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I spend the rest of Christmas in my room, waiting until they decide what they are going to do to me.
Chapter 6
Kiera
It’s been more than a week since I last saw Coal, since they took him away from me. Lee found me a couple days after Christmas hiding in the old cabin Earl had lived in. I skipped work and cried for days, eating very little. By the time he found me, I was dehydrated. and again ended up in the hospital. He told the doctors there was a high likelihood I was pregnant, but they said it was too early to tell. They treated me as such anyway, just in case. I was given fluids and spent the night in the hospital. The next day Lee showed up and told me I could stay at Coal’s mom’s gallery.
“There is a small apartment upstairs you can stay in,” Lee says as we pull up in front of the gallery. “It’s yours to do with as you please. Coal wanted you to have it.” His words hurt because that means Coal isn’t coming back. For the first Christmas ever, I actually felt loved, until this moment. I nod at him and take the keys before stepping out of the car.
Now I’m sitting here watching as the town celebrates the new year around me. Fireworks will go off over the lake at midnight. I need to make it to the store to buy eggs and milk. I slip on my tennis shoes and my coat. It’s cooler today and the snow is sticking. I step out of the gallery’s back door and lock it behind me. I’m careful across the parking lot, I don’t want to slip and fall. I still don’t know if I’m pregnant, but if I am, I’m going to give this baby everything I didn’t have.
Stepping into the warm interior of the grocery store, I grab a cart and walk down the aisles. I found out I still have my job cleaning the cabins and I start again the day after tomorrow. All my bruises from Leon’s attack have faded to yellow. Leon is in jail, and Sheriff Kullen said he won’t get out for a long time. I’m sad to say I’m actually hurt I caused all this strife.
“Freak. Murderer,” is hissed from behind me, and I turn to see Barbie, my old manager from the country club, standing at the end of the aisle. “You ruined that poor man’s life with your filth.”
“No, I didn’t.” I cry.
“Yes, you did.”
“My life isn’t ruined.” Coal’s voice comes from behind me, and I twist so fast I lose my footing. He rushes to me and catches me. “Pixie, be careful.”
“Coal.” I cry.
“Just a second.” He pulls me into him, and I hold on with everything in me as he looks over my head to Barbie. “You’re fired. I run that country club now, and I don’t want people that bully others working for me. Besides, Kiera didn’t kill anyone. Leon killed his own wife when he didn’t take her to the hospital when she started hemorrhaging. Kiera was only a newborn at the time.”
His words seep into my soul and heal something deep inside me.
“No one bullies my fiancée and gets away with it. She’s now a Bridger, and you’ll show her the respect she is due as my wife,” he says as he swings me up into his arms.
I cry into his neck until I feel him settle me into the passenger seat of a large vehicle. I look up and see it’s a Jeep.
“Where are we going?” I ask as he buckles me in.
“Home, pixie.”
I smile at him as I watch him walk around the Jeep and climb up into the driver’s side.
“What happened?”
“I was given the choice to not reenlist and still keep my rank. I took the offer and drove home. I have a woman to take care of. A baby hopefully on the way. A gallery to open, and a town to scare.” He smiles at me and that dimple pops out.
“I love you,” I say to him.
“Don’t say that until I have my cock in you, pixie,” he growls, and I laugh at him.
We pull up to the house and he opens the garage and pulls in next to the SUV his father bought me.
“Next time you leave the house, you’ll take that car.” He points at me and all I can do is nod at him. I wouldn’t have a driver’s license if Earl hadn’t taken me to get it.
“Is it true what you said about my mother?”
“Yeah, Lee requested the coroner’s report and then questioned Leon. You didn’t kill her. It was a tragic event. He didn’t take her to the hospital because he didn’t want others around her. He was jealous of everyone, even you.”
I open my door and go to step out. “Stay there, pixie, keep your ass in that seat.” I do as he says, and he comes around to lift me out of the Jeep. He steps into the house and sets me down. We take off our coats and shoes in the utility room before entering the main house. He pulls me along behind him to the dining room. Standing there is Lee and a man I don’t recognize, along with Sheriff Kullen.
“What’s going on?” I ask him, and when I turn around, he is down on his knee.
“Pixie, I’d go to jail for you. I’d give up everything for you. From the moment I saw you, I knew you were meant to be mine. I want to show you that Christmas is special, and that you are special. I want to see you in every room of this house. Your art, your presence, your smell. I want to heal all the pain your father caused you. I want to show you what love really is. And, even if you aren’t carrying my baby right now, you will be soon. I want babies with you, lots of them. Please make me the happiest man and marry me. I know it’s soon, but I know you are meant to be mine.”
