“He’s small but he’s perfect. Really, perfect,” I said. “Thank you,” I added as I winked at her before turning to Maria. “Tell her, grandma, how great our little guy is,” I urged Maria, as I bent down and kissed Lauren’s hand.
“Oh, my God, he’s beautiful, Lauren,” she said, as she ran her hand over Lauren’s head. “And this guy here, has been taking good care of him, waiting for you to wake up,” Maria said, meeting my eyes.
“Thank you,” I mouthed to the crazy woman that I was beginning to like as two nurses and a doctor charged into the room.
“We need you both to step outside for a moment,” the doctor ordered, walking to the machine reading Lauren’s stats.
I tore my eyes from Maria’s to Lauren’s and shook my head.
“I’m not leaving her,” I growled over my shoulder at the doctor.
The doctor proceeded to insist I was in the way and that he needed to thoroughly check Lauren out. I knew logically they weren’t requesting something so crazy and that they could have my ass kicked the fuck out of her room by security but I didn’t want to leave her. I just got her back and maybe a part of me still didn’t believe she was really awake.
The funny thing about dreams is once you believe in them you don’t know when you’re dreaming or when you’re really living the dream.
Especially, when your dreams are Lauren and you know she’s too good to be true—and a man like me doesn’t deserve goodness like her.
But I’ll take it anyway, I’ll take all the goodness that comes with Lauren and work my ass off to be worthy of it.
Lauren…
The girl next door with the killer rack and pretty eyes.
The girl who took a chance on a guy like me.
My Kitten, who took the detour and got reckless with me.
One reckless night that resulted with the most perfect boy.
The girl who gave me my heart.
Lauren, the good girl who completed this bad boy.
For a man who never stepped foot inside of a church and had to be taught how to pray it was pretty ironic that I found myself back at the chapel, in front of God and not Satan. I made the sign of the cross as I slid into the first pew and stared up at the altar.
We may not be the best of men, me and my brothers, and Lord knows we all have our sins but I like to think that God took Bones and spared him Hell. I want to believe that saving Lauren’s life and the baby’s life earned him a ticket to Heaven and washed away his sins. I wanted to think that sitting here in the chapel, where people pray and talk to God and their loved ones, was where I could go to talk to Bones because right now he was the only person I wanted to speak to, the person I wanted to run to and tell that Lauren was okay and so was Pea.
Thanks to him.
Thanks to his sacrifice.
And I wanted to ask God to forgive me for all I was about to do.
I walked to the candles and lit one for Bones and one for my soul before I made one last bargain with God, asking him to watch over my family and forgive me of my sins.
I walked out of the chapel, checked in on Pea, and on my way back to Lauren I made the call to Jack.
“Parrish,” he answered.
“It’s me. I’m hungry, Jack,” I clipped, as I stared through the glass window at Lauren.
“Yeah, I bet I know what you have a hankering for,” he replied.
“Make it happen,” I ordered, before disconnecting the call and shoving my phone back into my pocket.
Heart.
It keeps you from being reckless.
Heart.
I wouldn’t be reckless but I was going to fucking settle the score. My way.
For Bones.
Chapter Forty
I was shot…in the heart. I had a baby, a little boy I have yet to meet because…I was shot. But there was a silver lining and that was Riggs. He turned from the hooligan my mother hated to her best friend, but more importantly he went from a man who didn’t know he wanted kids to the best father I could’ve imagined.
Pea was lucky.
We were still calling him Pea until I got to see him, then when I looked into his eyes I’d know his name. I’d know if he was a Robert or an Anthony, or maybe a Joseph.
And today was the day.
The day they took the tube out of my throat since I was able to breathe on my own. I was finally able to meet the boy who stole his daddy’s heart and claimed mine without ever meeting him.
With the help of a nurse, Riggs situated me into a wheel chair and pushed me through the hospital to unite our little family once and for all.
“Riggs?”
“Yes, Kitten,” he said, pushing the elevator button.
“You never told me how Bones was doing? Can we see him? I’d like to thank him for well…everything,” I said, looking up at him, watching as he turned around and stared back at me.
“What? Did they discharge him already?” I asked, but as the question left my mouth I had an unnerving feeling that I knew the truth. If I was still here there was no way Bones had been discharged before me. I felt dread wash over me as I saw the solemn expression take precedence over Riggs’ features.