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Gabby

“She’s beautiful,” I whisper.

King reaches down and lets his fingers sift through the shock of blonde hair on our daughter’s head.

I don’t know if it’s divine intervention, if the Man Upstairs decided I’d suffered enough, or what.

All I know is that our daughter, Miss Kinsley Etta West looks completely like her mother and none of the man who raped me.

He’d never be her father. She will never know about him.

God willing, we will never tell her a damn thing about that monster.

King is her dad. He’ll be there for her and that’s who will love her with everything in him.

I named her Kinsley because it was the closest that I could think to King.

King demanded we name her Etta after Etta James.

It’s a beautiful name and it fits her. Surprisingly, it was also an easy delivery.

Labor was quick and the pain wasn’t bad at all—even if I couldn’t use an epidural because I’d already progressed too much by the time we got to the hospital.

“I’m going to have to keep my gun handy to keep the boys away,” King mutters. “Our Etta looks just like her mom.”

I smile up at him, loving that he thinks that, and definitely loving how much he adores our daughter. “Any regrets or worries, King?”

“Not a fucking one,” he whispers leaning down to kiss me gently.

“You know I love you,” I murmur.

“I love you, too, Sunshine.”

“Do you think our house will be ready when we get out of here?”

“I know it will. BB has the prospects fixing up the baby room today. Yellows and grays, just like you wanted, and on the wall opposite the crib Katie and your mom painted giant sunflowers. You’re going to love it.”

“Thank you for moving to Kentucky and giving all this a chance,” I whisper, because it still takes my breath away everything that King has done just to give me and Etta everything we could want.

“Don’t tell your dad—or your damn brother—but I love being here. The club is going to take a fuck of a lot of work, but it’s good. I like the men. I love what we’re working towards together. I also love our house.”

“I still can’t believe we bought a house,” I mutter, mostly because I can’t.

King was adamant once he decided to take over the club.

He wanted to move us in a big house that we could grow our family in.

He didn’t want to move a hundred times. He said it was important for our kids to have a childhood he never had—which meant a real home and security in knowing it would always be there.

We found a log cabin with huge windows and a fireplace in the great room.

It’s just down the road from the Devil’s Blaze clubhouse, which is more than convenient.

It has five bedrooms—which was a little scary, but King said it’s better to have too many bedrooms than too few.

I agreed with him. We got it way below market value because it was in a bank short sale.

The owners were getting divorced, and the house had to go quick.

The most shocking thing about that was that King paid cash for it—making my eyes pop out of my head.

He explained that he’d been a full member of a club for years and didn’t spend a lot of money.

He sunk a mint in a restaurant, for Shelby’s grandmother, but Shelby and her grandmother threw the gift back in their face, so the club paid him back for the property—since they originally owned it before King bought it outright.

That meant he had the cash. It also meant we wouldn’t have a mortgage over our head.

If my mom and dad didn’t love him before—they certainly do now.

All this means, that once we leave the hospital, we’ll be a family in our new house.

Incidentally, the house also has a huge deck that overlooks the mountainside and no neighbors around—just in case my man gets the notion to piss off of it. Just the thought makes me laugh.

There’s a gentle knock on the door and I gasp as I look up.

Mom, Dad and Carlos walk in. Following close behind them is Dragon and Nicole.

If that wasn’t enough Aunt Katie and Uncle Torch follow, BB, Pez and Apex are next.

Our family, the family that King and I have around us here.

Tears sting my eyes as I take in the smiles and the way my man moves over to hug and/or welcome each of them.

This is my life. This is my family. This is the beautiful life that I’ve always wanted and the one that I will give my daughter.

I never believed I’d have this. I truly didn’t.

I look up at King’s laughing face as he hugs Dragon and they talk, and my heart stutters in my chest from the force of the love that surges through me.

King gave me hope when I had none and just as I was drowning in fear of the unknown, he swooped in and rescued me.

While all that was going on, he taught me what love really is.

He also taught me a lesson that I will never forget.

It will be one that I will share with little Etta and any other children that we have.

It’s a simple one, yet profound. I’ll make sure that my baby knows that life can be beautiful, but it can also be so hard you think you’re going to die.

Yet, it’s when life is at its darkest point light fights its hardest to get in.

Sometimes you have to search for it, but the light is always there.

King was my light, and I pray with everything in me that one day my daughter knows the love that I have for her father in a man worthy of her.

A love that might start in darkness so thick it chokes you but grows so big and bright that there’s no way to contain it.

That’s who my Etta is to me and her father.

A light that was so bright that only pure love can flow from it.