Phoenix’s Plight by Tiffany Casper
“Healing takes time ever so slowly.”
- June
Chapter 17
June
She was grateful the doctor had heard her say that to Heathen. The doc had made his rounds shortly after she saw Heathen walk out of the room and had told him that she would be okay.
The moment Powers had escorted Heathen out of the room at the doctor’s order, she allowed all of the tears she had been holding to slip from her eyes.
“The baby?” she whispered out.
“Your baby is healthy. We’re waiting for a sonogram, but the bullet went through your appendix and then exited through your side. You were very lucky, my dear.” She had savored those words.
Her baby was okay.
She was unsure of the amount of hours she had slept, but when she opened her eyes, there on the hard puke-green chair was Shiloh.
Softly, Shiloh said, “You scared the hell out of me, honey.”
“How did you know I was here?” she asked her quietly.
“Heathen. He called when he left. Said he didn’t want you to be alone. I was already on my way. The customer I was working on couldn’t handle the pain, so I got pissed at him and kicked his ass out of my chair. Gus is there finishing the tattoo.”
Tears came to the surface, but she refused to cry over a man who would walk out on her after she had given him the news that she was pregnant.
June said honestly, “I’m glad he called you.”
“So, what all did they say?”
“The bullet bypassed anything real important.” Then June thought about it—luckily, her appendix was able to be removed.
“Good—” Shiloh started to say.
“Care to plan a baby shower for me?” June asked with a soft smile.
A look of shock, awe, and surprise flew across Shiloh’s face.
“You told me you were just sick, you little hussy,” Shiloh snapped and popped June’s shoulder with the back of her hand.
Smiling, June grabbed the sonogram picture they had given her when they checked the baby’s heart rate.
As June handed the picture over, she couldn’t help but wonder. Would her peanut be a boy or a girl? Would it have her hair and his eye color? Would it grow up to be stocky and tall or be short and full-figured like herself?
“Wow. Baby Heathen,” Shiloh commented as she rubbed over the little black blob.
“I know.” June smiled a sad smile.
“Crazy. Happy?” Shiloh asked.
“Elated, to tell you the truth.” Even though Heathen hadn’t seemed happy, she really was happy.
She finally had something in her life that she could love and someone who would love her unconditionally.
Even if Heathen didn’t want them, she would be the best single parent this world had ever seen.
“You have me, girlfriend. Always. Gus said you had him too if you ever needed him,” Shiloh said with a wink.
The second tattoo she had gotten, another tattoo artist that worked under Clutch had hit on her and she had said happily that she declared herself as happily taken.
It had been the truth . . . well, up until now.
When the doctor handed over her discharge papers, Shiloh had driven them home. She had even offered to stay, but June refused politely. She needed to be alone in her grief.
After Shiloh had left, she walked to her bedroom and crawled under the sheets that still held Heathen’s scent and cried all the tears that she had been holding.
Her wrist felt bereft from where her bracelet resided.
If she ever got it back, she was giving it to her child. He or she would know the great man they had as a father, regardless.
She had cried herself to sleep.
June had been glad that she hadn’t given him a spare key. She didn’t know what she would do if she saw him with regret on his face when he looked at her.
She refused to be a regret to that man.
Her baby may have been an accident, but by God, her baby would never feel as though it was one.
While June was in the hospital, Heathen had called no less than five times a day and sent no less than ten text messages a day.
He was slowly wearing her down.
She had taken medical leave from work, and when they found out what happened, she had been given a week of paid leave as well.
Her first day back at work two weeks later, she hadn’t spoken to anyone other than the callers.
Too many looks of pity marred all of their faces.
She was grateful though, and call her mean, but Cortney had been fired for cussing out a customer.
The moment she made it home, Lil’s SUV was in her driveway, and when she parked her Jeep, out came the girls.
Laura. Whitney. Rachel. And Lil.
As they entered the house, June saw bags of food, two bottles of wine, and some sparkling apple cider.
“First things first. He wanted to return this to you, honey,” Lil said as she handed June her bracelet.
Her head hurt from the amount of crying she had been doing, but tears still fell from her eyes.
She sat the bracelet on her coffee table as the women pulled out comfort food from Oscar’s.
None of them said a word as they watched Yellowstone with her and oohed and awed over the cast.
Then there was a knock on her front door.
“I got it,” Laura said. She had gotten up to grab refills for their drinks.
When she looked through the peephole, she scrunched her nose.
Opening it, she asked, “Who the hell are you?”
Everyone stood because they were curious. Laura was as laidback as they come, so it took a lot to rile her up.
“I’m Brad,” June’s neighbor answered.
“Fucking really? How many times do I have to tell you no? Hell, Heathen slammed the door in your face. Was that not good enough for you?” June shouted at the polo-wearing man.
“Well, I haven’t seen his bike here, so I didn’t know . . .”
“Look here, buddy. I’m going to say this one time and one time only. You mess with her again, and the brothers of Wrath MC will be the least of your worries. I know how to kill someone twenty-nine different ways and how not to get caught,” Laura stated as she widened her stance.
“Besides, she has that hunk of leather-wearing Heathen at her back. Why the hell would she want someone who wears polo shirts and starch presses his pants? Hell, could you even make her come?” Lil laughed in his face.
“I know where we can hide your body so you will never be found,” Whitney said cheerfully.
The man nearly fell off the front steps as he ran from June’s house.
Laura closed the door as all of them fell on the couch laughing their asses off.
After the food was all gone and the show was over, the women left and once again, June crawled under the covers and fell asleep.
Though not before looking at pictures on her phone that she had taken of her and Heathen.
