I sat in the recliner Logan got me, holding two things against my protruding stomach. The elephant he bought for the baby and the letter that had just arrived. I couldn’t help but stroke the soft ears. I still couldn’t believe he did all this for me, for us. I was so overwhelmed when we got home from the shower. All my worry had been for nothing, just like he’d promised it would be. The nursery he had created in the small dining area was more than I ever could have dreamed of. We made love on the plush new carpet under the soft light of the chandelier that now hung in place where an ugly fixture that matched all the others in the building once was. I’d cried tears of happiness as he held me until sleep found me. I didn’t understand it. He’d done so much for the baby and me, yet he wouldn’t even open the letters from his brother. They’d been coming more frequently. He’d even received a collect call from the jail, but he wouldn’t accept the charges. He’d tossed all of the letters in the trash without opening them. Wasn’t he just a bit curious? I knew this was wrong, a federal offense, but I couldn’t help myself. I had to know what it was Chris wanted from his bother. I knew if the situation were reversed, Logan wouldn’t hesitate to do whatever he could for me. It was my turn to do the same for him.
“Do I look alright?” My raised brow must have echoed what I was thinking. Really? We were on our way to the big house, and instead of my sensible sister, I recruited Brit to play Ethel to my Lucy today. She was close to Logan and knew all the details of the case. She had lived through it with him. It was one of the reasons they were so close.
“Don’t judge me. I’ve never been up the river.”
“Like I have?” I rubbed my back. Unlike my partner in crime, who looked like she was about to hit Saks summer sale, I had done my research and was wearing a simple t-shirt, maternity jeans, and a pair of Chucks.
“Okay, but remind me again why we didn’t just ask Eric to drive us.” He would have driven us anywhere, and we both knew it. He also would have told Logan where we were going, and that would have put an immediate halt to our plan. The letter I opened hadn’t given me much to go on. Only that Logan’s bother needed to see him badly. That it was imperative he speak to him and that he didn’t blame Logan for his current situation. Maybe it was the hormones or the fact that Chris was Logan’s only living relative, but it played at my heartstrings. I couldn’t just sit and do nothing. I had to go see Chris for Logan.
“Stop you’re griping. We’re here.” The ride had been long, and my back was killing me. With just four weeks to go until my due date, I wasn’t surprised. We followed the signs leading us to visitor check-in; the sound of Brit’s ridiculous heels filled the air.
“Inmate’s name,” the emotionless guard asked as I passed her the required documentation.
“Christopher Wheeler,” I provided. After typing in some information, the woman finally looked at me and offered a sympathetic smile before turning her attention to Brit.
“You’re going to have to wait out here.” She pointed at a row of orange chairs. I didn’t know if Brit was relieved because the color coordinated perfectly with her outfit or because she wouldn’t have to face the man who had killed Johnnie, the owner of the coffee shop she and Declan frequented, in cold blood while she hid just a few feet away today. I should have been more considerate of her feelings before I’d asked her to come with me. She sank into one of the chairs.
“I’m sorry Brit.” I crouched before her, and another twinge hit my back. “I shouldn’t have asked you to come.” A tear rolled down her perfectly made-up face.
“I didn’t think he could hurt me anymore.” She whispered as the tears began to fall more freely. She looked me right in the eye. “If he hurts …”
“He won’t.” I didn’t let her finish her thought. “I won’t let him.”
“Libby Barnes.” A guard called my name. I rose and squeezed Brit’s hand. The pain in my back was getting worse. It must have been the lack of sleep. Between my daughter kicking me, my bladder, and the stress of meeting Chris, I hadn’t gotten much. I left my purse with Brit as the guard showed me into a room where we were joined by a female who searched me before showing me into another room where other inmates were already seated and talking to loved ones. The guard motioned me towards an empty table. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t move. What the hell was I thinking coming here? The guard must have sensed my distress. “If you need anything just put your hand up, and one of us will be right over.” She motioned to the other guards in the room. I had no doubt they could physically protect me, that wasn’t what I was worried about.
“You’re not my brother,” Chris stated before sinking into a seat across from me. He looked exactly like an older version of his brother.
“No.” Chris smiled at my obviously pregnant belly.
“I never thought the kid would have a family.” Neither did he. The comment physically pained me. Logan had already been through so much, and yet he wanted to be a part of my life and the baby’s. As hurt as I had been by it, he had snickered when he read the onesie that said: “he thinks he’s my dad.” He kissed away my tears and told me “DNA doesn’t make you a parent.” I didn’t think it was possible to love him more than I already did, I was wrong. At that moment, I knew I had to do something, anything to prove just how much he mattered to me. He couldn’t face his brother so I would do it for him. I didn’t correct Chris because he wasn’t wrong. Logan did have a family, just not in the way he assumed.
“I’m Libby. Your letter stated you needed to speak with your brother. That it was important.”
“So, he sent his old lady?” Old? Big brother wasn’t making any points with me. I didn’t need this shit. Neither did Logan.
