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“Tommy and my brothers all turned on him. Beat the living shit out of him. By then, though, we’d drawn a small crowd, and someone had called the cops. The guys got dragged to jail, and I ended up in the hospital. I lost the baby.”
“I’m so sorry, Maria,” Teag said. His chest ached, and from more than just the gunshot wound.
“I didn’t know how much I wanted that baby until I lost it. I know it was probably for the best. Hell, I was a teenager, and would have become a single mother. I know what my prospects would have looked like. But it hurt so much.”
“I can only imagine,” Teag said.
Maria sighed, and her body relaxed against his.
“Thank you for telling me all this. I know it wasn’t easy, and I’m honored that you trusted me enough to share it.”
Maria found Teag’s free hand under the blankets and laced her fingers through his.
“What happened to your brothers?” he asked, honestly curious. He knew they’d been in the Army, and were currently producing their own offspring, but that was about it.
“Well, my gram was a force of nature, and very well respected in the community. She made her case to the chief of police. Both my brothers were released, with the understanding that they’d enlist by the week’s end.”
“Resourceful and wise. I think I would have liked your gram.”
“You would have. She’d have liked you too,” Maria said, tilting her face to smile at him.
“So they joined the Army and you the Marines, even though you didn’t need an ultimatum, I take it?”
“Yep. I finished high school and enlisted right after. I was still mourning the baby and, if I’m honest, grieving over my relationship with Tom. I know he was in the wrong by letting anything happen between us, and he didn’t step up when he should have, but I loved him. Really loved him. He’d been in my life for years, and he was my first everything. After shit went down, I sort of reinvented myself. I shut down that vulnerable side, the part that wanted to be loved, that wanted to have another baby someday, and became this tougher version of myself.”
Leaning up on an elbow, she looked Teag in the eyes, her expression earnest. “I don’t regret my choices. I loved serving my country. I loved being the girl who could mix it up with the guys and give as good as she got. That part of me is real. But so is the other part, the one who wants a home, a partner. A baby.” The last word came out a whisper.
“Can you still have a baby?” Teag asked gently.
Maria’s eyebrows flew up in surprise at the questions. “Yes, at least according to the doctors back then. There was no permanent damage.”
“Well, then, I see no issue with you having everything your heart desires,” he said, matter of fact.
“Maybe,” she said softly.
A peaceful silence filled the space between them. With Maria still snuggled at his side, Teag dozed, only to be pulled from the first bit of a dream by her voice.
“Teag?”
“Yeah, love?”
“Do you want kids?”
“I do,” he answered, unable to hold back his smile.
Maria made a small, indeterminate noise in the back of her throat, which made Teag’s smile even wider.
“Good night,” he said, and kissed her forehead.
