Mia braced herself, breathing in, steel entered her gaze as she met me stare for stare. “I stood in that lobby, my bags packed, ticket in my hand, and I couldn’t walk through. They called for the passengers on my flight, and I… froze.” She swallowed, and I shuffled a little bit closer, listening intently. “There was this family, a husband, wife and a baby.” She choked on the last word, tears welling in her eyes. I wanted to pull her into my arms, feel her against me, tell her it was ok… but I held myself back, because she needed to say it out loud. “They looked so happy and I thought ‘that can’t be me' as I walked toward the gate. But why couldn’t I have what they had? Because, Rex, I realized… the only thing stopping us from having that… was me.”
I couldn’t hold back any longer. Stalking closer, I grabbed her to me and the minute her arms wrapped around my waist and her face buried against my chest, I breathed fully for the first time in 24 hours. “Dammit woman, I love the fuck out of you.”
Her arms tightened around me, and her shoulders sagged as if she’d been waiting to hear the words that slipped so easily off my tongue.
“Last night I slept in your room and you didn’t come back.” Her voice was muffled, and I could feel her lips move as she pressed herself closer. “I also realized as I was at the airport that I hated not being near you. I don’t know if this is love, Rex, but all I know is that I’m not ready to sleep another night away from you.”
My grin widened, and I buried my face in the soft fall of her hair, breathing her in, holding her essence inside me before releasing it along with every ounce of pain that had sat on my shoulders since she left me. “That’s love, baby.”
Rex
My phone vibrated in my pocket. As soon as it stopped, it started again and another brother took up the mantle. I ignored it. I ignored everything except the people in the room with me.
It vibrated again for the thousandth time. “They’re waiting to see you,” Mia muttered lazily, her eyes were almost closed, and her lips tipped up in a half-smile, the toll of today taking it out on her, so close to falling asleep on the spot.
“They’re not waiting to see me,” I whispered, walking over to my wife. “They’re here to see him.” I nodded down at the precious bundle in my arms.
Mia lay in the hospital bed, her cheeks flushed and her eyes bright, sweat coated her forehead, her hair sticking to her cheeks… and she’d never looked more stunning.
But goddamn, watching her writhe in agony during the hours of labor had been fucking horrible. I couldn’t do anything except offer her my hand to hold, and I’m pretty sure she broke something too. I couldn’t shoot anyone to make it better, though the midwife had come close to taking a bullet every time she told Mia to calm down. Like usual, she had taken everything thrown at her, and taken it like a warrior. She never screamed, never once swore like I heard other women did.
These past few months had been like a tornado, chaos and trouble on the outskirts, but my family—my wife and unborn son—were the eye in the center, the calm in the midst of the mayhem. We had been a team during all of the trouble that had hit the Street Kings. Mia had jumped into the role of nurse as if she’d always been there. And my brothers doted on the woman who had given up everything to stay.
I would forever be grateful that she had taken a chance on a fucking criminal like me. I wasn’t good enough for her, but fuck me, I’d spend my whole life trying to be.
Now, I held my perfect son, swaddled in a white blanket, his cheeks pink and his eyes scrunched closed. My chest swelled with a love I could never comprehend. The love for my wife was immense, but the love that surged inside me the minute he was placed in my arms was incomprehensible.
The soft sound of my Mia’s heavy breathing drew my attention away from my newborn son, barely an hour old, to see his mom fast asleep, peace written on her face for the first time in the past two months.
This past two months she’d been bed bound, unable to walk properly. The doctors had called it Pelvic Girdle Pain, she’d been unable to walk properly and sleeping was a thing of the past. In retaliation, she made me sit up all night watching British TV shows, which surprisingly hadn’t sucked.
Leaving Mia to get some sleep, I walked softly out of the room, holding my son closely and carefully, breathing in his newborn scent and trying to pin it to memory so I never forgot this moment.
The lights in the hall were dim at this time of night, but my brothers still waited. They all sat huddled in the waiting room, and they looked exactly like they did last year, on the night I first met Mia when she’d walked into this very same hospital.
My life had come full circle, and now, the next generation of the Street Kings had been born.
Sly saw me first, his anxious face relaxing at the sight of me in the doorway, but his eyes completely lit up when they spotted who I had brought with me.
“Meet your Uncle Sly,” I whispered in my son’s ear, and even if he didn’t understand a word I said right now, my best friend—my brother—got it.
They crowded around us, eager to see the new addition. “What’s his name?” Jenna asked, tears in her eyes as she stroked his soft cheek.
I held him up for them to see him, his little lips pursed at the movement. “Rafe Marco Ragan, meet your family.”
The end…for now.
