“I’m not kidding, Ghost.”
I took her in my arms and attempted to talk her down from her panic. “You know I love you, right?”
She nodded.
“And I’m going to love this baby. And you’re going to make a wonderful mother,” I whispered in her ear. “But none of that can happen if we don’t let the little sucker out of there.” I patted her stomach.
She tried to muffle a chuckle, but bent when another pain hit her. “Don’t make me laugh, it hurts.”
I held her through another contraction, my hand on her belly, feeling it harden as the muscles tightened. When if finally subsided, I asked, “You okay, now?”
“Yes.”
“Good. Now let’s go get my son born, okay?”
“Okay.”
&n
bsp; “I love you, Jessie.”
“I love you, too, Ghost.”
***
Five years later…
Jessie—
I found Ghost out in the garage working on a bike.
“Your son is at it again.”
He looked over at me. “How come when he’s done something wrong, he’s my son, and when he’s being an angel, he’s your son?”
“Ghost.” My frustration bled through in my voice. I was at my wits end with that boy.
“What’s he done this time?” He went back to tightening a bolt on his bike.
“He’s peeing in Mrs. Mitchell’s yard again.”
Ghost looked at me with a doubting expression. “No way. He’s forbidden to go over there anymore.”
I pointed at the window that gave a view of the back yard. “Look!”
We’d moved to a cute house in a quiet family friendly subdivision not long after Ghost got the club he’d remodeled up and running. It was doing a great business, especially in special events.
Ghost rose to his feet, his eyes on me as he moved to the window and bent to peer out. I looked with him.
There was our son, standing on top of the highest part of the wooden backyard playset that Ghost and his brothers had built, peeing off the edge. The pee arced high up in the air, over the privacy fence, and straight into our neighbors yard. Our dog, Shadow, who’d promptly traded loyalties to my son the moment he was born, sat in the grass nearby, watching.
My eyes flicked back to my husband. He was snorting with laughter.
“Impressive.”
“Ghost!”
“Come on, babe, that takes talent.”