Nice Shot (John Luke Robertson Book 2)

Chapter 11

You guys were begging so I uploaded. I'll put in y'all's characters later but I am super tired and I was needing something cute in my life of chaos so what is cuter than a little child? Ignore errors.

"Excuse me?" I demand, my blood cold. My sister was not pregnant. She couldn't have been.
"She was pregnant. And scared. She didn't know what your family would do to her. She didn't want to deal with the people at school or people of society looking down on her." Scooter looks so calm but I am flipping out.
"I don't believe you," I growl. How dare he come in and tell me lies. He smirks.
"I figured. Hang on," he reaches into his pocket, pulling out a wallet. He slides out five pictures. "This," he slides me the first picture. "Is when she was four months pregnant. We stayed at my brother's abandoned house in Florida." My sister is mid-sentence, her mouth open and staring directly at the camera. Her stomach is wrapped in an old t shirt, and it's rounded slightly- just a little pudgy. It's hardly noticeable. "Here is seven months," he gives me the next photo. It's of my sister in a black gown. She is standing and the shot is from a side view. Her stomach is large. Really large. She has a hand to her forehead. "This was taken at the same place, but my aunt was there. She's a retired Labor and Delievry nurse from Florida. She delivered this little bundle of joy." The next picture is of a screaming, red faced baby. The eyes are closed and dark hair is layered thin over it's head. A pink cloth is wrapped around the baby.
"It's a girl?" I ask, wiping away tears I didn't know had fallen. Scooter nods.
"Her name is Kaysie Leigh Ty-McNeil," he states, sliding another photo over the table. I smile. She named her daughter after me. "This is Kaysie two days ago in Florida." The picture is of a little girl- around four or five. Her hair is long and dark like Hailey's. She eyes are black like Scooter's. Her skin is a nice light tanned color like Hailey's. She's smiling wide like Hailey. The girl is dressed in a pink dress and wrapped in Scooter's arms. "I have more pictures if you want to see them." I nod eagerly, dying to see my niece. I have to face the facts. These pictures aren't photoshopped. There's no way a two or three year old girl can look like my sister this much and not be hers. Plus, my sister was absolutely pregnant in those pictures.
"So she had a home birth?" I question as he digs through his wallet. He nods, taking a stack of small pictures out.
"That was a hard moment in both of our lives," he chuckles dryly, his facing contorting. He lays the photos on the table. "It was so painful for her, because it was natural. She didn't take any drugs for the pain. Her screams were... horrid. I can't get the memory out of my head but I know that if it hadn't have happened then we wouldn't have her."
"So you're definitely the dad then?" I question, picking up the small squares. He nods.
"My aunt ran a test, but I was on the run so I couldn't show my face," he explains. I look up.
"So how can you show now?"
"The cases were dropped after Hailey passed away. Before she died, she admitted to run away and then fled. She was going to get arrested because rubbing away is a crime for minors. But she died the next day," his voice breaks. My sister knew she was going to die. I swear she did. That's why she confessed to running away. "She came to see her daughter one last time and then the fire..." he trails off, not being able to finish. He doesn't have to.
I pick up the photos, flipping through the two years of my nieces life. A few pictures of Haikey holding her baby pop up. She frequently saw her daughter, which means the days she said she was visiting her best friend she actually went to Florida to be with her little family she started.
"Were y'all dating when she died?" I question. He nods.
"On and off, but the night before the fire she told me she loved me. I figured we could be together for a long time after, but..."
"So where is Kaysie now?" My questions are all over the place. It feels weird saying my own name but not speaking about me.
"With my aunt. We're staying in a hotel here. I heard about you and your dad moving to Louisiana. Someone who went to high school with you mentioned it so I came here and started asking. I met a girl... Kailtyn? Katrina? Kathryn?"
"You met her?"
"Yeah. She said you were living next to Mis Kay and Phil. Duck Dynasty. You scored big on John Luke, didn't you?" Scooter laughs. I nod and giggle. JL has that affect on me. I slide through the pictures, seeing a lot of Scooter holding Kaysie. He's kissing her cheek in one, changing a diaper in another, kissing her tummy, her nose, her forehead. There's one where he's tickling her feet and she's smiling. "I have videos of her."
