by Mj Fields
“You kids mind stepping back? I have some shit to do,” I tell them, trying not to act irritated. Then I see the big mouth pushing through the others.
He looks up at me. “ ’Sup?”
“Robby.” I nod.
He crosses his arms over his puny, little chest. “Heard gunshots. You get shot?”
“Sure did.”
“Where?” he asks, looking me over.
“My chest,” I answer, stepping forward.
The rest of the kids part like the Red Sea.
He narrows his eyes. “There’s no blood.”
I keep walking. “Bounced right off me.”
“You serious?” he asks.
“Sure am.”
We are standing at the elevator, and my hands are full.
“You mind hitting the down button?”
“Suppose,” he sighs like it’s a big fucking task.
I get on the elevator, kid in one hand, Gary still passed out as I drag him onto it.
“He dead?” Robby asks as he walks on.
I shrug. “Not sure.”
“He piss his pants?”
I smirk. “Appears he did.”
When the other kids, still armed with their phones pointed at me, crowd into the elevator, I look at Lulu and think, you’ll never be that fucking clueless.
“You think the shirt stopped the bullet?” Robby asks.
I look down. “Not sure. I’ll have to send it to the lab.”
“He’s got a lab,” some of the kids whisper.
“No shit. Everybody knows that.” Robby rolls his eyes at them.
“One of you wanna hit the button?” I ask.
“Which floor?” Robby asks.
What the fuck?
“The first, Robby. Number one.”
He barks out, “Hit the one, assholes. He’s got shit to do.”
He looks back at me. “Your kid?”
“Yes, she is.”
“Kinda cute.” He shrugs.
“You stay the hell away from her,” I tell him.
Little fucker smirks. “We’ll see.”
“See this man on the ground, piss all over him, unconscious, maybe even dead?”
He nods.
“He touched my kid.”
When the doors open, I see police officers, news crews, and Maddox.
At the hospital ER, they are checking her over, while her finger is gripped like a vice around my finger.
I look at Maddox. “Anything yet?”
“Lucas and Harper have her. They’re on their way here.”
“She okay?”
He glances left then back to me and nods.
“Try again,” I say, still trying to remain calm.
“Harper said she may have broken her ankle.”
“But otherwise, she’s good?”
“Yeah, Trucker, she’s good.”
I hear Lucas say, “Keeks, your ankle’s fucked-up.”
“I need to see her!” She’s crying.
I look at the nurse. “She good?”
She smiles. “She’s perfect.”
I pick her up, wrap her in a blanket, and then walk out. “Ray, she’s good.”
“I thought her name was Keeks?” a police officer says.
“Will you fucking step back, you imbeciles. The woman is injured because of you.” Maddox points at them.
“What do you mean because of you?” I sneer.
“Trucker, I need to feed her.”
“Ray, you do realize you’ve got …?” My stomach turns. “Is that a …?”
“I’m fine,” she says as Lucas sets her on a stretcher and she reaches her hands out. “Please.” Her lip quivers. “I’m sorry, please.”
She thinks I’m going to take her away.
I walk over and sit next to her. “You have a bone sticking out of your leg.”
“Ankle,” a doctor says, then yells, “Get an OR ready.”
“I’m not having an operation. I’m going to feed my daughter.” She whips her shirt up and unhooks one cup of her bra. Fucking trap door.
“What the fuck are you doing?” I ask, standing up in front of her.
“What are you doing?” she retorts.
“Shielding your … your … definite D’s.”
“They hurt, Trucker.”
“Are you asking me to rub your tits right here?”
I hear Lucas snicker.
“No, I want Leddie.”
“I want her, too.” But your tits are staring at me.
“This is one of those things a man cannot do, Trucker.”
“I’m thinking I could definitely do some things with those.”
She grabs for Leddie, but I hesitate to let her go.
“It’s not my fault, Trucker. I would have never—”
“I know that,” I tell her as I step closer. Then I bend down and kiss her head. She moans.
“Ray,” I whisper. “Time and place.”
“What?”
I step back and look down. “Well, fuck.”
“This is not sexual,” she whispers.
“You moaned,” I defend.
“Oh, my God, because my boobs hurt like hell when they’re full.”
I don’t say shit; I just keep watching my Lulu chewing down on Ray’s D’s.
“There’s something wrong with you,” she whisper-hisses.
“Nah. That’s fucking beautiful,” I tell her. “Not sexual, Keeks.” I look over and see Lucas with his back to us. “Just amazing.”
“It’s boobs and a baby,” she huffs.
“Boobs and my baby. And the woman I fucking love with a bone sticking out of her leg, still sitting there, feeding our kid.”
Dead silence.
“What?”
No one says a thing, so I repeat, “What did I do now?”
“I’m pretty sure it was the ‘woman I love’ part.” Lucas chuckles. “I mean; did she know this?”
I look up at Ray’s stunned face. “She fucking better.”
“That’s not romantic, son.” Lucas chuckles again.
“You need romance or truth, Ray?”
“Just you.” She looks down. “And her.”
