.

Meg stood and grabbed her coffee. “I’m going to make breakfast. I was thinking pancakes, sausage, eggs, toast, and cinnamon rolls.” She held her finger in the air. “And loaded hashbrowns.”

“Oh, god,” I groaned. “I’m going to gain twenty pounds, and I haven’t even been out of prison for a week.”

Meg smiled proudly. “Good. You’re skin and bones. I need to fatten you up for your future wife.”

King choked on his coffee and sputtered. “Future wife? You know something I don’t know?”

Meg shrugged. “Not really, though I have to assume something is up since all Jonas came home with was a box full of letters, and I heard him talking on the phone this morning.”

I let out a loud, booming laugh.

“Jesus, babe. The kid just lived the past six years being watched and spied on. He doesn’t need you listening at his door and going through his things.”

Meg wagged her finger at King. “I will have you know you are the one who told me about the letters, and I can’t help it that I have to walk past his room to get to the kitchen, okay? He talks loud, and I heard something.”

“The only way you could hear something is if you stopped in front of his door and pressed your ear to it.”

Meg shrugged and opened the fridge. “I got a cramp and had to stop for a second.”

I shook my head and sighed. “A cramp that just so happened in front of my door while I was on the phone with Lennox?”

Meg’s eyes bugged out, and she clapped her hands together like a happy seal. “Lennox? I absolutely love that name,” she cheered.

“Now you’ve done it,” King drawled. “You’ve given her a name, and now she is going to run with it.”

I shrugged. “Not like I’m trying to hide her or anything. You guys would have found out about her when I left to visit her.”

“You’re leaving?” Meg gasped. “You just got here. Where is she from?” She grabbed the milk from the fridge and hugged it to her chest. “Do you think I will like her? What does she look like? I hope she can cook, but if she can’t, I can teach her. Let’s just hope she isn’t like Marley.” Meg signed the cross in front of her. “Even god can’t help her cooking. It’s been years, and nothing seems to stick when I tell her anything.”

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