𝐄𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐝 𝐌𝐨𝐨𝐧 ♦ 𝐑𝐃𝐑

🇨​🇭​🇦​🇵​🇹​🇪​🇷​ 17

I turned to walk back in the direction I last heard some shots before I spotted the man I had helped. He's just now walking up to the girl through the dust and smoke from the burning homestead he had left, which was now crumbling to the ground. I didn't want to disturb them. For I knew that this was an exchange that Selina had been dreading, but one that needed to happen.
"Selina? My sweet Selina, is that you?" He questions as he's coming up to her slowly, as if he's afraid to approach her. I could understand. He hadn't seen her in almost fifteen years and all after Buck had come to ask for her father's blessing in marrying the girl. Even if I didn't do that. Selina looks the man over, her green hues just running over him. I can see the hurt, and the anger, but she never seems to falter in making sure she was still trying to be welcoming to him. "Papa... Yeah. It's me." She nods to him and he seems a bit taken aback by his daughter and her appearance. "It's been years... I can't believe you're here." Selina looks down in a saddened matter as she directs her eyes back up to him. "And you're--- Well you're..." He motions his hands to her abdomen before she's quick to run a hand over it.
"I am, yeah."
"Did you marry, Buck? Like he asked?" She then shakes her head to her father.
"No I didn't, pa. I ended our engagement with him a couple years later."
"So who's---" He's then cut off by her eyes drifting to me as I'm coming through the smoke. Seemed like no better time to show him who I was then right now. "You, you saved my life, partner. Thank you." He looks at me with a slight smile upon his facial features. It's as if his daughter made him soft, he wasn't all tough as he was when I found him. He even thanked me. I was a little surprised before I tip my hat to the older gentleman.
"It's alright sir. No problem."
"He's the father isn't he?" He then turns back to Selina before she smiles at me and I look down with a small chuckle. "That he is."
"So... Are you...Married?" Selina then holds up her finger to show her engagement ring along with her wedding ring as well and I hold up my hand with my ring upon it too. "Wow... You're married. Actually married. I'm so happy for you." He looks hurt though, which I was assuming because he wasn't invited. I have to admit, I felt a little bad for him. "So is this your first child?" Selina then shakes her head once more and it was almost like he's been punched in the gut once more. He's getting all these bombshells dropped on him left and right.
"How many babies you got, Selina?" My wife looks a little shaken up by his question but knows she needs to provide him with an answer. "Daddy, I have three, I have two little boys and a girl. God only knows what this one is." She replies before the male gives her a smile, looks as if he could cry. "Two boys and a girl... and one more on the way. Wow." He then looks back at me before extending his hand out. "Antonio Hinton. You was right all along, I see you have to be takin' care of my daughter."
"I'm doing all my best sir. Sorry about the mess here."
"It's all okay son, what's your name?"
"Asher Sanders, sir. I'm the man your daughter married, the father of her babies, and the one who— Well, the one who brought her here today."
"Asher Sanders huh? You run with Dutch's gang back in eighteen ninety nine?" I feel a bit nervous as he asks before I give him a nod without too much hesitation. "I did. Was how I met your daughter."
Antonio shifts his gaze over to Selina now a bit confused for a moment. "You ran with that gang too? Because of him?"

Selina doesn't even look like she wants to admit it, and it always broke my heart little by little to see my own wife, afraid to be honest about how we met and what happened at times. It was our own love story, not the ones you read that were so typical and easy to guess what happens, it was an action filled drama with ups and downs like any other. "I did run with them too, papa. I fell so madly in love with Asher, almost like how ma—-"
"Fell in love with me... You two, well, you two seem happy enough together."
I come up beside Selina and I allow my arm to wrap around her before she leans into me. "We are, daddy. We really are... This man has given me everything I could ever ask for and he works so hard everyday to see to it that myself, and our children are taken good care of."
The male runs his hands over his face now before he shakes his head a little vigorously, as if he's trying to find some other form of reality, but that just isn't possible. "How is your mother?" He then asks before Selina seems a bit confused. "She's— Doing okay I guess. She's married to a man named Russell and they had one child together named Grace."
"I figured she would find love again one day, that woman could rock anyone's world as much as she rocked mine with her beauty. I wanna see her again. Might I join you both in your journey back up north?"

Selina seems hesitant, for she doesn't know if it would be a good idea to have her father and mother together again, I've heard how her mother speaks on this man and it was never anything friendly. But I knew Selina still had a heart. "Sure, daddy, sure. You can come see momma. Not sure how she'll feel about seein' you..."
"Like how you feel on seein' me, Selina?"
The girl looks at the man like he just pushed a button on her and even I knew he did.
"We're not speaking on this now, pa. I ain't feelin' like it right now. I'm hungry, I'm tired, I just wanna have a decent meal with my mother before I go back out lookin' for the leader of our gang."
"How far along are you, Selina? You seem a little bit far along."
"I don't know, almost five months I'm guessin' we've been at this for a long while, four months if anythin'. Please, can we go?" She then questions as she's whistling for her horse as I am mine.
"Baby move yet?" He then asks before Selina seems a bit sad, which concerned me. "No. I'm worried if it's not soon... Then maybe this wasn't meant to be at all."
She hurt me more in saying that, I figured as much that it would be soon. We could've only hoped at least. It happened at different times for all three of our kids, Arthur I remember, was just before the six month mark. Andrew, he was like four months, and little Sadie, she was at five months exactly when Selina had me come feel the first real movements, they were so tiny, besides Arthur of course, but I knew they meant a lot to her and the thought of something wrong with the current child, shit scared me more and more. Antonio knows he's probably overstepped as he gets upon his horse as well. I knew Selina didn't wanna think bad about the baby too, she was just as worried. Though, she never seemed in the least bit of pain if something was going wrong. Still acted like she was pregnant, her belly still felt it too. Maybe we were just overthinking at this point.