“And us,” Lucas adds.
Ray laughs. “Could you all give me a little bit of privacy?”
I shut the curtain and walk back in.
She looks up. “Will you give me my phone?”
I look around when an arm reaches through the curtain with her phone in it. She sighs, and I take it.
She scrolls through her messenger and glances up at me. “Do you mind?”
I put my hands up in the air and turn around. “Something you’re not telling me?”
“All set.”
I turn around. “You sure?”
She puts her nose up in the air and looks away, immediately on the defense, which is not my preference.
When my pocket vibrates, I see her name. I open it up, seeing that she sent me the moon. I look over my phone at her, and she looks at me.
“No turning back.”
“Never did.” She looks down at Lulu.
“I swear I’ll make it up to you in moments, Ray, lots and lots of moments.”
“Can we just agree that we walked a strange path to get to where we are?” She pulls Lulu away from her tit and cringes.
“Let me.” I pull up her shirt. “Just pop the trap door?”
“I could probably do that if you could help move her.”
“I’ll do both,” I say, eyes on tits. “Okay, that’s hot. Up until Lulu is sucking on them, it’s hot. Sorry, but I’m not fucking sorry.”
“Trucker?”
I look up as she arches her back and tries to lift Lulu.
“Come here, Lulu.”
“Leddie Lou,” she corrects.
“Cool, but I’m naming the next one.”
She looks surprised.
“Six-bedroom house to fill.” I shrug as I watch Lu—Leddie gobble her up. “I know it’s something
we should probably discuss, but with games, we’ll be traveling a shit ton, and it’s nice to have a home near the stadium. We can get a place here, too. Maybe on the lake? Summer here?”
She laughs. “Where is this place?”
I smile. “Near a beach, where I met this girl. She had a blue ribbon.”
She smiles then looks a little pale.
“Ray, what’s up?”
“My back; I need to lean on something.”
I kick off my shoes, climb up behind her, hang my legs over the sides of the stretcher, and then ask, “This good?”
“Yeah,” she whispers, leaning back. When her head is against my chest, she looks up at me. “I love you, Trucker Cohen.”
I reach in my pocket and grab my phone. Then I respond to her text and send it.
Trucker
If I give you the world, will you take it?
I hold the phone up again and take a selfie of me and my girls.
She looks up at me. “You just texted me?”
“And took our first family portrait.”
I hold it up for her to see. When she doesn’t say shit, I look down at her.
“Ray, you okay? You look kind of … white.”
“Tired.”
“Lucas!” I yell when her eyes close, and he runs in. “You wanna take Leddie and get a nurse? She just passed out.”
“I’m fine,” She whispers. “Just tired.”
He nods to me and steps out.
When the nurse comes in, she asks if I could please move. I tell her no.
“Trucker,” Ray sighs.
“She could be going into shock. She needs pain meds and to get into surgery.”
“Then I’m going—”
“To take care of Leddie,” Ray interrupts me. “I’ll be back.”
When I slide out from under her, they start sticking her with shit. She whimpers a little, and I want to pick up the table and throw it at them.
Lucas grabs my shoulder and looks down in his arms. “I think you need her.”
I hold Leddie while keeping my eyes locked on Ray’s. I know the exact moment whatever they put in her hits.
She grins.
“Leddie Lou, your mom’s high as hell.”
“I’m not so much that.”
“What are you so much then?”
“I’m so much happier than.”
“Oh, yeah?”
“So much. So much.”
“So much,” I agree, and Lucas chuckles.
“Can I ask you a thing?”
“A question?” I ask.
“Yeah.”
“Anything, Ray.”
“Have you had a lot of sex since you got me knocked up or a little?”
What the fuck?
“Can I just not answer that question in front of our daughter?”
“She doesn’t know. She’s a baby, silly Billy.”
“How about I ask you that question?”
“In the second trimes … trimest …”
I really fucking should not have asked.
I look at Lucas, who is biting the fuck out of his cheek. I glare at him then look away, convinced I will handle it like a fucking adult.
“Trimester?”
“Yeah, the second one.”
“The second one what?”
“Lots of sexy times.”
“So, you let someone poke my kid in the head?”
She giggles and keeps on giggling. “Your fault.”
“How the fu—” I stop and take a deep breath. Then I exhale really slowly, and she giggles more. “How would that be my fault?”
“Football pants.” She grins. “So sexy.”
“Mmmhmm,” the middle-aged nurse checking her vitals agrees.
“Right?” Ray smacks at her and completely misses.
“Girl, you know it. My husband sits his tired-ass on the couch all day Saturday and Sunday, watching those games. My friends ask how I can even stand it. You know what I tell them?”
Ray’s eyes grow, and she smiles big. “What do ya tell them?”
“Football pants.” The nurse nods.
“I know. So sexy, right?”
The nurse smiles. “Still right, baby doll.”
“Right?”
The nurse pats her hand. “We’ll be back to get you soon.”
Lucas is dying laughing, and I’m slightly amused, but still, what the fuck?
“Lucas, football pants are so sexy.”
