How About No
Page 45
Especially since, now that the two crazy people after my woman were gone, we were about to start the next chapter of our life.
We’d also started looking into adoption.
At least, I had.
Landry was scared shitless and wanted nothing at all to do with it.
I, on the other hand, wouldn’t allow her to be ruled by her fears.
Which had been why I’d started to discreetly inquire about adoption loans, because goddamn was it expensive.
I’d succeeded in securing one that was meant for law enforcement families seeking to adopt, and the next step was actually contacting an agency.
I just had to convince my wife to take that step.
“The steak place is open,” Kourt suggested, coming up to stand next to Lina, I suspected, just to annoy her.
“Ohhhh,” Pru groaned. “The rolls from there are divine. And the sweet tea. Oh, and the macaroni. Now I’m starving, and we have to go there.”
Landry snorted and stood up. “You had me at rolls.”
I grinned and pulled her to me, placing a soft kiss on her forehead.
“You okay, baby?”
She nodded at me, looking like she was free of chains for the first time in a long time.
“Yeah,” she agreed. “I’m perfect.”
Before I could say another word, she buried her face in my armpit and continued to walk, effectively putting an end to our conversation.
“Y’all don’t mind if my sister comes, do you?” Pru asked. “She’s crazy busy these days, and I like to make sure that she eats.”
“No problem,” Hoax said. “We can swing by and pick…never mind. We’re on my bike.”
“I’ll do it,” Bayou offered.
“I’ll go pick Izzy and the baby up, and then we’ll meet you there,” Rome said as he slapped me on the back.
After returning the slap, he left, and the rest of us followed.
It was then that I realized that life was back to normal for me.
I’d returned to work last week—on regular duty.
My leg, although still healing, was finally showing improvement now that the infection had been controlled. There were still days that it ached, but I could run on it. I could pivot and stretch. Hell, I could even fuck Landry in the shower without dropping her.
In my book, that counted as a win.
“Let’s go eat, babe.” Landry poked me in the side.
I blinked, unsure when I’d stopped.
We were standing at the top of the courthouse steps, and there wasn’t a single person around us anymore. They’d all walked toward their respective bikes and had started off.
I dropped my gaze and turned my head so that I was staring into her eyes.
And I knew that later, I’d broach the subject that she’d been avoiding.
I just hoped that I didn’t hurt her in the process.
Hours later, after a good meal with family and friends, I finally worked up the courage.
And what I got in reply to my question wasn’t the one I was hoping for.
But it was the one that was real.
Which was what I wanted. What we needed.
“I’m just not ready yet, Wade,” she whispered to me later that night when I yet again raised the issue. “I don’t know if I’ll ever be ready.”
I dropped my mouth to hers, deepening the kiss so that she realized that I wasn’t upset about her insecurities. If we never had kids, that was okay.
As long as I had her, it would be enough.
And I showed her that with my body.
With my mouth worshipping every inch of her skin. With my tongue lathing her breasts, and her pussy.
With each and every hard, rough stroke of my cock.
With each caress and squeeze.
And when we came together long minutes later, both of us breathless and replete, I knew that it was all that mattered.
Here. Now.
Her.
Epilogue
I didn’t ask who put it there. I said pick it up.
-Things I repeat eight million times a day to my kid.
Wade
“I don’t know what to do with them, man,” someone said softly.
I looked over to find Castiel, a sleeping two-year-old against his chest, staring at me like he was about to be sick to his stomach.
Me, with a newly born baby girl resting on mine, was feeling the exact same thing.
The baby that I was holding had been delivered only two minutes before—by me and Castiel.
Medics hadn’t even had a chance to arrive yet.
“Have Landry meet us at the hospital,” I said softly. “CPS—child protective services—said that they’d be here in an hour and a half. You can call them and tell them that you moved both kids to the hospital to be checked out. The CPS chick knows Landry. She won’t mind.”
Castiel looked relieved to finally have a solution.
Me, on the other hand, I was on my way to the hospital with the mother and newborn.
Unfortunately for the mother, she’d fucked up. Big time.
How had she fucked up?
She’d thought it was the greatest idea in the world to rob a bank with her boyfriend while her two-year-old sat in the car waiting for them to come out.
In the excitement of robbing the bank, she’d gone into labor.
A car chase had ensued, and when the car had wrecked and been too fucked up to keep driving, the man had bailed.
The mother had at least stopped to grab the two-year-old, but she hadn’t made it far before we’d caught up to her just as her contractions had taken her down.
