OUTLAW KING(46)

Tears filled my eyes. I couldn’t remember ever seeing King this raw before.

I reached for his face, blinking fast.

“King… you’re the only one,” I whispered. “That’s how it’s always been for us.”

“I don’t want that for you.”

“It’s my destiny,” I said. “To forever love you. To forever want you. To forever need you in my life.”

King slipped a hand around to my back and pulled me close. “I don’t know if you’re stupid or crazy, Linds. This could destroy the Reap. This could destroy me.”

“I’ll be waiting for you,” I said.

King pointed to Tito’s grave. “And if I end up there?”

“Then we’ll come visit you every chance we get. And I’ll make sure your story is known. My King. A man who loved me with every ounce of his heart and soul. A man that took care of me in a way that will carry for the rest of our lives.”

“What are you talking about… we’ll come? Who is the we?”

I couldn’t help but smile.

A cemetery wasn’t the right place for what I had to say.

But I had no choice.

Our lives were forever changed… again.





34


(Lindsey)

*AN HOUR AGO*

“YOU’RE HIDING something from me.” Aunt Jane pulled out a chair from the kitchen table and sat down. “I know that look.”

“What look?” I asked with a smile.

“That look,” she said. “I remember you many times sitting across the table from me with news. When you were failing classes. When you wanted to go on birth control.”

I laughed. “Well… funny you bring that up.”

“What?”

I reached into my bag and grabbed the four pregnancy tests. They were all positive. Easily positive. Four different brands. Four positive tests.

I slid them all across the table at Aunt Jane.

She looked at the tests and then looked at me. “Wait… are you… no.”

She grabbed one of the tests and jumped up. Her chair fell over and crashed to the floor.

“Are you mad at me?” I asked.

Aunt Jane looked at me. “Mad at you? Why… wait a second. You know who the father is, right?”

“I’m not you,” I said and slowly started to stand up. “It’s King’s baby. It’s always about King.”

Aunt Jane then did some kind of weird dance on her toes. She waved the pregnancy test and shook her head. When she stopped, her eyes were glistening.

That’s when she finally hugged me.

I broke down into tears myself, the shock giving away since I saw the first pregnancy test pop up positive.

“I want to ask how but I know the answer,” Aunt Jane said.

“Everything has been so crazy lately,” I said. “I should have been thinking of it sooner. But I was sitting there last night and going through my work schedule. That’s when it hit me. I was actually late. Whoops.”

“Whoops,” Aunt Jane said. “Just what every woman should say when she finds out she’s pregnant. Does King know?”

“I haven’t told him yet,” I said. “I wanted to tell you first. I wanted… what the hell do I do?”

I started to cry again and Aunt Jane sat me down. She crouched in front of me.

“Hey, Lindsey. Look at me right now. A baby is nothing to cry about. You go to the doctor and you make sure that little peanut is healthy. That’s what matters.”

“You know the way King lives,” I said. “Am I going to be taking his baby to a prison for visits?”

“Don’t think like that,” Aunt Jane said. But I could see sorrow in her eyes. We both knew King was unpredictable. “I got a call one night that changed my life. I lost my sister and I gained basically a daughter. Think about that. You were suddenly mine. I was terrified. I wanted to quit so many times, Lindsey. Not on you, but on the idea of it all. Of being a mother. Of being in control of someone’s life. Making big decisions. Making hard decisions. Doing all I could do to protect your innocence. And I really sucked at it all.”

“No you didn’t,” I said. “You didn’t suck at any of it.”

“Look at the position I put us in so many times.”

“And we survived.”

“Right,” Aunt Jane. “My point is that you take whatever you have in front of you and go with it. No matter what happens with King. Right now you need to think about yourself. Your body. You’re pregnant! I’m going to be…”

“Grandma,” I said.

“Wouldn’t it be Great Aunt Jane?” she asked.

“No. I may have lost my mother and I may have called you Aunt Jane… but you raised me. And this baby will know all of that. But this baby will call you grandma.”

Aunt Jane wiped a tear from her eye as she backed away from me. “Well, as special as that it, it makes me feel so old. I need to have a little fun before this all settles in and I get wrinkles, gray hair, and actually look like a grandma.”

I laughed. “You’re so dramatic, I love it.”

“Gather up your pregnancy tests and go talk to King. Maybe something like this will help him in whatever he’s going through. A baby changes everything.”