“Say what you have to say, or I’m leaving.” We gave each other the stare down. If it weren’t for a backache I was suffering I could have glared him down all day.
“Looks like he got himself a feisty one.” Chris threw his head back in laughter. I started to get up, which was no easy task. “Don’t go." He pleaded when he realized how determined I was not to take his crap.
“Fine, but start talking.” Honestly, if the Braxton Hicks contractions I’d been having weren’t so painful, I would have just got up and left.
“I need Logan’s help.” I was afraid of this. He must have heard something about his brother’s success, and now he wanted something, money more than likely. “Hold your horse’s mama. It’s not what you think.” I was born at night, but it wasn’t last night. He reached into the pocket of his jail-issued uniform and placed a worn-out picture on the table between us. “This is my daughter. Her name is Clara. She’s ten years old, and she needs her uncle.” Holy shit, those were the last words I ever expected to come out of his mouth. Pain radiated through me.
“I need to go.” I struggled to get up. The same guard who had been so kind to me came over to help me.
“Please just call her caseworker.” Caseworker? He slid a piece of paper in my direction. I grasped it tightly to my chest and waddled out of the jail as fast as I could. Brit was hot on my tail.
“You are scaring the shit out of me Libby. What did he say? Do I need to go in and murder that fucker?” I don’t know how I even managed to call a car. Luckily, we didn’t have to wait long. “Jesus Libby, where are we going now?”
“The hospital,” I announced, “my water just broke.”
“Oh fuck,” Brit and the driver announced at the same time as he put the pedal to the metal.
“Calm the fuck down Brit!” It’d been a shit day. Father’s Day always was and three employees called in fucking sick. Sick my ass. Add to the fact that something was off with Libby and I was at my wit's end. She kept telling me nothing was wrong. If she pledged she was “fine” one more time, I would lose my shit. Now I had Brit calling me, freaking the hell out about something I couldn’t understand.
“Water broke” was all I got through the muffled line.
“Call your super; I’m a little busy today Brit.” If Declan would grow some balls and come home, she could call him. He owned her building too. Was there anything he didn’t own?
The lousy line finally came in clear. “Not my water you idiot, Libby’s water! She’s in labor!” I thought I was ready. Was one ever truly ready to hear those words?
This had to be a joke, a bad one at that. “What do you mean? In labor? She’s not due for four more weeks.” Brit didn’t know what she was talking about. “Where the fuck are you anyway? Let me talk to Libby.” Everyone in the kitchen was frozen, staring at me. “Get back to work.” I boomed before focusing back in on my lunatic friend. “Let me talk to Libby.” I didn’t allow cell phones in my kitchen, but I was on baby watch, and Libby did mention she had plans with Brit today, so I answered. These weren’t the plans I was expecting.
“She’s kind of busy right now Logan.”
“Busy?” Was Brit serious? “Doing what?”
“She’s trying not to have a baby in the back of an Uber on our way back from Scribner.” I could hear Libby yelling at Brit. Clearly, she wasn’t happy with that nugget of information being shared with me. “Watch where you’re driving buddy.” A male voice grumbled something I couldn’t catch. He didn’t seem happy. Apparently, nobody was at this moment. “Well, that’s what insurance is for.”
The last thing we needed was for an angry driver to stop his car and kick my woman out of his vehicle while she proceeded to give birth on the Turnpike. Someone had to be calm here. Declan wasn’t the only one who needed to grow a pair right now. “Put me on speaker Brit.” Instantly I could hear Libby and the driver cursing.
“Breathe baby. You’ve got this.” At the sound of my voice, she stopped yelling, but it was clear she was in pain.
“It hurts Logan. I’m scared.” My girl was a badass, so I knew admitting those two things weren’t easy for her.
“I know, but when it’s over, you’re going to have our beautiful daughter in your arms.” The driver started complaining again about blood and “baby goop” in his back seat.
“Hey buddy, I’m Logan. What’s your name?”
“Hector.”
“Oh god,” Libby groaned as Brit demanded my new friend Hector drive faster.
“Brit, you’re not helping. Breathe Lib, just like we learned in class.” I made a note of the time on my watch while Mikey seamlessly took over for me in the kitchen. “Hector do you have a wife or girlfriend?” Darcy came over, and I motioned for her to give me her pen and order pad. My staff loved Libby almost as much as I did. I wrote down Eric’s number and that she needed to call him to get Libby’s bag and her sister and to meet us at the hospital. She was on her phone before I finished the note.
“I have a wife.”
“You love her very much.” It wasn’t a question. I could tell by the way he answered. “The same way I love the woman in your back seat. I can’t be there for her right now, so I’m asking you to take care of her for me. I’ll take care of any damage to your car Hector, and I’ll cook you and your wife the best meal you have ever had.”
“Okay, I will get her to the hospital, and you will take care of my car and cook for my wife.” I wasn’t prepared for him to agree so readily. In a world where people were so unkind, I had found the one guy who just wanted to work an honest day and do something sweet for his wife. If he got Libby to the hospital in one piece and before the baby arrived, I could do a whole lot better than that.