by Freya Barker
“I know you will,” Ouray says, clapping a hand on my shoulder. “You sticking around for Christmas?”
“Momma made me swear to stick around for dinner tonight, but I told her I can’t be here tomorrow.”
Momma is the club’s matriarch. She’s the wife of the founding former president, Nosh, and the two of them are like the club parents to anyone affiliated. Momma is not one to mess with.
“Your sister’s?”
“Can’t miss my niece’s first Christmas.”
“I met your sister,” Ouray shares, chuckling. “Thinking that’s the right call.”
A little over a year ago I left a good job as a child psychologist working mostly with kids on the autism spectrum at the Children’s Hospital in Denver, tired of politics and lack of program funding. I jumped at the opportunity when I heard through a buddy that a Durango MC was shopping for a child therapist. Of course I did my research to make sure the club was on the up and up—as I’m sure they did with me—but when all was said and done, I didn’t waste any time moving my ass out here. Life has to be lived, and when given a chance to combine work and passion, only a fool would say no.
The cherry on that cake is just a few months after I left Denver, my sister followed me out here. At the time she was pregnant and single, but has since become a parent and found herself a man. Decent guy, although he had to grow on me.
Growing up, Christmas was always something other people celebrated but for Tahlula and me it was just another day to get through.
Now that she has a baby and a man, she’s bound and determined to catch up for all those holidays spent alone. Which means my ass will be in her chair tomorrow come hell or high water.
I follow Ouray into the common room where Matt already reclaimed his turn at the game station with some of the other boys. Normally they get just a couple of hours of screen time per day, but given that we’ve had snow on the ground for the past three weeks or so and the temperatures have plummeted, they’ve mostly been cooped up inside. Because Momma put her foot down and won’t tolerate non-stop gaming, they’re limited to the afternoons.
“Boys!” The old woman sticks her head out of the kitchen. “Shut that shit down and get cleaned up. Dinner in fifteen.” The kids don’t hesitate, not even Matt. He hasn’t been here long but he knows damn well who rules the roost. “Matt, you run out to the gym and round up the guys there.”
I watch the boy give her a nod and hustle out the door. He seems more intimidated by the five foot five senior citizen than he is with my six foot four bulky frame. They don’t call me Trunk for nothing. I make a mental note to see if I can get Momma to help drag some information from the boy.
“Need a hand, Momma?”
“If you could move the pool table parallel to the dining table? I think there’s a board that fits over it against the side of the porch. We’ll probably need the smaller tables too, if you butt them end to end, we’ll have three large tables. Folding chairs in the shed in the back.”
“On it.”
“I’ll give ya a hand,” Paco announces, having just walked in.
By the time it takes us to haul in the chairs, lug the heavy table over, and shift the rest of the furniture around, Momma and Luna—Ouray’s wife—are ready to set the tables. Large white linen sheets to cover the roughed up surfaces, topped with nice bone china, matching cutlery and proper glasses that seem out of place in a clubhouse.
“Turn on the Christmas lights, will ya?” Momma asks Ouray who is observing the activity from a stool at the bar.
I barely recognize the place. The cavernous space, with scuffed barn board on the floors and sparse well-worn furniture, looks festive. A large Christmas tree sits in the corner by the bar and lights are strung around the windows and doors. I’ve never known an MC to put so much stock in the holidays. Then again, other clubs don’t have Momma.
Dinner is a raucous affair, which isn’t a surprise with around thirty people at the table. Especially when few of them haven’t even heard of table manners. Momma strategically installed herself and Nosh, Ouray and Luna, and Ouray’s second man, Kaga and his wife Lea, at each of the tables to keep an eye on the young ones. The rest of the club members, along with a few hangers-on of the female persuasion, have pulled up seats wherever there was room.
Across the table from me, Matt seems to take everything in; the food, the talking, the laughter. He looks overwhelmed when his eyes meet mine. Maybe even lost in this sea of brotherhood and togetherness.
I know just how he feels.
*****
Jaimie
“I still can’t believe you’re here.”
I look over at Mom, who has her eyes peeled out the window as we drive through Durango’s downtown core.
“Wait till the moving truck arrives on Monday,” she warns with a quick smile my way before she directs her gaze back outside. “You’ll be a believer then.”
She was supposed to fly in yesterday morning but all flights into Durango were canceled due to the large storm that dumped another ten or so inches on the snowpack that already accumulated over the past weeks. This morning—Christmas morning—she caught the first flight in.
Winter in Durango is nothing to sneeze at and I’m grateful for the new tires on my sturdy, second-hand Honda CRV.
I left Denver about six months ago with nothing other than a couple of suitcases and my then six-month old son, River. If not for the support of my friend and client, Tahlula Rae, and the amazing people in her circle, the past half year would probably have decimated me.
I am now the proud tenant of a gorgeous little home in a nice family neighborhood beside the Animas River. Since I’ve worked mostly from home, I haven’t had much need for babysitting, but that will change now my divorce is final.
That had threatened to become a long, drawn out affair when my ex contested the divorce from his prison cell. Thanks to Tahlula’s savvy Denver lawyer who pled my case to the family court judge just days after my ex’s conviction, I was granted a surprisingly easy divorce. The decree arrived at the lawyer’s office last week.
