Kristen Ashley - For You

“It’d make me happy, you put down that axe.”

“Feb –”

“Don’t hurt anyone else for me, Denny. Not even yourself. Just put down the axe.”

“You don’t understand. Why don’t you understand? Everyone knows, everyone knows it’s Feb and Alec. It’s always been Feb and Alec. It’ll always be Feb and Alec. No one’s loved you like me.”

“You’re right about that,” I whispered. “No one’s loved me like you.”

He read my words wrong, he read them like permission, his eyes went back to Colt and I knew, I knew what I was trying wasn’t going to work.

“No one’ll ever love you like me,” he murmured and it was a vow. “All I’ve ever done, all I ever was, was for you.”

Then he lunged, I closed my eyes and screamed but I still could hear the gunfire all around me.

“What?”

“You heard me, Feb.”

I looked at Doc, speechless.

Doc patted my knee and got up, saying, “You can put your clothes back on.”

I didn’t move.

Instead, I asked, “How?”

He was walking to the sink and he turned to me, brows lifted, face carefully blank but, if I could think at that moment, I would have sworn he was trying not to laugh, and he repeated, “How?”

I was back to speechless.

“Feb, I’m guessin’ you know how.”

“But –”

“Have you and Colt been using protection?” Doc asked.

“No… but –”

“Then that’s how.”

“I’m forty-two years old,” I reminded him.

“You still have a period?”

“Well, not anymore.”

He chuckled. I went back to staring. He turned back to the sink and washed his hands.

When he came around again, drying them, he said softly, “Get off my table, February, get dressed and go tell Colt you’re pregnant.”

Then he tossed the paper towel in the trash and walked out of the room.

“Hey Kath,” I said, walking in the front door of the Police Station.

“Hey, Feb,” Kath said back, grinning huge.

Since she couldn’t know I was pregnant and probably wouldn’t be grinning huge at that knowledge, (like I was grinning on the inside), just maybe grinning, I asked, “What?”

“Well, let me see…” Kath said then leaned forward when I made it to the front counter. “I gotta count ‘em down. First, Bethany kicked Cory’s ass out last night.”

I leaned forward too and repeated, “What?”

“Walked right into Tina Blackstone’s house, caught them in the act and threw a fit to end all fits.”

I put both hands on the counter and leaned forward. “So that’s what all that noise was about last night. Colt was so pissed, I had to get creative so he wouldn’t go over there and wade in.”

Kath nodded, still grinning. “Forgot, you and Colt live across the street from Tina.” Then her face changed, it went dreamy before she said, “Creative with Colt, bet that was fun.”

“It was,” I affirmed with my own smile, because it really, seriously was. “Anyway,” I went on, deciding to share my own gossip, “Bethany may be loud but, the shocker is, Tina’s louder.”

“That doesn’t surprise me. She always struck me as someone with a big mouth,” Kath noted.

“Yeah, a big mouth is one thing, a loud mouth another. Bethany could win awards and still Tina’s a lot louder.”

Kath laughed then one upped me. “Did you know Bethany went into labor right then and there?”

“No joke?” I breathed.

“No joke,” Kath replied, “and, right after she had the baby, a little girl, by the way, she kicked his ass out. They hadn’t even cut the umbilical cord. Rumor has it, he’s moving in with Tina.”

“Out of the frying pan, into the fire,” I muttered and Kath’s grin got even wider. “Wonder how Tina’ll take to Cory playin’ around.”

“You and Colt might want to consider soundproofing,” Kath suggested and I figured that’d be a good idea. “But that’s not it,” Kath told me.

“What’s it, then?” I asked.

“Colt fucked Monica Merriweather.”

I blinked fast about a dozen times before I asked again, “What?”

“Yonks ago he told her he’d give her an exclusive on the whole…” she stopped talking, her expression changed and she waved her hand in the air in an effort to say words she didn’t really have to say, “then, he didn’t.”

“I know.”

“She’s pissed. She’s been in, like, every day for the last two months since it went down. Gettin’ in Colt’s face, gettin’ in everyone’s face and gettin’ nothin’. Colt’s sealed up tight. Sully’s sealed up tight. Everyone’s sealed up tight. Monica is persona non grata even more than she was persona non grata and pretty much everyone hated her before. Now she’s not gettin’ anything not just on that thing but on everything . She’s been locked out.”

“I know that too, Kath.” And I did, Colt told me all about it.

“Welp, did you know Monica and Colt had a showdown just two feet away from me not ten minutes ago? Apparently, that reporter from The Star’s got a book comin’ out and before it’s even in the bookstores he’s sold the movie rights.”

I knew what she was saying.

I couldn’t say I was pleased there was going to be a movie made about the Denny mess and I was also not pleased there was going to be a book but Colt warned me this was probably going to happen. We’d been through weeks of reporters hounding us anywhere they could get to us before they realized we weren’t talking, Sully wasn’t talking, the FBI weren’t talking. They finally figured out they were only going to get the information released as a matter of course and then the next story came along and they lost interest.

What I could say was I was pleased that Monica wasn’t going to make her career from it. Colt had told me about her and since the day Denny came back to town she’d been a serious pain in the ass. Calling Colt, calling me, stopping by the bar, coming to the Station, bothering me when I was at Mimi’s. She’d written three articles about us and made some shit up and it wasn’t nice shit. Colt lost his cool and talked to Eli Levinson. Eli was one year ahead of Colt at high school, the wide receiver on the football team who went to law school, opened up his practice in town and Eli owed Colt a favor. Eli paid up by slapping Monica and The Gazette with a cease and desist which included a threat of litigation should they libel us any further. The Gazette had gladly printed a retraction and also just as gladly used that as an excuse to dump Monica’s ass. We’d heard word they’d fired her yesterday.

Evidently she wasn’t too happy about losing her job and her promised (and reneged) exclusive on the story of the year.

“Who won the showdown?” I asked Kath, even though I knew the answer.

Kath was talking through her laughter as she answered, “Seein’ as Monica got physical and is currently in lockdown, I’d say Colt won.”

My mind filled with visions of short, pudgy Monica going up against tall, lean Colt and I swallowed back a giggle and looked up the stairs.

“She got physical with a police officer?” I asked.

“In the end, three,” Kath answered.

I swallowed more laughter before saying, “So, is he in a good mood or a bad mood?”

“Can’t say. Monica’s in lockdown, which is good, but she had her hands on him, which he never liked.”

I felt my lip curl and said, “I don’t blame him.”

“Prefers your hands on him, I reckon,” I heard from my side and I turned to see Marty standing there.