by K. J. Dahlen
Both Melora and Sam watched as the baby became clear. They could see the head and arms and as Dr. Peters moved the wand around, they could see the whole body all the way down to the baby’s feet.
Melora was in awe. This was her child and she couldn’t believe it was so real. Tears rolled down her cheeks and she turned to see Sam’s expression.
Sam was staring at the monitor in awe as well.
Melora reached out and took his hand.
Sam squeezed her fingers but couldn’t take his eyes off the baby.
“Would you like to know what it is?” Dr. Peters asked.
“Yes,” Melora whispered as she stared at the screen.
“It’s a boy,” he announced. “And you seem to be around eighteen weeks along by the size of the baby.” He pressed a few buttons and some pictures began spitting out of the machine. When he handed them to Melora and Sam, he told them, “My nurse will take some blood today and I’d like to see you again in a month.”
Sam helped her sit up. Then he slid down into the chair next to the table and picked up the photo again. He couldn’t take his eyes off the picture of his son. Although he had grown and almost grown children this was the first time, he’d seen a picture of one of them while still in their mother’s womb.
Dr. Peters had to chuckle as he watched the two of them staring at the sonogram photos. “I’ll leave you two alone with your son.”
After the doctor left the room, Melora studied the expression on Sam’s face. If she was thrilled, he seemed to be over the moon. “So…” She moistened her lips with her tongue. “Are you okay?”
Sam nodded. “Yeah, I’m ok.” Looking up at her he said, “This is all new to me. It’s like this is the first time for me, you know?”
Melora chuckled. “Yeah, I guess it is isn’t it?” She paused then asked, “So are you happy it’s a boy?”
Sam nodded. “It wouldn’t have mattered as long as both you and the baby are ok.”
A nurse came in and took some blood then gave Melora a prescription for prenatal vitamins and an appointment card.
When they left the office and went back to the waiting room, Mountain got to his feet. Melora handed him the picture and Mountain stared at it for a moment before he smiled.
“It’s gonna be a boy,” she told her father.
“A boy huh?” Mountain grunted. “Good I can teach him how to work on hot rods when he gets older.”
Sam frowned. “There you go with that hot rods crap again. I’m gonna teach him how to build a bike when he gets older.”
“Oh, both of you stop…..” Melora laughed as Cassie and Deke joined them. She passed the pictures to them and Deke slapped his dad on the back when they found out the baby was a boy.
“No fair,” Cassie whined. “We won’t find out for at least another month what we’re having.”
“Sweetheart,” Deke wrapped his arms around her. “It won’t matter, boy or girl we’ll love it anyway.”
Cassie smiled and hugged him back.
“Let’s get out of here,” Melora stated. “I have a lot to do now. The biggest thing to do is to find a place to live. Then I have a baby to get ready for. I have to buy a crib and all that other stuff.”
Sam and Mountain just stared at her.
“Ahh, sweetheart…” Mountain stammered.
“What?” Melora asked as she looked from one to the other of them.
“We have some time before the baby comes to get settled,” Mountain told her. “The boys and I have to find a place to set up shop and buy the tools and supplies we need to earn a living. I have some money set aside and we’ll get everything you need for the baby but it’s going to take some time.”
“The shop is on you.” She raised her chin up. “I have my own money.”
“But how?” Cassie asked. “You haven’t worked since you got here.”
Melora shrugged. “I have been working the whole time and I have some money set aside.”
“What have you been doing?” Deke asked with a curious expression on his face.
Melora shrugged and flushed. “I write books.”
“You’re published?” Sam asked in surprise.
Melora nodded. “I write under a pen name.”
Cassie began shaking her head. “No, you aren’t her—are you?”
“Who?” Deke asked with a frown.
“Danielle Shane,” Cassie whispered.
Melora smiled. “Yup.”
Cassie squealed and grabbed her in a big hug. “You little shit! Oh, my God!”
Sam frowned and looked a bit lost. Rubbing his hand along his jaw he asked, “Who is Danielle Shane?”
“Only the biggest romance writer I know,” Cassie explained with excitement. “Peaches and I love her books. We’ve even got Marnie and Reva reading them. Every woman knows the name Danielle Shane.” Cassie stared at her for a moment. “I can’t believe you’ve been living with us all this time and we didn’t know who you were!”
Melora shrugged. “I’m just me, nobody special.”
“You are someone special.” Sam growled. “You’re special to me.”
“To me too,” Mountain assured her.
“Okay, okay.” Melora chuckled. “I’m super special…Can we go home now?”
Sam wrapped his arm around her shoulders. “Come on, let’s go home.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
When they got back to the clubhouse there was more than one surprise waiting for them. Four large trailers sat in the dooryard, all bearing Iowa license plates. When Melora got out of Sam’s truck, Mountain was right beside her.
When Deke and Cassie joined them Deke stated, “I wonder what the hell is going on here?”
Then the front door opened and four very large men came out followed by Gator, Wiley, Deacon and some of the other men. The men came to stand behind and around Deke and Cassie while the four new men stood on their own.
“What the hell?” Mountain whispered in shock.
Deke whipped his head around and stared at the other man. “Do you know these guys?”
