I let that slide, even though I saw her getting psyched up to say it. “I was nineteen that summer, taking a year off before college. Had a souped-up Chevy Camaro with a V8. Beautiful car, and fast as hell.”
Hazel does not look impressed.
But she does look curious, so I keep going. “I went out racing with some buddies that night. My best pal wound up racing this girl who was still in high school. Kayley Hunter was her name.” Something twists in my chest, and it takes me a second to catch my breath. “She’d been drinking that night and wasn’t an experienced driver. I didn’t talk to her. Didn’t even know her, but my friend did.”
“Your co-defendant.” Her hand flexes on top of the packet. “Regis Raeghan.”
“Yes.” I’m not surprised she did her homework. “His car wasn’t as fast as mine. Some dumbed-down Corvette bought by his rich mommy and daddy. I was way out ahead of them, maybe half a mile. I wasn’t even racing at that point. Didn’t see the accident happen. Just a big ball of fire in my rearview mirror.”
“Oh, God.” Hazel breathes sharply, so maybe she hasn’t heard everything. Or maybe she just didn’t picture the details.
“Kayley died at the scene,” I continue. “It was her sixteenth birthday—did you know that part?”
“I—no.” Her liquid blue eyes shimmer. “What happened next?”
“Prosecutors made the case that Regis and I were equally responsible because we’d both been racing that night. The DA went after us hard because a pretty young girl died, and someone should pay, right?”
She frowns. “It makes a difference that she’s pretty?”
“It does when it plays out on TV news.” I’m getting off track here. “My co-defendant’s parents hired a whole mob of lawyers. Regis wound up taking a plea deal to do six months in jail. I couldn’t afford some fancy legal team, and I didn’t think a judge would find me guilty if I took my chances at trial. I wasn’t the one who raced Kayley.”
“But the judge found you guilty,” Hazel says. “Of second-degree manslaughter.”
“Yes. A Measure 11 crime.” For all her familiarity with the legal system, I’m not sure Hazel knows what that means. “That was an Oregon ballot measure outlining which crimes carry mandatory minimum sentences. Stuff like assault and unlawful sexual penetration and kidnapping?—”
“And manslaughter.” Hazel winces. “So Regis went off to college, and you got seventy-five months of hard time.”
“I appealed my sentence and got out early. But yeah, I still spent more than four years behind bars.” Technically, fifty-five months and six days. I’m guessing Hazel could tell me how many seconds. “I paid my debt to society, Hazel.”
She looks down at the packet and swallows. Squeezing her eyes shut, she keeps her chin tipped toward her belly.
Toward the space where our babies float in their warm, snuggly womb.
When she speaks, I almost can’t hear her. “Watching my father get convicted—knowing the man I loved and admired is an actual criminal—I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy.” Her eyes lift to mine and there’s that twist in my chest again. “And I won’t let it happen to my children.”
“Neither will I.” This feels like a risk, but I reach out and lace my fingers through hers. She stiffens at first, then allows it. “You have my word, Hazel. I’m a good man. An honest man. I promise I’ll stay out of trouble. I’ll keep my nose clean and live by the law. All I want is the chance to be a father to these babies.”
Her eyes get all shimmery, droplets of moisture dotting her lashes. “You have to promise,” she rasps. “If I let you be part of their lives, you won’t get arrested.”
“I promise.”
“You’ll stay away from criminals, too.”
“I can do that.”
“I mean it, Luke—no criminals or other unsavory characters.”
What the hell is an unsavory character? “Your cousin smells kinda rank when he comes in from a week on his fishing boat,” I point out. “Does Jake count as ‘unsavory’?”
Hazel’s eyes flash. “You think this is a joke?”
“No.” I sober up fast. “I get it. This matters to me, too.”
“I won’t let my children get attached to a man who will break their heart getting hauled off to jail. I might only be four months pregnant, but I will fight to the death to protect these babies.” She rests a hand on her middle, and the steel in her jaw is enough to convince me she’d rip off my nuts with her teeth if I hurt our children. “I’d rather not have you in their lives at all than have them lose their father to a life of crime.”
“Understood.” I get where she’s coming from, truly. “I promise, Hazel—I’ll stay out of trouble, I won’t hang with criminals, I won’t get arrested, and I won’t walk away from my children like my dad did.”
“Children.” She repeats it like she’s still processing this part. “I only just found out that detail. I can’t believe we’re having twins.”
