Chapter 15
Fifteen
I don’t even care about my foot hanging off the end of the bed anymore. Come get me, demons. Take me home.
—Boone’s secret thoughts
Boone
I hit send on the text to Denver and my dad, then switched apps.
The shower was still going, so I left her in there, snatched a towel off the rack, then dialed the non-emergency line.
That being Gentry’s personal line.
I’d have called Black, but he was less than happy lately, and I’d rather avoid his angry ass if I could.
Gentry answered in a couple of rings, sounding mildly out of breath.
“What’s up, man?” Gentry asked.
“What are you doing?” I wondered.
He sounded like he was in a tunnel.
“Running.”
“You mind heading over here when you get a chance?”
“I’m probably eight miles away from my truck, and there isn’t any way that I can get there fast enough. You’ll have to call Black if it’s important.”
“Shit,” I groaned.
“What’s up?”
I explained what was happening.
Gentry and Black, along with all of the club members, were very aware of the shit show that was my mother. They knew about Kurt Pruitt, as well as Ida Bell and Felicia now.
Koen had reamed me out for not trusting him, and I’d decided it would be better to go ahead and get everyone in on my life woes, so no other surprises popped up. That, and they could help me bury them if they happened to find something I could use.
I explained what was going on, and Gentry sighed. “You’re gonna have to call Black. You’ll want to get her trespassed.”
“Good idea,” I sighed. “He in a good mood today?”
Gentry snorted. “Why do you think I decided to get a long run in on a Tuesday?”
Fuck.
“Thanks, man,” I said.
“I’ll come out after I’m done if you’re still there.”
I hung up and called Black, who wasted no time in saying he’d be here shortly.
After hanging up, I got dressed in sweats and a t-shirt, pulled on some socks, then slipped on the Hey Dude house shoes that Nettie had insisted I buy.
They were insanely comfortable, even if they were ugly as fuck.
Plus, they kept my feet warm.
“I’ll be outside waiting for Black,” I called.
She drew a heart in the condensation on the glass. Then followed it up with a penis that was bigger than anything I’d ever seen before.
I snorted just as she wiped off the condensation on the glass and stared at me through the clear space she’d created.
“That was the best sex we’ve ever had, Bart.”
I flashed her a grin.
She was right.
It was.
And we’d had some really good sex in our time.
“Gotta be the knowledge that you’re carrying my baby and going to be mine.” I paused. “Maybe we can get married before you have her so she can carry my name.”
“What if I wanted you to carry my name?” she asked.
My brows rose. “Maybe your next husband can take your name. This time, you can take mine.”
She drew a middle finger in the condensation next.
I winked at her before going to the main room and starting a pot of coffee.
The door knocking started up again, but since I hadn’t gotten a notification from Black, I let the knocking go until my phone pinged five minutes later.
There was a commotion on the porch and then I heard my mother yell, “This is my son’s house!”
“Your son doesn’t want you here, ma’am,” Black replied.
I pulled up the camera app that I’d put on mute earlier while working and watched the show.
“He does, too!” my mother insisted, shaking her head and all but stomping her high heel.
“He doesn’t,” Black disagreed. “He called me and asked me to have you escorted off the property.”
He walked her down to her car and then formally trespassed her so that the next time that she entered the property, she would be taken to jail.
I knew exactly what she would do, too.
The moment Black disappeared down the road, she’d turn around and come right back.
She wouldn’t be able to help herself.
Which was where the plan that Nettie devised came into effect.
Black had probably already gotten a ton of messages from Nettie.
The way he kept glancing at his watch let me know that that was, indeed, true.
He drove off only after my mother left, which was when Nettie came out of the back room wearing nothing but one of my henleys.
“She gone?” Nettie asked.
She had a pair of panties on and a bra.
I could see that as she got closer.
Which was a bummer.
But seeing as Black was about to see her, I was glad that she’d gotten as dressed as she could.
She had to look comfortable for my mother’s rage to boil over.
She had to appear like she belonged here—which she did.
But my mother would think differently.
Plus, she would hate seeing us ‘living in sin.’
That was a huge issue with her when she found out we were moving in together at seventeen and sixteen.
She hated that we weren’t married yet.