Mom started packing the day after.
“I can’t believe how much he’s grown,” she muses, looking over her shoulder at River, dozing in his car seat.
“I know. I’m so sorry you’ve had to do with pictures and videos, Mom. It just wasn’t safe for you or for us to visit.”
Mom turns tear-filled eyes to me as she grabs my hand. “Not your fault, Belle.”
She uses the nickname I gave myself at three years old, after a lengthy obsession with all things Peter Pan and Tinker Bell. I try hard not to get emotional, giving her a smile and a firm squeeze instead, quickly turning my eyes back on the road.
“We have about an hour to get you settled in, before we’re expected over at T’s place.”
“Are you sure she won’t mind me tagging along?” I snort at her question.
“Mom, the woman threatened to fire me if I didn’t drag you over there right away. T has decided to do Christmas big, with a living room filled with family. That’s us.”
“But she’s never even met me,” she protests.
“Doesn’t matter.”
“I don’t even know what to wear. I’ve never met a celebrity before.”
This time I laugh outright. “Mom, you’ll never meet a more down to earth person than Tahlula,” I enlighten her. “She’s more likely to be wearing jeans and a tee covered in baby spit than some cocktail dress. Hell, I doubt she even owns one. Trust me on this. You’ll love her. You’ll get a kick out of Joan as well—her soon-to-be mother-in-law—who’s the salt of the earth and as straight forward as they come.”
“Who else will be there?”
“Autumn and Keith with their son Aleksander. He’s only six months older than River, so it’ll be baby chaos. You can ‘grandma’ all day long. I think T’s brother Trunk’s supposed to be there as well.”
I try not to think too much about Tahlula’s massive, brooding, much darker-skinned half-br
other. Despite a few acts of kindness and a degree in psychology, the man seriously lacks in social skills. The few times I’ve bumped into him he’s done nothing more than growl at me, yet I still have an unhealthy fascination with him.
“Who would name their kid, Trunk?”
“His name’s Titus, Mom. Everyone just calls him Trunk. You’ll understand when you see him.”
At home I take Mom for a quick tour of the house, and show her the brand-new, small, but self-sufficient apartment above the garage, where she’ll move once her belongings get here. For now she’s sleeping in River’s room while he bunks with me.
My landlord, Ollie—who lives across the street and is married to Chief of Police Joe Benedetti—told me she’d had a fire in the garage last year. When they rebuilt, they added the nanny apartment, which I thought would be perfect for Mom. With two large windows in front, she’ll have views of the river across the street, and the two smaller ones at the back—one in the bedroom and one in the bathroom—look out on the yard.
Mom, who has a bit of a green thumb herself, will be happier than a pig in shit this coming spring when she sees the garden.
I quickly pack a few changes of clothes for River, and one for myself just in case, while Mom freshens up. Downstairs I grab the pumpkin and apple rhubarb pies I baked from the fridge. Dessert had been the only thing I’d been allowed to contribute. Mom comes down carrying a large plastic container.
“What are those?”
“Sugar cookies.” She smiles as I make a dive for the container. “You can have one, Jaimie,” she admonishes me when I discover it filled to the brim with my all-time favorite Christmas cookies. She and I would spend a day every year baking and decorating these holiday favorites.
“When did you have a chance to make these?” I ask, my mouth full. Luckily River is still sleeping in his car seat in the living room, or I’d have to share.
“On the weekend. Can’t have Christmas with my girl without her favorite treats.”
I round the kitchen island and wrap Mom, who is not much taller and equally rounded, in a big hug. “Love you, Mom. I’m so glad you’re here.”
“Me too, Belle, me too.”
The first person I see when we walk into Tahlula and Evan’s house twenty minutes later, is her brother. If it wasn’t for the barely there muscle twitch by his right eye as his gaze seems to travel through me, I’d swear I was invisible.
“Holy moly,” Mom whispers behind me. “I see why.”
Yeah. It’s hard to miss the large, wide, and illegally good-looking black man leaning against the counter.
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About the Author
Freya Barker loves writing about ordinary people with extraordinary stories.
Driven to make her books about 'real' people; she creates characters who are perhaps less than perfect, each struggling to find their own slice of happy, but just as deserving of romance, thrills and chills in their lives.
A recipient of the RomCon “Reader’s Choice” Award for best first book, “Slim To None”, and Finalist for the Kindle Book Award with “From Dust”, Freya continues to add to her rapidly growing collection of published novels as she spins story after story with an endless supply of bruised and dented characters, vying for attention!
Freya
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Also By Freya Barker
On Call Series:
Burning for Autumn
Covering Ollie
Tracking Tahlula
CEDAR TREE SERIES:
SLIM TO NONE
HUNDRED TO ONE
AGAINST ME
CLEAN LINES
UPPER HAND
LIKE ARROWS
HEAD START
PORTLAND, ME, NOVELS:
FROM DUST
CRUEL WATER
THROUGH FIRE
STILL AIR
SNAPSHOT SERIES:
SHUTTER SPEED
FREEZE FRAME
IDEAL IMAGE
PICTURE PERFECT (coming soon!)
