Total pages in book: 57
Estimated words: 70630 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 353(@200wpm)___ 283(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70630 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 353(@200wpm)___ 283(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
I smiled at Nico and turned my attention back to Michael. “Michael, do you want kids?”
He looked startled and glanced at Nikki before quickly turning back to the little bundle in his arms. “Of course I want kids.”
“You do?” Nikki asked in surprise.
Michael leveled a look at her, one that I couldn’t quite interpret, but I knew it was significant. “Yes. I want kids.”
Thinking now would be a good time to go get a shower I asked the two, “Would y’all mind watching the kids while I get Nico to help me take a shower?”
I didn’t really need his help, but I sensed the tension building in the room, and I knew it wouldn’t help to have Michael’s friend and teammate, as well as Nikki’s big brother, in the room witnessing the debacle.
Nico, realizing this as well, quickly got up and headed to the bathroom with me.
I stripped the nursing bra and my yoga pants off, all the while Nico watched.
His eyes went hot for a moment before he managed to control it, and turned the shower on for me before saying, “What do you think that was about?”
I shrugged, which made my enormous boobs lift. “I have no clue. But if I had to guess, I’d bet Nikki has a relationship of sorts with him.”
Nico’s eyes which had been on my breasts moved up to my eyes. “No shit? I didn’t sense that.”
I nodded. “Yeah, and I’d say they have been for a while. I’d noticed something different about her since you left, but I attributed it to being because of your…” I hesitated. “…death.”
I hated saying that. It made me feel hollow inside remembering how that felt. Something I never wanted to feel again for the rest of my life.
He pulled me into his arms and rubbed the side of my head with his beard.
Something I thought was extremely sexy on him now that he had it longer.
“I’ll never leave you again. Not willingly, anyway,” he rasped. “These past months have really fucked me up. I went eight years without you, and then eight months after I tasted what it was like to have heaven. I couldn’t do it. And I won’t. Not ever again,” he promised.
So I took a shower, and Nico washed my back, all the while we were oblivious to the tension in the room beyond.
A tension between two of the most important people in our life. One that was nearly close to exploding.
Epilogue
Don’t try to explain yourself to stupid people. You’re not the jackass whisperer.
-Coffee Cup
Nico
4 years later
I walked into the restaurant, scanning the area with the trained, seasoned eye of a cop.
We’d gotten a call into dispatch moments earlier about a drunk and disorderly.
That wasn’t explaining why my heart was pounding. I was sweating like a pig.
That was all because of the fact that my wife and children were in the very same restaurant. The same wife who’d also been the one to call in the altercation.
Normally, I wouldn’t have responded to this. Not since I’d somehow got suckered into staying on the South side of the city.
The place where crime was lighter.
I had a feeling that my wife had something to do with that.
Her and the chief had gotten close over the last four years.
Most especially when the chief and his wife adopted baby Angel, adding her into their family.
They became good friends and, inevitably, Georgia had some sway in where the chief chose to have me working.
Not that I thought Georgia actually asked for it, but the chief gave it nonetheless.
I spotted them the moment I entered the door, but I didn’t spare them a second glance.
I could hear my kids saying ‘daddy, daddy!’ but I ignored it, even though it hurt to do so.
I didn’t really want the criminals knowing I had a family.
Not that I wasn’t proud as hell of them, but I didn’t want anyone to use them against me.
And they would, if given half a chance.
So I walked straight in and went to the drunk man.
I knew who he was immediately.
He was the one cornering his wife against the large fish tank in the middle of the room with a large salt shaker swinging in front of her face.
Calmly, I walked up and grasped the threatening salt shaker, pulling it backward until the man turned around with a snarl.
A snarl that quickly fell from the man’s lips.
“Sir, would you mind stepping outside with me?” I asked sedately.
The man nodded and turned one last glare on his significant other at the fish tank before he started stomping out.
He didn’t spare any of the other patrons a look, and out of the corner of my eye I saw Georgia relax minutely and go back to feeding our kids lunch.
I nodded at the hostess who looked quite freaked, and she gave me a shaky smile and a wave before I passed her, staying close to the man’s back in case he decided to run.
He didn’t.
Mostly because as soon as we got outside and no one could see, he dropped to his knees and started to cry.
I blinked in surprise.
I mean the guy was nearly six foot five and probably pushing three fifty. There were many things I expected him to do, but dropping down to his knees and crying wasn’t one of them.
“I’m sorry,” he whimpered. “My wife just told me she was leaving me. For a woman.”
Words couldn’t explain.
A thousand thoughts flitted through my brain, and not one of them were appropriate to say in this instance.
The main one, though, was that the man was older and overweight. The girl, from what little I’d seen of her, was very beautiful and young. As in, just graduated from high school yesterday young.
“Um, well sir, I’m going to have to put you in the back of my car so I can see if the woman wants to press charges. This isn’t the best place to be having any conversations about important things like this,” I managed to say without laughing.
The voice of a woman had me turning slightly.