Chapter 48 #3
He pats his bag, indicating it’s in there. Then he initiates a conversation of his own. One that’s pretty predictable for a nearly nine-year-old boy. “W-w-what’s for dinner?”
Short quickly glances back over his shoulder before setting his eyes back on the road. “We’re not going home, Trip. Pippa is in the hospital having her baby. We’re going to stop there and see how she’s doing. Maybe we’ll pick up some takeout after we’ve seen her.”
It’s taken us an hour to get to his school and back, so I doubt things have progressed very far in our absence. But I don’t discourage his hope.
As I expected, things are much as we left them.
Short’s brothers have been moved into a relatives’ room.
It’s short on space, but they’ve brought more chairs in, and most of them are seated, while Rattler, Winchester, and Paint lounge against the walls, and Stalker is sitting on the floor, knees to his chest.
Beside Freak is Ace, a handheld games console in his grasp. His eyes alight as he sees Trip with us, beckons him over, then shifts his ass to make room for him on the edge of his chair. With a roll of his ass, Freak moves a couple of inches to his right, giving Trip enough space to sit down.
While not on the same level as the genius Ace, there’s something about the boys that, despite their age difference, has bonded them together. Perhaps they both exist in a world the majority of us struggle to understand.
Afternoon turns into evening, and there’s still no news. Several of the brothers are now playing poker, seated on the floor, surrounded by the empty pizza boxes that the prospects had brought in an hour ago.
As I’m wondering how to break it to Short that Trip and I really must go, I’ve work in the morning, and he’s got school, Saint suddenly bursts in.
All eyes shoot to him as he announces, “I’ve got a daughter.
” His eyes glisten as he adds some details.
“Her name is Jade Rebecca Henley. She weighs seven pounds six ounces.” He pauses, shakes his head, and again states, “I’ve got a fuckin’ daughter. ” He sounds like he’s in disbelief.
“Congrats, Brother.”
“Way to fuckin’ go.”
“You got your shotgun ready for when an asshole wants to date her?”
Comments fly from all around, and one by one the brothers step up to do that man-hug back-slap thing over and over, until I worry for the state of Saint’s spine.
Bullseye clears his way through the throng to get to his VP.
From his cut he brings out a cigar. “For you, later,” he says, his eyes gleaming.
Then, placing his hands on Saint’s shoulders, turns him around to face the room.
“Our brother’s just announced the birth of our very own club princess.
There ain’t nobody going to fuck with her. ”
With fists thumping hearts, they all shout together, “Nobody fucks with the Kings.”
Grimacing, I wonder whether the noise is going to bring someone to chuck us out, but moments pass, and we’re not interrupted. I realise I’ve missed Saint starting a rota for everyone to go see Pippa and the baby.
“We’ve got to go soon,” I whisper to Short, torn between wanting to have a look at the baby and see how my friend is coping after her labour.
Short looks from me to Trip, then stands. He goes over to have a word with Saint, who nods fast. Seems he’s arranged for us to jump the queue and be next to see the newborn after Bullseye and Tempest come out.
We should have brought flowers, I think to myself, as we’re directed into the room where Pippa is lying, looking pale, exhausted, but radiant as she cradles her daughter in her arms.
“You want to hold her?” she asks me.
No stranger to holding newborns from my rotation in this very ward, I have no hesitation in taking Jade from her.
As I cuddle her, I cast my eyes over her.
She looks absolutely perfect. A bit scrunched up for certain, but her wide-open blue eyes, curiously looking around at the new world she’s entered, make her look absolutely beautiful.
A tear comes to my eye as I remember how my mom had stolen Trip from me.
How I hadn’t been allowed to hold him, or soak up the attention all new mothers deserve.
I catch Short looking at me with hunger in his eyes. He wants me to have a baby.
I’d love to tell him I can, but even this happy situation brings back far too many bad memories.
Then Trip approaches, holding his hands out, making it obvious he, too, wants to hold the baby. But Short puts his hand on his shoulder, holding him back.
“The baby’s far too little for men like us to hold her right now. We’ll have to wait until she’s bigger.” It’s the right thing to say. Trip preens at being called a man.
Knowing there’s a queue of people waiting to meet Jade, I hand her to her mother. “You’ve done good, Pippa.”
Taking her baby back, she manages to look like she’s already an expert as she looks at me and laughs. “To hear Saint talk, it sounds like he did all the hard work.”
It’s another reminder of how wrong Trip’s birth had been. There was no one who wanted to celebrate him being born, the very least being his and my father.
I murmur more congratulations, stammer a goodbye, then stumble my way to the door.
Short’s fast on my heels, his arms surrounding me as I brace one hand against the wall to support myself as tears well up inside me.
“No pressure, Bron. You and Trip are my world, and if that’s all I’m going to have as a family, I’m still the luckiest man breathing.
But just saying, if you did want to add to us, then that,” he jerks his head toward the door we just exited, “is what you’d experience, and it would be nothing like the nightmare from before. ”
The tears fall, whether for the past I experienced or the future I’m not sure I can allow myself to have. Short just holds me, rocking me gently.
Then there’s a tug on my shirt. “Why’s Momma upset?”
It reminds me that all the pain, all the years when I rejected him, are worth it to hear my son calling me Momma and showing compassion.
Indicating to Short I want him to let me go, I bend down and crush my son to me.
“I’m alright, Trip.” He doesn’t struggle to get out of my arms. He just lets me reassure him, and his own arms encircle as much of me as he can, as he unknowingly lends his own strength to me.