Fear the Beard (The Dixie Warden Rejects MC Book 2)

by Lani Lynn Vale

  I started doodling on my paper, drawing curls and swirls around mine and Tallulah’s names.

  I’d just made a fourth star when a large tanned hand came and snatched the pen out of my hand.

  “I can see now why your pen ran out of ink,” Dr. Tommy stared down at me with barely restrained impatience.

  My face flushed.

  If it were possible to melt onto the floor in a puddle of complete embarrassment, I would’ve done it. Right then and there.

  Jesus Christ.

  “I think you should see me after class,” he murmured.

  My brows furrowed.

  I hadn’t done anything wrong.

  Looking over to Hadley, she returned a sympathetic smile before turning her head down to her own work.

  “Okay,” I finally said. “I’ll see you after class.”

  He nodded once, but kept his pen.

  Irrational anger flowed through me throughout the rest of class, and by the time that it ended, I was beside myself.

  “Do you want me to wait?” Hadley asked.

  I shook my head.

  “No,” I snapped. “I have to go to work after this anyway. I just hope he doesn’t make me late.”

  Hadley packed her book into her bag, gave me a worried look, and then left without another word.

  I stayed in my seat once my bag was packed, waiting to see what Dr. McAsshole had to say.

  Once the last person escaped, he stopped erasing the board, (and yes, I was admiring his ass in case you were wondering) turned and crossed his thick, muscular arms over his chest.

  “The other teachers give you glowing recommendations,” he started saying.

  I licked my lips.

  “Uh, thank you?”

  I didn’t know what to say, nor where he was going with this.

  “I wanted you to understand that I won’t tolerate this kind of behavior when I have you in my ER.”

  I blinked.

  Then blinked again.

  “Uhhh,” I started to say, but he interrupted me.

  “You’ll be starting on your nursing internship next week. You’ll be there two days out of the week, twelve hour shifts, and always under me or Dr. Wild.”

  I blinked some more.

  “I…I got it?” I finally was able to get out.

  He nodded his head.

  “Though I expect that has more to do with who your mother is than whether or not you are actually qualified or skilled enough to be there.”

  My mouth dropped open in affront.

  “Oh, I assure you that I am skilled and qualified enough to be there.” My back straightened. “Is that all?”

  I could’ve sworn I saw his lips twitch at my show of anger, but no other signs of his reaction to my ire were apparent.

  “Yes, that’ll be all.”

  I nodded and stood, throwing my bag on my shoulder and practically stomping toward the door.

  He stopped me, though, the moment I was about to exit fully.

  “Thank you.”

  I froze, and turned.

  “For what?” I asked stiffly.

  “For not running over me this morning. Thank you for paying attention.”

  I didn’t bother to answer him.

  Otherwise I might’ve said that I now wished that I hadn’t been paying attention.

  Motherfucker.

  Who did he think he was?

  My mother wouldn’t stoop so low as to get her daughter a job…would she?

  Chapter 3

  Whatever, motherfucker. Whatever.

  -Coffee Cup

  Tommy

  I was thankful that the shift was over.

  This had been one of the worst twelve hours I’d had in a very long time—since med school, at least.

  Not because the patients had been difficult or anything, but because of her.

  The freakin’ student who made my dick hard with one whispered word from those luscious, would-look-great-wrapped-around-my-cock, lips.

  She wasn’t tall, but she wasn’t short.

  Her long brown hair looked just as good flowing down her back as it did up high in a ponytail, or in a fucking messy bun scrunched at the top of her head.

  Sweats. Scrubs. Jeans.

  They all did it for me when she wore them.

  There was literally not a goddamned thing she was able to wear that didn’t get me harder than stone.

  Her green eyes were mesmerizing. One look into them, and it was easy as hell to forget that she was a student, a twenty-year-old one at that.

  All right, Mr. Perv, I thought to myself. Time to stop thinking about girls who are more than ten years younger than you.

  My body, however, didn’t care that she was twenty (nearly twenty-one according to her school files) to my thirty-three.

  It didn’t care that I’d get fired if I was found fucking her.

  It also didn’t care that I was trying to control it.

  The beast wouldn’t be controlled.

  “See you tomorrow, Dr. Bones.”

  I flipped off my fellow doctor and good friend, Dr. Wild.

  Dr. Wild was an ex-Marine who thought it was damned hilarious that all the nursing students—and now nurses—were calling me that.

