King’s Queen by Marie Johnston

Chapter 22

Kate

Six months later…

I wavedmy free hand toward the counter. My other hand was propped on the toilet seat. “Grab the phone.”

“What?” Aiden had a hold of my hair. I hadn’t thrown up yet, but it was better safe than sorry.

“It’s a—” A wave of nausea rolled through me and I groaned. “Trust me.”

“Okay…” He picked up my phone up off the counter. “Now what?”

I exhaled and slowly inhaled. The wave rolled through me. “Take a picture of us.”

“Kate. You’re bent over the toilet,” he said as if it wasn’t my head that was half a foot from the water.

“I’ll tell you about a conversation I had with Sophie later. I just need a picture of you holding my hair while I vomit.”

Another wave crashed into me and I heaved right when he was taking the photo. He dumped my phone on the counter and crowded behind me again. I took the damp washcloth he offered.

I’d been battling these bouts for the last couple of months, but this was the first time I had both Aiden and my phone with me. I leaned back on my heels. I thought I’d be okay, but I didn’t want to leave the safety zone of the porcelain throne.

Aiden kneeled behind me. “Isn’t this supposed to get better?”

“Maybe? The first trimester is almost done.” I was taking my prenatal vitamin at night like Sophie suggested. She fawned over me as badly as Aiden.

We’d started trying immediately after the board meeting where Aiden had told his grams and the board that he was quitting. Gentry and Kendall had backed him up and said nothing was holding them to the company. Gentry could retire early and Kendall could take a job anywhere in the world she wanted. Only that part was a bluff. They weren’t moving far from their families.

Grams had stayed silent for several minutes. Then she’d dipped her chin and tears had glittered in her eyes. She’d told the board that she should be the one to go.

Aiden had stayed long enough to help with the transition and train his replacement, but he’d militantly stuck to a forty-hour workweek. He’d been officially done at King Oil for three months. I was fairly certain this baby had been conceived on the company plane, in the back bedroom we’d never used before, on the way to Denver to stay with Beck and Eva.

Gentry would step down at King Oil after the new leadership was trained in. They’d hired a vice president from an oil company out of North Dakota: Barron Oil. Another family company, it was also headed by a workaholic CEO who was trying to recruit his oldest as his successor. Gentry had gotten the story out of the new hire and was glad to give him the upward mobility he wouldn’t get at Barron Oil.

Then Gentry would take his place on the board, probably as president. Kendall was leaving too. She’d found a nonprofit in town that could use her expertise, expertise that usually came with a high wage. But she was working for a fraction of what she used to make and she and Gentry were traveling all over. Before the grandkids start dropping,Kendall had said, dancing and clapping after I told her Aiden and I were expecting.

Ours would be the first, but I wouldn’t be shocked if Aiden’s brothers had announcements by the end of the year.

I tossed the washcloth in the dirty laundry and stood up.

Aiden was at my side. “It’s passed?”

“For now.” I washed my hands and took a swig of mouthwash.

After I was done, I slogged to the bed with Aiden hovering behind me. My nightstand had a picture of Aiden and me with the Colorado mountains behind us. A bigger photo that included his entire family at Beck’s cabin in Aspen was mounted in the living room next to pictures of my niece and nephews. We now had as many pictures of people as we did of landscapes in our home.

Our beagle—crossed with who knows what—rescue puppy that Violet had insisted we name Bud jumped on the bed, his tail wagging. The kitten we’d adopted at the same time—named Petal, also suggested by Violet—swatted at Bud, then started grooming the puppy’s little ear.

I sank into bed with a sigh, loving that my days off involved my husband and our pets. Aiden had all the days off, but his evenings would soon be a different story.

“Randall call you yet?” My stepfather had been calling every day since Aiden had approached him about taking over the wrestling club.

Aiden chuckled. “I think I have a missed call. He’s going with me to talk to a builder. I want his insight on the design.”

The club would have its own space and year-round wrestling. Violet would have her uncle as a coach—Aiden would make sure of it. Both Violet and my nephews would get free lessons if they wanted. Jason had tried to object, but Aiden had said the family discount was nonnegotiable. Aiden planned to lease some space for other club programs. He had ideas for creating scholarship programs. We’d talked a lot about how we wanted to use the trust money.

We didn’t need it. I liked working at the library. That was how I wanted to contribute to the community. Aiden would be a stay-at-home dad and run some of our own nonprofits. I met with Lauren a couple of times a month for coffee. She gave me her thoughts for programs that might help the not-quite-retired crowd learn new skills to finish out those last years of work, or because they couldn’t afford to retire. Between Lauren and the library director, they’d identified technology as a huge pain point. Aiden and I had set up an annual donation to the library’s technology and career outreach programs.

I stretched out while Aiden grabbed a Tums for the low-level heartburn I couldn’t shake. Aiden lay next to me, his body as sinfully powerful as it’d always been. The only thing different was the expression he wore. His resting business face was softer, a little less arrogant without stress tightening his lips.

I brushed my fingers down the scruff on his face. I liked how it felt—everywhere on my body. So he only shaved every few days.

He kissed my fingers. “How many are we having?”

I chuckled. “I think we should find out how much the first one turns our world upside down before we talk numbers.”

