Total pages in book: 58
Estimated words: 71015 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 355(@200wpm)___ 284(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71015 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 355(@200wpm)___ 284(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
At night, when I was there, Tru would use my leg as support and curl herself around my body.
The baby tumbled and kicked the entire night, and that’s the way I liked it.
Nothing was more reassuring then falling asleep with my wife’s breath on my cheek, and my daughter’s kick at my side.
Chapter 23
Don’t get angry, figure it out. If all else fails, use your fists.
-Life Lesson
Tru
Marriage- Month twelve
Parking the car and stepping out with all the strength I had left, I moaned loudly, stretching my arms up high over my head.
Today had been one long, goddamned day.
One more week. One more week.
I was thirty nine weeks and three days. My doctor said he’d induce in exactly a week, today, at the doctor’s office, if I didn’t go into labor naturally.
After my appointment, I’d gone back to work even more exhausted, and then proceeded to see six patients because someone had called in sick.
I’d had about twice the patients I normally had, all because my boss had caught the stomach flu, which I hoped, with all my being, I didn’t catch.
Walking stiffly down to the mailbox, I grabbed nearly a week’s worth of mail and turned, surveying the house and newly built garage.
The shop was finally finished, after three long months of constant work. With the new garage, he wouldn’t have to leave to get his work done.
I was all for that. That meant more time for us, and less time wondering if he was too hot or too cold, seeing as his previous shop didn’t have a heater nor an A/C unit.
A doggie nose started parting the curtains, and I smiled as I walked up the gravel driveway and up the front porch steps.
The house was pier and beam, beautifully built, and everything I’d ever dreamed of having from the time I was old enough to remember.
Walking in the front door, I immediately started stripping out of my pants.
Petunia’s cold nose touched my bared thigh, and I gave her ear a scratch and held onto her for balance.
“You’re such a good girl,” I cooed at her.
Once the pants were off, I sighed in bliss.
My pants had gotten even tighter in the last week, and I feared that it was nearly official.
I no longer fit into my pants.
My scrub top was next, leaving me in only panties and a white camisole that barely covered my belly.
“Grayson?” I called.
“Kitchen,” he answered back.
I picked up the stack of mail that was on arm of the couch, and started sifting through it as I rounded the corner to the kitchen. “Hey,” I said, finding a Victoria’s Secret catalog that looked interesting. “Did you know that Victoria’s Secret sells maternity?”
As I asked the question, I looked up to see my kitchen full of men.
“Shit,” I said, standing there, in the middle of the kitchen. In my panties and camisole that bared my hugely pregnant belly.
Grayson had his head in his hands. “Seriously, Tru? What’s your affliction with pants?”
I barely stifled the desire to try to yank my shirt down, even though it’d be a useless endeavor.
“We had a freakin’ deal! You tell me when you have friends over, and I won’t take my pants off at the door!” I yelled, waving my arms wildly.
Silas, Ross and Dixie grinned widely at me while Trance, Loki, Cleo, Kettle, and Sebastian at least had the decency to look down, up, or away.
“I sent you a text,” he growled low in his throat.
I waved my hand in the air. “You did not.”
But I didn’t wait for his contradiction, I turned around and stomped off, disbelieving that I’d done it again.
Seriously, why on earth did they have to park where I couldn’t see them? This was my house, after all. I shouldn’t have to wear pants if I didn’t want to!
I stomped straight to Grayson’s closet and picked up the pair of sweatpants that Grayson had discarded for his jeans this morning. They were the only pair left that actually fit, but at least they were comfortable.
I didn’t bother with a shirt. None of them fit anyway. I was kidding myself if I thought I’d make it to the end of the pregnancy without buying any new clothes.
My scrubs were already on the verge of ripping a seam.
Slipping my feet into the pants one by one, I was walking into the bathroom and on the verge of making use of it when something shifting in my peripheral vision caught my eye.
Bobby’s body filled my vision as he stepped out from behind the closet door, a grin splitting his face wide.
I tried to run, but he moved fast. Too fast.
He had me against his body in moments, hand over my mouth to prevent the scream that threatened to escape my mouth.
“It only took me fifteen months, bitch, but I managed it. Did you know?” He asked, wrapping his hand around my throat, squeezing lightly.
I wanted to puke.
My eyes closed, and my hand involuntarily went to my stomach. “Know what?”
He smiled, and I could see the slimy smile reflected in the mirror that hung above the bathroom sink.
“Colby was my brother,” he said, tracing his finger down along the pulsing vein of my carotid. “But, what I’m guessing you didn’t know, is that he was actually my twin.”
A lone tear slid down my cheek, and he raised his finger to catch it, then slowly raised it to his mouth, curling his tongue around the finger sensually.
“No-o, I d-didn’t know t-that,” I stuttered.
He grinned, baring his teeth at me. “Yeah, not many people do. It was like losing a piece of me when I realized he was dead. I felt it right here,” he indicated his heart with a slam of his fist against his chest. “I knew before I even got the call that he was gone. And I’ve spent the last fifteen months just thinking of all the ways I could torture the so-called brother that killed my twin. And I only came up with one answer. Through you.”
Fear started gurgling up my throat in the form of a scream, but he must’ve felt it because his hand clamped down on my throat tightly, trapping my scream.