"Can I see?" I ask. I want to see her. She's my niece and I haven't seen her at all besides these few pictures. I flip to the last picture as Scooter fumbles with his phone. It's of Hailey and Scooter kissing with their baby girl below their chins, sleeping in their arms. It must've been taken by Scooter's aunt in Florida.
"Here, this is most recent" Scooter hands over his phone and I press play. In the video, Kaysie is looking past the camera.
"What are you doing?" Scooter's voice asks from behind the camera.
"Singin," she answers.
"What are you singing?" Scooter asks. She glances at the phone camera and smiles, biting her whole bottom lip with her baby teeth.
"She's A Wainbow," her r comes out as w.
"Sing for me."
"She comes in colors ev'ywheyeh;
She combs hew haiw
She's like a wainbow
Coming, colows in the aiw
Oh, ev'ywheyeh
She comes in colows
She comes in colows ev'ywheyeh;
She combs hew haiw
She's wike a wainbow." Her voice is cute and high pitched.
"Good job, baby girl," Scooter praises, fondness evident in his voice. I skip to the next video with a smile on my face.
Kaysie appears on the screen with a chef hat on and flour on her cheeks. She's standing on a stool in front of Scooter as she stirs with a wooden spoon.
"Say hi, Kays" (Pronounced like Case) a female voice says. That must be the aunt.
Little Kaysie waves her small hand.
"Hi," she looks at the camera phone and stirs the contents of the bowl.
"What are you making?" Scooter asks, wrapping an arm around Kaysie as she begins to wobble from her forceful stirs.
"A cake."
"What kind?" Scooter pulls a piece of her dark hair behind her ear.
"A vawina bufday cake fow you, Daddy," she smiles back at him, kissing his cheek. Her version of the word vanilla is too adorable.
She smiles in the video.
"Do you know how old Daddy's going to be?" The aunt asks. Kaysie nods. "How old?"
"Twenty one."
"Very good, baby girl," Scooter kisses her ear. "How old will you be in May?"
"Three." She holds up three little fingers. God she's smart for a young girl.
"That's right," Scooter says, walking to the fridge to get some butter out. I watch in horror as Kaysie's foot slips from the stool. The camera moves jerkily, but I catch the moment of Scooter grabbing his daughter off the stool before she can drop to the floor. She squeals as he spins her around and holds her on his hip, one hand around her back and the other holding her head to his chest. I let go of the breath I didn't know I was holding as the video ends. I skip to the next one. (A/N you know on the iPhone where you can out different vids or pics in categories in the library? He has one called Kaysie- which is his daughter not the main character).
It's a video of my niece in a Halloween costume in 2013. She's a princess. Ariel to be exact. She has a red wig, a teal glittery tank top and her feet are wrapped in teal leggings as she pops her feet into the cushiony tail. Her feet poke through the bottom so she can walk. In her hands are a slightly bent fork and a Flounder the fish and Sebastian the crab printed trick or treat bag.
"Are you ready to get some candy, Ariel?" Scooter questions the two year old who nods and begins brushing her hair with the fork. "You're silly."
"Happy Hawwoween!" She exclaims, putting the bag and fork down on the kitchen table and holding her arms up. "Pick Up." The camera moves around as Scooter picks up the little girl and holds her on his hip with the camera on her face. She smiles and buries her head in her dad's shoulder.
"What are you doing, mermaid?" Scooter asks, humor in his voice. She looks up at him and grins. "What?"
"Wuv yu," she states. He smiles.
"I love you too, sweetheart," he kisses her nose and ends the video.
The next is of her fifth birthday. She has a few friends over and a few adults that resemble Scooter- his relatives- and they all sing. She blows out the candles and opens some presents. The last on is from a few days ago so it says. The aunt is filming the father and daughter as they it on the couch with a box of pictures in his lap.
