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Louis nodded, taking a massive bite of his taco.
What was normally about ten bites for me, took him three.
“She didn’t like that I kept calling her and then thought the best course of action was to get her son to… fuck with me?” I asked. “What? Why?”
Louis shook his head.
“That’s just it. I don’t know. She hasn’t talked. Julian’s accounting of the matters at hand are like looking through a windshield that’s fogged up to hell and back. He knows that something happened. He just doesn’t know why. You know what I mean?”
I did.
Julian was broken. There was something inside of his brain that just didn’t mesh right, and he wasn’t functioning on all cylinders.
I’d sensed that when I’d first met him, of course, but I hadn’t been able to put my finger on exactly why.
Even worse, I felt sorry for the man.
There he’d been, killing poor, defenseless animals and putting them on my front porch for me to see, and I was feeling bad for him.
The irony of it all was not lost on me.
“Romeo and Julian were apparently a product of a really bad marriage,” Louis said as he sat back, hands patting his now satisfied belly. “We called Julian’s father. He was very open with us. He said that Julian chose Tiana, and Romeo chose him. However, he was deployed, and Romeo had no choice but to go back to his mother. After he’d come back, apparently Tiana couldn’t ‘stand to look at him’ so she chose to stay away more often than not. She put on a hell of a show each time the father’s brother came over to check on the kids, though.”
“That’s awful,” I said softly. “But… why did she fixate on me? I mean, it wasn’t my fault that I had to call her. I was just doing my job.”
“The ex-husband had a few guesses.” Louis sighed. “One, you look like the woman that the ex-husband left Tiana for.” I winced at his words. “Two, you showed her son, that she hated, kindness. She didn’t like that.”
That was just… sad.
Really, really sad.
What did it matter in the end?
Romeo was dead.
Julian would be seeing the inside of a psych ward for quite a long time.
And Tiana was now going to be put away for attempted murder of a police officer.
Needless to say, she’d totally and royally screwed her life up. All for no reason at all.
That was sad and horrible, and I wished that people like her never got the gift of a child.
The rest of dinner, and the entire ride home, I was silent, locked inside of my own head.
When we arrived at my door, I blinked in surprise.
“I thought we would be going to your place,” I said quietly.
“We are, but I wanted to stop by your place first,” he said. “Our future place.”
I got out of the car and walked with him up to the front door.
He produced a key and walked inside, waiting until I was all the way in to close it behind me.
The doors closing meant there was very little light in the house, making it almost eerie.
When I felt for the light switch, I frowned when I felt something hanging above it.
Moving my hand lower, I found the switch, flicked it on, and stared at the ring that was hanging from a sign that said, “Will you marry me?”
I blinked stupidly for a few seconds, unsure what to say.
“I know that we haven’t been back together that long,” he said from directly behind me. “But I know what I want. I’ve known it since we were kids. I want you. I want a life with you. I want to have fifteen kids with you. I want to be married and grow old with you. I want to wake up next to you every morning for the rest of my life. I…”
The app on Louis’ phone signaling a SWAT call rang out, interrupting his words.
“This’ll be our life,” he said as he pulled his phone out, silenced the alarm, and gestured to the ring. “If that’s all right with you…”
I yanked the ring from the string, put it onto my finger string and all, and practically ran out the door to his car.
“Let’s go, slowpoke. You got places to be. Bad guys to deal with,” I called over my shoulder.
He followed me out, being sure to lock up behind himself as he did.
When we got into the car, I admired my ring.
“I’m pretty sure I’m carrying your kid, you know,” I said softly.
“I know.”
His knowledge didn’t surprise me.
He knew me about as well as I knew myself.
“I don’t want fifteen kids,” I continued.
He chuckled. “Out of everything you heard, that’s all you have to focus on?”
I twirled the ring and worked on tugging the string free.
“Well, fifteen seems a little excessive,” I said as he flipped on his lights and sirens and accelerated down the street at a fast clip.
