Round Thirty-Seven #2
“You just…” He looks between the two of them. Brienne and Devina. Brienne and Devina. “You both lied, so we’re gonna deal with that shortly. But for now.” He shifts his eyes back to me. “Devina and I ate from that basket and talked about you the whole damn time, Magnolia.”
Devina nods. “He’s kinda obsessed with you. Shook my confidence a little.”
Billy swallows, his Adam’s apple bobbing with the action.
“My son has cried himself to sleep too many times lately, because even though you never stopped spending time with him, he felt the shift between us anyway. He fell head over heels in love with the beautiful witch next door, and then he told his dead mother all about how he’d trade me for you in a heartbeat—”
“Billy…” I shake my head. “No. He wouldn’t.”
He barks out a loud laugh. “Uh, yeah. He actually would. He shouted it in my face on the weekend while you were selling all your shit at a yard sale.”
“I’m not actually—”
“He wished you were his mom, too, because then you’d be stuck and you wouldn’t be able to leave him.”
“Oh God.” I choke out a sobbing breath. “I’m not—”
“He said he wished I had died, instead of Aria. And I know he didn’t mean it,” he adds quickly, lifting a single hand in a stop-motion.
“He apologized right away, and then he felt awful. He got that DNA from me, Magnolia. Those genes that would have him emotionally spiral and spout off unkind words in the heat of the moment. But he’s already better than me, so much better, because he’s only eight, and he knows when to admit he’s wrong, and right after that, how to apologize and make things better. ”
“He learned those things because of you,” I rasp. “Don’t be so hard on yourself.”
“I’m the stubbornest person I know. I don’t wear that badge with pride, and I swear, I feel horrible every single time I open my mouth and hurt your feelings.”
“Billy—”
“I’m sorry for every unkind thing I’ve ever said to you.
” He takes half a dozen steps forward, closing the gap between us until there’s just eight feet instead of twenty.
“I’m sorry for all the things I didn’t say that I should’ve.
I’m sorry for being too proud all the damn time, and I’m especially sorry for the way I treated you the morning after we…
” His cheeks warm as he looks left, then right. “Ya know.”
“Bumped,” Ramone tosses in with a bright smile. “After you bumped bums. It’s okay to use grown-up words, Wilbert.”
Billy grits his jaw tight, his eyes flashing with a fiery glare. But then he brings them back to me. Like magic, they soften. “I’m truly sorry for how I handled that situation. It’s clear I have massive unhealed trauma I still need to work through.”
“It hurt,” I rasp. Finally, I unlock the words that’ve been caught in my throat for weeks. “It’s not like I plan to trap you with a baby or anything.”
“I know.”
“It just hurt, because you didn’t even ask what I wanted. You decided for us instead of working with me on a solution.”
“I know,” he repeats, dropping his gaze. “And then I made you do something to your body I had no right to demand.”
“I didn’t take the pill.”
His cheeks turn ghostly white, his entire frame freezes in place. All but his eyes, as they stop on my torso, mostly hidden by the counter. “Y-you didn’t take it?”
I stand taller, broaden my shoulders, and straighten my back. “No.”
Shout at me, Billy. Scream and rage and show me exactly who you are when your unhealed trauma comes back to visit.
But that’s not what he does. Instead, he grins wide and verges on unhinged. “Good. Are you pregnant?”
“What? No! Are you crazy? I didn’t take the pill because I’m already on birth control, and my period came a couple of days after we…” I tip my head to the side. “Ya know.”
“Bumped,” Ramone inserts again. “Y’all are grownups. Act like it.”
“That’s too bad,” Billy rumbles, his lips curved into a smug smirk. “Because wanting a dozen babies means you really should start soon.”
“I can’t,” I rasp. “Because you want none.” I draw a long breath, expanding my lungs until they ache. “You break out in hives at the very thought of making a baby.”
“I delivered a baby today.”
“You…” I blink, blink, blink. And when that doesn’t help the buzzing in my brain, I shake my head. “What?”
“It was so badass!” Ramone spins on his stool, bumping his thighs against Devina’s.
“This chick ended up in a fender bender on her way to the hospital. Her baby daddy’s a piece of cow manure,” he looks to Elson and nods, obnoxious, “so he’s ignoring her calls.
He has no interest in stepping up and helping her on the scariest day of her life.
So she climbs into her crappy little car and makes tracks for the hospital.
But I guess she’s not concentrating, or maybe her contractions had her skidding on the road.
Next thing, she’s in a ditch, and dispatch is sending us out. ”
“The statistics were mocking me, Magnolia. The universe was testing me. So I’m the sorry son of a biscuit—”
“Nice one,” Ramone chortles. “Smooth as butter.”
