“So, what’s the deal with you two?” she asked, and Smokey snorted from the front seat. I saw my mother smack his arm, and he laughed.
I liked Sully. She was young, only sixteen, but she was smart. She reminded me a lot of the Jude I used to know. She appeared open and trusting, but her eyes were guarded.
“That’s a long story,” I said softly, looking out the window.
“We have a forty-minute drive,” Smokey reminded me.
“Smoke, stop.” I heard my mother chastise him, but he wouldn’t be deterred.
“Well?” he asked, looking at me in the rearview mirror.
I turned to Sully. “How much do you know about your brother?”
“Stephen told me everything he knew. He said Chasm was an enforcer in the club, but he’d died years before Stephen prospected. He didn’t know I had another brother in another club.” She grew quiet and looked forward. “He might have taken me there instead.”
I reached over and squeezed her hand.
“I met Jude when I was a senior in college. I went to the University of Arkansas, Little Rock. Things moved pretty quickly, and when I found out I was pregnant, he asked me to marry him.”
“Did you say yes?”
“I did. I loved him so much. We’d only known each other for a few months, but I knew he was the one.”
“What happened?”
“He died, and then I lost our baby.”
I placed my hand on my belly. “I had an ectopic pregnancy. The baby had attached inside the fallopian tube, instead of the uterus. There was nothing they could do.”
I was reminding myself as much as I was sharing with Sully.
“After the miscarriage, I went home to Virginia. I never got over losing him.”
“And now?” she asked, her eyes on the hand protecting my baby.
I took a deep breath and looked up at the mirror. Smokey’s eyes were on me, waiting to hear my answer.
“It’s complicated.”
“Bullshit,” Smokey cursed from the front.
My mother didn’t call him out this time, and I knew it was because she thought the same thing.
“Do you still love him?” Sully asked.
I nodded, unable to say the words out loud.
“And you’re having his baby?” Again, I nodded. “Maybe I’m just a kid, but what’s complicated about being in love with someone and having their baby?”
“Because love isn’t enough. You need trust, respect... understanding.”
“And you don’t have those things?”
I shook my head. “He walked away when he got hurt. He didn’t want me anymore once he found out the baby was gone. He didn’t even want me at his funeral.”
“What an asshole,” she hissed.
“Yeah,” I agreed.