“They’re my brothers.” Mountain nodded.
“Your brothers?” Melora whispered. “You mean I have uncles?”
One of the men stepped forward and held out his hand to Mountain. “Well hell, Talon, you look great.”
Mountain laughed out loud and grabbed his brother pulling him into a big bear hug. “Chance, you old sonofabitch! How the hell are you guys?”
The others grabbed him, hugging him close for a minute before Mountain turned to Deke. “These are my brothers Chance, Byron, Bowie and Dante.” Turning back to his brothers, he introduced everyone. “This is Deke, Cassie, Sam and my daughter Melora. I’m sure the others have introduced themselves by now.”
Chance nodded. “Yeah, they did.” He turned to Melora. “So this is your daughter huh? She’s beautiful, must take after her mother.” He chuckled while staring at her light silky looking hair. Her coloring was definitely Morgan, as all the men standing there shared the white hair and violet eyes the same as Melora did.
Mountain laughed along with his brothers then asked, “What brings you guys all this way and why the trucks?”
Chance glanced over at his other brothers briefly then turned to Mountain. “We decided to join you out here. We’ve all been apart for too long. When you called us a couple months ago to tell us you found your daughter, we decided to sell the farm and come out here to be with you guys. We sort of figured you’d move out here, if this was where your daughter was staying.”
“Dad would have wanted all of us together,” Bowie added. “So, when you called us a few days ago to tell us you were moving out here and why, we just packed up and hit the road. We kind of liked the idea of having a garage and building hot rods. It’ll be just like when we were growing up.” He snickered. “We all wanted to see you become a grandpa too. Man are you getting old, brother.”
“That is if you want u
s to.” Dante shrugged.
“Yeah, I do. It sounds great to me.” Mountain grinned. “The Morgan Brothers are back together again.” He paused then said, “If I’m getting older, so are the rest of you. You aren’t that much younger than me.”
“If we don’t kill each other first,” Chance said. “We haven’t always seen eye to eye on the small things.”
“That was when we were young and dumber.” Mountain shrugged.
“Are they all going to join the club as well?” Gator asked.
“If you’ll have us,” Dante said. “We did bring our bikes.”
Mountain’s smile widened.
No one present had ever seen the huge man grin so much.
“This group doesn’t much care for the idea of hot rods in their town. They prefer the two wheeled kind of vehicle.”
“Well, we’ll just have to convert them then won’t we?” Dante grinned.
“Yeah, good luck with that.” Sam scoffed.
“Oh, I have to tell you guys, the Morgan name and legacy will live on. She’s having a boy,” Mountain announced.
“That kid is a Tory all the way.” Sam growled.
Deke just rolled his eyes then grabbing Cassie and Melora by the arms, he led them inside. “Too much blond testosterone out here.”
Cassie and Melora giggled as they went inside. “I think I need a drink,” Melora stated.
“I think I’ll join you.” Cassie nodded.
Reva came out of the kitchen with a pot of tea and two cups just as Peaches came out with a plate of sandwiches. When they sat down, the others filed in and made their way over to the bar. Deacon grabbed a bunch of beers and handed them out.
While they were busy at the bar Cassie caught Peaches’ eye and said, “Someone has been hiding a secret.”
“And what would that be?” Peaches asked.
“Who she really is.” Cassie said motioning her head toward Melora.
“And who is she?”
“Danielle Shane,” Cassie announced proudly.
“What?” Peaches squealed. “Are you kidding me?”
“Nope.” Cassie shook her head. “She’s Danielle Shane.”
“We should have known that when she wrote another story using the character we loved.” Peaches grinned. “Great story by the way.”
“Thanks.” Melora smiled. “You guys gave me the idea, so it’s all your fault.”
“I’ll take the blame.” Peaches shrugged then smiled.
“Me too. I love your books.” Cassie grinned.
“Where did Izzy go?” Melora asked. “I thought she’d be here.”
“She went looking for houses today,” Reva answered. “Also, she said something about baby shopping.”
“That sounds like her.” Melora chuckled.
“So who are the new dudes?” Peaches asked.
“They are Mountain’s brothers. Can’t you tell?” Cassie replied. “Yeah, we could tell. Look at all those blonde heads and…Muscles.”
Melora snickered and nodded. “And they’re going to open a garage together.”
“Like Troy needs another motorcycle shop.” Peaches snorted.
“They aren’t building motorcycles,” Cassie informed her. “Try hot rods.”
“Hot rods?” Reva questioned. “Oh, that’s going to go over big.”
“Yeah, it already has.” Melora shrugged.
“Oh, well.” Reva shook her head. “They’ll work it out.”
“If they don’t spill blood first.” Melora scowled.
“So what did the doctor have to say?” Peaches asked.
“It’s a boy,” Melora replied and passed her the sonogram photo.
“Do you have a name yet?” Cassie asked.
“Yeah, I think so.” Melora sighed. “Sam isn’t going to like it but I don’t care.”
“Why? What is it?” Peaches asked.
“I’d rather not say right now.” Melora shrugged. “It’s kind of personal.”
“No worries.” Cassie nodded.
