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“Yeah.”
“Why did you feel the need to know?” She almost sounded betrayed. And that right there killed him.
“The doc told me after that first appointment. You didn’t wanna know and I stupidly asked. I shouldn’t have. Wasn’t my business. And I shoulda known I’d fuck up. And, of course, I fuckin’ did. Sorry, baby.”
“It’s a boy,” she whispered, her fingers tightening over his.
“Yeah. Is knowin’ gonna make it harder for you?” He hoped to fuck it didn’t.
“Are they happy about it?”
“My guess is they’d be happy with whatever the baby is, Red.” As long as it didn’t come out with three legs and one big cyclops eye, but he kept that to himself. “I don’t think they give a shit whether it’s a boy or a girl. It’ll be a Bryson and that’s all that matters.”
“A Bryson,” she repeated, like she was tasting the name.
“Yeah, baby, the more I ask around about ‘em, the better I feel and so should you. Besides bein’ a family full of pigs, which is the worst thing about ‘em, they’re a good, solid family. The kid’s gonna want for nothin’. And that’s how a kid should grow up.”
“Yes, a good, solid family who doesn’t trade her daughter off to some mountain clan to be used for breeding. A good, solid family who doesn’t lie to her son about who his father is. Or who thinks about her kids first over herself. Who makes sure her kids are cared for before she drinks herself into oblivion.”
Jesus. “Yeah, baby.”
She got quiet for a moment, then said, “I don’t know if I could love him as much as they could.”
Being Red, she probably could. She was the type of woman who could look past how he was created. But it still might bother her some days more than others and would that be fair to the kid?
And if she decided to have more kids in the future, would she treat him differently than kids she actually chose to have? She might not mean to, but in reality, it was a risk.
Like Red, that baby was an unwilling participant in what the Shirleys decided was Red’s and his fate. They forced her to become pregnant with him and by doing so, forced him to be born.
He just hoped the kid never found out his sperm donor was some inbred goat fucker. Sig hoped he took after his birth mother in looks and smarts but without the red hair. That might be a dead giveaway to any Shirleys who remained after the MC was done with them.
And they needed to be done with them. He needed to get on Trip and Judge about it. They couldn’t wait much longer. They couldn’t keep waiting to close on that fucking crematorium.
He was trying to keep his patience about it, but it was a fucking struggle. And without any kind of outlet to relieve his tension he was ready to fucking snap.
Autumn groaned as she pushed herself up from the couch. Even though she couldn’t be one hundred percent sure because the pregnancy wasn’t typical, Dr. Carly was pretty confident she was now thirty-eight weeks along. Which meant she only had to wait about two more weeks before he would be born. Hopefully.
She’d be fine if he decided to make an appearance today.
He.
At the last appointment, she’d asked the doctor if they had picked out a name.
She said she had, but she wasn’t jinxing anything by saying it out loud. That made Autumn smile.
She had met Carly’s husband, Matt, only once. He’d stopped in during last week’s check-up to introduce himself. He had been in uniform at the time, which made Sig struggle to keep his mouth shut.
When Officer Matt Bryson extended his hand to Sig, assuming he was the father of the baby, Autumn thought Sig was going to spit on it instead of accept it.
He didn’t, to Autumn’s relief, but he didn’t accept it, either.
It was sort of a compromise.
The pounding on the door sounded again and she cursed at Judge’s impatience. He knew she was huge and was slower to get around.
But, hey, he was bringing her a whole bunch of food from Dino’s Diner so she shouldn’t bitch. She had given Sig a huge list before he left to do a repo. But just an hour ago, he texted her and said Judge would drop the food off, instead. Sig had to do a tow job for Dutch as a favor after he did the repo, so he’d be back later than expected and asked her to save him some of the loaded fries.
She made him no promises in that regard.
More pounding, even louder this time. “Okay, Judge, I’m coming! Sheesh.”
When she made it to the door, with one hand on the key she’d left in the lock, she leaned forward as best as she could with her big belly in the way and peeked through the peephole.
