All the heads swing my way.
“I can ask my Ol’ Lady, but I’m not putting her in jeopardy,” I offer.
“It might be the only way to get some answers unless one of your brothers wants to find Jesus and join a cult soon,” Turner pops off.
“Jesus ain’t the problem,” Reaper scoffs.“It’s the lunatics who have ulterior motives and use his name for gain.”
A short time later Turner leaves, and we all take a seat back in our chairs.
“What are you thinking, Prez?”I ask.
Stone spends several minutes looking over all the documents Hawk brought in to us before he tosses them down on the desk.He scrubs his face with his hands.
“Think we’ve got a mess on our hands.”
“What do you think?”I ask Rocky for the twenty-third time about the way the living room looks.
“I like it!”he expresses with the biggest smile on his face.
We’ve moved the couch and loveseat so much I’m pretty sure this is the exact layout that we started with.This is the final room to finish before we tell him in two days that he’s moving in here.Hawk is coming over later tonight to install all the surveillance cameras and set up all the monitors in one of the spare bedrooms.
I’ve got everything but my essentials packed up and sitting in a bag in the master closet.Tomorrow I’m planning for Beckett and me to have a nice dinner here and to tell him that I’d love to move in with him and Zane, if they’ll still have me.I also plan to tell him how I feel about him.I’ve wanted to tell him for the last week, but I’m hoping that over dinner I can say the words.I’ve never felt this way about another person before, and at times it feels like my heart could beat right out of my chest when he’s around.It’s the small things that I started to notice that he does for me.
“Your house looks great, Sutton,” Rocky says as we both plop down on the sofa.I’m exhausted and it’s only noon.Lately I’ve been sleeping through my alarm and only waking to a very energetic three-year-old storming into the house through the back door and jumping in bed to come over and help make breakfast before he heads off to preschool.“Wish I could move in here with you,” he comments.“Think Mom will let me have a sleepover?Specially since I helped you with all the work?”
“I think that can be arranged,” I tell him and try to hold in my excitement of what is going to happen soon for him.I really hope he’s able to live here on his own.He’s got family and friends so close to him to make sure he’s safe.
“We can stay up alllllll night and watch movies and eat spaghetti,” he says, and it makes me giggle.I have a feeling that Zane, Beckett, and I are going to be over here a lot hanging out with Rocky.
“I’m too old to be up all night,” I tell him as I stretch out my sore muscles.
“Su-tton…” he draws out my name in a playful-annoyance voice.“You’re younger than me.”
We both laugh as his phone starts to ring.
“It’s my dad,” he says then swipes across the screen.“Hi… ugh huh…” He pulls the from his ear and looks over at me.“Are we finished here?”
“Yeah, I think the house is complete and perfect,” I say.
Rocky holds the phone back up to his ear.
“She says yes…okay…okay bye.”Rocky touches the end call button.“Dad’s here to get me.Said us men need to go get Mom a surprise.”
“That sounds like fun.Is it her birthday?”I ask as I go to stand.The room spins slightly, but I recover after a few breaths.
“No, we just love her,” he informs me.
“Then that’s the perfect reason for a surprise,” I say.“Y’all have fun, I’ll see you soon.”
“Okay, bye best friend!Love you!”Rocky calls out as he grabs his things by the front door.
“Bye, best friend!Love you too!”I say as he opens the door and ducks out.I walk over and secure the lock on the door.
I catch my reflection in the mirror on the wall and cringe.I’m looking rough today.After snagging a bottle of water from the fridge, I walk to the master bathroom and start the shower.I’m hoping it’ll give me an energy boost that I so desperately need.The hot liquid feels so good as I stand there under the spray soaking up all the water until it starts to turn lukewarm.
Stepping out of the shower, the steam fills the room and fogs the mirrors.I dry my body with my towel and scrunch up my hair with it to catch all the drops from hitting the tiled floor.Swiping a palm over the glass, I see my naked self in the reflection.My body is different since I left Colombia.I’ve put on some weight now that I get to eat regularly.I turn to the side and notice that my stomach is getting rounder.My hand falls to it.Beckett hasn’t mentioned the change in my body, but I wonder if he’s noticed it.The pooch in my lower abdomen is firm and not squishy.My eyes travel upwards and I see that my breasts are much larger than they were months ago.
In the back of my mind I know I’m pregnant.At first panic settled into my chest weighing heavy with each breath.I didn’t have the best upbringing after my mother was shipped off, and I worry that it will influence me on how I want to raise a child.But the more calm breaths I took the more visions of how Beckett is with Zane and how close we are calmed me.Our little family is perfect, and this little one will be brought up in so much love that my past will never touch them.
