I blew out a breath and turned to Greg. “I want to feel bad. I loved him once, but…”
“But what?” Greg asked softly.
“Knowing he’s gone, and because it was for my husband, it makes me think he wasn’t as bad as I thought he was, but still, a part of me hates him for hitting me.”
Greg nodded. “That’s understandable.”
“It is,” Matthew murmured. “I’m going to leave you two now. I need to let Josh and the others know you’re okay. We’ve all been worried about you. I’m glad you’re finally awake and I know everyone else will be, too. And don’t worry about the hospital bill; I’ve already taken care of it.”
“Matthew,” I sighed. “I could’ve managed.”
“No one says you couldn’t, sweetheart.” Matthew smiled. “But I had to take care of an employee’s annoying niece. Shame on you for getting shot, young lady, and on your wedding day to boot. Surely something else would have felt better going into your body that day.”
I laughed along with Greg, then gasped as the pain shot through my body from my wound.
“Don’t you have somewhere to be right now, Matthew?” I asked as I held my side.
“I do.” Matthew chuckled. “I have to make that call, then fill out a report for discharging my weapon. I just wanted to check on you two. How’s your leg, Greg?”
“It’s fine.” Greg nodded. “Barely feel the wound now. My sister did a good job on it and gave me some excellent painkillers.”
Matthew laughed. “Good. I’m glad she looked out for you. Livia, right? Dr. Warren. Is she single?”
“Yes, it’s Livia, but no,” Greg chuckled. “Very married.”
“Damn.” Matthew laughed as he stood. “Cassidy, with your husband’s permission, I’ve been asked to give you four kisses, and I’d like to give you one of my own.”
I smiled then looked at Greg. He laughed as he nodded. Matthew bent and gripped one cheek as he kissed my other five times. I giggled loudly, then sucked in my breath. He smiled sweetly, squeezed my hand, shook Greg’s, then said goodbye to us. I watched as he left and laughed as he sang about kissing me. I gasped again and gripped the bedrail.
“Christ,” I moaned. “I think my painkillers are wearing off. This pain is so intense.”
I sniffed, wishing I couldn’t take them as Greg pushed the call button. I placed my hand on my belly and started to cry. I lost my baby. I’d had my IUD removed four months ago, and managed to get pregnant six weeks later. I was shocked it happened so fast. So shocked, I decided to wait to tell Greg until our wedding night. Now, I wished I had told him right away.
My nurse entered and put something in my IV, after Greg told her I was feeling pain.
“There, that’ll take the edge off,” she murmured. She smiled and left the room. I cried harder.
“Cass? Love, what’s wrong?”
“I’m sorry, Greg. I wanted to tell you as soon as I found out, but… I wanted to surprise you on our wedding night. Now, you… it’s gone and you never knew it ever existed.”
“What are you talking about, love? What’s gone?”
I sobbed. “Our baby.”
“No, Cass, no… shhh… calm down. It’s not gone; it’s still safe inside you. That’s why you’re feeling the pain. You’re not on the good stuff as I am.”
I gasped and looked at my husband. “I’m still pregnant?”
“You are.” Greg grinned. “Livia said Mom knew weeks ago. Don’t ask me how, she always knows when someone is pregnant.”
My hand flew to my mouth as I attempted to keep from crying again. “Are you happy?” I asked as fresh tears fell.
Greg gently patted my face with tissue. “Happy is too mild of a word, love. January can’t get here fast enough.”
“I agree.” I grinned, then dropped it. “Ree? Oh, my God… how’s Ree doing?”
I love my stepdaughter and she loves me, despite her mother’s protests. When I finally met Ree, I immediately fell in love with her. She had these big, expressive brown eyes, just like her father’s, and while I noticed she was a little hesitant with me at first, she soon opened up, and even at the wedding, as my flower girl, she’d embraced me. That morning she told me she loved me. I thought that was the highlight of the entire day. It was certainly better than being shot. By miles. Millions of them.
“Ree is inconsolable. She kinda snapped, and it took me a while to calm her. She’s with Vonda’s parents now. I wanted her here with me but they needed her. They’re comforting each other. Being together is what they all need while they mourn Vonda’s passing.”
