Cross My Heart (The Devil's Riders 8.50)

And then she turned, and my heart stopped. When it started up again, it was pounding. I could not remember it ever beating that hard.

She walked over to us and smiled brightly.

“You want to hold the baby now?”

I stared at her, my mouth agape. She looked at me, her porcelain blue eyes wide and sweet, shining brightly in a face of indescribable beauty. Pretty she was, but pretty didn’t cut it. She was the prettiest lady I’d seen in my life. The prettiest girl walking the face of the earth.

I blinked, half expecting her to disappear like a mirage. I couldn’t stop staring. I couldn’t put two words together. I definitely could not hold a baby.

I was thunderstruck.

She shrugged and handed the baby to Dev and moved away. I took a step to follow her, but someone grabbed my arm. I glanced over at Tank and he shook his head.

“Easy, cowboy.”

“Huh?”

“You can’t chase her down like a gazelle. This isn’t the Savanah, boss.”

“Right. Right. Thanks, man.”

“I’ll take a turn next,” Tank said loudly, taking the baby from Dev and giving me a look. “You better sit down for your turn, hot stuff.”

I almost laughed. That was more words than I’d ever heard come out of his mouth, in total.

But I couldn’t laugh.

I could barely breath. The nurse moved around the room gracefully, checking Sally’s vitals, straightening wires and cleaning up from the birth, saying a kind word here and there and generally brightening up the room like a moving, breathing, sun.

Sunshine. That’s what she was. Pure sunlight. The thing that made the entire world light up. She was that amazing.

It was my turn to hold the baby. I sat in one of the big easy chairs as Tank handed me the little bundle of joy.

I was careful, keeping one eye on the newborn and the other on the vision in scrubs and thick white clogs.

“Sunshine,” I breathed as she came to collect the baby from me. She bent forward and froze, glancing at me. I could smell her now. I wanted to pull her into my lap and cuddle her.

Cuddle her… what the hell was wrong with me? I was a horny bastard. I should be thinking about bending her over the chair and taking her. But instead I wanted to hold her. To make love with her. To take my time, instead of just getting my rocks off.

Oh. Fuck.

“What did you say?”

“I said ‘Sunshine’.”

“How funny. My nana used to call me that.”

“Your nana was right.”

She gave me an adorably wry look and shook her head, scooping up the baby and drifting away. She returned the baby to Sally and told her she would be back in ten minutes to shoo everyone away so Sally could rest.

I refused to move when the other guys left. The girls looked at me and giggled. They probably knew what was up. Didn’t matter. There was not a chance in hell I was budging from that spot, Mostly I was ignored as the rest of the gang came in to take turns meeting the latest addition to the Devil’s Riders.

Ten minutes went by. Fifteen. Thirty. I waited patiently, my eyes glued to the door.

Nothing happened. She didn’t appear.

Another nurse came in. She was brusque and unfamiliar. Not my Sunshine. She told us it was time to leave. I felt the bottom of my stomach drop out.

Feeling lost, I let them shoo me out with everyone but Donahue. Then I was outside, the cool night air hitting me like the hard reality of morning after a night out drinking. Not unlike the bucket of cold water Jack had doused me in earlier in the night.

I hoped the big guy was alright. It was weird being here without him and Janet. They were the only ones missing from our crew.

I closed my eyes and prayed for a miracle. For two miracles. For Janet. And for me. That my Sunshine would walk out of the hospital and into may life. I suddenly realized I was fucked. Super fucked. Mega fucked.

“You okay, Drake?”

“Unsure.”

“You liked her, huh?”

Dev was grinning at me. In fact, all the guys were staring at me. ‘Like’ was an understatement. But I wasn’t going to tell them that.

“Yeah. Did anybody catch her name?”

“No buddy,” Dev said, slapping my back. “But we’ll find out.”

“Good,” I said, still feeling shell shocked. “Yeah. That’ll be good.”

“I have never seen this man at a loss for words,” Mac said, staring at him in awe. “Somebody take his temperature.”

Everyone laughed but I didn’t mind being the butt of the joke. They weren’t wrong. I was definitely not my usual self. I was utterly docile as I climbed into the back of Whiskey’s SUV for the ride home. I didn’t say a word.

I just stared out the window and dreamt of Sunshine.