We’d found her so quickly because we’d been hot on their tails— they weren’t exactly a modern-day Bonnie and Clyde.
The other cruiser had followed the boyfriend while Castiel and I had stopped to help the mother—who’d been in the middle of an intersection with cars all around her and a two-year-old scared out of his mind.
And, before we could even move them out of the street, she’d started pushing.
I’d been aware enough to catch the baby before it’d fallen to the hot ground.
“Landry will know what to do.”
***
When I got home hours later, well past dark, it was to find Landry on the couch watching television with Capo resting against her feet in the cushion that was normally my spot.
The newest addition—a sixteen-year-old sheepdog named Tooter—rested against the wall in the foyer.
Stepping over the old pup, I walked directly to Landry and leaned over her to drop a kiss on her mouth.
“I’m going to take a shower.”
Minutes after stripping out of my clothes, I was under the spray of the water, trying hard to figure out what in the fuck had just happened.
The mother had given up rights to both of her kids, signed them away as if they were nothing more than inconvenient pieces of trash.
“Wade?”
I swallowed and opened my eyes to find her staring at my worriedly.
“You okay?” she asked softly.
I shrugged. “That mother just gave her kids up like they were Pokémon cards to trade. The DA offered it as a joke, and she took it.”
Landry’s eyes went hard.
“The boy? He was covered in bruises. He was malnourished. There were so many scabs, cuts, and scrapes on him that I would’ve called CPS myself had he come in as one of my kids. She wasn’t a mother to him. It was the best thing that could ever happen to him—her giving him up.”
I looked down, letting the water cascade over the back of my neck.
“Here we are, unable to have kids, and wanting them so badly that our hearts hurt. Then there’s her. Having them easily—apparently, she’d had five abortions before, she was happy to point that out—and doesn’t even want them. How is that fucking fair?”
Landry walked into the shower, clothes and all, wrapping her arms around me.
“I don’t know, Wade. I just don’t know.”
***
Landry
It was two hours later that I made the call.
“Hey, Shiloh,” I said softly. “I need to talk to you about a couple of babies.”
***
Two days later
“Where are we going?” Wade grumbled. “Fuck, but I just wanted to sleep in.”
I felt my lips twitch.
“Oh, we just have to go pick something up,” I murmured, heart pounding.
We’d also started looking into adoption.
At least, I had.
Landry was scared shitless and wanted nothing at all to do with it.
I, on the other hand, wouldn’t allow her to be ruled by her fears.
Which had been why I’d started to discreetly inquire about adoption loans, because goddamn was it expensive.
I’d succeeded in securing one that was meant for law enforcement families seeking to adopt, and the next step was actually contacting an agency.
I just had to convince my wife to take that step.
“The steak place is open,” Kourt suggested, coming up to stand next to Lina, I suspected, just to annoy her.
“Ohhhh,” Pru groaned. “The rolls from there are divine. And the sweet tea. Oh, and the macaroni. Now I’m starving, and we have to go there.”
Landry snorted and stood up. “You had me at rolls.”
I grinned and pulled her to me, placing a soft kiss on her forehead.
“You okay, baby?”
She nodded at me, looking like she was free of chains for the first time in a long time.
“Yeah,” she agreed. “I’m perfect.”
Before I could say another word, she buried her face in my armpit and continued to walk, effectively putting an end to our conversation.
“Y’all don’t mind if my sister comes, do you?” Pru asked. “She’s crazy busy these days, and I like to make sure that she eats.”
“No problem,” Hoax said. “We can swing by and pick…never mind. We’re on my bike.”
“I’ll do it,” Bayou offered.
“I’ll go pick Izzy and the baby up, and then we’ll meet you there,” Rome said as he slapped me on the back.
After returning the slap, he left, and the rest of us followed.
It was then that I realized that life was back to normal for me.
I’d returned to work last week—on regular duty.
My leg, although still healing, was finally showing improvement now that the infection had been controlled. There were still days that it ached, but I could run on it. I could pivot and stretch. Hell, I could even fuck Landry in the shower without dropping her.
In my book, that counted as a win.
“Let’s go eat, babe.” Landry poked me in the side.
I blinked, unsure when I’d stopped.
We were standing at the top of the courthouse steps, and there wasn’t a single person around us anymore. They’d all walked toward their respective bikes and had started off.
I dropped my gaze and turned my head so that I was staring into her eyes.
And I knew that later, I’d broach the subject that she’d been avoiding.
