Page 94 of Exile & Lula

Sabrina, Vanessa, Rowdy, and Clint kicked around a soccer ball. Ivy and Nova were inside, cooking teriyaki chicken for dinner.

I sat with Lula near the water, enjoying the warmer summer weather.

“A month ago, you were a stranger,” I said, marveling at the beautiful woman cuddled up against me. “Now, I can’t breathe right if you’re not nearby.”

“It’s magic. I foolishly didn’t believe in it before we met. I thought people who talked like that were bonkers. But I get it now.”

I kissed Lula softly, thinking about the road I took to this moment. Something clicked in me once I met this woman. Her love made me feel like I had no reason to be ashamed of my past. All the stuff with my family was necessary pain to reach the point when I could claim Lula Reed.

Our kisses were put on hold when a hollering Elle came running out of the house. Lula glanced back before trying to kissagain. Freakouts from the Reed family were fairly common, but I still got rattled by the noise.

“No!” Elle said as she rushed toward her brother. “How is this a thing that keeps happening?”

I saw her waving something in front of Clint’s face before she shoved it at Sabrina.

“Well, it hasn’t reallykepthappening,” Xandy said, exiting the house with Moe. “More like it’s happened twice now. No need to exaggerate.”

“You stupid twat!” Sabrina screamed at Elle and began spinning around like a building tornado.

Freeing my lips, Lula mumbled, “Uh-oh.”

We stood up and walked over to where Elle sat on the grass with her head in her lap.

“What’s happening, Mom?” Sutter called out.

Ford waved off the boy’s concerns and said, “Your mom’s got lady issues.”

Sutter was only a few years older than my nieces, but he acted like a little adult. Right now, his genius brain was picking through everyone’s behavior to search for the truth.

“What’s happening?” Lula asked her siblings and cousins.

Rather than answer, Clint squatted next to his sister, who rocked herself. Sabrina was still spinning around like a crazy person. Her girlfriends stood nearby, snickering at her freak-out.

“I’m not going to be ignored, Rowdy,” Lula insisted, doing her impression of Nova doing an impression of Glenn Close from “Fatal Attraction.”

Rowdy shrugged. “Our cousin did the nasty and forgot her birth control.”

“I’monbirth control,” Elle mumbled against her knees. “I was careful. I took my pill every day. My phone kept me organized. I should sue someone.”

“Wait, she’s pregnant?” I asked Lula.

Stroking Elle’s head, Lula nodded. I stepped back and frowned hard at the blonde woman hiding her face.

“Sutter, come to Mommy!” Elle called out to her son. “I need to smother you with my love!”

“No!” he called back.

“Maybe a new kid would be good for me,” Elle mumbled to Clint. “Sutter never wants to hug me anymore. Maybe this new kid could be dumber and clingier. Is there a food I can eat to make that happen?”

“I’m confused how this happened,” Clint said, settling next to Elle on the grass.

“Well,” Rowdy announced and cleared his throat. “When a man and a woman love each other very much—”

Clint shot Rowdy a dirty look, winning laughter from my future brother-in-law.

“I mean,whodid this happen with?”

“Oh, my God,” Lula said, finally catching on. “Eww.”