Lord Have Mercy (Southern Gentleman 2)

Schultz, showing some of his brains at this point, caught her before she could make it inside.

That didn’t stop her from throwing her water bottle at Carver’s head, though.

“You stupid piece of shit!” she snarled. “You almost killed the man I love!”

Pride burst in my chest at seeing the anger that rocked her small frame.

Hell, even Dooley looked like he was pissed, and he didn’t even know what was going on. He was likely just reading the tension in the room, and clearly saw that Camryn was upset.

“I think now’s the time that we listen to our lawyer,” the lawyer suggested to Carver.

Carver finally looked at him and nodded. “Yeah, think that’s for the best.”

I nodded once, having gotten all that I needed.

There would still be questioning. There would still be a trial later on. There would still be time served.

But in the end, he would get his ass dealt to him, and I still got to live to see another day.

I was counting that as a win.

I made it through the doorway and caught Camryn as Schultz let her free, pulling her along with me as I made my way out into the front room.

Then, feeling the box in my pocket burning a hole, I brought us both to a stop.

Then, in front of the entire police station, I got down on one knee and proposed to my woman.

“Camryn, will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?” I whispered huskily.

She drew in a shaky breath and then let it out.

“Yes,” she whispered, sounding so happy that she was about to burst. “I will!”EpilogueIf you like your toddler staring you straight in the vagina when you’re putting in a tampon, then motherhood is for you.

-Camryn’s secret thoughts

Camryn

The door to my classroom burst open and my husband of eighteen months hustled inside, wearing a shit-eating grin on his face.

“Hello, class,” Flint called out. “How’s everyone doing today?”

Today was the first day of school, and every single student was staring at the spectacle he was making of himself with wide eyes.

When Flint came to a stop next to me, a pillowcase in one hand and a bottle of sweet tea from the gas station in the other, I blinked at him owlishly.

“Ummm,” I said, standing up from my seat.

A seat that I’d been forced to take because my legs were swollen so badly that it was either sit or deal with ankles the size of a tiny house when I got home from school.

“Hey, baby,” Flint said, pressing his mouth to my cheek with a quick brush of his lips. “I brought you something. Will you hold on to it for me?”

He held out the bag, and it was then I noticed that it was…moving.

“Uhhh,” I hesitated. “Why?”

“Because I felt like you were the most qualified,” he answered, dropping his bottle of sweet tea down onto the counter beside my cup of decaffeinated coffee and pressing his palm to my belly.

I rolled my eyes.

He was always doing this.

It didn’t matter where we were, or who we were with. If he had a spare second, and I was close enough, his hand was on my belly.

He loved feeling the baby move.

He loved it even more when she kicked against his hand.

That’s right.

I said she.

There was going to be a little Pebbles Stone soon.

Though, that wasn’t going to be her name.

We hadn’t actually agreed on one just yet, but it would come.

You know…a month after she was born, if how we were going was any indication.

“So what’s in the bag, Officer Stone?” my transfer student from the UK asked, sounding all prim and proper.

‘Officer Stone’ grinned. “Look.”

Then my husband opened the bag and showed the kid.

“Is that…a baby kangaroo?”

Flint grinned. “Yeah. Can you watch it for a little while?”

That last part was directed toward me as he held out the bag.

I blinked. “Flint…I’m not exactly sure how to take care of a kangaroo. Does it need to be fed?”

He shrugged. “Honestly? I have no fuckin’ idea. I found it out in the parking lot, and I had to steal it away from a couple of freshmen that thought they’d take it home.”

I just shook my head.

“Did you call the game warden?” I asked. “Who do you call about a kangaroo?”

“I called the game warden, who got me in touch with the zoo who had a baby kangaroo go missing last night when a couple of teenagers vandalized an exhibit. That’s the next item on my agenda…find those kids.”

I just shook my head and waved him off, curling the kangaroo in the pillowcase up tight to my big pregnant belly.

“All right, Flintstone. I’ll be here when you’re ready.”

He winked and then he was gone, leaving me to turn back to my students who were all practically bouncing in their seats. “One at a time. Form a line. Get your look, and then go sit down. I’d like to get to know you all.”