Everyone erupted in laughter.
I was sure that just like me, everyone else knew if he’d let her keep talking, she’d have mentioned Gyth and Summer’s son Dexter in her future plans. It would be a long time before she’d ever get to even date, but the girl was hell-bent on Dexter being her guy.
Time would tell.
Right then, I was just happy to be taking my wife home.
We’d moved back in with Gramps, along with Ruby, Lyric, Tristan, and Autumn—the kids happy to have Griffin back—until our new home was built.
“Ready, sweetheart?”
Patience turned to me, her smile making everything feel right in the world as she took my hand in hers.
“Yeah, let's go home.”
Sometimes I still couldn’t believe that I finally had the girl.
Chapter Forty-Nine
PATIENCE
The sound of my son's screams echoed throughout the car.
“Hang on, baby, please. Hang on,” I pleaded with him as I struggled to unbuckle my seatbelt, maneuvering around the deployed airbag.
“Mom!” he cried. “Get me out, Mom!”
His gurgled sobs shredded my heart.
Clouds of billowy white smoke seeped from beneath the hood of my Honda CR-V as it lay in a ditch on the side of the road, a pungent odor filling my nostrils and causing widespread panic to set in.
Is it going to blow?
I had to get my babies out.
Finally freed from my seatbelt, I rubbed my stomach where it had dug into my skin, pulling tight on impact, and instantly felt sick at the thought it might have harmed our little peanut. The memory of Jett first using that term for our baby brought tears to my eyes, but I pushed them back.
“I’m coming, sweetheart,” I called out to Griffin.
I worked at the door, but it was jammed. Urgency coursed through my veins as I crawled between the frontseats to get to Griffin. Tears streamed down his precious face as I scanned his body that was still secure in his booster seat.
“Hey, sweet boy, Momma is gonna get you out of here.”
“O-Okay,” he whimpered. “I w-want to go n-now.”
One part of my brain was telling me it wasn’t always good to move someone until they were checked out—even if they looked okay physically, which my son did— but the other half of it was saying get the heck out with all the smoke in the air. Needing to make a quick decision, I unbuckled him and drug him into my arms.
Not willing to let him go, I scooted us toward the back door behind my driver's seat, praying it would open—thankfully, I’d unlocked the doors when I’d attempted mine. I pulled the handle and pushed, air rushing from my lungs in relief when it opened just wide enough for us to escape.
With my son securely pressed against my chest, I stumbled away from the vehicle, putting some distance between it and us in case anything should happen. I really needed to try and flag someone down, but the embankment to get up to the road while holding Griffin looked monstrous right then, so I wandered the opposite way that was less strenuous toward a group of trees.
I just need a second to rest.
Collapsing to the ground, I cradled Griffin in my lap, both of us now crying together as I rocked us back and forth.
Frustration set in as I realized my phone was still back in the smoldering car. I hoped that Jett would realize how much time had passed even though I knew he was in a big meeting with all the guys atNo Surrender.
But all three of us needed him.
