Total pages in book: 51
Estimated words: 51122 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 256(@200wpm)___ 204(@250wpm)___ 170(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 51122 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 256(@200wpm)___ 204(@250wpm)___ 170(@300wpm)
“Oh, thank God,” Linc said as we both greeted each other. “Now you both need to talk her out of this crazy shit right the hell now. Conleigh, your mother is a paramedic. Ellen is a nurse practitioner. They know what they’re talking about. Listen to them.”
“I’m not going to die,” Conleigh said through gritted teeth. “Now, help me have this baby, or get out!”
Linc stiffened.
“Wait!” she cried. “I don’t want you to get out. Get in here.”
Linc looked at the tub filled with water, then to me and Ellen as if he was waiting for one of us to talk her out of it.
I didn’t think that we could.
Conleigh had always had a very stubborn mind of her own. If she’d set it on something, she was going to do it. There would be no talking her out of it.
“How far apart are your contractions?” Ellen asked.
“Umm,” Conleigh said. “Right on top of the other. I didn’t call you until they were really close. Also, um, I can feel the head.”
I looked down at where my daughter’s hands were, then immediately went to the sink and started to wash my hands. Ellen followed suit at the sink next to me.
When we were done, Linc was stripped down to his underwear and sliding into the water behind his wife.
“This is so gross,” he said as he slid in. “If you do anything in this tub besides lay in it, I’m out.”
Conleigh laughed. “Liar.”
Book: Law & Beard
CHAPTER 14
Bring me donuts not flowers.
-Conleigh to Jessie
JESSIE
“I can’t believe that this is actually happening,” I muttered to Steel. “This is like we’re back in the 1800s or something.”
Grinning, Steel looked at me. “This really surprises you? I mean, it’s Conleigh. This is the same girl who stole shit for her baby brother. The same girl who told me she would kill me if I hurt her mother. Of course, she’s going to do something crazy like this.”
Just as I was about to reply, the stairs creaked, and we both looked up.
My breath hitched in my throat when I saw my son.
Holding his newborn baby in his arms.
“Holy shit,” I breathed, standing up, my heart pounding so hard that it felt like a lead anvil in my chest. “Holy shit!”
Linc shook his head, his face haggard. “I can’t freakin’ believe she just did that to me.”
I hurried forward and came to a sudden halt, my heart all but breaking when I realized I shouldn’t get any closer to him.
“This freakin’ virus,” I growled.
Before I could say anything else, Linc shoved a bottle of industrial-sized hand sanitizer into my hands.
“Use this,” he said.
I did, my heart pounding as I looked at my kid holding his kid.
When I had myself cleaned up to my elbows, he placed his child, my grandchild, into my arms.
My heart beat violently when I looked at the new little soul in my hands.
“Ho, boy,” Steel said from my side. “Looks like you, kid.”
“Fuckin’ huge, isn’t he?” Linc laughed. “She was cursing me the entire time. Mom used the freakin’ mail scale to weigh him. He’s ten pounds, fourteen ounces.”
My mouth fell open. “You’re shitting me.”
Linc shook his head. “Nope.”
“Conleigh okay?” Steel asked, sounding anxious.
I ran my finger over the length of my grandson’s bald head.
“Is that my baby?”
Linc’s now middle child came barreling into the room.
I dropped down to my knee so she could see. “It is. Do you like him?”
The smart ass looked at me with barely concealed hostility. “No. Can you put him back and hold me instead? I’m way prettier.”
Book: The Beard Made Me Do It
CHAPTER 15
Balls deep into Christmas.
-Ezra’s secret thoughts
EZRA
“Well, that’s it then.” I stared at the television where our governor had just declared that schools be canceled for the rest of the year. “Shit.”
My wife wiped her eyes. “This sucks so bad.”
I pulled her into my arms and turned her so that she was practically in my lap. Then I said, “At least we can start working on that second baby.”
She snorted and lifted up until she could press her lips to mine.
“Except,” she admitted, “I’ll get pregnant, then I’ll have to miss half the school year next year due to me having the baby. I don’t think…”
I shut her up by moving us all over again, this time so she was underneath me.
When I pulled back from our kiss the second time, she was staring at me with a haze of happiness in her eyes. None of the sadness from before.
“The kids will love you no matter what,” I said. “But for right now, it’s time to focus on our mental health. Not anybody else’s.”
Raleigh was already shaking her head. “I can’t help but worry about my kids, Ezra.”
“You don’t think I worry about mine?” I asked. “I had eight seniors this year. They didn’t get to play their last baseball game. They don’t get to walk the stage for graduation. They don’t get to dance at their prom. And I don’t get to watch them walk into my class for the last time and leave as adults.”