“I’m okay after my nap, but are you sure? I wouldn’t want anyone to get the wrong idea. You really don’t like me much, so it might be weird.” My hand absently circled on Tristan’s back, his face tucked into my neck.
“Why would you think I don’t like you?” He truly looked shocked.
“Well, the other day in the diner. You were pretty nasty. I kind of get it. Even though I wasn’t sure how to find you, finding out you were gonna be a father a few days before the fact had to be a shocker.” Unable to look at him without thinking really naughty things, I glanced away. That was going to be a big problem.
Three more weeks. Three more weeks. Three more weeks.
“Look, I owe you an apology for that day. I had just gotten home from the rig and hadn’t had much sleep. After some time to contemplate, things have fallen into perspective for me. I was an ass. Since I highly doubt having a baby was in your immediate plans, I’d say we were both equally responsible. Yet we weren’t completely irresponsible—we used precautions. Like my mother told me today, sometimes things happen for a reason that we may not be able to comprehend at the time. I like to think Tristan has a purpose.” He continued to study me, and I squirmed a little.
“What time do you need to leave?” I wasn’t sure if I’d have time to get cleaned up and changed. Both terrified to meet his club and yet a little excited, I chewed on the inside of my cheek.
His grin was devastatingly beautiful.
“You’ll go?” If his smile was beautiful before, it was heart-stopping with his question.
“Yeah. I’m not guaranteeing that I won’t wear out quickly and need to leave, though. Did you get a chance to have someone pick up my car? If not, can you drive me by to get it? That way if I need to leave early, I won’t inconvenience you.” At my request, his smile fell a little and he seemed uncomfortable. My eyes narrowed, because I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to like what he had to say.
“About that. Your car is at the shop.” He cleared his throat.
“What do you mean, it’s at the shop? What happened?” My heart fell at the thought of the money I would have to exhaust on it.
“It needs a lot of work.”
“What? Why would you take it to the shop without asking me? I can’t afford to have everything fixed. It was fine.”
He sighed and tugged on his beard. “No, it really wasn’t. I asked the guys to look it over and they found a lot of serious issues.”
“It was getting me from point A to point B,” I argued.
“For how long?” He propped his hands on his hips. “Summer is coming. What if it broke down when you had Tristan with you? It gets hot as a motherfucker here.”
Clenching my jaw in frustration, I closed my eyes and counted to ten. When I had control of my emotions, I opened them and took a deep breath. “Look, I can’t afford that. If you couldn’t tell by my place, I’m on an extremely tight budget. I need to have my car, and I’ll just have to hope for it to last until I graduate and get a better job.”
“It’s covered.”
“You’re not paying for my car! Oh my God. You’re already letting me live here for free, which I disagree with, by the way. You can’t pay for my car too!” At the escalation in my volume, Tristan started to wiggle on my chest. It had me quickly shutting down my tirade.
Gunny stepped toward me and gave me a no-nonsense stare. With quiet determination, he said, “Whether you like it or not, by having my son, you became part of my family, and family to my club. We look out for our own. Therefore, you’re going to be looked after and checked on. If that means fixing your piece of shit car, then it’s going to happen.”
I sputtered but couldn’t really argue. After all, I was trying not to cry. Not one time in my life could I think of actually being part of a family. Of the five foster homes I made the rounds of, only one treated me like they wanted me. Then when the husband died unexpectedly, Karen, the mother, kind of lost it and couldn’t deal with me.
I’d never had someone put my needs first or even second. If I didn’t look out for myself, no one did. Even in Karen and Hector’s family, their kids came first, and I was usually an afterthought. Not that they treated me bad, but still.
“I’m glad we got that settled,” he finally said when I didn’t respond. Then he turned back to the stove, stirred the food, then pulled out the ingredients for sandwiches. “What do you want on your sandwich?”
It took me a moment to find my words. “Ham and cheese is fine.”
“Any mayo, lettuce, tomatoes?” he asked with his back still to me.
“No. Just ham and cheese.” At my response, he looked over his shoulder with a censorious raised brow. By then I could only roll my eyes and carefully settle Tristan into his little bouncy seat that Gunny had picked up. It was then that I saw the pile of toys on the table.