“So are you gonna marry Sam or what?” Peaches asked.
“Not anytime soon. I already told him I won’t marry him just for the baby.”
“No I didn’t think you would.” Reva nodded. “But if you did, it would only be because he loved you, wouldn’t it?”
Melora nodded. “Yeah, that’s important. He has to love me for me as a woman, not just the mother of his kid.”
“Honey, that’s the reason most women get married!” Reva exclaimed.
“I hope it all works out for you sweetie.” Cassie patted her hand. “And I do understand, I felt the same way. But you will find out that the Tory men are the best….They’re just a little bit slower when it comes to love.”
The women all laughed.
Just then, the door opened and Izzy came in with her arms full of shopping bags.
~* * * *~
Izzy lugged her bags over to the table and sat down next to Melora. “I found us a house!”
“Good.” She stared at all the bags. “What else did you find? Everything the mall had or what?”
Izzy smiled and rolled her eyes then reached into one of the bags and pulled out a baby onesie. It was so small and proclaimed to the world, Future Biker.
“Oh, that’s cute!” Melora laughed. “The baby will love it not to mention the father too. The grandpa, not so much. It would have to say Hot Rod Kid or something.”
Again, the women all laughed.”
“So did you find out what it is?” Izzy asked.
“A boy.” She passed the pictures over to her.
“Cool beans, then you’ll love this.” Izzy reached into another bag and brought out a small leather vest. When she flipped it over, they all saw the words, Biker Boy.
Melora giggled. “Oh, Sam is gonna love that.”
“So will Mountain.” Izzy grinned. When she looked over at the bar, she saw all the brothers and her eyes grew huge. “What the hell? Did Mountain clone himself or what?”
“Those are his brothers.” Melora smiled.
“Wow,” Izzy whispered. “This could be interesting. Like all Viking and muscles…” She turned to her friend. “Did you know about them?”
“No I didn’t.” Melora shook her head. “I only met them a few minutes ago.”
“Yeah, this could be fun.” Izzy smiled as she stared at the men at the bar.
Melora smacked her hand.
“What?” Izzy asked.” I can look at all the blond candy in the room, can’t I?”
Laughter again, broke out among the women at the table.
While she was looking at all of them, her eyes were mostly on Mountain and she liked what she was looking at. She didn’t know where this was going but she hoped it was going somewhere. It wasn’t just that he was all sexy and muscles. She rolled her eyes. Yeah, lots of muscles. It was the look in his eyes, whenever he did look at her. It made her shiver down to her toes.
She glanced at her friend and saw a knowing look in her eyes. When Melora nodded slightly, Izzy smiled in secret. They’d been friends long enough for her to know Melora had just given her permission to go after her father. But to be safe, Izzy felt she needed to ask her in person.
~* * * *~
Over the next several weeks, Melora was busy trying to find a house big enough for her, Izzy, the baby and Mountain. The house Izzy found wasn’t quite large enough to hold everyone. Mountain’s brothers were all busy setting up the shop they planned to open. It only took a week or so to find a place for the garage.
It was a warehouse not far from the motorcycle shop. They ended up getting two warehouses nearby. They were going to turn one of the warehouses into apartments for the brothers. The first level would be a common room with a kitchen and living room, along with two separate apartments. The second floor was divided into three apartments while the third floor was divided into four more apartments.
The men that came up fro
m Texas with Mountain would also share the living quarters with the Morgan brothers. Six weeks later, the apartments were ready to live in and the shop was ready to go.
In those six weeks, Melora’s belly grew as she got closer to her due date. Izzy finally found the perfect house near the garage. It had five bedrooms and four bathrooms. One of the bedrooms they painted for the nursery while Izzy, Melora and Mountain all took other bedrooms. The bedroom left over became Melora’s office.
Sam continued to be there for her the whole time and his presence was driving Melora and Izzy nuts. He would drive by at all hours of the day and night. They knew it was him by the sound of his pipes. One time when he drove past at nine o’clock at night, Mountain stepped outside with a rifle in his hands. Sam didn’t stay around and Melora and Izzy giggled about the incident long after Mountain went to bed.
Night after night, Izzy watched and waited for the right time to make her intentions about Mountain known but that time never came. She was frustrated beyond belief when things finally came to a head.
She just watched as the man in question announced he was going to bed.
Melora glanced at the clock and saw it was only eight in the evening.
“Grrr…” Izzy growled. “That man is driving me nuts.”
“Why?” Melora smiled.
“Can I ask you a question?” Izzy finally spoke up.
“Sure.” Melora shrugged as she rubbed her expanding belly. The baby was moving around a lot tonight and she was trying to settle him down.
“Why is it you’ve never said anything to me about my liking your dad?”
“Do you like him?” Melora asked.
“You know I do.” Izzy shrugged. “I haven’t done anything about it yet, because I didn’t know how you felt about me liking him.”
“I thought you understood my nod of approval a few weeks ago.”
“I thought I did too, but you never actually said anything.”
“Just because he’s my father, doesn’t mean he isn’t a man. I’m the last one to preach to anyone about staying away from an older guy. If you want him, go for it. You two might be good for each other.”
