Cannon (Carolina Reapers 5)

Difficult to conceive a child when you’ve never had sex before.

“Of course not, Mama,” I said, shaking my head.

“Well, I wouldn’t have said no to a grandbaby, but just as well.” She shifted in her seat, an alarm softly ringing from the crisp white watch on her left wrist. “Walk me to my room?”

I stood from my chair, my heart racing and breaking at the same time as I helped her to stand. I walked her through the house, grateful when we didn’t run into my father, or my sister returning no doubt from wherever she’d run off to shop for clothes. It was beyond me how she constantly started over with every city she traveled to, but I suppose endless means could do that to a person.

I turned into Mama’s bedroom, forgoing the main portion with their canopied king and instead settled her into a simple but elegant leather chair near the window. A gray box half the size of the chair sat next to it, a white machine with an array of tubing atop it.

“Here,” I said as she settled into the chair. “Let me.” She remained silent as I gently hooked her up to the at-home dialysis machine, and once again thanked the good lord that we were able to afford the at-home care. My mother was one of the strongest women I knew, and she wanted everyone to see her as such. Not that this made her weak, not in the slightest, but she was a private woman when it came to her illness.

“How is that?” I asked as I placed a pillow under her arm.

“Wonderful,” she said, resting her head back against the chair, the whir of the machine humming beside her. “So, what do you think?”

I could barely breathe around the ache in my chest. Around the split in my heart. I never lied to my Mama, but this…she deserved any joy I could give her before…

“Let me speak with Cannon,” I said finally.

A wide smile shaped her lips, then she raised her brows. “Well, what are you waiting for? Go ask him.” She shooed me away with her free arm.

I kissed her forehead, swallowing down the tears that were desperate for release. But I kept my smile firmly planted on my lips as I left the estate, because with what I had to do? Convince Cannon Price to marry me…again? I needed all the strength I could get.

3

Cannon

The sounds of the weight room brought a little balance back to my very fucked up reality. I’d always liked to work out. The shape of my body was something in my direct control through the diet I chose and the work I was willing to put into it. I liked things I could control.

“So, not to address the elephant in the room or anything,” Logan said as he appeared overhead as I bench pressed. “But what exactly are you going to do about that whole wedding ring thing?”

“Do you see it on my hand?” I growled as I pushed through a rep.

“Well, none of us wear rings in the weight room. You know exactly what I’m trying to say.” He folded his arms across his chest.

I set the bar back on the rack and sat up with a heavy sigh. The last thing I wanted to do was talk about this right now. Or ever. “Can we just not right now?”

“Sure. Or you could have called me back any of the nine times I called you.” He shrugged.

The sounds around me ceased, and a quick glance showed that all six other Reapers in the room had halted their workouts and were staring at me. Lukas, Axel, Connell, Noble, Sterling, and yep, Ward was still staring, too.

“If you guys are looking for me to empty my heart out on the gym floor, you’ve all lost your fucking minds.”

“That’s assuming you have a heart to empty…” Lukas teased with a smirk.

“Leave him alone,” Axel warned. As our team captain, the man took his responsibilities seriously, both on and off the ice, and apparently during the off-season, too.

“Come on, it’s natural for us to be curious,” Connell argued in his thick Scottish brogue. “You went to Vegas and married Persephone.”

“Which he thought was a prank you’d devised,” Sterling said as he wiped the sweat off his face with a towel. “Seriously, it would have been funny if it hadn’t been so…well, out of character for everyone involved.”

“Och, that would have been a good one,” Connell admitted thoughtfully. “But since I had no hand in your impetuous acts, I feel a little bereft and need you to fill the hole in my soul with the knowledge of what you’re going to do.”

“We’re getting an annulment,” I announced, avoiding the hollow feeling that burrowed inside my chest and set up house. “That’s what you do when you accidentally marry the queen of the debutante ball in a drug-and-alcohol-induced bout of Vegas insanity. Hell, I’m pretty sure Vegas is the reason annulments exist in the first place.”