“Imogen!” Aaron barked. “Step away from the fryer!”
Imogen obeyed, but only far enough that she could bend to pick up Ghost’s gun that had fallen to the floor in his haste to get his pants off.
I squatted down and gathered his pants, as well as the phone that’d been in his hand.
A text message was on the screen, and I couldn’t help myself.
Ghost (8:30 PM): Don’t let my wife do it. I’ll come get her.
Unknown (8:34 PM): You can’t come get her, you’re dead.
Ghost (8:35 PM): Not anymore.
I hastily placed the items on the counter, and then turned back to the man who was the center of attention.
And almost blanched.
He had burns.
Oh, God did he have burns. They were everywhere. All over his body. They even distended down into his boxer briefs, disappearing from view.
Holy. Shit.
“Ghost,” I breathed. “Are you okay?”
I was breathless for a few reasons.
One, Ghost had just been burned, possibly badly.
Two, Ghost was practically naked, and despite his burns, he looked good.
Three, Ghost had a wife, and he was about to go get her.
Oh, shit.
“Jesus Christ, man,” Sean said as he pushed in between us. “You’re going to need someone to look at this.”
“No.”
Simple. Direct. That was our Ghost.
“Sorry, darlin’,” Big Papa’s date, Terril, sauntered up, placing her hands on Ghost’s back. “But I agree with him.”
“Don’t. Touch. Me.”
The words, although low in pitch, felt like a scream in the busy, chaotic room.
Every man, woman, and child felt those nearly whispered words deep down to their souls.
“Sorry, hon,” Terril backed away with her hands raised.
I bit my lip and turned to find Truth, who made big eyes at me and gestured at me with his hand.
I left the commotion of the kitchen and walked into my man’s arms.
“What’s with that look on your face,” he asked, tilting his head down to study my eyes.
His hand had gone to my distended belly, absently running his big, rough palm down over the top of it.
The baby, the booger who only kicked for his father, nudged his hand, causing Truth to smile.
I moved until my mouth hovered just over Truth’s ear, though he did have to bend down a little to allow me to do it.
“I saw Ghost’s phone. He dropped it while all that happened,” I gestured with my hand to the spectacle over my shoulder.
Now Sean’s date, Ellen, who I’d seen looking at Jessie James more tonight than Sean, walked into the room, took one look at the man who was trying to disentangle himself from the melee of people that were making a fuss over him, and turned around and fled.
Jessie James (I still don’t know why the hell I called him his entire name, but I wasn’t the only one), followed after her with one look at Sean to make sure he wasn’t paying attention.
I winced inwardly. That was going to be a mess if it ever went past the innocent stage I could tell it was at right now.
“And?” Truth asked, oblivious to the soap opera going on around him.
“And on his phone, it said that he was going to get back his wife,” I whispered just as quietly as before.
He blinked.
Then a broad grin broke out over his face.
“Fuck yeah.”
Epilogue
When confronting a woman, you should always make sure her man isn’t around the corner.
-Fact of Life
Verity
7 months later
Verity (9:34 A.M.): That’s it. I’m selling this kid on eBay.
Truth (9:39 A.M.): What’d he do now?
Verity (9:40 A.M.): He shit on my shirt. And my pants. I’m pretty sure I have it in my hair.
Truth (9:54 A.M.): Take a shower and wash your clothes.
Verity (10:03 A.M.): He shit on your latest sword, too.
Truth (10:31 A.M.): Don’t be silly. You made him. You should sell him on Etsy.
I burst into peals of laughter, rolling over onto my stomach as I did.
The man I loved was a funny one, I’d give him that.
A cry of anger and pissed off ‘you woke me up laughing’ came from the baby’s playpen that was set up in the corner of my office, and I sighed.
I should’ve known better, but it wasn’t my fault.
It was all Truth’s fault. Every last, single bit of it.
“Do you have a minute?”
I looked up to find the manager, Brian Staganoff, standing in the doorway of my open office.
“Sure,” I said carefully. “What’s up?”
I was about to fire him. In fact, I’d planned on doing that after lunch when Truth had time to come and get his son.
And yes, I say his son, because he definitely wasn’t my son. There was no evidence beside him coming out of my vagina…and even then I could play that off due to me being delirious and high on the good medications.
“I need to apologize for my behavior a few nights ago.”
My brows went up.
“Oh, yeah?” I asked, leaning back in my chair.
This should be good.
Hearing him explain why he called another waitress a cunt in front of the entire fucking bar should entertain me greatly. And yes, I did say another waitress.
Apparently, he’d done it before, quite a few times. This had been the only time I’d been present to hear it.
“Yes, Ma’am,” he said through clenched teeth.
He really, really didn’t want to be here apologizing to me.
In fact, he likely wouldn’t have bothered had my husband not been present as well.
I’d been willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, at first, but after getting the fourth complaint about his behavior and deplorable attitude today, I knew that something else had to give.
He had to go.
Though, I was willing to admit I hated firing people, even if they were douche canoes like this one.
“Okay,” I said, ready to hear him explain why in the world he thought it was okay to tell a woman that the only thing she was good for was her warm cunt.
Though, that had been after he’d called her an actual cunt.
I listened to him apologize, and barely contained the laughter in my eyes when Truth showed up a few minutes into his explanation and subsequent apology. He listened, rolled his eyes, and made jacking off motions when the sweetness of Brian’s voice made both of us wince.
“I’m sorry, Brian,” I said. “I was going to do this later, after lunch, but since you’re already in here and you know what this is about, I’m going to have to let you go. I can’t have any employees working at this pub who don’t respect the patrons and their coworkers. Truth’s grandfather cared for his waitresses, and he would never be okay with the way you treated Bonita two nights ago.”
Brian’s entire body locked. “You can’t fire me.”