Southern Storm (Southern 3)

“I know he did, Mom,” I say, “but this is not going to help anyone. Give me the gun. Let him stand there in the courtroom and let everyone know what he did. Just give me the gun,” I tell her, holding out my hand. “Just give me the gun.”

Her hands shake as she holds the gun, and a sob rips through her. “I’m so sorry,” she says, handing me the gun. The front door swings open, and I hear boots running down the hallway.

“Beau!” I hear Jacob scream my name.

“In here,” Savannah says, her own sob coming out of her. “We’re in here.”

The door swings open, and Jacob runs in and sees my father on the floor. “Shit,” he says.

“I shot him,” my mother says. “I shot him.”

It takes an hour for them to take my father out on a stretcher, and my mother is sitting down on the couch, her composure is just like it always is. She sits there with her feet crossed at her ankles and her hands on her knees. “Is she going to be arrested?” I ask Jacob.

“Not unless your father presses charges,” Jacob says. “Right now, he’s not saying anything.”

“How are you doing?” Savannah says, coming over to me and hugging me around the waist.

“I’m doing okay, baby,” I say, kissing her head.

She looks up, and the clouds suddenly start to roll in. “Looks like a storm is coming.”

I look up and see the black clouds start to roll in just as fast as the white clouds chase it away. “Looks like the storm passed us,” I say, kissing her. “And we are still standing.”

Epilogue One

Savannah

One year later

“This is silly,” I say, looking around the room at Olivia and Kallie. “We are already married.”

“But this time,” Kallie says, coming to me, “you got to pick your own wedding dress.”

“Even if we had to have it altered since your baby bump kept growing,” Olivia says, and I put my hand on my lace wedding dress over my little baby bump. We were not trying to get pregnant, but when it was time to renew my pills, Beau told me to maybe not take them, and let’s see what would happen. Well, it took one month, one month of trying or not being careful, and I was carrying our baby.

“She looks like she has a basketball under there,” Kallie says, smiling. A lot has changed in a year. After Mary Ellen shot Clint, he was sentenced to twenty-five years in jail, but after a month, he had a heart attack in his cell. I felt sorry that Beau lost his father, but I didn’t shed a tear for that bastard. When the truth came out, I found out that my own mother had to have two abortions at two different times. She also decided that she wasn’t going to let any man dictate her life, so two months later, she married her landlord. I shake my head, hoping that she lives a happy life. Chase got off with doing five years and hopefully moves far away from us.

“The baby just kicked me.” I laugh. Taking Kallie’s hand, I put it on my stomach so she can feel it. “She likes you.” Kallie just smiles at me, and that, too, has changed quite a bit. This rivalry that we had when she first got to town is now gone. I know that she would do whatever she could for my son, and to me, that means everything.

“I don’t know if I could have done this without you,” I say. My eyes fill with tears, but I am going to blame them on the baby. “You didn’t have to do anything for me.” I put my hand on hers on top of my stomach. “I made you lose eight years of your life. I can never give those years back to you.”

“It was meant to happen this way,” she says. “Besides, who knows if I would have ended up with Jacob had I stayed.” She winks at me, and I roll my eyes. “You never know.”

“You were his missing piece,” I say. “I know it’s silly and all that, but I wanted to know if you would be my maid of honor.” I dab the tears that are running down my face. “It’s fine if you don’t want to.”

“It would be my honor,” she tells me, grabbing me and bringing me in for a hug.

“If you guys continue with the waterworks, there will be no more makeup left, and your pictures will have to be edited,” Olivia says. “God, I can’t wait until you both stop with the hormones.”

“Is it still a secret?” I ask her of her own little bump, and she nods her head.

“We are still waiting for the twelve-week mark.” She puts her hand to her stomach. “So yes, it’s still a secret.”