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“Fuckin’ hell, brother, as if we would.” He digs out his phone. “I dumped a bag of your shit in your room before coming to find you. Go start getting ready to leave. I’ll call Leo.”
It only takes four hours for the doctor to argue we should reconsider leaving, us telling him we wouldn’t, and then us being wheeled out to a waiting car. Still no Aspen in sight.
“We’ll stop off at the bar, and then we’ll be leaving this shit-stained town,” Sparky grunts, helping me into the back seat. Zach helps Myles on the other side.
Rain begins to fall as we drive through the aptly named shit-stained town, as Sparky described it. Cas and Leo are standing out front when Zach pulls up outside the bar—still no Aspen.
Leo’s quick to help me out of the car, and Zach is back at Myles’s side to help him out and onto his feet.
“Where’s our dad?”
Leo nods to the corner of the bar. We all follow behind him and stop at the back of a truck.
“It’s refrigerated,” he tells us.
Zach unlocks it, swings open the door, and steps aside. Both Myles and I move forward, and there he is. Already laid in a coffin, I’m not even going to ask where it came from. Our father is truly gone from this world.
Neither one of us is in the condition to jump up into the van and sit with our dad, so I instruct, “Lock him back up.”
There will be a time we spend time with him, but it’s not now. Myles doesn’t argue, and the door slamming echoes through me.
“Where’s my old lady?” I ask no one in particular.
“She hasn’t been out of her room today,” Cas informs me.
Taking more time than I’d like, I know exactly what room she’s in, and it takes forever to get through everyone offering their condolences. Eventually, I push open the door and find her sitting on the bed, fully dressed and with her bag by her feet.
Surprise I’m here shows on her face, and she rises to her feet.
“You’re out?”
“Yeah. We’re heading for Willow’s Peak soon. How are you feeling?”
“Fine. I should be asking you.”
“It’s nothing I can’t handle.”
“I’m not just asking about your wound.”
I know that, but I’m not ready to answer her.
“When we get home, my mom’s gonna need me, Luca’s bringing Victoria home, she’s gonna need…”
“You,” she finishes for me. “Am I allowed to need you? Because I do. And you need me.”
I want to tell her she always has me, but nothing comes out.
“I know you’re going through Hell right now, and the last thing you need is me going on and on at you, but fuck it, I need to do this now. Before we leave, before we get home, and you disappear. I just want to say that I’m pregnant, and I’m keeping our baby. It should never have been a fight between us. You once said you couldn’t live without me, and I felt exactly the same. YetI feel like you’re pushing me into finding out, because if it comes down to choosing between you and our innocent child, there’s no hesitation. It will be our child. I need to know now if you want us, or not. I can’t do this uncertainty anymore, it's not good for the baby.”
I guess I knew it would come down to this. The following words out of my mouth will determine our future, and it’s never weighed so hard.
“I want you.”
“I told you, it’s not just me anymore. But I guess I got my answer.”
“What the fuck do you expect me to do. I nearly died. You expect me to be okay having a kid and then not being in its life because I was shot, or beaten to death, or fuck, even come off my bike on the road?”
“I expect you to fight for the life you always promised me, happy that there’s going to be a part of us coming into the world. I want you to tell me you love me, that we’ve got this, and nothing can ever come between us. But I guess that’s too much for you to do. Deep down, you’re not the man you made yourself out to be. I’m just surprised you kept this part of you hidden for so long.”