I nodded. They did need each other. Sighing, I looked at my husband and noted the frown on his face.
“What?”
“Cass, are… you do believe that’s not my son, don’t you?”
“I didn’t at first,” I sighed. “But Matthew showed me what an idiot I was for even thinking you could have cheated on me when the last baby was conceived. No, I don’t believe Savion is your son, either.”
“Good, but let me go on record by saying it out loud. I haven’t had sex with Vonda since Ree was four. I haven’t even tried, and it’s been no one but you since the elevator.”
I nodded, then asked about Savion, Vonda’s son and Ree’s little brother.
“Gorge has him.” Greg nodded. “I spoke to him after Vonda passed away. Savion is clueless about what’s happening since he’s so young but fine.”
“Outside of being motherless,” I murmured.
“Yeah.” Greg nodded, then shook his head.
“How is Gorge?” I whispered.
“Broken. He really did love her, but what she did to us, it’s destroying him. His mother, Lala and Stone are keeping an eye on him. I’m sure they’ll help when he needs it.”
Love. It’s strange. Why couldn’t she have loved her husband? Why couldn’t she have moved on from Greg and be happy with the man she married; a man who, obviously to everyone around, loved her unconditionally? It baffled me how she’d been… obsessed with my husband. He was a good man, and if he had treated her half as well as he treated me, then I could see why.
There weren’t that many men out there who loved and cared for their women as my husband does. Too bad Vonda could not see that she had one in Gorge… Xavier… too bad she couldn’t see that man loved her to his soul and I don’t think he was going to get over her anytime soon.
“Cass?”
I broke out of my thoughts and gave Greg my attention again.
“Yes?”
“Um, are we still together, love?”
I smiled and squeezed his hand. “I don’t want out. I want you. I love you.”
“I don’t want out, either. I love you and I want us to be family. I want Ree to live with us. Please don’t object to that, love.”
I frowned. “Of course I won’t, Greg. She’s your daughter. Where else would she live besides with her father? I already love her as my own.”
“I know you do but I just needed to make sure. I need us to be open and honest with one another. I hate all this drama and I want it to end.”
“So do I. I promise all you’ll ever get from me is total, drama-free honesty.”
“Same here.” My husband smiled. “I love you, Cassidy. Please never ever scare the shit out of me like that again.”
“I love you, too… Allan,” I giggled. “And never ever stop telling me that.”
“Deal,” he murmured, then softly kissed my lips.
Chapter Twenty-One
Four Years…
The sound of our kids’ screeching voices roused me from a deep sleep, but the smells… God, it was the aromas floating through my home that wakened me fully. My mother-in-law was cooking breakfast on this sunny Saturday morning.
She did that almost every weekend. Greg and I woke to the most enticing smells and always to a closed bedroom door. After my mother-in-law started cooking, my father-in-law would put away the mountain of groceries they brought, then come upstairs and clos
e our door before going to awaken our boisterous children.
Toward the end of the cooking time, Greg’s sisters and their families arrived and devoured Justine’s food. After, depending on the weather, we’d sit around and chat or play with the kids outside or watch movies in the TV room. Justine always started dinner at four, and by seven, we’re all in the dining room getting full, again.
After, the women and children relaxed in the basement or TV room while the men cleaned the kitchen. It’s always fun to watch Al, Craig, Howard, William and Greg clean so we usually picked the TV room and leave the swing door open. It was fun to watch because the men, Greg included, never touched a dish other than Saturday nights. Anything else, he had no problem pitching in, whatever night of the week was. Greg occupied the kids after dinner on those nights while I cleaned, including bath time, so it was a compromise I could live with.
While the men cleaned, the ladies and I crowded on the side of the couch that looked into the kitchen and watched while Justine cuddled on the other side with the kids.
We changed none of the décor in the house. Everything Greg’s parents left, we kept. I truly loved everything. We’ve added pictures over the years, and I used some of the money the Cannons gifted me to furnish our bedroom.