Though, that was just one of many complaints she had at the time.
“How long are we giving her?” I teased.
“About ten minutes max.”
She got back to the house in seven.
Black came in through the back door a couple of minutes later, having taken the back way through the woods to get to my house.
“She back?” he grumbled as he walked to my fridge and pulled out a beer like he owned the place.
“Just pulled in.” Nettie narrowed her eyes at him. “Your boots are filthy.”
Black looked at his muddy boots and his boot prints.
“Take them off,” she ordered.
Black took a swig of beer before slipping them off using the zipper on the side. “I’ll have to borrow some shoes to put her ass in the cruiser, though.”
I shrugged and pointed at the pile of shoes by the back door.
Just as he directed his gaze toward the shoes, the pounding started. “Bartholomew Windsor, you open this door right now!”
“Scary.” Nettie wiggled her fingers.
I walked to the door and opened it, fully expecting Black to protect Nettie if the need arose.
“You’re not allowed to be here anymore, Mother,” I said. “I don’t want you here, and Black trespassed you for a reason.”
“And what would be that reason?” She pushed forward, only then realizing that Nettie was in the room, too. Black was still partially hidden in the pantry for now. “I’m your mother.”
“Are you?” I asked. “Because no mother I know would’ve harmed the mother of my child and my child.”
My mother said nothing.
Never admit wrongdoing.
Ever.
“Or how about you tell me about Ida Bell.”
My mother froze. “Who?”
“Cut the shit, Mother,” I said, going over the suggestions that Nettie had come up with for telling my mom how we’d found out about Ida Bell.
“Have you ever heard of the DNA testing thing that’s pretty popular right now?
I’m sorry if I’m curious about who my father is, seeing as you decided to cheat on Dad with some random man.
Color me surprised when I find that I’m genetically half siblings with a woman named Ida Bell who lives two towns over. ”
My mother’s mouth thinned.
“Or we could talk about how Felicia isn’t related to me at all,” I said. “Nor is she related to you.”
My mother’s lips were so thin, you could barely tell she’d had any work done on them at all. “Cat got your tongue, Mom?”
Again, silence.
“I don’t think I even know you at this point, Mother.” I paused. “Though, I guess I don’t really have to call you that anymore, do I? Maybe you were never my mother at all. Except for in name. No real mother would do to her children what you’ve done to yours.”
I waited for her to say something, but she didn’t.
Provoking her wasn’t working like Nettie said it wouldn’t.
I’d hoped to keep her out of it.
But for some reason, my mother couldn’t stand Nettie, so she was up next.
I surreptitiously tilted my head, and Nettie came to me, wrapping her arms around my arm and leaning into me.
As she did, her belly pressed against my elbow and I felt the baby kick again.
Pride and excitement rushed through me.
Not even my mother’s presence could kill this high.
My mother’s eyes narrowed on Nettie and said, “You always ruin everything.”
“Do I?” she asked. “I’m not sure how.”
My mother sneered. “You’re not sure how?”
“Nope,” Nettie answered. “I’m really not.”
“He wasn’t like this before he met you,” she spat.
“Before Margery brought your white trash, getting pregnant at sixteen ass into my estate and turning him into someone I didn’t know.
He was in private school before you. Making great grades.
On the fast track to becoming a medical doctor.
Then you came around and changed his priorities.
Made him go to public school. He joined football, got that head injury, and all of a sudden, he’s acting like he’s not the man I raised! ”
I had gotten a head injury, but I hadn’t gotten it so bad that it’d rattled my brain or anything.
“He hates people, Gail,” Nettie pointed out.
“He can’t stand them. He played football because he got to hit people.
He refused to become a medical doctor because he didn’t want to have to talk to random people on a daily basis.
And honestly, you’re lucky he’s a vet doc at all.
He wanted to be a park ranger from the time that I’d met him.
He was so passionate about wildlife and the land.
You were just too stuck up and bitchy to see it. ”
It wasn’t surprising that Nettie knew me so well.
I’d been introverted as hell, and so passionate about the area surrounding me that it was a wonder I took the time to notice Nettie in the first place.
But I had noticed her.
It would be impossible not to with those beautiful eyes of hers.
Nothing could ever compare to them.
