23. Linc
“Where the fuck is that woman?” Kennedy has, true to form, vanished before dawn. But she made coffee before she left, so I don’t actually think she abandoned me like a one-night stand.
She is, however, dodging my calls and attempts to figure out where she’s gone like a pro. Not only her, but Parker as well. Everyone thinks it will be a great day to fuck with me and if I didn’t have to work the morning shift, it would have pissed me off. Instead, I’m walking on air and just want to see my woman.
Mostly because of the sticky note that Kennedy stuck to the side of my coffee pot.
You suck.
I love you.
Be safe.
Don’t get shot.
I owe you a blow job.
That woman.She has a unique way of pissing me off and turning me on at the exact same time. As soon as I see the words, I want to run back upstairs and strip off my uniform. But she isn’t there. So I’m left turned on and wanting all fuckin’ day while I have to deal with assholes and teenagers who think blowing through stoplights is okay or even funny.
When my phone starts to ring, I almost bite Emma’s head off as I answer.
“If no one’s dying, I am gonna beat your ass.” Meanwhile, I scan the parking lot of Taco Bell to see if Kennedy had snuck off for food.
“Well, if you’re gonna be an ass, I’ll just hang up,” Emma bites out and then laughs. “But I just watched Kennedy eat her sixth taco of the day, and she blamed it on you. I figured you must have pissed her off, so I thought you might want a heads-up in case you want to do some groveling.”
“I owe you big, Emma. But I didn’t piss her off. Where are you?” They clearly aren’t at Taco Bell.
“Oh, we’re at Lucy’s.” Emma sounds bewildered and amused at the same time. “I was just giving you shit. I thought you knew we were here.”
Blood starts to pound in my forehead, a migraine picking up at my temples. Why did I think that Kennedy wouldn’t want to go back to the same place that she had an issue with Royal at? While shaking my head, I pull out of the Taco Bell parking lot and head downtown.
Begrudgingly, I thank my little sister. “I owe you one.”
“Oh, I know you do.” She laughs. “Don’t worry. I’m gonna collect soon, so you won’t have it hanging over your head for nothing.”
She hangs up, and I find myself smiling when I pull into Lucy’s parking lot a few seconds later. Kennedy’s car isn’t there, which makes me feel a little bit better about not knowing when I drove through town that she is there. I walk into the building, surprised to see every single person who’s been avoiding me all day sitting around one of the banquet tables in the middle of the room. There isn’t a single other customer.
“Sorry!” Violet Ortiz calls out loudly from the back. “We’re closed for a private party.” When she comes around the side wall and sees me, she stops in her tracks. “Oh. You’re late.”
Grumbling, I step around her and try not to roll my eyes as her older brother, Dom, and everyone else are all laughing and carrying on like they haven’t intentionally snubbed me.
“You know, my feelings might be hurt if there was alcohol here.” I drop a kiss on Kennedy’s upturned forehead, right before she shoves another taco in her mouth.
“Dom was supposed to call you,” Remy says unhelpfully.
Dom shrugs from across the table. “I figured Kennedy would have let you know.”
Kennedy, who is mid-shove with another bite of taco, pauses. “I lost my phone. Didn’t you get my sticky note?” She puts the taco in her mouth and starts to chew loudly.
“You mean the one where you told me you owed me a blow job?”
The men around the table laugh, and Kennedy almost chokes on her taco. I grab a chair from the next table and set it between her and Emma.
“No.” She slaps my chest when she finally catches her breath, and I take her hand in mine. “The one on the kitchen table saying, ‘lost my phone.’ But thanks for telling everyone our personal stuff.” She eyes Remy across the table, who isn’t paying attention to anything we are saying. He is whispering under his breath with Parker.
“Okay,” Parker says suddenly, pushing away from Remy to stand up. She claps her hands together excitedly. “We think we can pull something together in a month. Do you guys think that’s enough time?”
She looks so happy, and I don’t want to be the dick to ask what the hell is going on. Instead, I lean over and press my lips against Kennedy’s ear.
“What are we doing in a month?”
She squeezes my hand and smiles knowingly. “Ask Remy.”
Remy stands up next to Parker and that’s when I see his shirt.
Proud Daddy is emblazoned on his chest, with an arrow pointing straight down.
“Wait,” I say loudly. “Are you announcing Parker’s pregnant or something?”
“She’s not just pregnant,” Remy says helpfully. “She’s gonna have this baby in less than three months, so we’re getting married next month.”
“How the fuck is that possible?” Emma pipes up, surprised. “You don’t even look pregnant.”
“Oh, I know the answer to that,” Vi says while she brings another plate of tacos out for Kennedy. “It’s uncommon but not rare. Especially if the baby is small.”
“Yeah,” Parker agrees. “That’s what the doctor said.”
Everyone around the table starts talking, celebrating, and making plans and pitching ideas for the wedding that will no doubt be a last-minute affair. Everyone but Kennedy.