“What’s with all the toys?” I asked incredulously.
He glanced at the them, then shrugged. “I couldn’t decide which ones to get, so I grabbed a few.”
“A few? He’ll never be able to play with all of these.” I started going through the brightly colored toys that ranged from zero month to over a year. All of them intellectually stimulating, without the use of batteries and gimmicks. I was impressed but still amazed at how many there were.
“Well, he’ll have lots to choose from,” he said. Before he turned around to finish the sandwiches, I saw uncertainty cross his features. It made me feel bad that I’d hurt his feelings, because it was evident that he was really trying to do the right thing. I felt like a real bitch.
“Um, thank you,” I offered tentatively.
“It really wasn’t that much,” he mumbled. Turning around, he handed me a plate, which I graciously accepted.
“I wasn’t only referring to the toys.” I fidgeted. “Thank you for everything. Being there during the delivery when you didn’t believe he was yours, picking me up, insisting I stay here instead of in my shithole, my car, your offer of family—all of it. If I came across as ungrateful, I didn’t mean to; it’s not something I’m used to. That’s all.”
He moved the toys to one side of the table. “Do you want a bottle of water? Juice?”
“Water is fine, thank you,” I replied, wondering if he’d heard anything I’d said. Sitting down, I peeked at Tristan, then at his father. Gunny set the water in front of me, then sat across from me.
“You’re welcome.” He took a bite of his sandwich, and I figured the conversation was over. After he washed it down with a sip from his bottle, he gazed thoughtfully at me.
“How about this?” he began. “I’ll swing by to pick up my bike on the way. You drive my truck with Tristan and follow me. That way, you feel you have some freedom and can take off if you need to leave. You can drive my truck until I head back to the rig or yours is fixed. If I have to, I’ll rent or borrow a car to go back with. Either way, we’ll figure it out. Together.”
“Holy shit! I can’t drive that fucking truck! It’s huge, and fancy, and likely very expensive,” I sputtered.
A teasing grin lit his face. “Don’t swear around our son.”
Disbelief gave way to laughter when I realized he’d thrown my words back at me, but in good humor. “Touché, Gunny.”
“You know, you can call me Jax or Jaxon,” he offered with a half-smile.
“I guess I’ve always thought of you as Gunny. You know, when you gave me your number and wrote Jaxon, I thought you’d lied to me about your name that first night.” I hid my smile behind my sandwich as I took a bite.
He shook his head as he smirked at me. “You really didn’t think highly of me, did you?”
“Well, when you didn’t come in again, I thought you must’ve been someone passing through. Then when I saw you in the diner again, I thought you’d been around the whole time and avoided me.” As I spoke, I pulled the crust off my bread.
“I still could’ve been passing through, you know. There could’ve been a million reasons for why I wasn’t aro
und. Not to mention, that first night we had said it wasn’t anything serious and wouldn’t be repeated. So what reason would I have to go back?”
Everything he’d said was true. So why did it hurt my feelings?
“Well, my hormones had my emotions all over the place. My powers of deduction weren’t that great either.” It was my turn to shrug, acting like it was all nothing. We finished eating and he took my plate to the sink.
“I’ll watch Tristan if you want to shower,” he offered.
“Sure. Thank you,” I said as I inwardly smacked myself for softening toward him.
You only need to stay strong for three more weeks.
God help me.
“Hurricane”—I Prevail
“Holy fucking shit,” Slice said as I climbed off my bike.
“What?” I asked, but I realized he wasn’t looking at me. He was looking at Avery as she climbed down from my truck.
“Hey. Easy. That’s Avery. The mother of my new son.” Like when Truth asked to date her and Straight made fucking goo-goo eyes at her, my hackles rose.
“Well, she looks just like Raiven, bro.” He tore his shocked gaze from her and looked at me with a gaping mouth and wide eyes.
“I hadn’t noticed,” I deadpanned.
He choked. “Are you serious?”
