Reed (Book 2, Southern Royals Saga)

Epilogue

1 year later

July 16, 2016

Louisville, Kentucky

I woke up on soft, cotton sheets and soft country music playing downstairs.

Her side of the bed was cold, signaling she'd been gone for a while. I looked at the clock on the bedside table, seeing it had just hit 10 A.M.

Very seldom did I wake before Liv.

"Liv?" I yell out

"In here," she answers back from the bathroom, followed by a loud retch.

"Baby, you okay?" I bust into the bathroom, seeing her hunched over the toilet in a navy tank top and black underwear. She calls them "boy-shorts".

They did look like shorts, tiny fucking shorts with her ass cheeks poking out.

Liv peeked up at me, her eyes traveling down with a blush; that's when I realized I forgot to put a pair of boxers on.

"Just morning sickness," she explains, flushing the toilet and standing to brush her teeth at the sink. Ahh.

I'll admit, when Liv and I were having a nice dinner at home a few weeks ago, and she laid a positive pregnancy test in front of me, I was shocked.

Terrified.

First, it was terror at the thought of being a dad.

Next, it was anger at Liv for forgetting her pill.

Then, it was embracing.

Liv was the mother of my unborn child.

While some aspects still scared me, like teaching them right from wrong, I knew we could do it, together.

How hard could it be?

Liv stopped me as I was putting on a pair of my black boxers, "Don't bother."

She tackled me on the bed; soon bunched up sheets, and the groans of utter bliss filled the morning air.

Just another day in the life.

~

Later on, I was doing some last-minute straightening before our visitors got here.

Liv and I, we had a nice house in a nice neighborhood in the heart of Birchwood Ridge. My grandmother Ellie lived here, in this very house, growing up.

Now, my child would grow up, and Liv and I would grow old, here.

Some birthday gift, huh?

Liz was a wreck the day we left. She tried to hold back her tears, but they came, nevertheless. Her raven curls danced as she puttered around the house, snatching up random things and tossing them in boxes.

Rose followed her around, sighing and removing things from the said boxes, such as my fourth-grade basketball trophy, and a framed Principal's Award for perfect attendance from the second grade.

Liv failed to suppress her giggles that occasionally erupted with Rose's eye rolls as my aunt busied herself, trying to suppress her true feelings: the sadness of watching two more of her children leave home.

Anthony dealt with our departure in a different sort of way. Plumes of smoke and May breath billowed around his head as he sat on the back patio and chain-smoked. He'd given up on his attempts to soothe his frazzled wife, choosing the solitude of the outdoors to ponder his thoughts.