Southern Chance (Southern 1)

“What clothes?” she asks as I make my way out of my driveway.

“All of your clothes,” I say.

“What?” She looks over at me, her mouth hanging open. “Jacob,” she says, “I can’t just move in with you.”

“Why not?” I look over at her.

“Well, your son, for one,” she tells me. “I haven’t even met him, and all of a sudden he is going to come home and I’m there.”

She’s right. I know she’s right, but I just got her back. The last thing I want to do is be without her. “So if I introduce you to Ethan, and we have a couple of dinners …?”

“Then I will go home after the dinners, and I will come over and stay when he’s not there,” she says. “It’s a big step.”

I pull up to the shop and turn to look at her. “This is to be tabled for later.” Leaning over, I kiss her lips. “Let’s go.” Turning to get out of the truck, I meet her on the sidewalk, and we walk up the tiled entryway and stop at the front door.

“What is this place?” Kallie asks, looking around, and the front door opens.

“Donnie,” I say to the man who stands six foot eight with a beard down to his chest.

“Hey,” he says, reaching out his hand to shake mine, his bulging arms fully covered in tattoos. “Come on in.” He steps away from the door, and I put my hand on Kallie’s back and usher her inside.

“Thank you so much for squeezing me in.” I say once we are inside. “Donnie, this is Kallie.”

“Pleased to meet you.” He nods at her. “You ready to do this?”

“Yes,” I say. He turns and walks to the closed door on the right-hand side. He opens both doors, and I look over at Kallie, who doesn’t say anything.

We walk into the room that has a chair in the middle and shelves on the back wall with all different colors of paint. Donnie puts on his glasses and sits down on his stool and slides over to me. “Let me see what you have.”

I take the white paper out of my back pocket and hand it to him. “What are you doing?” Kallie asks me when she sees me hand him Gabriel’s footprint.

“Sit down. I’ll start in a second,” Donnie says. I pull off my shirt and hand it to her.

I sit in the chair, and she looks at me, holding my shirt close to her chest. “Okay, let’s get this started,” Donnie says, rolling to the side to get his ink gun. “What date do I have to add to the cross?”

“November thirteenth,” I say, the birth certificate memorized.

“Oh my God,” Kallie whispers, and I look over at her as she stands there with tears in her eyes.

“You can have a seat over there.” Donnie points at another chair in the corner. She walks over to the chair and brings it to my side.

“Is this okay?” she asks, and he nods his head at her and smiles.

“We’ll get the date added on here,” Donnie says, cleaning my pec, “and then we’ll add the footprint right under it.” He gets up and walks over to the paper. “I’ll be right back.”

“Sounds good,” I say, and he walks out of the room.

“You are adding Gabriel to your cross?” she asks, wringing my shirt in her hands.

“He’s my son,” I say and reach out to grab her hand. “He belongs on me.”

“And his footprint?” She now loses the battle of her tears.

“It’s the closest that I will ever get to him,” I say and bring her hand to my lips and kiss her.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Kallie

I sit on the chair right next to him, holding his shirt in my hand as he gets the footprint of our son tattooed right under his birthday that was added to his cross. When the doors first opened, I had no idea what this place was, and when I saw the chair, I still didn’t know. But then everything clicked into place.

He sits in the chair, not even flinching when the needles go into his skin. Donnie does a little line and then wipes it off, repeating it over and over again, and I can’t wait to see the final product. “I want one also.” My mouth moves before I can even comprehend what I’m saying. Donnie looks up at me, and Jacob turns his head to look at me.

“On my wrist,” I tell them, “right over my heartbeat.”

“We can do that as soon as I’m done with his,” Donnie says, and I just smile at him.

I sit now waiting in the chair for my turn, anxious and excited. When Donnie wheels away from Jacob, and says, “All done,” but before I can see, Jacob jumps out of the chair and walks over to the mirror he has on the facing wall. I get up and walk over to him as I look at the little footprint he has now on his chest.