He didn’t want to be there. That I could tell just by looking into his eyes.
“Character witness,” someone said. “I saw him in the parking lot and walked up and asked him.”
I looked to my left to see Hoax standing there with one of his twins in his arms. Pru came to my other side with the other in hers. Then I saw Sam walk up with Isa in his arms, happily smiling and giddy to be toted around by her ‘grandfather.’
What was the point of dropping Isa off with Pru if she was just going to bring her to the hearing?
“Character witness?” I asked. “Really?”
He nodded.
The hearing taking place today was for termination of rights for Ilsa. The one in a month and a half would determine how much time she would serve for the crimes she’d committed—and there were many. The more that she was investigated, and the more people that came forward, the more indiscretions that were piled against Ilsa.
Honestly, at this point, it wasn’t that she was or wasn’t going to prison. She was. It was if she would be spending ten years there, or seventy.
My hope was for seventy, but there was no telling how it would go.
Ilsa had a great lawyer, and if anyone could get her off, it would be the one she had. Hence the reason for the custody and termination of rights hearing we were doing today.
“He was brought in at the last moment,” Todd Masterson, my lawyer, said. “I learned of it about thirty minutes ago on the drive here.”
“Shit.” I wiped my eyes tiredly. “This is just perfect.”
Dixie slapped me on the back again in commiseration.
“If there was one thing that I could take back, it would be how I allowed you to stay with your father after my Annie passed away. If I’d known how bad it was there for you, I would’ve taken you away and never let him see you again,” Dixie said. “And although your father is a prick, I don’t think he’ll jeopardize this for you.”
Too bad he was wrong.
So fucking wrong.
Phoebe was right. This didn’t feel over because it wasn’t, and my father was there to make sure that I didn’t get custody of Isa to prove it.
***
“My son is unfit to be a father,” Bayou’s father grumbled, avoiding eye contact with everyone but his lawyer and the judge. “I would no more trust him with my grandchild than I would with a puppy.”
I clenched my hands into fists underneath the table.
Outwardly, I was calm, cool and collected. Inwardly, I wanted to flip the table over and spread the contents all over the floor. Then walk over them as I made my way to my father who was currently under oath and speaking with his lawyer, and then beat the shit out of him.
“Any more questions?” the judge asked when the lawyer turned his back on my father. “No. He can have him.”
‘He’ was Todd.
Todd stood up, and as I watched him walk toward the stand, I caught the look of smug satisfaction on Ilsa’s face. Ilsa’s fucked up, never going to look normal again, face.
I barely contained the urge to glare at her and bare my teeth.
“Mr. Beauregard,” Todd started. “Do you know that your son is a decorated war hero?”
I felt my stomach tighten. How had Todd learned that?
“No,” my father grumbled.
“He is,” Todd said, sounding smug. “Did you know that the only reason that your son isn’t in the Army still is due to this woman causing havoc with his career?”
My father looked to Ilsa and shrugged. “I’ve heard rumors.”
He’d heard rumors. What a crock of shit.
“Were you aware that your son graduated at the top of his class from high school? And then went on to become one of the top-ranking recruits to make it out of his graduating Army class? Were you also aware that he rose in ranks quite a bit during his career in the Army?” Todd continued.
“No,” my father answered honestly.
On and on Todd went, destroying my father’s picture of ‘incapable of handling a child on his own’ right in front of all of our eyes.
The last question validated that.
“Mr. Beauregard,” Todd asked. “Do you feel like you were unfit to be a parent?”
My father frowned. “No.”
“I was informed that you share the same diagnosis as your son,” Todd said, shocking everyone.
All the things suddenly clicked into place.
Every last one of them.
My father’s desire to never touch. His inability to stay home, doing nothing, and remain idle.
Hell, so many goddamn things that started to make so much sense that it caused my heart to ache.
All this time I should’ve had an ally in the man, someone to help me through the tough and dark days, and he hadn’t been there.
Why?
“I suppose,” my father said. “But I’m not sure that’s relevant. I was more than capable of living my life and taking care of my children and family. He’s not.”
And Todd continued to destroy him until nothing but ashes lay around my father’s feet.
When I turned to look at Phoebe over my shoulder, I caught Ilsa’s expression, and it was no longer smug.
Phoebe’s was, though.
That smug expression only grew an hour later when the news that not only did I get full custody of Isa, but Ilsa also forfeited her rights to my baby.
Chapter 21
Alcohol- the lube that some use to slide through life.
-Coffee Cup
Phoebe
“You know,” Hoax teased. “We’re already in the courthouse. If you wanted to go ahead and get married while we were here, we could celebrate doubly.”
Bayou turned to me and grinned. “You want to?”
“No, she doesn’t want to,” Pru growled. “She wants to get married in a church while she’s wearing a white dress, and have me as her maid of honor.”
“I think not,” a new voice called from behind us. “I’m her maid of honor.”
That’s when I saw my other sister, Piper, standing there looking…odd.
“What the hell, Piper?” I asked. “When did you get home, and why did you not tell us you were coming?”