I just hoped that I didn’t hurt her in the process.
Hours later, after a good meal with family and friends, I finally worked up the courage.
And what I got in reply to my question wasn’t the one I was hoping for.
But it was the one that was real.
Which was what I wanted. What we needed.
“I’m just not ready yet, Wade,” she whispered to me later that night when I yet again raised the issue. “I don’t know if I’ll ever be ready.”
I dropped my mouth to hers, deepening the kiss so that she realized that I wasn’t upset about her insecurities. If we never had kids, that was okay.
As long as I had her, it would be enough.
And I showed her that with my body.
With my mouth worshipping every inch of her skin. With my tongue lathing her breasts, and her pussy.
With each and every hard, rough stroke of my cock.
With each caress and squeeze.
And when we came together long minutes later, both of us breathless and replete, I knew that it was all that mattered.
Here. Now.
Her.
Epilogue
I didn’t ask who put it there. I said pick it up.
-Things I repeat eight million times a day to my kid.
Wade
“I don’t know what to do with them, man,” someone said softly.
I looked over to find Castiel, a sleeping two-year-old against his chest, staring at me like he was about to be sick to his stomach.
Me, with a newly born baby girl resting on mine, was feeling the exact same thing.
The baby that I was holding had been delivered only two minutes before—by me and Castiel.
Medics hadn’t even had a chance to arrive yet.
“Have Landry meet us at the hospital,” I said softly. “CPS—child protective services—said that they’d be here in an hour and a half. You can call them and tell them that you moved both kids to the hospital to be checked out. The CPS chick knows Landry. She won’t mind.”
Castiel looked relieved to finally have a solution.
Me, on the other hand, I was on my way to the hospital with the mother and newborn.
Unfortunately for the mother, she’d fucked up. Big time.
How had she fucked up?
She’d thought it was the greatest idea in the world to rob a bank with her boyfriend while her two-year-old sat in the car waiting for them to come out.
In the excitement of robbing the bank, she’d gone into labor.
A car chase had ensued, and when the car had wrecked and been too fucked up to keep driving, the man had bailed.
The mother had at least stopped to grab the two-year-old, but she hadn’t made it far before we’d caught up to her just as her contractions had taken her down.
We’d found her so quickly because we’d been hot on their tails— they weren’t exactly a modern-day Bonnie and Clyde.
The other cruiser had followed the boyfriend while Castiel and I had stopped to help the mother—who’d been in the middle of an intersection with cars all around her and a two-year-old scared out of his mind.
And, before we could even move them out of the street, she’d started pushing.
I’d been aware enough to catch the baby before it’d fallen to the hot ground.
“Landry will know what to do.”
***
When I got home hours later, well past dark, it was to find Landry on the couch watching television with Capo resting against her feet in the cushion that was normally my spot.
The newest addition—a sixteen-year-old sheepdog named Tooter—rested against the wall in the foyer.
Stepping over the old pup, I walked directly to Landry and leaned over her to drop a kiss on her mouth.
“I’m going to take a shower.”
Minutes after stripping out of my clothes, I was under the spray of the water, trying hard to figure out what in the fuck had just happened.
The mother had given up rights to both of her kids, signed them away as if they were nothing more than inconvenient pieces of trash.
“Wade?”
I swallowed and opened my eyes to find her staring at my worriedly.
“You okay?” she asked softly.
I shrugged. “That mother just gave her kids up like they were Pokémon cards to trade. The DA offered it as a joke, and she took it.”
Landry’s eyes went hard.
“The boy? He was covered in bruises. He was malnourished. There were so many scabs, cuts, and scrapes on him that I would’ve called CPS myself had he come in as one of my kids. She wasn’t a mother to him. It was the best thing that could ever happen to him—her giving him up.”
I looked down, letting the water cascade over the back of my neck.
“Here we are, unable to have kids, and wanting them so badly that our hearts hurt. Then there’s her. Having them easily—apparently, she’d had five abortions before, she was happy to point that out—and doesn’t even want them. How is that fucking fair?”
Landry walked into the shower, clothes and all, wrapping her arms around me.
“I don’t know, Wade. I just don’t know.”
***
Landry
It was two hours later that I made the call.
“Hey, Shiloh,” I said softly. “I need to talk to you about a couple of babies.”
***
Two days later
“Where are we going?” Wade grumbled. “Fuck, but I just wanted to sleep in.”
I felt my lips twitch.
“Oh, we just have to go pick something up,” I murmured, heart pounding.
