Page 58 of Friar
“How’d it go?”she asked as I carefully transferred our son into her waiting arms.
“They loved him,” I said, settling into the chair beside her bed.“Pretty sure Leigha took about a hundred pictures.Whisper and Lyssa are already planning some kind of welcome home party.”
Cheri smiled, adjusting the blanket around our son’s tiny form.“They’re good people.Underneath all that leather and attitude.”
“The best,” I agreed, watching as she gently traced our son’s features with her finger.His tiny hand escaped the blanket, fingers splaying in that reflexive newborn gesture that somehow tugged at something primal in my chest.
I leaned forward, suddenly overcome with the weight of the moment.This child, this perfect combination of Cheri and me, had nearly been taken from us before he’d even had a chance to exist.Yet here he was, against all odds, breathing and whole and perfect.
“We never settled on a name,” Cheri said softly, breaking into my thoughts.
I met her gaze, saw the question there, and knew she was thinking of the same name I was -- the one we’d whispered to each other in the dark months ago, afraid to say it too loudly in case fate was listening.
“Zeke,” we said together, the name hanging in the air between us like a promise.
I reached out, my fingers intertwining with hers on the bedrail, both of us gazing down at our son, at Zeke.His eyes opened again, blinking slowly in the soft light filtering through the window blinds.
“Zeke,” I repeated, testing the weight of it.“Strong name for a strong kid.”
“With a strong father,” Cheri added, squeezing my hand.
I thought of all the roads that had led us here.The unlikely meeting at the clubhouse, the revelations of her pregnancy, Tasha’s jealousy and the chaos it had unleashed, the club’s justice delivered in the darkness of an abandoned quarry.Each step, each decision, each moment of fear and courage and determination, had brought us to this room, to this child, to this family we’d created against all odds.
“We made it,” I said simply, the words holding all the wonder and gratitude I couldn’t fully express.
Cheri’s smile deepened, reaching her eyes in a way that made my heart clench with a feeling I was still learning to name.“We did, and we’re just getting started.”
I leaned forward to press my lips against her forehead, then bent to do the same to our son’s impossibly soft hair.My family.My responsibility.My greatest strength and my most vulnerable point.I would protect them with everything I had, would build them a world where they never had to look over their shoulders, would love them with a fierceness that still surprised me when I examined it too closely.
As if sensing my thoughts, Zeke’s tiny fingers closed around mine, his grip surprisingly strong for something so small.A fighter, just like his parents.Just like the family that waited to welcome him home.