“I’ll have a beer,” Etta says.
“You can have a juice,” Oz says sternly to his wife.
Rolling her eyes, Etta places her hand softly on the tiny baby bump that’s barely visible through the fabric of her dress. Taking the seat beside her, Doll places her hand alongside Etta’s and makes a cooing noise.
“I can’t believe you’re having a baby. I was only in Rapid City for a few months, and everything in your life has completely changed,” Octavia says, her voice soft.
“I know,” Etta replies, her tone equally soft. “So what the hell is going on with you and Knight? Did you really get married?”
Moving toward the kitchen counter, I give the women the illusion of privacy, even though I know both Oz and I are listening to their conversation.
“He turned up in Rapid City. I don’t even really know how it happened…” Doll’s voice fades away, and I strain to listen in case she’s whispering, but she just seems to have stopped talking.
“Is he a daddy?” Etta whispers.
“No.” Octavia laughs. “That’s only fun in books. But he…takes care of me. It’s hard to explain.”
“Do you love him?”
“I’ve known him for less than a week,” Doll hisses.
“So?”
“So that’d be crazy. Plus, with my track record, I’m not sure I can trust what I’m feeling.”
Her track record? I don’t know much about her dating history. Truthfully, thinking about her with another man reignites the unfamiliar anger I’ve been experiencing since I flew to Rapid City. I assumed that any exes were in her past and would not impact our future, but maybe my assumption was wrong.
The only thing I know about the man who destroyed her pinball machine is that his name is Abel. I’ve pushed any thoughts of him to the back of my mind in favor of focusing on marrying and enjoying my doll. But perhaps I need to look into him and discover what he did that would make my wife question her judgment and impact her ability to fall in love with me.
“So the woman you talked about was Octy?” Oz asks, pushing a mug of coffee toward me, then quickly delivering the other drinks to the girls before returning to me.
“Yes.”
“I’ve got to admit, I’m a little surprised. But I can see why it’d work,” he says.
“She’s mine.”
“Just like that?”
“From the first moment I saw her,” I confess.
“Well, fuck. I’m happy for you, brother. I don’t know her well, but Etta loves her, so she must be worth loving. How are you going to cope when we have to go to work in a couple of days? I fucking hate leaving Etta. It’s the first time in my life that I’ve resented my job.”
“I’ve resigned,” I tell Oz.
“The fuck?” he says, choking on a mouthful of beer. “You can’t fucking quit.”
“I informed Buck before I flew to Rapid City to collect her.”
“So that’s it? You’re not a jumper anymore?”
“Buck refused to accept my resignation and instead insisted that I take a six-month leave of absence, but I have no intention of returning to the team,” I admit.
“So what the fuck are you going to do?”
“I’ll be wherever my doll is.”
“You’re just going to follow her around?” Oz asks, his eyebrow quirked curiously.