I rolled my eyes and shook my head. The strange thing was, though I’d thought she looked like Raiven that first night, the more time I spent with her, the less I saw the similarities. Her hair might be dark, but not as dark, her features were softer, one might say more lush. And those freckles were unique to her.
And goddamn, those dimples.
“Honestly, I thought Truth was full of shit when he said you had a kid.” He ran a hand through his dark hair. “Fucking hell, what’s up with that?”
As I watched Avery talk on the phone by the open back door, I gave him the abbreviated version, then rushed over to help her get Tristan’s seat out. It was heavier than it looked, and I didn’t want her overdoing it. I chose not to overanalyze my protectiveness of her.
“Let me get that,” I said over her shoulder as she shoved her phone in the diaper bag. Where she’d been struggling to reach up in the truck and unbuckle the seat from the base, I easily disconnected it.
“Show off,” she grumbled, and I couldn’t help but give her a cocky grin. When I grabbed the diaper bag from her, it seemed to weigh more than the seat with him in it.
“Jesus. What all do you have in here?”
She gave me an exaggeratedly innocent look and shrugged. “Babies need a lot of stuff. You know, just in case.” Her nose wrinkled, and she pulled her bottom lip off to the side. A laugh escaped me. She could be really funny without even trying, and I wondered how I’d missed that.
“Well, I’ll get this and him, you grab the pan, okay?” She nodded and headed in the direction I’d motioned. The club members and their families were gathered under the trees at the picnic tables.
It was impossible not to notice the perfect jiggle of her ass under the soft-looking long halter dress she wore. Her coffee-colored hair hung in soft curls down her back and swung from side to side with each step. Before she reached the crew, she stopped and looked over her shoulder at me.
“I didn’t want to walk up without you. I feel weird being here.” The nervousness in her smoky blue eyes pulled at something in my chest. Stopped next to her, I fought the curve of my lips as I tried not to laugh at her worry.
“They won’t bite,” I teased. It had the desired effect when she grinned.
“What if I like that?” Her eyes twinkled, and a laugh escaped me, causing everyone to turn our way.
“Get your cute little ass moving.”
We approached the group, and I was relieved to see that Raiven wasn’t there. My brother broke away from where he was talking to Radar and Truth. He came our way with narrowed eyes. My breath caught in my chest as I waited.
“Jaxon.” He pulled me into a hug that I returned one-armed due to the carrier. It was as if he suddenly realized I carried a baby. When he looked down and his eyes went wide, I knew he was seeing what I had. “Holy crap, you weren’t kidding. Has Mom seen him yet?”
“No. They’re coming by the house tomorrow.” Glancing behind me to where Avery stood nervously chewing on her lip, I held an arm out to encourage her to step forward. “I want you to meet someone.”
“Okay,” she murmured. Her chest rose as she took a deep, fortifying breath, then she stepped up to my side.
“Avery, I’d like to introduce you to my baby brother, Matlock, commonly known as Lock around here.” I grinned from ear to ear at my brother’s eye roll.
“I haven’t been a baby in a lot of years.” He smirked, then looked at Avery. Really looked at her. The expression on his face told me he noticed. But when he didn’t say anything, I thought maybe he didn’t see as much of a resemblance as Slice had. Come to think of it, Slice had been the only one to really say anything. Maybe she didn’t look as much like Raiven as I’d imagined. “Let me take that for you,” he offered as he took the pan of baked beans I’d made.
“Thank you. And it’s nice to meet you,” she said with a beautiful smile.
“Raiven will be upset she missed you, but Bryson started running a bit of a fever before we left, so she chose to stay at home.” He’d barely gotten the words out when I heard a squeal.
“Unka Gunny!” The pounding of feet came from behind me, and I turned. Bracing myself and the carrier for impact, I absorbed the energy that hit me when Presley wrapped her arms around my legs.
Her face pressed into the side of my thigh as she hugged me. “I missed you so vewy much, Unka Gunny! Why you be away so wong?” Filled with drama, she looked up at me with a heavily mournful face.
“Hey, Little Elvis. Have you been a good girl for your mommy and daddy?” At my question, she nodded rapidly, causing her golden ringlets to bounce.
“I been a vewy good gewl! I gots a baby bruver!” she announced as if I didn’t already know.
