Rip

 

I glanced over at Jessi, grinning at her. “So how old does he have to be before I can take him on his first bike ride?” I asked.

 

Jessi rolled her eyes, then grimaced in pain, and I could tell that she'd had another contraction. I glanced at my watch. Yeah, they were definitely coming more frequently now. But she was staying pretty quiet about them still, powering through them in a way that impressed me.

 

She gasped a little towards the end of this one and then gave me a sheepish look. “Sorry,” she said, as though she'd done something wrong.

 

I reached out to squeeze her shoulder. “Should I be saying sorry for knocking you up?” I joked.

 

Jessi snorted. “Only if you take the kid on his first bike ride before he's twenty-one,” she told me. “Because if so, I'm going to kill you.”

 

I shook my head, laughing a little. “Right, like Jessi Ford's kid isn't going to grow up practically living on motorcycles,” I said. “You're the hottest talent in the country at the moment. That kid is going to be a master of riding bikes by the time he's, like, ten.”

 

“He'd better not be,” Jessi said, shaking her head as well. “Not that I have anything against the lifestyle, of course—obviously it's worked out well for me. But do you realize how dangerous motorcycles are? So many people get killed in so many stupid ways every year … and there's no way in hell that I'm ever letting him get involved with a motorcycle club, whether it's the Hounds of Hades or anyone else. The last thing I need is for our son to wind up in jail!”

 

“Guess he's not going to be working around the shop much then, huh?” I asked. Jessi still helped out a lot around the shops. At least, she had until her pregnancy had gotten too far along. They were both technically owned by the Hounds of Hades at the moment, just to make things simpler for her and her father to manage.

 

Jessi grimaced. “I sound just like Dad did when I told him that I wanted to go into automotive engineering, I know,” she said. “But seriously. This kid is not-” She broke off, her hands squeezing tightly into fists, and I began to drive a little faster. It would have been so much quicker on the bike, but there was no way I was driving a woman having contractions to the hospital on my souped-up motorbike.

 

“And we're giving him the least biker-dude name that we can come up with,” Jessi continued, when she was breathing normally again.

 

“What does that mean?” I asked.

 

“I mean, it's got to be something ...good. Like James.”

 

“You do realize that J.T.'s first name is actually James, right?” I asked. “James Thompson—J.T. And he's one of the most stereotypical bikers that I've ever met.”

 

“So not James then,” Jessi said. “But, seriously. It's going to be something where we don't have to worry about him-”

 

“His name isn't going to determine whether he becomes a biker,” I argued exasperatedly. “But probably the fact that he's growing up with two bikers who own a couple different chop shops around the city … well, that's what's going to do it.”

 

Jessi shook her head stubbornly. “Nope,” she said. “That kid is going to become-”

 

“Whatever he wants to be,” I finished. “Just like his mama did.” I grinned over at her. “Jessi, you sound just like your dad. And you see exactly how well that turned out.”

 

Jessi grinned back over at me and reached out to hold my hand where it was resting on the gearshift.

 

“I love you,” I told her, even though I knew she already knew that.

 

She smiled over at me as well. “I love you, too,” she said. “Sorry I'm being a bit crazy about all of this. I just already can't stand the idea of him being hurt—either physically or because he's fallen for some asshole biker chick who never gives him the time of day.” Then, she placed a hand lightly over her stomach, grinning that same silly grin that she had got the day that she had told me that she was pregnant. “I love you two—both of you,” she said.

 

I gave her a soft smile, still hardly believing that things had worked out so well for us. “We both love you,” I told her just as we arrived at the hospital where our son would be born.

 

THE END

 

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