For Her Honor (29 page)

Without a care as to whether he was appropriately attired, Ben Lawson calmly walked over to his wife and plant
ed a kiss on her forehead. “Easy, darlin’. I’m here. Let’s do this together.”

That was Karen’s cue to leave.

~~~***~~~

Taz learned that you pick up some keen vibes when you’re married.
He sensed his wife before he saw her. Hell, he even smelled her amid the antiseptic stench which permeated the hospital. He immediately enveloped her in his arms, loving the feel of protectiveness he surrounded her with. Even though they were with family, Taz never failed to let anyone around him know that this woman belonged to him. Her name tattooed on his ring finger would never be enough. “Anything yet?”

She shook her head.
“To say Ben made it in the nick of time is an understatement. They may have to cut her open. He’s big.”

“No shit.”
That was Doug. “You see where the sperm came from?”

Taz caught onto what Doug
hadn’t. “
He
?”

Karen looked aghast and covered her mouth.
“Shit! Don’t….”

“I won’t, sweetheart.
For once, I’ll keep my mouth shut.” He then paused to look her over. “You a’ight?”

“Yeah.
It’s emotional. Exciting, but….scary.”

He brushed his fingers over her belly. “Think, maybe….?”
He thought of their wedding night, when they’d consummated their marriage. When he’d made love to a woman for the first time in his life, without any barrier between them. And every time after that. It had been well over a month since her surgery, and any barricading scar tissue had been cleaned from her tubes. For over a decade he’d been a man who lived for himself and his own pleasure. Now he was a husband who wanted to create a life with the woman he loved. He’d never understand the force that had turned him around in record time.

She put her hand over his and shrugged.
“I don’t know. I’m waiting until, you know, I’m late. And even then I’m not jumping the gun.” Those pale green eyes dipped a bit. “I can’t deal with another disappointment.”

He’d rip his fingernails out to make her happy.
To give her what she wanted. She was young, vibrant, intelligent, strong and beautiful. To imagine seeing her blossom in pregnancy made him hard. She deserved it. She deserved everything. How he wound up with such an amazing creature was beyond him, but he’d move the tallest mountain in West Virginia to be worthy of her.

About fifteen minutes later, Ben emerged from the delivery room wearing what seemed to be three surgical gowns tied at the arms and draped over his enormous body like a cape.
Doug, Tanner, Wes and Aero filed behind Vic, while Taz and Karen stood to the side. All looked with anticipation at the club’s enforcer. “Well?” Vic asked.

Big Ben stood there with a big shit-eating grin.
“Thomas Michael Lawson. Nine pounds, twelve ounces. And absolutely fucking perfect.”

The hospital shook with the roar of every person in that waiting room.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Sunday was considered family day. Taz and Karen were up early to take his ma to breakfast, then to do some Christmas shopping at the Mountaineer Mall in Morgantown. It was the first weekend in December, and shoppers were out in full force. Taz preferred to hang out by the fake plants and benches while his wife and mother dodged in and out of stores. Just this past July he’d sworn he didn’t need to get tied down to a woman who would drag him shopping. Now he was with two.

With not much family to buy for – and still nary a peep from her mother – Karen settled on small gifts for Eva, Jen, her dad
, Shelia and the cutest outfit for little Thomas. No, make that big Thomas. The three-week-old infant was well over ten pounds and on his way to taking after his old man in the size department.

After grabbing lunch and coffees, the three of them headed back up to Tippitt around two and dropped Janice off.
Taz’s phone rang shortly after that. “Yo?”

It was Ben.
“
You in the neighborhood?”

“Yeah.
Just dropped Ma off. What up?”

“Taking the evergreen down in the back yard.
Got an ax with your name on it. Think you can swing by and gimme a hand?”

If there was a sharp tool involved, Taz was there.
“Be there in ten.”

Karen was checking her phone and looked over at him.
“Where will we be in ten?”

“Ben’s.
Needs a hand in the yard gettin’ the tree down.”

Her eyes lit up.
“Oooh, I can see the baby.”

He knew she’d be excited over that.
From their Halloween wedding, to Thanksgiving at Vic and Elle’s, to the beginnings of the Christmas season, Karen had settled in nicely. As much as he knew it still bothered her, she’d given up agonizing over her mother. She was no longer part of that life. She had a new family now and, hopefully soon, would begin to grow their own.

They were at Ben and Eva’s for almost an hour by the time they got the enormous evergreen chopped down, shaken off, dragged into the house and got it set in the stand.
Eva was ready and waiting in the living room with boxes of decorations and lights. “I just made a pot of coffee, guys.”

Ben kissed the top of his wife’s head. “Thanks, darlin’.”
He looked at Taz. “You want one?”

“Nah.
We’ve been up since eight and took Ma out for the day. We’re kinda beat. Think we’ll just head home.” He didn’t see Karen around and figured there was only one place she could be. “She upstairs?”

Eva nodded.
“I just finished giving him a bottle, and she went to put him down. Go on up.”

He climbed the stairs – past the beautiful stained glass window, to the top, down the hall then up the two steps which led to the turret nursery
. The door was partially open, and he could hear lullaby music. Quietly he crept in to see Karen standing in the middle of the room, Thomas cradled in her arms, as she slowly rocked back and forth. Above his crib, the name
T-H-O-M-A-S
was affixed to the wall. Ben had lovingly made the letters out of wood at the mill, sanded them to a smooth finish, then stained them the same shade of oak to match the furniture. It was starting to get dark out early, and the faint glow of the streetlight shone through the toasty-brown sheer curtains hanging in the window. From behind, he could see the baby’s head sticking out, his eyes closed, yet she hadn’t put him down. A tightness settled in his chest watching her with the baby. She looked good. Real good. She deserved to have her own in her arms.

“Hey,” he whispered.

Her head turned before her body did, eyes motioning to the sleeping infant. “He just got to sleep.”

He smiled at the baby’s face.
Light brown hair sprinkled his little head, and his face was round and filled out. “Hey there, T,” he quietly said. “Damn, he’s big. Gonna take after his ol’ man.”

“I know.
It’s like holding a little watermelon.” Karen carefully shifted him. “My arms are tired.”

“Put him in the crib
.”