We made damn sure to get really sturdy furniture. We fuck all over that bedroom. So far, everything is holding up. Wait… no, there was the first chaise we had in there. We broke that during our first tryst after our first son was born. We really missed each other.
Al and Justine were always there super early on Saturdays and let Greg and I have a small lie-in as they cared for and fed our children. It was always on a Saturdays we met like this because Ree went to her other grandparents around lunch and stayed the night with them, along with Savion, Vonda’s son with Gorge, and we wouldn’t see her again until after church on Sunday, where we met up with the McCoys and Gorge.
After service, we’d all go to lunch at a restaurant, giving Ree and Savion more time together. I found it amazing we could do this, considering how things had gone down four years earlier, but like Vonda’s mother, Nina and Justine said, we’re all related some kind of way and family needed to stick together. We needed to show Ree we could get along, keep her from developing a stigma when she realized exactly what her mother had done. Savion, too, when he found out what had happened.
I paid for Eddie to be shipped home to his parents, and he was buried in Iowa, near his grandmother. They thanked me for sending him to them, even though they knew he and I were no longer together. I brushed off their thanks. It was the right thing to do after he saved my husband’s life. I don’t hear from the Murphys, outside of Christmas cards. I send one to them, too.
Greg is a V.P. of A&R at Main House now. He was promoted as soon as he got his diploma, and he’s been kick-ass since. They love him, and some have hinted he may be president of the company someday. He said he didn’t want it. He’d rather mold artists, behind the scenes, but I know, deep down, he’d rather be on a stage with his boys, entertaining. They won’t even consider it, not without Jaxen.
Ren is a producer with Main House. Mike is a sound engineer with them. Stone is a director now, with Roland. They’re usually who Main House hires to direct projects for their talent. Videos, sessions, documentaries, parties, etc.; whatever they needed to film, they called G&S Visual, first.
All the boys are happily married now and all have children, except Mike. He and Kylie are waiting. Mike has some parental issues that’s keeping a child-wanting Kylie motherless.
“Soon,” she always says, longingly. “He’s going to resolve this soon and I’ll have a big belly, too.”
I hoped so, I always thought after she’d say that. She was so wonderful with all our kids, and I could see the longing in her eyes for her own. I was sure Mike saw it as well. I do believe it’ll be soon, too. He, like all our husbands, hated to deny his wife anything she wanted.
I’m a housewife, mostly. I’ll sing backup at Main House if needed, and help at the Mitchell’s stores, too. Well, store. I found it funny that I’m always only asked to go to the flagship store where my father-in-law is the manager. It’s also funny that he insists I bring the kids and leave them with him while I take care of whatever he calls me in for.
Last time, it was to fill in for a sick cashier. As I suspected, there was no ‘sick’ cashier. Dad just wanted to see his grandchildren. While I running the express register, Tamia went over to the Service Desk. She saw me, and we smirked at one another.
“Dad,” she asked over the buzz of the store.
“Dad,” I confirmed.
All the employees who heard us, laughed. They knew how the boss was about his grandchildren and I was sure they suspected, as I did, that he was on the floor of his office, happily rollicking with six of his thirteen grandchildren.
I smiled and turned to my husband. Cuddling into his side, I whispered, “Your mom is here.”
“I know.” He laughed. “Those belly-flipping smells woke me about ten minutes ago.”
“Why haven’t you gone to eat then?”
He turned and put half his body on mine, holding me tightly. “I was admiring the view of your naked ass in that short gown, Mrs. Mitchell. I love when you sleep with no panties on. You don’t know how many times I had to stop myself from waking you.”
I giggled and softly kissed his lips. Suddenly, our children shrieked past our bedroom door, then a man’s voice boomed in laughter as he threatened to catch them and tickle them for hours.
“And she brought Dad,” Greg whispered. “Again.”
I couldn’t help but laugh as I heard them all run down the stairs, still shrieking and warning their Ganpaw that Gammaw’s going to get him for them.
“You want to tell them today?” I breathed out as my husband’s soft breath hit my ear.
“We can if you want,” Greg murmured into my neck.
