My face went up in flames, and he grinned wickedly.

“Hells yes,” he said. “When we get home, Baby Girl, I want full buffet access—”

“Phil!” I admonished.

“What?”

“Not in front of your father and my brother!” I hissed. “Or Tiny!”

“Pfft! They can’t hear us—”

“I wouldn’t mind a bit of buffet,” rumbled Tiny from the seat behind us. “I’ll have to talk to my woman when we get back to Louisiana.”

Phil’s eyes bugged, and I laughed right in his face. Despite the slight pink tingeing his cheeks, Phil bit his lip and chuckled.

Life just might be getting easier.

Returning to New Orleans lifted our spirits tremendously.

Back at the Plantation House, our friends and family gave us a jubilant reception. Jason and Flipper ran down the front steps as the black van pulled into the driveway, Siggie taking over Tim’s vacant chauffeur spot. If Phil had thought of that, he’d said nothing about it.

Wrenching open the sliding door, Jason and Flipper pulled Phil out, and the three of them embraced. Connor stepped out, reaching for my hand, and assisted me from the van as though I needed the help. Not an original member, he felt out of place with his brothers since they had lost a founding father of their group.

Jason stepped back though and dragged Connor into the knot. Phil and Flipper heartily embraced him, and I could hear the sniffles and gasps coming from them. Since this had nothing to do with me, I grabbed my stuff, which Tiny promptly relieved me of, and headed for the house.

Alys and Lili burst out the front door, followed by Viv and Sheri, who surrounded me in my own knot of grieving humanity.

“Oh God, I’ve missed you so much!” wailed Alys.

“I missed you, too, Muffin.”

Da and Gloria, and Danielle, Martin, and their kids along with everyone from Devil’s Advocate had come together to welcome us home. Mama Sally and Papa David were there, too.

“For th’ love o’ all tha’s holy, Kenna!” griped my father, pulling me in for a papa bear hug. “Yer naugh’ but skin an’ bones!” Taking my face in his hands, he peered into my eyes, finding the-gods-knew-what in them. “Are ye all righ’?”

“Stressed out and exhausted, Da. Don’t worry.”

Phil watched this exchange, guilt crossing his features. He blamed himself for my own condition. In a way, he was right. But it was more to do with the dying piece of life I carried rather than his surly attitude.

The grill was going, and a massive amount of food had been prepared. Never mind that it wasn’t even noon. There was going to be a barbeque, and beers were already making the rounds.

Even though I knew the pregnancy wasn’t going to amount to anything, I declined the alcohol. Phil didn’t. He sucked down a beer in record time and popped open another. With him on the Vicodin, I wasn’t too pleased, but I kept my mouth shut, happy that he was just trying to find a place to be comfortable in.

On our side of the house, Danielle and Gloria had set up the living room for Phil, moving out the sofas and replacing them with a bed. It would be some time before Phil would be able to take the stairs.

Bone-weary by the time evening came, everyone dispersed, and Phil and I ventured into the downstairs bathroom for a mutual shower. The stall was small, made even more so by the stool Phil had to sit on, but it was the first time we’d been naked in front of each other in five weeks.

Helping him out of his clothes and securing plastic wrapping around the cast, I felt that burn that only he could inflame igniting low in my groin. Even in his wasted state, he was still so magnificent to me. His narrow waist was ridiculous, his once flat stomach now caved in, his ribs showing. The width of his chest was thinner, but still…he was larger than life, powerful and so beautiful. Phil was my everything. No matter what, he always would be.

His cock hadn’t lost a damn thing though. With Phil’s body gone overall thin, it looked even more enormous by comparison.

“Well, I’ll be damned,” I said.

“Pretty cool, eh? Even if it’s an optical illusion.” He snorted. We were both looking down at it, grinning like dipshits. “He’s missed you, Baby Girl.”

He let me help him into the shower and onto his seat, and he asked in an almost shy voice, “Strip for me?”

“Well, I’m not going to shower in my clothes.” I laughed.

“You know what I mean. Like that time in New York at Stephen and Tara’s place.”

Smiling, I nodded and did my best to hide my trepidation. It was easy to hide whatever changes had been taking place in my body beneath the bulky sweaters in the frozen hell of Saskatoon. Even though I was just seven weeks along, there were subtle differences. My nipples had grown larger and turned a bright pink, and although I had lost a few pounds, my abdomen was tight and slightly rounded.

Phil knew my body like no one’s business, and he’d pick up on the changes. I was certain of that. I took my time, giving him what he wanted, and his desire burned hotter the more I took off. Then, I realized he was doped up, buzzing on beer, and the changes went unnoticed.

Stroking his length, he stared at me, hard and intense. “Baby Girl…you are the most beautiful woman ever created.”

“I guess it’s only fair since you’re the most beautiful man.”

“I think we both need to eat more. Your ribs and hip bones are pokin’ out.”

Weirdly ashamed, aching with an odd sort of pain, I started to cross my arms beneath my breasts.

“No!” he barked. “Don’t, Kenna. I didn’t mean to hurt your feelin’s. It’s just…we’ve both been wrecked by this, you know? I look like I’m diseased or somethin’.”

Dropping my arms to my sides, I walked up to him, and he placed his hands on my bony hips. Something flitted through his eyes, a brief wave of shock and confusion, and then it was gone.

He felt it! Our Little Zephyr.

Leaning forward, he placed a soft kiss on my belly, over our child, infusing us both with his undying love. He didn’t know it, but he’d just given both of us the strength to continue on this path, Little Zephyr and me.

“Home…” he whispered.

My eyes filled with tears.

Tilting his head up, he saw them and tugged me down onto my knees between his legs. Bending forward, he kissed them away, his hands holding my face. “My other half.”

“My whole life,” I whispered back.

His lips pressed to mine, and the inferno raged to life between us. He dragged me into him until his groin was pressed between my breasts, my overly sensitive nipples positively aching with the heat of his body and scratch of his pubic hair.

“Baby…” he rasped. “We gotta find a way. I need to be inside you.”

I needed him inside me, too. But more than that…I needed him to get well.

“There really isn’t a way,” I told him.

“But—”

“No. Would you truly risk it? You could fracture your pelvis all over again. You’d have to have more surgery, and you could very well end up with damage that would lead to impotence. We’d never have sex again!”

He growled. “No.”

“If you promise to hold completely still, I’ll go down on you, okay? I can give you that.”

Leaning back against the shower wall, he heaved a sigh of resignation. “This fuckin’ sucks.”

“I thought you liked the way I sucked.”

Phil’s eyes softened, and the corners of his mouth turned up. “I do, Baby Girl.”

His erection had started to deflate with the flat-out refusal of sex, but it quickly surged back to life beneath my hands, lips, and tongue. He did his best not to rock his pelvis, and within a few short minutes, he was howling and coming hard down my throat.

As I got to my feet, Phil grabbed my hips and dragged me forward, bending to press his mouth to me, sucking and licking at my throbbing wet flesh.