Total pages in book: 58
Estimated words: 71015 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 355(@200wpm)___ 284(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71015 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 355(@200wpm)___ 284(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
He’d done it in front of the entire courtroom, yet I’d been the only one to see it.
How fucking convenient.
I knew he was going to be coming for me. For Tru.
In fact, I knew he was going to be coming for me, Trance, Loki, Daniella, and Tru. Most likely Iliana, too.
He may wait a couple of months to work up the resources. He may wait a couple years to make it happen. Hell, he might even do it the day he got out.
Which was the crux of my problem.
The waiting.
We couldn’t live like that.
Especially not with Tru pregnant.
You’re going to be a daddy. Those words, from two months past, still had the power to bring me to my knees.
No better words had ever come out of her mouth.
I hadn’t realized that I’d wanted kids.
Sure, I enjoyed them. But I had no problem sending them home at the end of the day.
“We’re not going to let anything happen to them,” Sebastian said slowly.
My eyes lifted from their sightless stare to the VP, and one of my best friends.
“You don’t know that. You can’t be with us 24/7; neither can I, for that matter. I know, in my gut, that we need to do something now. Something that will fix this before he gets out. I just have this feeling of impending doom. I can’t even enjoy the news of Tru telling me she’s pregnant fully. I don’t have just her life at stake, but our child’s’.”
I hadn’t meant to tell them. Not yet. Or at least not the ones that hadn’t already known.
Silence ensued at my comment, and I didn’t break it.
Surprisingly, it was Tru’s mother who did.
She came up to my side and wrapped her arms around me.
I held her back for all that I was worth.
Frank watched his wife with love and affection, his heart on his sleeve.
I knew he loved his wife. Just as much as I loved my own.
I knew that because I saw the same look in the mirror as I shaved every morning, watching my wife as she got ready for her workday.
I wore that same look. One of a lovesick fool, who wouldn’t change it for the world.
“Grayson,” Daniella said softly into my chest.
I hadn’t realized just how tightly I was clutching her, but I needed it. I needed the support. I needed to know someone got me. Had the same state of mind that I currently had myself.
“I’ll start on it tomorrow, Grayson. It’ll be fixed,” Silas promised.
I didn’t believe him.
***
Marriage- Month seven
“I have no cell phone reception!” Tru yelled loudly from the other side of the house, walking quickly through the room where Trance and I were moving the large entertainment center, and then out the door. “There’s none out here, either! We can’t move in here!”
Trance’s grin showed he knew exactly what I was having to deal with.
Having gone through it twice now, with his own wife.
Yet, I hadn’t fully grasped what exactly trying to live with a hormonal pregnant woman entailed until Tru had become pregnant.
Now she was a little over twenty weeks, and I chanted to myself over and over again that we were half way through.
My wife was officially carrying the spawn of Satan. My wife being Satan.
I could never do anything right when she was in one of her moods. All I had to be doing was popping my knuckles, or putting the toilet paper on the rack ‘the wrong way’ and she was going bat-shit crazy.
Then she would snuggle up to me moments later with a happy smile on her face.
Those were the times I lived for. The times where I could feel our little girl moving in between our bodies.
“Okay, I found signal. Turns out I was using my old phone. Whoops,” Tru tittered, as she walked back through the living room and back into the bedroom where she was unpacking boxes.
Trance chuckled quietly, yet Loki, Sebastian, and Cleo had no such understanding.
Their wives weren’t crazy like mine was.
I loved the shit out of her, but I couldn’t wait until pre-pregnant Tru was back.
“This’s the last box, Torren,” Loki rumbled as he sat the box on the kitchen counter.
I grunted in answer as Trance and I moved the massive entertainment center to its pre-approved spot directly across from the kitchen island.
“Thanks, man,” I said once we finally put it down.
“You helped us enough by fixing Viddy’s car last month. Only fair,” Trance acknowledged.
I nodded. “Let me go check on my wife and see where she wants the crib to go, then we can go from there.
Six long hours later found Tru and I snuggled in bed together, watching the first movie in our new home.
“Thanks for helping with dinner. I was exhausted,” Tru yawned.
I turned my head and kissed the side of her face, smelling the fruity scent of her shampoo that always managed to smell like home.
“I know you were tired. Don’t expect it every night, though. I still like the look of you barefoot and pregnant in our kitchen,” I teased.
She snorted and turned, lifting her thigh up until it rested just above my knees.
“A few more weeks, and it’ll be three people for our movie nights,” Tru said, kissing my chest just above the nipple
I snuggled her in closer. “I’m still scared shitless.”
She nodded. “You and me both, big boy.”
***
Marriage- Month eleven
“Torren! Your woman’s here!” Sebastian yelled from the opposite side of the station.
I stopped my count and yelled, “Medic!” before I continued counting the narcotics. Every shift we had to account for each and every drug on board, and document it into the system.
Today was my day. And it fucking sucked.
I hated counting pills. It was tedious, and sucked donkey balls.
“Hey, baby,” Tru said softly, bringing my eyes up from the pills to her face.
I smiled at her.
She was wearing a black fitted shirt that stretched over her rounded belly. The words ‘Future Firefighter’ were written in bold red ink across her upper abdomen.
“Hey baby,” I said, patting the cot in front of me. “Come take a seat.”