“I’m the one who ends up on the scene first, since the accident wasn’t too far from the house.
Ramone was only two minutes behind me, but I swear, those two minutes felt like a hundred years.
It was just me and this chick. Her car is busted up, her face is wet with blood, because she got nicked by some broken glass.
I get there and drag her out of her car, lay her on the road, and Jesus, Magnolia.
” He runs a hand over his face. “She’s pregnant as hell, and the metaphor for every single thing that terrifies me.
If I were ever gonna spin out emotionally, it was in that moment. ”
“But you delivered the baby?” I whimper. “All by yourself?”
He grins, bright and wide and so freakin’ beautiful, it makes my stomach tumble.
“I tried to convince her to cross her legs and wait the paramedics out. Oh, and Dara was one of those paramedics, by the way. I heard Barbara soliciting you for a match-up between me and her. My answer is no.”
“What happened with the baby?” Devina snaps. Shy, sweet, non-imposing Devina. “It all worked out, right?”
“The leg-crossing thing didn’t work. So then I suggested she hold her breath.
” He exhales a gusting laugh. “Not my finest moment. That’s when she snapped at me.
Said how her boyfriend was a piece of crap and she couldn’t count on him, so she needed me to handle myself.
She was scared out of her head, blood all over her, contractions tearing her up from the inside.
She needed me, Magnolia. So, I pulled myself together and delivered that baby. All by my damn self.”
“I was directing traffic.” Ramone brushes breadcrumbs off his shirt. “Very important job.”
“He was directing the three cars that drove by,” Billy chuckles.
“The mom—her name was Virika—was so damn brave. Even when she was terrified. Even with blood on her hands, and sirens wailing in the air. She gave birth to a beautiful, healthy baby girl, and just a few minutes after that, I handed them both over to the paramedics. Alive,” he adds, reverence flowing through the word.
“They were both alive and healthy and okay.”
“He had her blood all over his shirt,” Ramone inserts proudly.
“All the way up to his elbows. But that sweet baby girl came out hollering and angry, and after the EMTs took them away, ya man just kinda sat there in the middle of the road. In the cold. With his elbows on his knees and his head hung between his shoulders. He sat there long enough that I had to direct a fourth car, thank you very much.”
Billy nods, like agreeing to that part of his story is important.
“And then he got up and went on a rampage. Where’s Magnolia?” Ramone bounds off his stool and stomps across the diner. “He was all Godzilla-like. Where’s my woman?!”
“I didn’t say where’s my woman.”
“He’d just delivered a freakin’ baby, so now he’s invincible. Where’s Magnolia!? Her car wasn’t in the driveway when I left the house.” Stomp. Stomp. Odd dinosaur impersonation. “Where is she, Ramone! So then I told him about the diner.” He straightens his back and flashes a boyish grin.
“And you didn’t think to text us in advance?” Brienne growls. “We could’ve prepared her or something.”
“Prepared?” I look from one person to the next. Dizzy. Confused. Was I the one who had a car accident today? “H-he texts you?”
“All the freakin’ time!” Devina huffs. Slapping her phone onto the counter, she scrolls… and scrolls… and scrolls… Dozens and dozens of texts flash across the screen, too fast for me to read. “He’s so needy.”
“You text Devina?” I bring itching eyes back to Billy. “A lot?”
“Devina. Me.” Brienne firms her lips. “Luciana. Cassidy.”
“Me,” Ramone adds happily. “Oh, and Alana, Fox, Rose, and Eliza are in the chat, too.”
“And for a minute, there was a grumpy medical examiner too,” Brienne adds with a shrug. “Not sure where she came from. But she seems even grumpier than Billy.”
“There—” I gulp. “There’s a group chat?”
“There’s no way in hell I’m texting twelve different people individually.” Billy strides forward and stops only when the counter makes it impossible to come closer. “If you want a dozen babies, I’ll give you a dozen babies.”
My eyes water and spill over. “Billy—”
“But for each of those babies, I need you to be patient with me. I’m gonna worry, and fuckkk,” he groans, “I’m probably gonna say dumb shit every now and then. If you’ve already sold your house, then that’s okay, you can move into mine.”
“She didn’t sell her house,” Brienne inserts. “Catch up, Detective.”
“If you wanna work in a diner, work in a diner. If you wanna walk dogs, you can do that too. If you want me to take care of you the way Molly’s dad takes care of Molly’s mom, then I’ll make it happen.
If you wanna keep building the Magnolia Sava Agency, if that’s what makes you happiest, then that’s what would make me happiest, too. ”
My breath comes out on a choked sob. “Billy…”