Karen looked down at Thomas with a tender smile which made his heart clench.
“Not yet. It’s…..nice.”

He went to lightly touch the baby’s cheek, his roughened finger with a shad
ow of black under his nails a stark contrast against the delicate, unmarked skin. It made him pull back, and examine his hands for a bit. Someday, he’d have to hold his own in them. Hands that reworked metal and did damage to human tissue would now have to hold and protect. They’d already traced every inch of his wife’s body, sometimes more roughly than others. But a newborn was different. To learn to possess the gentle care which came naturally to Karen concerned him. She was right – this was scary.

“It’s okay.”
She took his hand and placed it on the baby’s head. “Just go easy. Especially the soft spot.”

“The what?”

“Here.” She took his thumb and rubbed it over the back of Thomas’ head, which concaved just slightly. “The bones of the skull haven’t joined yet.” His eyes bulged at the feel of the spongy mass under the baby’s fine hair. “It’s normal. All babies have this. It takes almost a year for the bones to fuse. Gives the brain room to grow.”

She amazed him.
“How do you know all this?”

“Research
.” She sniffed the baby’s head then gave him a sly look. “Preparing.”

He gave her the same look back.
“Kar?”

“I’m three weeks late.”
He reacted, but she was quicker. “No, I didn’t take a test. I want to wait one more week, just to be sure I’m not….off or anything.” She carefully placed Thomas in his crib, leaning his back up against the foam pillow which allowed him to sleep slightly on his side. “Then I’ll take a home test. If it’s positive, I should be anywhere from five to six weeks.”

“Karen?”

“Yeah?”

“I know you’re scared.”

She took a deep, shuddered breath. “I’m trying not to be. Everything’s been going good. Well, except my mother.”

“Maybe she’ll come around if you’re pregnant.”

“I want her to come around for me. But, she made her choice because I made mine.”

He felt like shit.
True, he hadn’t twisted her arm, but even though she’d gained a different kind of family, to have your own mother shun you was a rough pill to swallow. True, he still would’ve followed the Skulls if his ma hadn’t approved, but it still would’ve hurt to have the woman who’d borne and raised him disappear from his life. Karen was a stronger person for standing up to her, but it had come with a price. Just like the life she’d chosen to stand by him came with one. For that, he’d make sure she’d have whatever he could give her.

There was one thing he could give her right now.
“Hey. It’s not too late. Wanna stop by the tree farm and pick one out?”

“We don’t have any decorations.”

“We’ll pick some up. And I can filch some from Ma. They’re probably from the 70’s. I think she’s got some tacky colored lights we can string outside. “What’ya say?”

She wrapped her arms around his waist and rested her face against his chest.
Damn, he loved when she did this. It was like placing her entire trust in him to make everything better. Even though she was a strong woman who’d picked up a gun and championed herself, she knew when it was time to lean on him. He was no knight in shining armor, but he’d protect her honor till his dying breath.

“I say, I love you.”

That was answer enough for him.

10 Months Later

Karen knew she had time.
Twelve years, at least. That was when Taz had told her to prepare to visit him in a prison visiting room, because that was where he’d be once the little bundle in her arms started to show an interest in boys. At merely five weeks old, little Jessica Layne Morrell was quite a heartbreaker. With her father’s coloring, little dimples and dark green eyes which were a product of both parents, she was well on her way.

But what the infant was right now was wide awake at three a.m. after a feeding.
On the sofa of their rental, Karen rocked her wide-eyed daughter in hopes that a full tummy and a little humming would send her off. “C’mon, baby girl. Mama’s got to get her rest. We’ve got a big day tomorrow.”

‘Big’ meant a visit from grandma and grandpa Hanson.
After a long silence following their wedding last October, and awkward texts and phone calls since, Ed Hanson finally read his wife the riot act about putting her pettiness aside and accept her daughter’s choice for a home and husband or else she’d alienate the chance of ever getting to know her granddaughter. They were making their first official visit tomorrow to spend a leisurely July Sunday. July – that was when it had all started, when she’d first arrived here. That knee-jerk suggestion from Sam had eventually resulted in this very moment.

“She asleep yet?”
Taz appeared from the bedroom. There really wasn’t anything which melted a woman’s heart like the sight of a tough guy gazing upon his infant child.

“You tell me?”
Karen nodded to the baby, whose enormous eyes were very much wide open.

He held his hands out.
“Give her to me.”

“Why?”

“You gotta get your rest, sweetheart. Adolph Betsy’s comin’ to town.”

She gave him a sideways glance.
“She’s extending the olive branch. I’ll give her that much. Plus, they’re bringing the check.”

He frowned. “Kar, I don’t know.”

“It’s a losing battle, Taz. My dad said what he did for one daughter he does for the other. I saved him a shitload on a wedding, so he wants to give us the twenty-five grand for a down payment on a house. We need to get out of here.”

“You didn’t want to look after you got pregnant,
” he told her. “We could’ve been situated by now.”

“I didn’t want the pressure of finding a house, buying furniture and moving
while I was pregnant. I wanted to enjoy it.”

“Now we gotta hustle,” he told her.

“We’ve got time.” She raised Jessa to kiss her forehead. “And with Dad’s money, we can find something bigger if you want your ma to come live with us?”

First he smiled
, then frowned. “You really want that? Don’t get me wrong, I love the lady, but we won’t have a lot of privacy.”

“That’s why we look for one with an in-law apartment with its own entrance.
Totally separate.”

“You just want the free babysitting.”

“She does that already.”

To say that Janice Morrell was on Cloud Nine would be an understatement.
As if displaying an imaginary ‘Mission Accomplished’ banner over their home, Janice had quietly backed out of her son’s life to allow him and his new family to grow. She wasn’t one of those mothers-in-law who popped in unexpected or uninvited, but Karen loved having her around, and she was a big help with the baby.

“I’ll think about it.”
He held his hands out again. “Now give me my daughter and go to sleep.”

She watched him as she transferred their daughter into his arms, the look on his face changing to something she could never explain. “Hey, Jessa. You gonna go to sleep for Daddy, right?”

Karen got up and walked to the bedroom.
“Good luck.”