“And miss the surprise on your face right now?” she teased.
Bayou’s hand slipped from my shoulder as I ran toward Piper and threw my arms around her.
Piper hugged me back hard just as we heard Brielle start to lose her shit behind us.
“You’re marrying her?!” Brielle screeched. “You’re for real? I thought it was just a stunt to make the lawyers think that you have a stable life!”
“One crazy down, one crazy to go,” Pru muttered under her breath as she joined our huddle.
I winced.
Sadly, she was right.
Though, I had a feeling Brielle wouldn’t go down nearly as easily as Ilsa did.
“I’m down,” Bayou said.
I froze in my sister’s arms and turned only my head to look at him.
“You are?” I squeaked.
I mean, honestly, I was, too.
I just wouldn’t think that he would be.
He’d had quite a lot of excitement already today. Did he really want to add in marriage on top of that?
But when I looked into his eyes, I saw that he was more than serious. Deadly so.
And he let me see that sincerity in his eyes as I stared at him for what felt like forever before he said, “You want to?”
“I’m down, too,” my father said. “Then we can go to our Mexican food restaurant for the reception, and your mom and I’ll keep Isa for the night.”
“You just want to eat your cheat meal.” My mother slapped my father on the chest with the back of her hand.
Dad only got his ‘cheat meal’ once a week, and if we didn’t go with him, then Dad didn’t get to have it.
Today was two days early, meaning he’d go out to eat today, and again in t
wo days because we never missed a standing Mexican dinner night at our favorite Mexican restaurant. No matter what.
“Plus, Piper is here. Bayou’s grandfather is here. I say do it,” Dad continued, looking hopeful.
I laughed full out then, squeezing my sister tight for a few seconds before I let her go and turned to Bayou. “Mexican food is my favorite.”
“That’s the worst idea that I’ve ever heard!” Brielle screeched again.
Everybody ignored her. Then we got married.
***
“We need to move you into here,” he muttered as he pressed kisses down my chest.
I squirmed as his mouth made a beeline for my lower half.
I was wriggling underneath of him, trying in vain to allow him to do what he wanted to do, but I was really worked up.
Before he could so much as get his mouth on me, I slithered out from under him and quickly reversed our positions, this time with me on top and him underneath of me between my thighs.
Then, when he would’ve rolled us back over, I took hold of his cock and placed it at my entrance.
He sighed. “You’re no fun.”
“No fun?” I asked as I lined up his cock and slowly slid down his length. Panting slightly when he started to stretch me. “No fun is having you teasing me relentlessly with kisses and touches and caresses all night long and not following up with a good banging in the bathroom.”
He started to laugh and moved his hands to my hips, helping me steady myself as I continued to lower myself onto him.
When he was finally in place, and his cock was stretching me completely, I opened my eyes and stared at him.
“Today was everything I imagined it would be,” I whispered.
“You’re not upset that we didn’t have a church wedding?” he asked.
I shook my head.
“No,” I answered as I slowly pulled off of him and sank back down, moaning lightly as he hit the perfect spot inside of me. “That’s exactly what I wanted. Low key. Family and friends. No extras.”
His callused hands smoothed up my ribs until they reached my shoulders, then he pulled me down. Not for a kiss, but to suck the tip of one nipple into his mouth.
I buried one of my hands into his hair and held on tight as he licked, bit, and sucked.
When he let go of one, I guided his face to the other, causing him to laugh.
While he was busy doing that, I slowly moved my hips, undulating on top of him.
By the time he’d moved just his hands to my nipples, giving them hard tugs, I was slamming myself down on top of him, taking him so deep and hard that I’d likely be sore tomorrow.
I didn’t care, though.
Not right then, and definitely not a few minutes later when I was coming apart in my man’s—my husband’s—arms.
And an hour later, once he was through with me, and I was so thoroughly replete, the words that came out of his mouth caused my heart to swell even more.
“I may not be the best man in the world, but I’ll be the best man that I can be for you,” he whispered into the darkness. “Any kids that we have, I’ll love with all of my heart. And no matter what, as long as I have you, I’ll make sure that I’ll always be who you need me to be.”
I wrapped my arm around his head and pulled him down into me. “The man you are right now is exactly who I want you to be.” I pressed a kiss to his chest. “And I want seven babies.”
He stiffened. “You’re kidding, right?”
I laughed. “No.”
Epilogue
If my kids don’t stop trying to parent each other, I’m moving out.
-Things you shouldn’t say to your wife
Bayou
Six years later
“Ma’am,” I heard called. “We are going to have to ask y’all to leave.”
Sam, who was still eating, really taking advantage of the ‘all you can eat’ chips and hot sauce, looked up from his food. “What do you mean you’ll have to ask us to leave?”
“It’s closing time,” the scared waiter explained. “Actually, closing time was an hour ago.”
I took one last gulp of my tea and then stood up, taking quick stock of where my children were throughout the room.
Isa was at the end of the table sitting between Sam and James, Phoebe’s uncle.
Lennie, our three-year-old, was sitting beside James, in between him and Shiloh. Though sitting wasn’t really a good word to describe what he was doing. Leaning while he slept on Shiloh’s lap was more like it.
