This Much is True - Tia Louise Page 0,87

in time for high season at the beach.

“My beautiful wife.” Sliding my hands over her flat stomach, I kiss the side of her jaw, speaking in her ear. “I’m ready to put a baby in you. A little girl that looks just like her pretty mamma.”

Hope slides her hands along my arms, threading our fingers. “Not until after the grand opening. It’s going to be crazy until then.”

“You’ll be adorable barefoot and pregnant.”

“Just because I was barefoot when you met me doesn’t mean I won’t wear shoes.” She’s teasing, and I kiss her neck.

Her shoulder rises with a squeal. I love that little sensitive spot. “To think, I almost left you on the side of the road.”

“You wouldn’t have done it.” She climbs out of my arms, and I miss her already. “I’d better get moving. Alice is bringing Jesse for breakfast, and he wants peanut butter pancakes.”

Jesse lives with us full-time now in our big house in the older part of town, but he spends every weekend with GA. He says he doesn’t like her being alone. I tried to get her to move in here. We’ve got plenty of room, but she’s stubborn and said she likes having her own place.

“Is Scout coming over?” I toss back the blankets as she emerges from the bathroom.

“I don’t know. He’s been spending a lot of time in Oceanside since the wedding. I think he’s got a girlfriend there. You know, he never found that girl he told me about.”

Her slim brow furrows over her bright blue eyes, and her hair is up in a high ponytail. She’s dressed in jeans and a short black tank that shows off her cute little navel, and I can’t resist. I catch her around the waist, kissing the back of her neck.

“John!” I love it when she fusses, especially when she’s laughing like right now.

I only ever want to see her happy after all the shit we went through to get here.

An hour after my brother texted me in that prison cell, Mel the Guard came to the door and told me it was time to go. At first, I was confused, but a big grin split his fat cheeks. He told me the judge had reviewed new evidence on my case and threw out the charges.

I was a free man.

My brother’s instructions were to get in the brand-new Tahoe he’d left for me and drive to Hope’s beach house, which I was eager to do.

I walked through the door, and the first thing I heard was my little boy’s voice. It hit me right in the chest, and I dropped to my knees to catch him in my arms for the longest hug we’d shared since the last time we were together at the airport.

It’s possible tears were in my eyes. I’m not made of stone.

The whole place was decorated with balloons and streamers and a sign reading Welcome Home. Scout had flown back to get Jesse as soon as the lawyer said my phone recording would do it. Hope was with her dad, and I wanted to drive out to be with her.

Only, my brother had a different plan.

“I thought you might want to know what happened to that rat in Buena Vista,” he’d said.

Fucking Clyde Shaw.

My joy at being released, being reunited with my son, reclaiming my life was shadowed by the fact that asshole was walking around free.

“Not for long.”

We piled into my new ride, which is a whole other story, and Scout drove us into the city.

He parallel parked in a space behind a bush and killed the engine. “I’ve been working with the cops ever since Hope and I came back here. The detective called and said if we wanted to watch, now was the time.”

My brother was still speaking as a swarm of cars surrounded the building.

A black Camaro pulled into the alley and a white police cruiser blocked the front entrance. Two uniformed officers burst through the apartment entrance with Clyde Shaw in handcuffs.

“Cool!” Jesse cried from the backseat watching. “They got the bad man!”

I looked at Scout. “How?”

“The evidence on your phone was the break they needed. Clyde was just a middle man, but he was connected to an international drug ring that extended from Mexico all the way to Toronto. Cops had been trying to break it up for two years.”

As much as I’d wanted to kick his ass from here to Ocean Beach, seeing him dragged away in handcuffs had been pretty satisfying.

“Remember