Chapter Twenty-One
Tabitha
“JAKOB, LEAVE LILY’S HAIR ALONE. You’re a fourth grader now. You should know by now that we keep our hands to ourselves.” I fight rolling my eyes for the hundredth time this morning.
It’s not even lunch time yet, and I’ve already run my voice ragged reminding my students what is, and isn’t, appropriate actions for ten-year-olds to take. We barely got through fractions, and I can count three mystery stains that have magically appeared on my brand-new scarf I bought last weekend when I went to my OBGYN appointment.
I’m one of the lucky ones who get to experience morning sickness at the end of my pregnancy, as well as at the beginning. I was nauseous and dizzy, making my mood very sour. Brandon, the saint that he is, took me to a little boutique on the way home and surprised me with this beautiful pale pink infinity scarf with pearl threads stitched throughout. It’s a gorgeous scarf, and probably the softest fabric I’ve ever worn. But now it’s covered in something that I’m probably lucky to not be able to identify.
“Lily! We don’t kick people there!” I scold. “You apologize right now, or you can go visit Ms. Duffy in the reflection room.”
“You better listen. She sent me there last week, and it was rough. I’m lucky the alligators came close to biting off my boot,” my handsome and slightly obnoxious husband says as he pokes his head into the classroom.
The class breaks out into hoots and roars. I shoot up my hand in the air and count down from five, guiding the kids down to find their inside voices. Once the giggles turn to whispers, I walk over and greet Brandon with a smile. “Hey, what are you doing here?”
“I came to see if you could go have lunch with me today.”
“I have lunchroom duty this week.” I pout apologetically.
We walk out into the hallway, just outside the door, so I can still see my fourth graders, but far enough away to talk in private. He steps forward and tucks a piece of my hair behind my ear. “Need a ride home?”
“Phil’s picking me up. We made plans to go look for a new chair for his living room.”
“Should you be walking around so much right now?” Brandon reaches forward and rests both his hands on my oversized baby belly. “My son’s gonna come out running.” He pulls me close as he kisses the top of my head, trying to hide the smirk on his face.
“You know it says something when you’re the first one to laugh at your own jokes.” I successfully say with a halfway straight face.
“That’s how you know they’re good.”
I swat his arm playfully then lift up on my toes to kiss him. He tries to deepen the kiss, but I cut it off quickly with a giggle. “I’ll see you later, stud, go serve and protect something.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
God, only Brandon Kane can make a girl melt by calling her “ma’am.” It’s almost like foreplay. My skin warms and shivers run south. He’s got me all hot and bothered and stuck having to work for four more hours.
Yay me.
He dips down and plants one more kiss on my lips then turns and walks down the hallway toward the entrance to the school, and I return to my class. I love watching him walking away, especially when he’s working. The way he wears that uniform should be considered illegal.
The day goes by surprisingly fast, and before I know it, Phil is annoyingly trying to help me into the passenger side of his small Ford Ranger. He babies me constantly. Even when I’m not eight and a half months pregnant, he treats me like I’m made of glass. The fact that I am eight and a half months pregnant just makes his overprotectiveness out of control.
“I can buckle myself in, tough guy,” I joke when he reaches for the strap. “Now get on your side so we can go shopping.”
“Women.” He chuckles while shaking his head. “Tell them a credit card’s involved, and they get all giddy.”
I giggle and toss him a wink. He closes my door and walks around the front of the truck to join me in the cab on his side. He starts the truck and pulls away from the school. I reach over, taking his hand in mine. Phil smiles and gives my hand a squeeze.
I love these moments with Phil. He never became my father-in-law, but he’s definitely become family. He’s the best grandfather Mattie could ever ask for. It sometimes brings tears to my eyes when I see them together. She’s the luckiest little girl to have not two, but three amazing grandfathers to spoil her absolutely rotten. Not a single one of them have any shame when it comes to spoiling her, and I know it’s going to be just as bad once my son is born. He’ll be just as spoiled and loved by all the grandparents in his life.
I’m in my own little world, holding Phil’s hand and caressing my stomach. The day is beautiful. It’s not too hot, or too cold. The clouds are a beautiful fluffy white and forming shapes in the bright blue sky, and the breeze blowing through the open windows fills the truck with the smells of autumn. We should always have days like this.
“You plan on sharing what’s running through your head, making you smile and sigh like that?”
I smile even more. “It’s so pretty out today,” I answer.
“Yeah, I guess it is.” The truck stops at a four-way stop. “When Matt was little we used to head over to the park on days like this and toss the football around.”
I squeeze his hand and take in the memory he’s just shared with me. Mathew’s been gone for almost five years now, and even though I’ve mostly moved on, the ache is still there whenever he’s mentioned. My love for him remains just as strong, as it always was. My heart must be four times the size of an ordinary human heart to accommodate all the love I hold.
I look at Phil to see he’s smiling back at me. He starts to pull forward when out of nowhere, all I can see is a pair of large headlights slam into Phil’s side of the truck.
I scream, but it falls short of the screeching and bending of metal, and the shattering of glass, as the truck flips and spins several times. Everything stops with an unconscious Phil and myself hanging upside down, hanging only by the seatbelts that are buckled in.
“Phil?” I call out, but he remains silent.
I go to call for him again, when a cramp takes over my middle, and fluid runs down my body and into my hair, followed by more cramping.
My water just broke, and I’m stuck in a crumpled pickup truck. I’m hanging upside down off a seatbelt, next to an unconscious man, and there’s no one I can call for help. I panic and hyperventilate until everything blurs.