her belly and his left palm swims over his child, his fingers curling over the bump. Sarah takes his fingers in hers. “No,” he chokes. “No, it isn’t the baby? Please, tell me it isn’t the baby.”
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
“Shh,” he blinks back tears. The badass President embraces his emotions, not giving a damn if any of us witnesses him break. “It’s okay, we will get through it. We always do.”
“Hey, Sarah,” Doc kneels beside her, just as Tongue watches from the Church doorway. His eyes are wide, and he is frozen in fear seeing Sarah on the ground like this. “What’s going on? Talk to me.” He rolls her to her side and checks out her rear, but not sexually. With a slow, timid motion, he places her on her back again.
“It hurts,” she whimpers. “So bad. I almost can’t breathe.”
“Well, you aren’t bleeding. I didn’t see any blood, which is a good thing, but I need to get you downstairs so I can do a full evaluation. I think it’s what we talked about before, remember? Your muscle in your abdomen didn’t get a chance to properly heal. It’s scarred and stretched thin. It’s weak. You’re growing, which is stretching that muscle. That’s the cause of the pain.”
“I’m not having a miscarriage?” she asks, hopefully.
“Really?” Reaper smiles and starts to laugh, but the laugh falls short when it morphs into a choked sob. “You’re sure?”
“I won’t be positive until we get her down there. Pick her up and follow me?”
Reaper’s hope flees. He gives a solemn nod as he carefully holds Sarah to his chest, one arm wrapped around her shoulders while the other is tucked under her legs. When he stands, Sarah moans in pain and he kisses her forehead. “I’m sorry, Doll. I’m so sorry.”
Reaper and Doc leave the room, their boots echoing loudly.
And then everyone around us is silent.
“Tongue don’t blame yourself,” Poodle starts, noticing how Tongue is frozen in one spot. “Tongue.” Poodle reaches out to comfort him, but Tongue shrugs it away.
“You can’t blame yourself anymore,” Slingshot adds. “It was a horrible accident. You didn’t do it on purpose. Give yourself a break. She’s going to be okay.”
“You don’t know that,” Tongue replies, swallowing so hard I can hear the gulp from across the room.
“It’s scary, and I know you feel guilty, but you gotta learn to let go.” Tool glides over to Juliette and wraps an arm around her shoulder. We all quietly gather in the main room, not knowing what we can do. We want to help, but how can we make a difference?
“Learn to let go?” Tongue growls. “Learn to let go?” he repeats, slamming his fist against the wall.
Poodle leans against the couch and opens his arms for Melissa, who eagerly runs into them.
All the men pair up with their ladies, but Sunnie walks to Patrick so he doesn’t have to go near the bar and sits on the couch next to him.
“It’s easy for you to say. You won’t have to live with the guilt of knowing she lost her second child, and the reason is because of you. Don’t sit there and tell me everything is going to be okay. Nothing is going to be okay. This isn’t fucking okay. I need… I need…” Tongue starts rambling. His nerves are getting the best of him. “I need to go.” Tongue fishes out his keys from his pocket. They jingle, a sound I don’t want to hear, especially when it’s punctuated by a heavy crack of thunder rolling in the sky, shaking the foundation of the clubhouse. “I’m going to go.”
I get up from the floor and brush my butt in habit. I walk toward him and for the first time in our relationship, he holds up a hand to stop me from coming closer.
“I need some time, Comet. I need to be alone. I love you, but I can’t be here right now,” he says, his voice breaking. The haunted expression in his chocolate brown eyes will be an image I’ll never be able to forget. He brushes by me. The electricity crackles across our skin like it always down when we are near one another.
Everyone watches him leave. He opens the door and even from where I’m standing, I can see the grey skies looming in the distance. The kiss of rain pecks against the room, dripping off the edge onto the porch steps. Tongue doesn’t care. He takes his leather jacket off the knob