"These are mommy's pictures," Scooter says softly, wrapping an arm around his daughter's shoulders. "Remember Mommy? There she is." He holds a picture in front of her. Kaysie is around five in this video as well. In the others, she wa young like three.
"I remember." Her voice is more pronounced and clear. "Who's that?"
"That's your Aunt Kaysie," Scooter says. Kaysie looks up with a grin.
"She has my name?"
"Yeah," Scooter holds out another picture.
I cover my mouth as a sob sticks in my throat. The aunt moves the camera closer so I can see the picture in the video. It's of Hailey and I on her sixteenth birthday. She has a new car- a red VW bug. She has an arm around me and an excited expression. I look jealous yet happy that she can drive me around.
The next picture is just of Hailey. I have never seen the picture so Scooter must have taken it. It's Hailey when she was fifteen. Her face is tan and bright from the Florida sun. Her eyes are twinkling with happiness. She's wearing a white dress that covers her large stomach. She stands near the window, the beach view evident through the glass. A huge smile is on her face as she looks out at the ocean.
"She's beautiful," Kaysie mumbles, touching the photo with her fingertip. My niece lets out a sob so heart wrenching that I have to close my eyes. Tears drop and I cover my mouth harder, not wanting to cry anymore. I open my eyes to see Scooter hugging his daughter in the video as she sobs. He's stroking her hair and whispering, clearly holding back his own tears.
The video ends and I hand the phone back, knowing can't even handle any of the videos with Hailey in them. I cover my face, letting my shoulders shake. An arm wraps around my shoulders and pulls me into a familliar chest. He ditched the raincoat and sunglasses, though. My tears soak through his shirt as he strokes my back.
"I'll let you have a minute. I'm gonna go pay," Scooter excuses himself and leaves from the booth.
"What happened, Kaysie?"
"I have a niece," I say, wiping my tears and pulling back to see my boyfriend's face. His eyes widen.
"What?"
"Yeah," I chuckle at the whole situatio. "My sister got pregnant at fifteen. It's Scooter's baby. They ran away for eleven and a half months. When she returned, she was skinny. No one suspected. She must've been doing some stroller running on the beach." I explain the whole ordeal to him, describing the videos and everything- including the night before the fire.
"Oh my Gosh," John Luke's shoulders slump. I nod.
"Exactly. I wish she would've told me, y'know? I'm not my dad or another kid from school. I could've kept the secret," I say.
"She tried," Scooter appears again, leaving a tip on the table. "She tried to tell you the day before Kaysie's first birthday. She told you that she wanted to take you to a birthday party, but you said no. She said it was someone important and you needed to meet her, but you insisted that you had finals to deal with. So she tried again on Christmas that year. She said she was going to meet someone late on Christmas Eve. She said you should come with. You asked why and she said because Santa needs to give Kaysie her presents. She said you looked so confused. She was saying that she wanted to be there when her daughter opened her presents from Santa, but you didn't get the cryptic message. She gave up after that, but she was going to tell you when she moved out of your parents house. She figured since she wouldn't be living their roof, she couldn't get in trouble for having a kid at fifteen."
I take this in, remembering those times. Why didn't I just go with her? Why didn't I understand? "Thank you for accompanying me on this friendly dinner. If you want to see your niece, call me or come to the Home Days Inn- Room 209. We'll be here for two weeks." He leaves a paper on the table with his cell and the room number.
"Thank you," I say. He nods.
"I'm sorry I scared you in the woods and demanded you to have a date with me. I just didn't want to explain everything with your boyfriend there, because I didn't know how much he knew about your sister. It might've been something you didn't talk about and I respected that. I didn't think you'd come with me unless I had an advantage. I'm sorry."
"You're forgiven," I smile. He nods and leaves with a small wave and an apology to John Luke. I sit down and look at the table. He left the photos!
I check the paper with his number. On the other side it reads:
Keep them.
The pictures. He wants me to keep the pictures.
I slide them all into my boyfriends shirt breast pocket. He kisses my forehead.
"Let's go home."