“No way, Asher. You know she will quiet down in a minute. You need to rest. It’s Holt that’s needy.”
“He’s a baby. Of course he is needy.”
“He’s just like Jaxon, is what he is,” Owen jokes, and both of us chuckle.
“Is that right?” Jaxon says sleepily from the hallway.
“Uh…” Owen struggles to explain himself. “Well…It was just a joke. I…”
“Give me my son.” Jaxon’s feet patter along the hardwood floor, and when he stops in front of Owen, Owen hesitates.
“Do I have to?” Owen asks, staring sweetly at Holt. I know he can’t wait to have his own kid. Jolie and the baby have become his world, and I don’t blame him for being excited. This was a long time coming for Owen. He deserves it.
“It’s about feeding time. Quinn sent me in here to grab them.”
“I knew she knew. Mama juju…it’s a real thing,” I say, then started to wonder if my ice-cold queen of a mother knew when I needed to be fed.
Probably not; my mom was everything except maternal.
“Can you follow me with Holland, please?” Jaxon asks Owen as he cradles his son to his chest. While he waits, Jaxon asks me, “How are you feeling Heaven? How’s the chest?”
“I’m on the mend and will be back to annoying everyone and eating everything soon.”
“I wouldn’t expect anything less.”
“Hey, Jaxon. How is that girl doing? The one Jolie found in that cabin. I haven’t heard anything about her. What’s going on?”
“You know as much as I do. She won’t let anyone in her room except Jolie. She won’t talk, she barely eats, she doesn’t want to go to the hospital, I’m worried,” Jaxon admits.
“That’s sad. What she and Jolie went through. Good thing Owen was there to save the day.”
Holland’s head gets swallowed by the palm of his hand as Owen holds her like a fragile piece of glass. “I hope she trusts us soon. She really needs to see a doctor after what has happened to her. I feel terrible that it was someone I knew,” Owen admits in sadness, but Holland’s coos have his lips tilting in a sad smile. He feels guilty.
“It isn’t your fault, Owen. Don’t think for one minute that you are to blame for this. You can’t control other people’s actions. Don’t look to place blame. It doesn’t help anyone, and it sure as hell doesn’t help you or Jolie. You can’t help what your first wife’s brother did. He’s a psycho. Be thankful you’re alive, Jolie is alive, and the girl you found is alive. It sucks for all those other women. It truly does, but just think about all the lives you have saved.” I start to get heated because there’s a part of me that is relating to him. I blame myself for what happened to Grace, but I didn’t commit the crime, did I? No.
But good people always get stuck paying for the dirty deeds of bad people, and it pisses me off.
“Thanks, Heaven. I appreciate that.”
“Anytime, Owen,” I say, still angry for him, for me, for everyone that gets fucked over by crazy people.
“Can you please bring my babies here! My boobs are leaking everywhere because you’re taking your damn time!” Quinn yells down the hall, words clipped and filled with annoyance.
I guess if my boobs leaked every few hours or when a baby cried, I’d be testy too. And I’m sure her nipples are raw from all of the sucking. I lift my hands up and place them over my own man nips. Thinking about it has the worthless beads rubbing against my shirt, throbbing with pseudo-pain.
“What are you doing?” Jaxon asks me.
“I’m thinking about those kids gnawing on my nipples. It hurts.” I rub them, and Jaxon slaps me on the back of the head before walking to the bedroom, where Quinn is waiting. Owen follows, chuckling at me, and all too soon, I’m left in silence.
Usually Julia is here. She and I had a few wild nights in the bedroom. She’s older, but I’m an equal opportunity lover, and she’s a wildcat, but I’m not feeling it anymore. I think she knows, and I’m starting to wonder if that’s why she isn’t around.
That’s alright. It wasn’t a good idea to get involved with her. I was an idiot.
A horny idiot, but an idiot nevertheless.
I close my eyes to get some rest, and that night when I was seventeen replays in my mind like it does every day. I wonder how the Thomas’s are doing since Grace died. She had succumbed to her injuries three days later due to brain damage. I spent six years in prison. I got sentenced as an adult, and no matter how hard my dad’s lawyers tried, they couldn’t get the assault and battery charges to drop since I was covered in her blood.
No one believed me that I said I saw a man leave the room, but that’s okay.