Vivian, our next to youngest at a year and a half, was on the ground underneath the table. I could see her tiny black ponytail bobbing up and down between the gap in between the tables. Pru’s twins, Sam and Dean, were penning her in on both sides while my Fancy tried in vain to capture her so she could get her cleaned up.
Hoax was leaned back, his shirt lifted up over his belly, as he groaned and moaned about eating too much. Brielle was next to him, staring blankly at the wall as she tried in vain not to appear amused despite the fact that she was.
She loved my children just like she loved Hoax and me—absolutely. She’d also gotten over her jealousy and realized that she just wanted Bayou and Hoax to be happy.
Then there was me, at the end of the table, watching chaos ensue.
My eyes once again drifted to Isa, who was so much like me sometimes it hurt.
Though, despite a few bumps in the road along the way, Isa was developing normally despite her rather stunted upbringing when she was younger.
Phoebe worked her ass off to make sure that Isa wasn’t behind, and she also saw a speech therapist twice a week in the early days. Now she was in an excelled program in the third grade and reading at a seventh-grade level.
An ear-piercing scream had everyone at the table looking at our firstborn child.
Now that one was just like his mother.
At the age of six, Niall was all boy. What he was also was a pain in the ass, and threw a goddamn fit when his ‘Phanta’ aka “Phantom” was stolen away.
And yes, at six years old, he still carried the stuffed hawk around with him everywhere he went.
At least until the real Phantom came out to play.
Then ‘Phanta’ was no longer first string.
“Give it back, you mother fuc—” Niall stopped when his mother caught him around his waist and slapped her hand over his mouth to halt his words.
I closed my eyes and waited.
Three.
Two.
One.
“Benson Bayou Beauregard,” Fancy growled. “I will literally geld you with this butcher knife if you laugh.”
I wouldn’t dare.
I’d learned my lesson the first time.
Hoax, however, didn’t care.
He laughed.
Along with her father and uncle.
Shiloh and Cheyenne were similarly outraged just like Phoebe was.
Pru, however? She was practically collapsed on the ground as she wiped tears off her cheeks.
“Do you remember when you taught my kids how to say ‘Aunt Fancy kicks ass’ and you thought it was just the ‘greatest thing in the world?’”
Phoebe moaned. “I swear to God, if you taught him to say motherfucker, I’m going to replace your birth control pills with placebos for the rest of your non-menopausal life.”
Hoax immediately stopped laughing as did Pru.
“You wouldn’t,” Pru hissed.
“Try me,” Phoebe shot back.
“Well,” Pru said. “I guess we could always discuss what you told me today.”
Phoebe’s eyes widened, and she looked at me guiltily.
“What?” I asked, knowing I wasn’t going to like what she had to say.
“Pru,” Phoebe picked up a tortilla and brandished it like a frisbee. “Don’t you dare.”
“Or what?” she asked sweetly.
“Or I’ll tell your husba
nd what you’ve been hiding from him.”
Pru bit her lip and looked at Hoax guiltily now.
“Shit,” my dad said. “Let me guess. Pru, you’re actually pregnant with twins, and Phoebe, you’re pregnant again?”
Silence.
I looked at my wife who did look suspiciously glowy today.
My wife who’d gone to work today with a guilty look on her face as she rushed out the door without saying a word to me.
I leaned forward. “Please tell me you didn’t.”
Phoebe’s lips thinned, but she didn’t deny the allegations.
“She did,” Pru crowed.
I narrowed my eyes at my wife. “We had a deal.”
Phoebe threw her hands up. “I’m going to pull my hair out! Jesus Christ, I just want to work with adults! When I stay at home, you keep me pregnant!”
That was true.
I did do that.
But, in my defense, she jumped me the minute I walked in the door. Who was I to say no to my wife’s demands?
“Nobody ever said you couldn’t work while you were pregnant.” I tried the same old tried and true argument. “I just don’t want you working at a prison.”
“Swear to Christ,” Silas grumbled. “I can’t handle all this yelling anymore. Bayou’s right, Phoebe. You shouldn’t be at a prison working in such dangerous conditions. If you don’t like it, you need to either get fixed, or stop having sex. Those are obviously the only two options that will work for you. Now, I’m going home. Ready, Sawyer?”
His wife got up and handed my youngest, my baby girl that was just a little over four months old, Sadie, over to Sam who was still stuffing chips and hot sauce into his mouth as if he hadn’t been asked to leave ten minutes ago.
Yes, you had that right. That was four kids in five years, not including Isa.
I’d definitely kept my woman busy…and now it looked like I had one more on the way.
I stood up and started gathering kids myself, looking at the waiter who still had yet to leave, but was obviously unsure whether he should ask us again or keep listening to the show.
He chose to listen, obviously, and he looked like he was enraptured.
“All right, children,” I called out. “Let’s go.”
All of my kids that could move on their own did, and I picked Sadie up from Sam’s arms and said, “Night, y’all.”
One Chance, Fancy Page 21