Kennedy, who has her eyes almost glued to her plate while she keeps eating. In fact, I’m pretty sure that she has nowhere to put all the food she is stuffing into her face. For a minute, I don’t say anything. I just watch her until the mic on my shoulder goes off with a call.
“I love you,” I tell her quietly.
I don’t miss the look in her eyes as she tears away from her plate and pastes a smile on her face for my benefit. “I love you too.”
Before I walk out, I grab one of the tacos from her plate. “Let me know when you find your phone. I’ll see you tonight?”
“Yep.” Her smile grows, and somewhere along the way, it shifts from a forced grin into a full-fledged smile. “Your place or mine?”
“Mine. Just come over whenever, I’ll be there.”
“No, you won’t,” Remy chimes in, proving that he is the world’s worst eavesdropper. “You’ve got to meet us at the tailor after work. Our appointment is tonight to get fitted for the wedding.”
I pause, spearing him with an unimpressed look. “You haven’t asked me to be in a wedding.”
“Duh,” Parker speaks up before Remy can. “You guys all have to be in the wedding. Consider this us asking you to be in the wedding party. The only person not here is Cain, but he’s all the way in Galloway Bay, so he’s excused.”
“But a tailor?” This time it is Dom who pipes up to complain. “Why do we have to do that?”
“It’s either that or the dress blues.” Parker shrugs nonchalantly, and every single former Marine around the table shuts their goddamn mouth.
“Parker wants suits and not blues,” Remy supplies.
“Send me the name, and I’ll meet you there.” I wave over my shoulder and then walk out to my cruiser, ready to get back to work.
But the entire rest of my shift, all two hours of it, I see Kennedy’s face while everyone talks about Parker’s pregnancy, and I know I fucked up.
I just don’t realize exactly how bad it is until I’m standing with an old man’s hands under my balls that afternoon.
“Turn your head and cough,” the tailor says around a mouthful of pins.
“Excuse me, what?” I fight the urge to jump off the fuckin’ table he has me standing on. The man is practically touching my balls with his hands.
“You have to cough, so he can see which way your dick lays naturally,” Dom says. “Just let it happen. It’s not like you’re naked with your balls out on the track.”
“Shut the fuck up, Dom.” I raise my arm to point at him, but the tailor makes a disapproving sound in the back of his throat so I have to glare at the man instead.
Something about all of us being stuck in a small room together at one time makes men act like children.
“What’s this about his balls being on a track?” Ian walks in from the back, holding a couple pairs of trousers, along with a blazer hung over his shoulder.
“This dumbass.” Dom points at me, and I feel like I’m on display for everyone to laugh at like an animal at the zoo. “Thought it would be a great idea to get on the track in a pair of skates to compete at roller derby against Cain and the women he’s training, without underwear on.”
“It was an oversight,” I explain. “I didn’t think they’d be that good.”
“Cain was training them,” Ian scoffs. “The man has a ton of videos dedicated to him on YouTube, and you thought he’d be training someone who wasn’t an absolute badass. You’re an idiot.” He sets his stuff down and stands next to Dom and Remy.
“Does everyone need to be here for this?” I take a deep breath, trying not to feel like an idiot, unable to keep my calm.
I drift back to the look on Kennedy’s face at Lucy’s, and my heart lurches in my chest. She wants kids. Sure, she let me off the hook by telling me that she wanted me, not them. But the two wants weren’t mutually exclusive. She can want both, and by choosing to be with me, she’ll lose out on her chance to have them.
“Are you ready to be a new dad?” Dom moves on from talking about my balls to focus on Remy and I’m almost able to ignore the fact that my dick is perilously close to having a needle shoved into it by the tailor. “It’s gotta be nerve-racking.”
We may be Marines, may have served overseas and watched our friends die, but there is something about the fear of having a child that makes even the strongest men into whimpering fools.
“Actually, yeah.” Remy looks down at his hands and then back up to me. “I’ve loved her since I didn’t know what love was. You know what I’m saying. Nox is mine, too; don’t get me wrong. From the first minute, the love that I have for her spread to him. But I did that. She’s having another baby, with me. A little girl, who’ll look just like her mother. A little sister for Nox.” He chokes up for a moment. “Did I tell you that she wants to name her Cassie?”
Silence fills the room, heavy and full of the emotions that we’ll hide from the rest of the world. Our families, our community, have been hit hard with loss. Destruction and death don’t seem to stray far from Birch County.
“That’s the best thing I’ve ever heard.” My throat clenches around the words, and I blink back the tears that form.
Cassie Townsend, taken far too soon, was like a little sister to me. She and Casper were the other set of twins in our crazy families, and Danny and I looked out for them growing up. Twins had to stick together after all. And thinking of her always brought back memories of Danny.
Finally, the tailor lets me off the table, and all I can see is Kennedy. Kennedy holding a baby that will never happen.
Fuck.
I’m the most selfish man in the world. But I won’t let her go. Not after I’ve tasted the promise of forever on her lips.