“I wear them to bed every night, Keeks. Tess loves ’em, too.”
“She thinks they’re so sexy?”
“She does.” He laughs.
Serious as shit, she says, “You should get her pregnant.”
“Yeah?”
“Uh-huh. Second trimester, football pants, all the sex. All. Of. It.”
“All right, Ray, I think we’re good with the football pants shit.” I force a laugh.
“Your fault, hot pants.”
What the fuck?
“All. The. Sex.”
All. The. Anger.
“Who were you having all the sex with?”
“Bad idea, man,” Lucas whispers to me.
She holds her hands an inch from her face and studies them.
“That many?” I gasp, and Lucas laughs out loud.
She holds up two fingers.
“Oh. So, just two guys. I guess—”
“No.” She giggles.
“More?”
She holds the same two fingers up. I pretend to smile and nod.
“All the sex,” she whispers, “with these two fingers.”
“Holy shit!” Lucas laughs as he pushes the curtains aside and walks the fuck out.
I pull the little black stool on wheels over and sit down. Then I take the two fingers and kiss them. “These two?”
She smiles and nods.
“No guys?”
“You.”
“So, you were playing with yourself, thinking of me?”
She nods.
“In football pants?”
She nods again.
“So, that means, during the season, you’re gonna be like a little fucking nymph and begging for my cock?”
“All the sex,” she sighs and closes her eyes.
“Before you pass out, you gonna kiss me, Ray?”
“Uh-huh.”
I kiss her lips, and when she doesn’t press hers against mine, I open my eyes. She’s out.
The curtain is opened and the surgical team comes in.
“Mr. Cohen, this is a very short procedure, very routine. She’ll be out in no time.”
I nod then situate Leddie so her lips touch Ray’s head.
“Tell Mom you love her, good luck, and we’ll see her soon.”
Chapter Forty
Healing
Keeka
A month ago, I woke up in a hospital bed, a bit confused. The room was full of family, and Trucker was by my side, holding Leddie.
As soon as I looked at him, I said, “I’m so sorry.”
He looked at me in confusion
“I should have listened to you about Gary.”
“We could do this all day, Ray. I could say I’m sorry about a million things, and you could say you were sorry about a few thousand, but I’m not sure that would get us anywhere, do you?”
Grandma Josie sat on the side of my bed and rubbed my cheek. “You know, sweet girl, they all made me promise I couldn’t call you Brooklyn.”
I looked at Trucker, but then she turned my head back to her.
“Legal matters. You had them all confused; had to be done.”
I looked toward Brody and Emma.
She smiled. “I can promise you that I think it’s kind of cute. Not the tragedy behind it, but that you and your sister, you can share your not-so-pretty pasts, both of you, or you can look at each other and smile, knowing part of you and she come from him, the best part of him. We all have pasts, Brooklyn.” Her smile grew. “We overcome them. You already did.”
>
“The best part would be the Ross part,” Grandma Josie winked. “Even says so in your legal name. Right there in the middle.”
“Damn straight.” Lucas laughed.
I looked back at Trucker, who winked.
“We know you need your sleep, and we know Trucker here doesn’t want to let go of her, but we can all manage.”
I looked at Trucker again. “You don’t have to stay.”
He narrowed his eyes and leaned forward, looking into my eyes, saying not a word. None needed.
When they left, he slid in next to me, turned my head toward him, and ghost-kissed me. When his lips covered mine, I closed my eyes and fell deeper.
The next day, I am discharged. Trucker went to get the vehicle.
When the nurse pushes me out, I see him leaning against the most beautiful vehicle I have ever seen.
“Hey.” He lifts his chin. “You wanna take a road trip?”
I laugh as the nurse puts the crutches in front of me. “Take me away.”
“I intend on doing just that.”
When I see Lucas and Tessa pull up behind him, I stop.
Lucas gets out. “Pop the back. We’ll load you up.”
“What’s going on?” I ask, looking at Trucker, who just laughs.
He opens the passenger door, and I sit.
He takes the crutches and says, “Happy Valentine’s Day.”
“It’s not—”
“It was a few days ago.” He leans in and kisses my head, inhaling a slow, deep breath. Then he steps back, winks as he starts to shut the door, and says, “Car’s yours.”
“What?” I laugh.
When the back door is opened, I spin around and see Tessa putting Leddie’s car seat into a base.
“She ate thirty minutes ago. She’s burped, bathed, and ready for an adventure.”
“I don’t understand.”
“You will.” She smiles and shuts the door.
I push myself up onto my knees and lean over her seat. She reaches up and grabs my hair, kicking her feet and screeching as she tugs on my hair.
“She okay?”
I look up and see Trucker in the back.
“She’s fine.” I laugh. “Happy to see me.” I look down at her and kiss her nose. “And I am so happy to see you. I missed you so, Leddie Lou.”
“Well, good, ’cause we will, too.” Lucas pouts.
“It’s my time now,” Trucker says. Then they hug and step back. “See you soon.”
“Real soon.” Lucas pats his back then leans in. “You two are gonna be just fine.”
