“Umm,” I hesitated. “Nothing?”
That’s when a howl sounded from the bushes.
I whistled and looked away, hoping that the sound would go by unnoticed due to the low hum of the tractor that Cleo was sitting on, and the rumble of the weed eater in Zach’s hands.
No go.
They both noticed, and they both looked at me accusingly.
Zach’s weed eater shut off, followed shortly by the tractor.
I opened my mouth to explain when Zach started to make his way toward me.
Only, the pup behind me took offense, I guess to the aggressive move he made because he came darting out of the bushes like he was actually going to accomplish something and started to howl.
My mouth fell open.
Zach stared at me in surprise.
Cleo started laughing.
And a large man I hadn’t noticed until now said, “Is that a fuckin’ coyote?”
I turned to see Ford, the police officer that’d pulled me over a few days ago, standing there with his wife in tow, a baby in his tattooed arms, and a curled-up smile on his face.
“Hey, Ford?” the beautiful woman at his side said. “You remember that time when we convinced Zach that the coyotes were going to come eat him when he was seven? And he said, ‘no they’re not’ and we said, ‘one day you’re going to regret not paying them a tribute?’ and then for the rest of our days we teased him about coyotes? Isn’t it fuckin’ funny that there’s a coyote protecting the woman he loves?”
The woman that he loves.
My head whipped around to look at Zach, expecting him to contradict her statement, but he said nothing. Only stared at the little pup that was now quietly sitting at my side, staring at Zach like he was the real threat.
“What did you do?” he asked me, completely ignoring the woman and the man.
“I was,” I hesitated. “Just running. I swear. And my AirPods died,” I showed him the dead AirPods like that would help my case. “And where I stopped, there was a dead momma coyote on the side of the road. But I swear, I did not call him toward me or anything.”
“She,” Cleo said, looking at the puppy. “Pup is a she.”
I looked down at the ‘girl’ pup in question. “How do you know?”
“Because when she ran into the bushes, I got a good look at her very much there girl parts,” he explained, grinning.
“Oh my God.” I heard a woman’s voice from behind me. I turned to find another woman standing next to Rue, along with a very tall, sexy version of the police officer standing right next to him. They both had different colored eyes. “What is that?”
“It’s a coyote,” I said. “And I swear to God, I did not invite her to follow me home.”
The man standing next to them laughed.
Then I had a baby in my arms and the police officer, Ford, was bending down to look at the pup.
I blinked in surprise at the cutest little bundle of baby I’d ever seen.
She blinked open her eyes, and I gasped.
“Ohhhh,” I said quietly. “She has blue and green eyes like your dad!”
“He does,” the officer said. “Like my mom, too.”
“Ford,” the woman called. “Introduce us.”
Zach appeared at my side. “Baby,” he murmured. “This is Ford, the officer that pulled you over when you were in nothing but a t-shirt the other day. That’s Ford’s wife, Ashe. The baby that you’re holding is their newborn son, Chevy. Those on the porch with my mom are Trance and Viddy, Ford’s parents.”
I would’ve waved, but I had the baby in my hands, and he was all I could look at.
“Ooh, I want one of these.” I sighed.
And I did. I wanted three or four of them, actually.
Hell, I’d take an entire football team of them if Zach wanted to.
“I’d like five, just like my baby,” I heard Rue say. “But make sure at least one is a girl. I didn’t ever get one of those. I can’t wait to buy all the dresses.”
Viddy snickered and bumped Rue with her hip.
I looked up to find Zach looking at me with an intensity that was startling.
“You want kids?” he asked.
I blinked. “Of course.”
“How many?” he wondered.
I licked my lips. “As many as you want to give me.”
CHAPTER 19
If you haven’t cried in a walk-in cooler, you really shouldn’t bad mouth a food-service worker.
-Crockett to a customer
CROCKETT
Seeing Zach dressed in apparel that he could use while dirt-biking was sexy.
Seeing Zach wearing that clothing while also holding a little tiny baby? That was debilitating.
The rest of the afternoon was spent riding dirt bikes in Cleo’s back yard while Rue, Ashe, and I spent the day drinking sweet tea, eating like utter shit, and cooing over said baby.
Only, about twenty minutes ago, that baby had been taken from my arms and Zach had picked him up.
“I wanted him to be delivered by Zach,” Ashe said quietly. “I’d always intended for him to. Even if it was a little weird. I just wanted the best. I wanted everything to go perfectly. And it didn’t. The birth was traumatic. I wish I could’ve gone right into that prison and delivered him right in the middle of Zach’s cell. If he ever leaves again, and I’m due, we’re following him.”
I blinked. “What happened?”
Ashe sighed.
“Well,” she started. “It all started out great. My water broke. I was two days early. I go to the hospital. Then the hospital shuts down because of a possible gas leak, so everyone has to go. At that point, I’m five centimeters, was seconds away from getting my epidural.”
I groaned. “No.”
She nodded, eyes serious. “So we get to the hospital in Longview. Get checked in, I’m still a five. My doctor can’t go to that hospital because he’s not able to practice there because he refused to get his flu shot last year. So they find me a new doctor. Only, this one doesn’t, for some reason, like Ford. Like, at all. Something happened with a family member and Ford, and he refuses to help me. He said it was against his religion or something. So okay, we wait for another doctor. Only, my Chevy isn’t one to wait when he’s supposed to.”
“Like his father,” Rue snorted. “You three were crazy little hellions.”
Ashe grinned. “That we were.” She shook her head. “Anyway, I go from a five to a ten in the ten minutes it takes for another doctor on staff to get there. I’m already pushing away by the time he walks in just in time to catch the baby.”
“Literally, all he did was catch him,” Viddy said. “One second it took him to slip on gloves. It was the craziest thing.”
“It was,” Ashe agreed. “And all was really well with Chevy. He was great. Me, not so much. The bleeding wouldn’t stop. My uterus wasn’t contracting, meaning that the bleeding couldn’t stop. I have what they call postpartum hemorrhage. My blood pressure tanks. I pass out. The room goes fuckin’ nuts according to Ford, and I wake up to a baby breastfeeding, my body feeling all light and floaty, and pumped full of so many drugs that it’s unreal.”