NORTHERN LIGHTS COLLECTION:
A CHANGE IN TIDE
A CHANGE OF VIEW
A CHANGE OF PACE
ROCK POINT SERIES:
KEEPING 6
CABIN 12
HWY 550
10-CODE
There are many more books in this fan fiction world than listed here, for an up-to-date list go to www.AcesPress.com
You can also visit our Amazon page at:
http://www.amazon.com/author/operationalpha
Special Forces: Operation Alpha World
Christie Adams: Charity’s Heart
Denise Agnew: Dangerous to Hold
Shauna Allen: Awakening Aubrey
Brynne Asher: Blackburn
Linzi Baxter: Unlocking Dreams
Jennifer Becker: Hiding Catherine
Alice Bello: Shadowing Milly
Heather Blair: Rescue Me
Anna Blakely: Rescuing Gracelynn
Amy Briggs: Saving Sarah
Julia Bright: Saving Lorelei
Victoria Bright: Surviving Savage
Cara Carnes: Protecting Mari
Kendra Mei Chailyn: Beast
Melissa Kay Clarke: Rescuing Annabeth
Samantha A. Cole: Handling Haven
Sue Coletta: Hacked
Melissa Combs: Gallant
Anne Conley: Redemption for Misty
KaLyn Cooper: Rescuing Melina
Liz Crowe: Marking Mariah
Sarah Curtis: Securing the Odds
Jordan Dane: Redemption for Avery
Tarina Deaton: Found in the Lost
KL Donn: Unraveling Love
Riley Edwards: Protecting Olivia
PJ Fiala: Defending Sophie
Nicole Flockton: Protecting Maria
Michele Gwynn: Rescuing Emma
Casey Hagen: Shielding Nebraska
EM Hayes: Gambling for Ashleigh
Desiree Holt: Protecting Maddie
Kathy Ivan: Saving Sarah
Jesse Jacobson: Protecting Honor
Silver James: Rescue Moon
Becca Jameson: Saving Sofia
Kate Kinsley: Protecting Ava
Heather Long: Securing Arizona
Gennita Low: No Protection
Kirsten Lynn: Joining Forces for Jesse
Margaret Madigan: Bang for the Buck
Kimberly McGath: The Predecessor
Rachel McNeely: The SEAL’s Surprise Baby
KD Michaels: Saving Laura
Wren Michaels: The Fox & The Hound
Kat Mizera: Protecting Bobbi
Mary B Moore: Force Protection
LeTeisha Newton: Protecting Butterfly
Angela Nicole: Protecting the Donna
MJ Nightingale: Protecting Beauty
Sarah O’Rourke: Saving Liberty
Victoria Paige: Reclaiming Izabel
Anne L. Parks: Mason
Debra Parmley: Protecting Pippa
Lainey Reese: Protecting New York
TL Reeve and Michele Ryan: Extracting Mateo
Elena M. Reyes: Keeping Ava
Angela Rush: Charlotte
Rose Smith: Saving Satin
Jenika Snow: Protecting Lily
Lynn St. James: SEAL’s Spitfire
Dee Stewart: Conner
Harley Stone: Rescuing Mercy
Jen Talty: Burning Desire
Megan Vernon: Protecting Us
Police and Fire: Operation Alpha World
Freya Barker: Burning for Autumn
KaLyn Cooper: Justice for Gwen
Aspen Drake: Sheltering Emma
Deanndra Hall: Shelter for Sharla
Barb Han
: Kace
CM Steele: Guarding Hope
Reina Torres: Justice for Sloane
Stacey Wilk: Stage Fright
As you know, this book included at least one character from Susan Stoker’s books. To check out more, see below.
SEAL of Protection: Legacy Series
Securing Caite
Securing Brenae (novella)
Securing Sidney
Securing Piper
Securing Zoey (Jan 2020)
Securing Avery (May 2020)
Securing Kalee (Sept 2020)
Delta Team Two Series
Shielding Gillian (Apr 2020)
Shielding Kinley (Aug 2020)
Shielding Aspen (Oct 2020)
Shielding Riley (TBA)
Shielding Devyn (TBA)
Shielding Ember (TBA)
Shielding Sierra (TBA)
Delta Force Heroes Series
Rescuing Rayne (FREE!)
Rescuing Aimee (novella)
Rescuing Emily
Rescuing Harley
Marrying Emily (novella)
Rescuing Kassie
Rescuing Bryn
Rescuing Casey
Rescuing Sadie (novella)
Rescuing Wendy
Rescuing Mary
Rescuing Macie (Novella)
Badge of Honor: Texas Heroes Series
Justice for Mackenzie (FREE!)
Justice for Mickie
Justice for Corrie
Justice for Laine (novella)
Shelter for Elizabeth
Justice for Boone
Shelter for Adeline
Shelter for Sophie
Justice for Erin
Justice for Milena
Shelter for Blythe
Justice for Hope
Shelter for Quinn
Shelter for Koren
Shelter for Penelope
SEAL of Protection Series
Protecting Caroline (FREE!)
