She wrung her hands, worrying her lip in-between her teeth. “Did you mean it?”
“Every fucking word,” I said, my voice carrying just a little too far but I didn’t care. I’d get on top of the fucking building if I needed to. I loved her.
“Tell me again,” she whispered.
“Tell me something first,” I whispered back. “And then I’ll tell you how much I love you every day for the rest of our fucking lives.”
She nodded as one tear dripped down her cheek and hit my hand. I knew Bex didn’t cry. I was honored to see every one of those fucking drops coming down her cheeks.
“Are you pregnant?”
She lifted one of her hands and put it on the side of my face, stroking my short beard. She’d never done that before, and I fucking loved it. “Yes.”
It was one syllable, but it effectively changed my life forever. “It’s mine.” It wasn’t a question. I knew it was.
“Yes,” she said again.
“That’s what you were coming to The Outrigger for today, to tell me?”
She shook her head, looking down at her lap and bunching the sheet up in her hands. “I was going to lie to you and tell you it wasn’t yours, that I was involved with someone else. I saw Julia the other day at the doctor’s office, and she figured out what I was doing there. She said I had two days to tell you or she would tell you herself. So I had to come up with a reason to tell you but to push you away.”
“Because of my past,” I mused. My baby sister. Always protecting me.
“Yes. I’m sorry, Johnny.”
I lifted her chin so she was looking at me again. “You were protecting your child. I can understand that. You have nothing to be sorry about. While we’re being honest, I have to tell you that after you left me . . .”
“No,” she interrupted, holding up her hand like she knew what I was going to say. “Don’t.”
“But I need to . . .”
“I left you,” she said. “I don’t want to know or need to know what happened afterwards, Johnny. I know how you exercise your demons. Or should I say, how both of us used to handle our problems. From now on, I’m the only one exercising them, though.”
I laughed. “You bet your sweet ass I’m going to exercise you. Wait . . . are you allowed to have sex while pregnant?”
Bex rolled her eyes. “Yes, Johnny.”
“Okay. That’s good, because I’m going to punish you for leaving me,” I teased.
“Fuck you,” Bex said, smiling.
“I’d like to, very much,” I said, nuzzling her neck. “God, I’ve fucking missed you, Bex. What do you say we get out of here and you let me take you home and show you how much I love you?" Who knew up until earlier today that I thought those words were the most impossible words I could ever say. Yet here I was, saying them as easily as the word ‘fuck.’
“Wait,” Bex said. I lifted my head and she grabbed me and pressed her lips to mine. “I’m so fucking sorry, Johnny. I was miserable without you for the last month. Just ask Natalie and Beau. They were both about to kill me.”
“You don’t have a damn thing to be sorry about,” I said. “Let’s make each other a promise, though. If either of us hit each other’s triggers, we say so. We don’t have to go around taking out every single fucking skeleton from our closet, but if something bothers us, we talk about it.”
“Like a normal fucking couple?”
“Like a normal fucking couple.”
Bex swung her legs off the side of the bed and scooted closer to me until she could wrap her legs around my waist. “Johnny,” she said. She sounded very serious all of a sudden, and it made me nervous. “I want to tell you something.”
“Anything,” I breathed against her lips. I reached out and put my large hands on her flat stomach. My baby was in there. My own flesh and blood. Our baby.
“I love you, too,” she said. My breath caught in my throat as I looked up at her. I’d never seen anything more beautiful in my life. In the most unlikely of places and in the most unlikely of circumstances, we’d both fallen in love. Two people jaded by life and wanting nothing more than to quiet the demons in our heads had fallen in love. With each other.
I stepped out of the room as Bex signed release papers. I’d called Julia briefly on the way to the hospital and updated her, but I needed to tell her what had happened since.
Just as the phone started ringing, Beau came into sight with Natalie right behind him. I’d called them on the way to the hospital as well. When Julia answered the phone I told her quickly that everything was fine, but I had to call her back and then hung up.
“How is she?” Beau asked first.
“She’s fine,” I said. “She’s signing release papers. I’m going to take her home.”
Natalie narrowed her eyes. “Home? Home where?” She crossed her arms in front of her. “What the hell was she doing with you, anyway?”
Bex appeared behind us, papers in her hand. She was wearing an Outrigger shirt and shorts that Cal had gotten for her to change into, and the bright touristy colors looked funny on her. “What’s going on out here?”
Natalie enveloped Bex in a hug and she allowed it. “God, we were so worried about you.”
“How did you know?” Bex looked at me over her shoulder, and I winked at her. Despite the shit that had gone down over the last few hours, I’d never felt better in my life.
“Johnny called us,” Beau said, still eyeing me. “What the hell happened?”
“Mr. Gibbons? Ms. Bryant? We’re going to need you to come to the station now and make a formal statement.” The two officers that had followed us from the scene reappeared. Shit, I’d almost forgotten about them.
“We’ll be right there,” I confirmed and they nodded, turned and walked out the doors.
“What’s going on?” Beau was looking at Bex.
Bex stepped over to my side and linked her arm with mine, sliding her hand down until our fingers twined together. “I love him.”
I’d thought her telling me privately had been the best moment of my life, but this right here might just even top that. She was admitting her feelings in front of the only ‘family’ she had.
Beau and Natalie’s mouths simultaneously dropped. “What?”
“I know none of this makes sense,” Bex said. “But we need to go make our statement. We’ll come home after we’re done and explain it all, okay?”
Beau fixed his eyes on me. “You better not fucking hurt her. She was a raging bitch for the last month because of you.”
I nodded. “I promise. You have my word that if I do anything to hurt her, you can kick my ass.”
“I want you to know that I’m not sure I’m okay with this,” Beau said to Bex.
“You will be,” she said, letting go of me to hug him quickly. “Because you want me to be happy, and after everything, I finally am.”
I put my hand on her stomach. “We’re going to be a family. I’ll protect them with my life.”
“Natalie told me,” Beau said to Bex. She nodded, placing her hand over mine. “I guess congratulations are in order?”
Bex nodded. “I get another chance, Beau.”
Beau looked up at me and we had a silent conversation, man to man. I understood. I’d show him, just like I’d show everyone. Including myself.
“I can’t believe we’re going to have a baby,” I said, tracing my fingers along her tattoo. “I can’t believe you said you love me.”
Bex laughed, making her stomach move. “I can’t believe it, either. Are you sure we know what the hell we’re doing?”
“I know for a fact we don’t know what we’re doing. But the great part about it is, we have no idea if we’re fucking this up or not, so let’s just go with it.”
“Sounds good to me,” Bex said. “I’m sure as hell glad this day is over. It definitely didn’t turn out the way I thought it would.”
After leaving the hospital we’d made our statement at the police station. Neither of us even knew which one had actually pulled the trigger, but I had my suspicions that Bex had done it. However, I would never say that to her because I wasn’t sure how she would feel about being the one that cost the man his life. It wasn’t a first for me, and if I had to choose one life over the other, it was a no brainer.