Lord Have Mercy (Southern Gentleman 2)

Every last one of my students got up to look.

***

Six hours later, I was in heaven.

“Oh God,” I whispered. “That’s the spot.”

Flint chuckled against my side.

“I’m ready for this baby to be here,” I declared. “Why are you laughing?”

“You sound like a contented cat,” he teased.

I kind of was.

He’d just made slow, sweet love to me and then had started rubbing my back.

There was literally no better spot on the planet that I could be.

“Ella?”

He grunted out a negative sound in his throat.

“Joan?”

“What the fuck kind of name is that?” he laughed.

“Jett?” I whispered, moaning slightly when he hit a particularly sore spot.

He paused when that name left my mouth.

“What middle name with that?” he asked.

“Jett Carina Stone,” I whispered, feeling like this was a pivotal moment for us.

He let that sit for a long moment, then surprised me by saying, “That’s it.”

I felt my lips turn up at the corners. “Did you just agree on a name, Flintstone?”

He curled himself around me until we were once again skin to skin, from the top of my shoulders to the backs of my calves.

“Yeah,” he answered. “I think we did.”

And four days later, when my stubborn baby girl made her entrance, the first thing her daddy said to her was, “Hey there, Jett Carina Stone. I’m your daddy.”

And right then, there was nothing in the world that could have made me happier.

I’d only thought that when Nivea moved to a different school district that I’d been happy.

I’d only thought that the day that Carver was sentenced to twenty years in prison, I’d been happy.

I’d only thought that the day that I had exchanged wedding vows with Flint, I’d been happy.

But today? Seeing him with his newborn baby girl? Feeling the pride swelling in my chest at seeing the two of them together?

That was the day that I truly knew happiness.