Page 146 of Kings Fear No One
“As good as one can feel when they’re shot a centimeter away from their heart,” Cash answers. He gestures to Mace on the other side of his hospital bed. “Mace was telling me all about the finale with the Saints.”
“You missed out,” I say. “Lots of bullets in skulls.”
“Probably good I wasn’t there. You know.” Cash holds a hand to the large bandage taped onto his pectoral.
“We made due without you,” Mace says.
“I do hate that I didn’t get to see that piece of shit Abraham go down.”
I tuck my hands into the front pockets of my jeans. “My only regret is that he didn’t bleed out more.”
“How’re things between you and Teysha?” Cash asks.
Glancing over my shoulder at her, a funny feeling lights me up on the inside. She’s currently laughing alongside the others at something Sunny’s said.
So damn beautiful and precious even under the hospital’s fluorescent lighting. She might as well be a fucking angel.
“Good,” I answer slowly, almost in a trance. “Real good.”
“Mind if I speak to you outside for a second?” Mace doesn’t wait for me to agree before he starts for the hospital room door.
We head halfway down the hall so to stay out of earshot from the others. Mace turns to face me with an expression that’s stuck between curiosity and concern. The urge to remind him who’s the older brother of the two of us strikes me. He speaks first.
“How’re you really?”
“What?”
“You good? A lot’s been going on.”
I crack out a rare laugh. “You worried about me?”
“Both of you,” Mace clarifies. “Syd told me Teysha told her she was leaving town again…”
“She’s staying. We’re together. We’re… we’re working things out.”
Mace brings his hand up to his scalp, scratching his head as if it’ll help him think. “Look, I’m not sure if she told you. But she told Sydney. She’s pregnant.”
Suddenly, I get where Mace’s concern’s coming from. He’s been around for the past two months and witnessed how we’ve struggled. We’ve had plenty of ups and downs wading through dark, uncertain waters.
He wants to make sure we’re thinking straight.
“I know,” I answer, then I let my mouth cant up in a slight grin. “I’m gonna be a father.”
For a second, Mace is thrown. He’s clearly more surprised by my excitement than he is by the revelation. It unfolds on his face and through his body language as his eyes widen and his hands come to rest on his waist.
“You’re in love with her,” he says. “It’s a real marriage.”
“It was always a real marriage,” I answer, clapping my hand to his shoulder. “I was just slow on the uptake.”
“It’s good for you. Both of you. That you’re working things out.”
We return to the hospital room where the others are discussing Cash’s release and Mason and Sydney’s upcoming wedding. I grab Teysha by the hand, and we give our goodbyes on our way out.
“You still alright to know?” I ask as we board the elevator. “Say the word, and we’re leaving.”
“I’m alright. You’re with me.”
She smiles sweetly, squeezing my hand that’s engulfing hers. Approaching the front desk for the hospital lab feels surreal. A life-defining moment that neither of us can predict the outcome of.