“Deal.” He rolled to his back and laid his arm out.

I curled into his side. We had nothing to do today and nowhere to be—unless we wanted to. If I wanted to nap in the middle of the damn day, he’d help me.

I put my hand on his chest. The diamond on my ring glittered. I never took it off. And I never would. I kept the old one in its own special jewelry box, and I’d pass it on to our kids after we told them the story of our not-quite-textbook romance. “I love you, Aiden King.”

“I love you, Kate King.” His hold around me tightened. “You’re my queen.”

* * *

Gentry

Five years later…

I leanedagainst my pickup and soaked it in. In front of me was Dawson’s place. The house I’d built with Sarah. She and I had barely entered adulthood when kid after kid had arrived. We’d hoped this place could contain our big dreams. For so many years, I’d worried that those hopes had been buried with her. Our boys had scattered, isolating themselves and burying themselves in their work.

Then their mother’s crazy idea had prodded them into being adults that would have made her heart burst with pride.

I know mine did on a daily basis.

Emilia’s had as well. I knew that now. And I was grateful that I’d learned it before we’d had to bury her just hours ago. Right next to Sarah and DB.

She would’ve hated a formal reception where everyone talked about her, so after the family had finished at the gravesite, we’d come back to Dawson’s for a large barbecue.

I inhaled the mix of fresh spring air mingling with the subtle scents of dirt and manure. Dawson had a few extra guys working for him nowadays, but he always made room for me and his brothers and our wives to help work cattle. Though, we couldn’t spare everyone these days.

Too many kids to keep track of.

My mouth tipped up as my oldest granddaughter sprinted through the yard. Sera’s long hair trailed behind her as she chased Beck and Eva’s oldest, three-year-old Maddie. Sera took after Aiden. A permanent solemn expression that broke into a grin when she was around her cousins. But around her two-year-old brother, Rand, and six-month-old sister, Lily, she took her big-sister responsibility seriously. As for Maddie, that girl took after Beck—she was an angel when we were looking and liked to get into trouble when we weren’t. One thing I was certain of was that Maddie would be able to reprogram my computer by the time she was ten.

Bristol and Dawson’s boy, Daniel, tried to join in on the fun with Sera and Maddie but kept getting distracted by bugs crawling on the ground. His coppery hair gleamed under the May sun as he bent to inspect his new find. Bristol stepped out of the house with baby Emmaline strapped to her chest. Bright orange hair stuck out of the navy-blue baby wrap. She handed Daniel a cup of milk and wandered to the flower beds. Squatting, one arm wrapped around her precious bundle, she pulled a few weeds.

For years, those flower beds had sat empty. Dawson and Bristol might not care one bit about flowers, but with Savvy’s help, they now had basil, oregano, tomatoes, mint, peppers, and whatever else Dawson had requested.

As if my thought conjured her, Savvy stepped out of the back of the house with Kendall trailing her. Savvy carried one of her and Xander’s one-year-old twins and Kendall carried the other. Jasper had my name as his middle name. Jet’s middle name was Savvy’s dad’s name, Walter. The son I worried I’d never connect with had named a son after me.

My chest got tight and it had nothing to do with clogged arteries.

Kendall spotted me and set Jet down next to where Savvy was letting Jasper play in the grass. She strutted over to me, her hips swaying, a warm smile on her face.

“The service was beautiful.”

I dipped my head. “Emilia would’ve hated it.”

“Yep. But she would’ve secretly thought she deserved it.”

“You know… I resented her a lot more than I thought.” All those years getting driven into the ground by the company. The drama around each and every trust because she couldn’t stand to lose the money. The way she’d never seemed to want to be close to us, her only living relatives. She’d done it all for her family. I saw that now. “But I owe her everything.”

“None of us agreed with how she fought for the company and the money, but we’ve sure reaped the rewards.”

“It took me decades to understand what she was doing.” My kids and their kids could do whatever they wanted in life, but they’d chosen to pay it forward, each family in their own way. “I’m going to honor what she’s left us by being there with you and the rest of our family.”

“I’ll miss her.” Kendall stepped into me and I folded my arms around her. She liked to put her ear against my heart and listen to its rhythmic thud.

“Me too.” I hugged my wife and watched my family. My kids. More grandkids than I’d ever thought I’d be surrounded by. For so many years, I’d wondered what the hell Sarah had been thinking.

When she died, I had wondered what I’d do without her. But she’d made sure we were all taken care of.

Kendall spun in my hold and we watched our family. When we came here, we all stayed at the lodge Dawson and Bristol had built for us between our properties. My favorite days were lounging on the porch with Kendall and watching the sun rise or set.

“Are we brave enough for the big sleepover tonight?”

I chuckled. “Brave? Or stupid?” Kendall’s idea. We’d watch all the grandkids while the couples got away for a night out.

“Naïve.” She laughed and draped her arms over mine. “I love our life together, Gentry.”

“Me too.” I’d spent my life digging up what I’d thought was one of the world’s richest resources, when it was really this. My family.

_____

Ready for anotherfamily that needs to find the loves of their lives? Oil Barrons is a new series set in the small town of Coal Haven, and begins with Liam Barron, the illegitimate kid of the town’s patriarch in Make Me Whole.

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