“I want you to put your hands on your head and turn around slowly,” Kenton says. Chris’s head swings in his direction.
When he registers the gun in Kenton’s hand, Chris’s hands go to his head. Then his gaze comes back to me.
“I’m sorry.”
I nod my head and watch Kenton pull cuffs out of his pocket and attach them to Chris’s wrist.
“What the fuck?” Asher’s voice cracks through the room like thunder. He looks me over and takes a step towards Chris. Kenton blocks him.
“See to your girl,” Kenton says quietly.
I can tell that Asher’s having a hard time not beating the crap out of someone. I think anyone would do for him right now after everything that happened. I being in danger today is playing havoc with him.
“Are you okay, baby?” he asks, taking a step towards me.
“Yeah,” I nod my head as he pulls me into his arms. “It’s over,” I whisper into his chest.
“Yeah,” he agrees.
Epilogue
“Again, again!” Emma screams as Asher picks her up again, tossing her through the air and into the pool. He’s been doing the same thing for the last ten minutes. I look around for someone to help my eight-and–a-half-month pregnant self. It’s hard to get my ass out of our lounge chairs unless I roll out, get on my hands and knees then stand. There are too many people around for me to do that today without really embarrassing myself.
“Need some help?” I look up to see Kenton standing over me.
“God, yes.” I moan. “I swear, this little girl is going to be a dancer,” I tell him and watch as he smiles.
“The pool turned out awesome,” he says once he pulls me up. I look around. He is not wrong. The pool is amazing. It has a hot tub that is connected to it, along with so many flowers and plants that you would think we were in the jungle.
“Yeah, Jack did an amazing job,” I say and look over at him. “So, where is Christen or Tina or Lisa or—”
“Very funny,” he says, cutting me off.
I start to giggle and feel my belly bouncing with my laughter then I feel a kick that’s so hard, I stop immediately and grab Kenton’s hand and pull it towards my belly.
“What?” he starts to say. Then, his eyes get big and drop to my stomach. “Holy shit!”
“Yeah, now imagine that on your bladder.” I laugh.
“That’s so amazing,” he says and his hand starts to rub my belly.
“I know that it’s obvious by the huge ring on her finger that she’s taken, but if you happened to miss that, you definitely can’t miss the fact that she’s obviously pregnant.”
I laugh and see Kenton looking at Asher with something that looks a lot like envy in his eyes. I know he doesn’t want me, but I think deep down he wants his own family.
“Yeah, both those are hard to miss,” he says, smiling.
“How’s it going, man?” Asher asks him while pulling me into him.
“Good. Busy. I’m seeing someone and things are good.”
“Just one someone?” I ask, knowing his history. Since I’ve been around, there has been someone different at each event.
“Yeah, just one.” He smiles and shakes his head.
“That’s great,” I whisper, laying my head on Asher’s chest. He doesn’t look like someone in love though, so I wonder if he’s just trying to settle down because he is lonely. “You should invite her next time we all get together.”
“Baby, leave the man alone. He just said he’s seeing someone, not that he is picking out a ring.”
I scrunch up my nose at my husband. “Fine,” I grumble. His eyes go soft and he puts his mouth to mine. The kiss is sweet and soft. “I’m going inside then. I’m going to find Miss Alice,” I whisper, biting his lower lip.
Once, I’m done in the bathroom, I track down Miss Alice. She’s sitting in the baby’s room. It was finished yesterday with the help of Nico, Cash and Trevor. They were there most of the night, laying carpet and touching up the walls. I look around and can see all the love that went into making this room special for our daughter. I know that she’s going to have more love than she will know what to do with.
“It’s so beautiful,” Miss Alice says and I agree. It is beautiful. The walls are a very light blue with flowers that shoot up from the base with clouds and butterflies. Meg and Liz spent a week coming over every day when they got off work to paint every flower and butterfly on the walls.
Asher and his brothers sanded down every piece of furniture that we picked up from Miss Alice and stained the wood a dark brown. The quilt has pink and white checkers. It looks like a fairytale baby room. What really means the most to me is that everyone helped to make it beautiful. “You know that I never had a girl and Asher’s mama didn’t have a girl either.”