“Your mother probably already knows,” I replied, closing my eyes. “She knew before I did with all my pregnancies, and your sisters say she knew with them as well.”
“She’s Southern,” Greg said as he rubbed my still small stomach. “They have ‘tells,’ she says. They must be good because she’s always right.”
I smiled and climbed on top of my husband, suddenly wanting him more than the food my wonderful mother-in-law was cooking.
“Mrs. Mitchell, what are you up to this morning?”
I grinned and tugged off my short gown. “Guess, Mr. Mitchell.”
I gripped his shoulders as he quickly removed his underwear.
“I have no clue,” Greg said as he tossed the boxers to the floor. “Wanna go fishing?”
“No,” I murmured, rubbing myself on his shaft.
“Um…” He moaned. “Laundry?”
“That’s next week,” I said, gripping his erection.
“Should we go grocery shopping?”
“Maybe later,” I murmured, positioning him. “Depends on what your parents brought with them. We were out of juice for our kids.”
“Yeah, they may have loaded us up, especially if Mom knows you’re pregnant again. Wanna fuck?”
“I guess.” I smirked, slamming down on him. “Since I’m already naked.”
“Fine,” he replied sharply, inhaling while gripping my hips. “Make it quick. I still have to clean out the garage… mow the lawn… clean the gutters…”
“I’ll make sure to move this right along then,” I said as I start to move slowly. “And don’t forget the garbage, husband.”
“How could I, wife?” Greg moaned, pulling me down to take a nipple into his mouth.
I moaned, too, lacing our hands over his head as my body moved faster. “You always do. Don’t think I didn’t see that bag at the gate.”
“What bag?”
I clenched around him. “The one you left last week. Ree and I had to move it to the can, and just in time. Damn near missed the garbage men.”
“Got a call,” Greg groaned, thru
sting hard into me, his fingers tightening around mine. “Had to run into the office.”
“Don’t do it again,” I panted, moving faster. “You know how I hate taking out the trash. And so does our oldest daughter.”
“Wouldn’t want you to lift it now, anyway. From now on, trash is my top priority.”
“I just bet it is.”
I stopped talking and came, throwing my head back and gasping loudly. Seconds later, Greg let go, shooting deep inside me as I shuddered. I dropped on top of him. He held me close, breathing hard into my hair.
Greg chuckled when we could talk and make sense. “I’m so hungry now.”
“So am I,” I murmured. “I’m showering first.”
I laughed and ran to our bathroom. He was close behind me, and held me at the waist as he turned on the shower. He stood me under the spray, then climbed in behind me.
Damn… showers should never take an hour.
{Giggle}
* * *
We finally dressed and went downstairs to our kitchen. My mother-in-law promptly ran right over and kissed my cheek, then Greg’s. She plated our food then gave us knowing looks.
“Ma, I’m gonna get around to taking your key,” Greg murmured as he eyed his food. “Sooner or later.”
“Take it. I lived here for thirty years, young man. I can get into this house.”
“Try it, old lady,” Greg laughed.
Justine smirked at her son and took his plate back. He immediately gave her the puppy eyes that he used whenever he wanted his way with her. She immediately caved and gave the plate back. She was still a sucker for him. It was the cutest thing ever. Why? Because I was the same way with my son, Allan Gregory Mitchell II. And my other son, Thomas Walden, named after my dad and Walden.
Greg was the same way with our one-year-old, Raquel Cecile. She’s called Rocki because she fights her brothers fiercely. Shame no one but Justine understands what she says.
Yes, I’ve had three kids since we married. What can I say? I love fucking my husband. So much, I may actually get the dozen I wanted.
“My babies have eaten and are now on the playground with Dad,” Justine said, pouring Greg a glass of orange juice to go with the bacon, green pepper and cheddar cheese omelet she set in front of him. “I was ready to feed you two an hour ago. Right along the time the water pressure went crazy. I almost had Al look into it. It was coming out so slowly. Funny, I don’t recall it doing that when we lived here.”
Despair: Book Two of the Negative Ion Series Page 26