~~~***~~
~

Taz didn’t need luck.
Since he’d been old enough to realize it, he’d had an infectious charm which caused ladies to bend to his will. He tried to work that on a five week old. “C’mon, baby girl,” he cooed. “You gotta go to sleep.” He saw the empty bottle on the coffee table. “You got some milk in your belly, huh? No more hunger.”

He then swallowed hard at the thought of his daughter ever being without.
The protective man and father in him would never allow his wife or child to want. Hell, it killed him to accept Ed Hanson’s money, but he was justifying his position as a father who treated his own daughters equally. And having his ma around wouldn’t be so bad. It had been only the two of them from the very start, and it looked as if she’d always be with him – with them – till the end.

He had a lot to thank her for.
As much as it pained him to admit it, his ma had been right. A decent woman turned a man around - not changing him, but made him a better person. Karen and this little sprout in his arms had done just that.

“You’ll never be hungry, baby girl,” he whispered to her.
“I’ll make sure of it. And I’ll make damn sure no one ever hurts you. I swear to God, they’ll know a different meaning of the word pain.”

Slowly, very slowly, little Jessa’s eyes began to close.
If only she could see her father’s shit-eating grin. “That’s right, baby girl. Go to sleep. Daddy’s here. I’ll always protect you and your mama, you can bet on it. You may grow up strong like her, but,” he bent down and carefully kissed the tip of her nose, “I’ll always champion both of you. Always.”

Jessa’s eyes closed all the way, safe in the comfort of her father’s arms.

The End

In memory of my own ‘little sprout’