Page 104 of Gideon
“Gideon?” he questioned, as I exited the truck. I’m sure I looked like a half maniac as I ran around the front of the truck and helped Naomi out of her seat.
“Sorry for the inconvenience, but she needs Talia,” I murmured, walking my wife past him and into their home.
“Zeke?” Talia’s voice called from the kitchen.
“In here, Talia,” I called out. She appeared moments later, that same look on her face as I’d seen on my brother’s.
“Naomi!” she said, rushing to my wife where I had sat her on the couch. I stepped back, fighting the urge to simply gather Naomi into my arms. I watched her collapse into Talia’s embrace, tears finally pushing past the dam she had erected, her walls tumbling down as she let herself break.
“What the hell happened?” Zeke whispered beside me. I opened my mouth to answer, but no words came out. I just looked on with no idea of how to respond.
“Naomi, sweetheart. Talk to me,” Talia urged. I crouched down, my hands clenched in front of my mouth as I watched the process unfold. I was doing the best thing I could for my wife. It’s what she had asked of me.
“It’s happening,” Naomi cried. “It’s happening again and it’s worse than ever.”
“Brother, let’s go get the ladies some water, shall we?” Zeke suggested, his hand resting on my back. I nodded my head, standing back upright and following him into the kitchen as Naomi began to tell Talia what had happened.
Zeke pulled out glasses from the cupboard, filling them with water and some ice, neither of us speaking.
“I need to call Levi,” I muttered, grabbing one of the glasses and taking a long drink of the cool water.
“What happened, Gideon?” Zeke asked me as I searched for my phone.
“Damn. I left my phone at the house. Could you—”
“I got it. But first, do you want to tell me what happened?” Zeke urged again.
“We were having lunch at her parent’s house and some news was shared. News that we weren’t expecting and, well, I’d rather share it all at once, rather than multiple times,” I explained, or rather, pushed off.
“Very well,” Zeke nodded, taking the phone from his pocket and texting our brothers. After a few minutes, I heard it ding in his hand a few times. “They’re all heading here shortly. Then you can tell us what is going on. In the meantime, let’s let the girls talk and give them some space, yeah?”
“Yeah,” I agreed quietly. My mind raced with the weight of the words Naomi’s mother had spoken. Multiple adoptions. Not just multiple adoptions, but a fucking meeting held about said adoptions?
In what felt like no time at all, my brothers and their wives had all assembled in Zeke’s small house. Us brothers gathered in the kitchen, giving the women space in the living room to talk amongst themselves, all of them quickly helping my wife. As grateful as I was, it was killing me to not be the one she turned to in this moment. It took everything I had not to rush to her side, pushing everyone else out of the way so that I could be her rock, her safe place. In reality, I knew I would be, but later. When she needed me. I just had to wait for her to be ready and willing toletme be that for her. And that wasn’t my decision to make.
Zeke had taken waters into the women, coming back to join us in the kitchen where each of my brothers stood awkwardly, waiting for me to speak.
“So what the hell are we all doing here, Gideon?” Malachi asked brusquely.
“Naomi and I were having lunch with her parents when her mother told us something. Something that you all need to hear,” I explained.
“Then maybe cut the theatrics and get to it,” Malachi snarked in his usual asshole-ish way.
“Knock it off, Kai,” Ollie shot right back.
“There was a meeting held at the church last week,” I continued. “Were any of you invited to it?”
“Delilah said something about it, but didn’t mention what it was about,” Ollie answered. I nodded.
“Perhaps she wasn’t told what it was regarding,” I answered.
“What was the meeting about?” Levi questioned. “Nothing was mentioned to me.”
“Or to me,” Zeke agreed.
“The meeting was about adoption,” I answered with a heavy sigh. “Apparently there are currently several adoptions in the works here in Zion.”
“Fuck,” Kai muttered from his seat.
