When he was hurt last month, I thought I’d lost him. Hell, for a few days, I actually had.
And I never wanted to experience that kind of pain again.
So I’d take him, turtle heads and all.
“Everyone poops,” Sammy said. “Now, we ready?”
Just as he asked that, the judge’s doors opened and a judge that I’d never expected to see poked her head out.
“You ready, girl?” my friend, Caro, asked.
My mouth all but fell open.
“Caro?” I gasped. “What in the absolute hell are you doing in those robes?”
Caro, one of the SWAT kids that I’d grown up with, smiled at me huge.
I hadn’t seen her since Christmas of last year when she’d gone back to Austin to finish her job up with a law firm there.
“I’m a judge now.” She twirled herself around. “There was a vacancy, and I filled it.” Her eyes went to Malachi and then back to me. “You’re the one getting married to this sweet guy?”
My face tilted in Malachi’s direction. “Yes.”
“Well, let’s do it, girl.” Caro gestured for me to follow her in.
Ten minutes later, I was Mrs. Malachi Gabriel Gnocchi.
• • •
“You seriously want to go to a buffet on your wedding day?” Sammy asked, looking at the buffet in disgust.
I walked right past him, picked up my plate, and started to fill it with Chinese food.
I didn’t stop until it was heaping.
Yesterday I’d gotten off of bed rest.
Today, I was officially fourteen weeks and four days pregnant.
And to top it off, I had the results from the test in my pocket that would tell me whether Malachi and I were having a boy or a girl.
I pulled the envelope out of my jeans and shook it at Hastings.
Hastings pulled hers out of her purse.
We handed them to my parents. Mine to my dad, hers to my mom.
“Okay, open those up,” I ordered.
Hastings had actually known hers about two weeks ago, but I’d begged her to wait until we could both have the information at the same time.
The last few weeks had definitely not been easy for me. In fact, they’d been quite scary.
Day after day, appointment after appointment, I’d wondered if this would be the day that I went to the doctor and they told me that the baby didn’t have a heartbeat.
And knowing that it was Malachi’s baby? That somehow made it just that much worse.
But somehow, someway, our little nugget had held on.
And today, I was officially released to be out in the world again. To return to work.
I no longer had any bruises from what Adrian had done to me. But, saying that, I still had nightmares, and I still woke up screaming. Sometimes in Malachi’s arms, and sometimes with Malachi’s pillow buried against my face when he was working late.
But I was getting better, one day at a time.
And now I had the sex of my baby in the card that my dad was not-so-delicately ripping open.
“What is it?” Blue asked curiously.
I looked over at Sammy to see his plate heaping just as high as mine and Hastings’. For someone that didn’t want to eat here, he sure did have a lot of food on his plate.
My dad scanned the paper as did my mom, and I smiled wide when they both paused mid-lip read.
“It’s a girl?” my mom said at the same time that my dad said, “It’s a boy.”
Malachi froze, as did Sammy.
“I’m going to have a motherfuckin’ girl?” Sammy bellowed. “What the hell am I going to do with a girl? They have vaginas and can get pregnant!”
Malachi’s hand met the side of my head, and he pulled me into him.
I could practically feel his excitement vibrating his entire body.
“You’re going to treat her like the cherished little jewel that she is,” Grans said, coming back to the table with two plates. “Girls can do anything boys can do. And if you teach her right, maybe she’ll grow up to be half the woman that your sister is.”
Sammy looked at me in disgust. “That’s what I’m afraid of. She’s pregnant. Case closed.”
“Your sister is an adult, you dipweed,” Grans said. “Now, are you going to eat that rat on a stick? I was going to get some, but you cleaned them out.”
Malachi’s hand stayed wrapped around me all throughout dinner, and it was only as we were walking outside that it slipped, but only long enough to catch the door.
“Hey,” Sammy said as we made our way to the cars. “Did you hear about Zach?”
We all stopped in the middle of the parking lot.
“What about him?” I asked, worry starting to ripple my guts.
Malachi had told me what happened.
And I secretly hoped that Zach didn’t lose his license or have any lasting consequences. But I knew that wasn’t possible.
The sad thing was, Juniper was still in a freakin’ coma.