Page 102 of Pacino
The anniversary of his wife and daughter’s accident always becomes dark for Kannon. And God help anyone who crosses us during this time. Or any time, really, but especially this one.
“You’re really okay? Yesterday was really heavy,” Jethro asks.
I smile and nod. “Yeah, I’m good. Even though learning the truth about how Jo and I came to be together fucked with me a bit, I came home to Phoebe.”
“Our ray of sunshine,” Capone says.
“When I was cleaning up her wounds, she asked if I was okay when I told her about Ryan,” I say with a chuckle. “She was worried about me because he was my family. And then she asked about Scotty before panicking about the burned bars in the oven.”
“Only she would be worried about bars after being kidnapped at gunpoint,” Rooster says.
Licking my lips, I stare at the table. “She went willingly with Ryan because he promised not to kill Scotty if she did. Had no idea what she was walking into, but she risked it to save him.”
“Brave girl.”
“Braver than she knows.” I turn to Jethro. “I need about a week away.”
He frowns. “Okay. What’s up?”
Pulling a box out of my pocket, I set it on the table. Rooster tries to reach for it, but I smack his hand.
“You’re proposing?”
“I’m not wasting any more time.”
I stopped at a jewelry store on my way home last night and bought the ring. It was the first one I saw when I walked in, and I didn’t care about the cost. It reminded me of her, and I don’t want to leave any doubt that she is anything but permanent in my life.
Sheismy life.
“I need to be benched,” Zep says, speaking for the first time.
He’s normally the most talkative one, next to Rooster, and I notice how pale he is. “You good?”
“Not really. It’s Misty.”
Fuck. Here I am talking about getting married, and he’s got the scare with her pregnancy. “Is she okay?”
“There was another scare while we were gone. Luckily, Mama was there, but I can’t leave Misty alone again. I can take care of shit around town—”
“I’ll wait to get married,” I say.
“No, don’t do that. You need to do this. You’re finally happy, man. Don’t put it off.”
Jethro holds a hand up. “What’s going on with Misty?”
I guess I’m the only one who knows what happened. He goes into short detail about it, and everyone stays silent. Why can’t we just be fucking happy?
“They were able to stop the labor this time, but they can’t do it again. If we wait too long to get her to the hospital, we could lose the baby. Or her.”
Theor herwasn’t mentioned when he told us about her condition before. “What?”
“That’s what we found out yesterday. If she starts contracting again, we have to do an emergency C-section.”
“Isn’t it really early?” Rooster asks.
Zep pales even more, and I know he’s scared. Out of his mind, and I wish there was something I could do. “Yeah. The chances of Misty keeping him or her to full term aren’t good.”
“You don’t know what you’re having?” Jethro asks.