“Yes, I know that. I hope you’ve been helping with him.” Again she nodded. Suddenly noticing the baby in my hands, her eyes went huge.
“Unka Gunny!” she exclaimed dramatically. “You gots a baby too! Is it you baby?”
It was impossible not to smile at her exuberance. “Yeah, he’s my baby and Miss Avery’s baby. Presley, this is Tristan, and Miss Avery is his mommy.”
Her head tipped, and she studied Avery. “Hi, Miss Avewy. You gots a baby? My mommy gots a baby too. Hims bigger than you baby.” It wasn’t said maliciously, simply matter-of-factly like only an almost four-year-old could.
Avery leaned down to bring herself closer to Presley’s height. “Hello, Miss Presley. It’s very nice to meet you. Yes, this is my baby, Tristan. He’s very small because he’s very new. How new is your baby brother?”
Presley screwed her face up in deep thought before she looked to her dad for help. “He’s almost a year old,” Lock told her. My heart literally ached at his words. I’d missed almost the first year of my nephew’s life. It didn’t sit right with me, since I’d been there for almost every day of Presley’s life from the day she was born until Lock moved to Texas.
The brothers who were there and their ol’ ladies started to move closer. Curiosity was getting the better of them.
“I’m going to set him on the table. Is that okay?” I asked Avery.
“Sure. I’ll sit by him. You visit with your friends,” she said with a small, nervous smile as she took a seat at the picnic table I’d set the car seat on. The way she was acting wasn’t what I was used to from her. With me, she was bold.
Leaning down to speak quietly to her, I placed my mouth close to her ear. The scent she was wearing reminded me of that first night, and I closed my eyes. “I’d like to introduce you to everyone. They want to get to know you and Tristan.”
“Oh, okay,” she said as her breath hitched.
Standing upright, I glanced around at my brothers. My
family.
“This is Radar, Slice, Clay, Styx and his ol’ lady, Gwen. Of course you’ve met Straight, Truth, Lock, and Smoke. And Drew is our prospect, over manning the grill.” I pointed everyone out as I introduced them. Some were open and smiling, others seemed to be reserving judgement. My brother was one of those.
“It’s nice to meet you all,” she said with a smile that lit up her face.
“Oh, he’s so precious,” Gwen said as Tristan started to grunt in his seat. Nova stepped out of the clubhouse with Mattie. As soon as they saw what everyone was crowded around, they rushed over.
“Avery! I’m so glad you came! Oh my God, look at him. He’s beautiful.” She cupped her hands over her face, and tears welled in her eyes.
“How are you feeling?” Avery motioned toward Nova’s softly rounded belly.
“I’m actually feeling fantastic. It’s been an amazing pregnancy so far. Knock on wood,” she said with a smile and a tap of her knuckles to the table. Smoke stepped up behind her and rested his hands on her stomach. He nuzzled her ear and whispered something that made her blush. “Anyway,” she continued, “is there anything you still need? We wanted to throw you a baby shower.”
“Oh! You don’t have to do that. You’ve already done so much for me,” Avery insisted. Little did she know, it wasn’t a negotiable offer. Nova was a force to be reckoned with. After hearing about the way Nova had strong-armed Smoke and the boys to eat at the diner and leave huge tips, she should know that by now.
The brothers started to wander away to grab a beer or check on the grill after the novelty of me having a kid had settled in. The women continued to gush over him until he started to fuss.
“Um, is there somewhere I can feed him?” Avery asked Nova as she extricated her long dress and legs from the bench. Unbuckling a now pissed-off Tristan, she lifted him to pat him on his diapered butt.
When I made a move to show her the way inside, Nova and Gwen stepped up. “We’ll show her to your room,” Nova offered. I nodded.
“Your room?” Avery asked me with a puzzled expression. A piece of her dark hair blew across her face and stuck to her lip gloss. Without thinking, I gently moved it back. For a heartbeat, everything around us went silent and blurred out. My gaze searched her smoky eyes for something I didn’t understand.
Jax and Jokers: A Demented Sons MC Texas Novel Page 10