Not even the best nature had to offer.
“He would’ve gotten over it.”
“You don’t get over hating people, Gail,” Nettie drawled.
“Kind of like I can’t stand you still. You disgust me, and I would rather light you on fire than deal with having you as a mother-in-law.
Yet, here we are, getting married at the courthouse next Tuesday.
I get to have you permanently in my life.
” Nettie smiled. “Though, I do almost have him convinced to go no contact with you…”
That was the straw to break the camel’s back.
My mother screeched something that I couldn’t decipher and launched herself.
Black was ready for the move and caught her before she could move two feet forward. Though not in time to stop my mother from raking her claws across my throat that she’d aimed for Nettie’s face.
“You’re under arrest…” Black said over her screeching. “Assault and…” My mother flailed. “Battery. Trespassing…” More screeching.
Black slipped on my Crocs by the door and hauled her out kicking and screaming.
I’d never seen my mother so undignified in my life.
“That was perfect,” Nettie snickered. “I hope your cameras got that on video.”
“They did,” I sighed. “Do you really want to get married next Tuesday?”
She batted her eyes at me. “Maybe a couple more weeks. I would like to find a dress. But I’m perfectly serious about a courthouse wedding. Can’t have your baby being illegitimate, now can we?”
I winked at her.
“Though, maybe we’ll keep the Wheeler name.”
“You hate your name,” I pointed out. “You can’t wait to get rid of it.”
“You’re right.” She sighed. “Windsor it is.” She paused. “Do you think there’s a way to strip a person of her name? I hate the thought of sharing one with that woman.”
That woman was still screeching so loud she could be heard fifteen feet away through the closed door of an SUV.
Black came back and switched my Crocs out with his boots.
He reached for the beer and chugged it.
“Long fuckin’ night,” he grumbled. “I’ll book her for everything I can think of.”
“Thanks, man.” I held out my hand.
He took it and then handed me the empty beer bottle to keep the mud from trailing back inside the house.
“The FBI agent is at the station,” he said. “She’s something.”
“Something good, or something bad?” I asked.
Black shook his head. “Fuckin’ something.”
Eight hours later, I caught my wife-to-be cackling at the kitchen table, her hand between her legs and her legs crossed as she tried not to pee herself.
She was…beautiful.
Her champagne-colored eyes were sparkling. Her porcelain-white skin had round circles of color high on her cheekbones. Her brown curly hair was bouncing around her face as she giggled.
I hoped our little girl looked exactly like her.
Though, a little girl with her mother’s porcelain-white skin and my black hair would look striking.
“What is your problem?” I smiled, loving seeing her like this.
She pointed at the tablet that rested on the kitchen counter.
I walked over and took a look.
My mother’s mugshot was on the front page of the paper. Digital paper it may be, but there was no doubt in my mind that everyone would know about this in town.
“Oh, god.” She wheezed. “This is the best thing ever! I found myself tagged in it! By Reyelle’s coffee shop page!”
The mugshot wasn’t the prettiest, that was for sure.
My mother’s overfilled lips were pursed. Her eyes had bags underneath them. You could see every wrinkle around her mouth and eyes, as if her Botox had worn off.
She would hate this photo.
She did everything in her power to appear young, and this photo showed her as anything but.
You could even see her roots.
“And look!” she cried. “Her eyelashes are falling off!”
I’d noticed.
“Hah!”
That was the yell that did it.
“Oh, I peed!” She waddled to the bathroom. “Oh, god! I can’t wait to frame this!”
I watched her walk away, the back of her shorts wet, and thought… “So damn beautiful.”
She came back long moments later wearing a pair of my sweatpants. She had them tied in a double knot around her waist, making me wonder if she’d be able to untie them in time for her next pee-attack.
Likely not.
Everything made her pee lately.
Sneezing.
Laughing.
Waiting too long.
Pregnancy was fun.
Women were amazing with all that they had to deal with while pregnant.
“Now, let’s talk breakfast.” Her eyes gleamed. “And can I go to work with you today?”
“Anything and always,” I said. “You tell me what sounds best.”
Her eyes gleamed. “Arby’s…”
Damn. I fucking hated Arby’s.
“Sure, let’s go.”