  I, on the other hand, hated it.

  I didn’t care if I did induce lady boners in my students. It was annoying, and if that motherfucking nickname was whispered to my club brothers, I’d never hear the fucking end of it.

  “Catch you tomorrow, asshole,” I mumbled, pushing through the staff exit that led to the staff parking lot.

  The moment the door closed behind me, I headed around the building to where I pulled my motorcycle up onto the curb.

  I came to a quick halt, though, the moment I realized that there were two people standing incredibly close to my bike.

  Freezing in the shadows to see what they were doing so close to my baby, I listened.

  “I want to keep her overnight,” a man said into the darkness. “It’s time. She’s eight months old. She’s old enough now that you can wean her off your tit for a night and let me keep her. Sheena wants to have a part in her life.”

  I could’ve told him that bringing another woman into this conversation wasn’t the right thing to do, but it was useless. He looked like the stupid type.

  “I still breastfeed her overnight,” an extremely familiar voice filled the air. “And you know this. If she doesn’t have it, she doesn’t do well.”

  Wait. Talith had a kid?

  The man let out a frustrated groan.

  “This is ridiculous,” he growled. “I’m never going to see this kid. She’ll be fifteen before she’s finally off your boob and ready to mingle with the world.” He kicked the gravel at his feet, causing stray rocks to jolt forward and hit Tally’s feet as well as the building. “I don’t know what I ever saw in you.”

  Tally stiffened. “Russell. My daughter is eight months old, and in those eight months Tallulah has been diagnosed with asthma. She has pneumonia once a month. Strep throat every other month. Ear infections. Stomach viruses. She’s been on every freakin’ antibiotic that the world of modern medicine has to offer. The one and only time you had her, you fed her aspirin. Aspirin that nearly killed her. And you didn’t even feel bad about doing it. What, exactly, do you want from me?”

  My stomach tightened at hearing he’d fed a child aspirin, even ignorantly.

  The repercussions of that one act could’ve been catastrophic, especially to a baby.

  “It’s obvious that you aren’t gaining anything by doing what you’re doing. I said I’m sorry for that. How long are you going to hold it over my head?” he demanded.

  My eyes turned to her, and she looked like she was ready to cry.

  “I’m not, Russell. I’m just doing what I have to do to get me and Tallulah through. So please, for the love of God, leave me alone. You have your visitation days. If you feel t
hat you want those changed, please feel free to take me to court.”

  “I can’t take you to court, and you damn well know it. Your father’s friends will shut me down again with some ‘medically necessary’ bullshit that we both know isn’t actually necessary in the slightest.”

  I came out of the shadows, startling not just this Russell character, but Tally as well.

  “Actually,” I cut in, making sure the both of them could see me well. “Breastfeeding is one of the best things a mother can do for her infant, especially a sickly one like it sounds like your daughter is. You’re lucky that your daughter has a mother that cares for her like she does.”

  “And just who are you?” Russell bowed his chest up.

  Russell was about three inches taller than my six foot one-inch frame, and he looked like he was in incredibly good shape.

  I now could see what Tally saw in him.

  He was an attractive fucker, I’d give him that.

  His attitude, however, was not.

  “I’m Doctor Tomirkanivov.”

  Russell blinked, then sneered.

  “Well, this is a private conversation,” he informed me haughtily.

  I shrugged. “Just need to get to my bike.”

  I pointed, and the man turned, eyeing the bike like it was some random piece of trash.

  “Figures,” he grumbled. “I’ll be talking to our lawyers again, Tal. It’s time.”

  Tally didn’t bother to reply, and watched him walk away with barely restrained violence shimmering in her eyes.

  “You okay?” I rumbled, turning fully to face her.

  She breathed out a shaky breath.

  “Yeah,” she nodded twice. “I’m okay.”

  “You had a real winner there.” I meant it to come out as teasing, but she nodded in all seriousness.

  “I know.” She swiped angrily at her eyes. “I broke up with him before I even knew I was pregnant. The worst decision of my life was dating him, but out of it, came one of the best things that has ever happened to me.”

  “So the kid that your mom shows around the ER is yours and not your sister’s?”

  She smiled and shook her head.

  It was nice to see that she was hiding the bitch tonight…something I’d been dealing with ever since that day in my class two weeks ago when she was talking about me and I could hear every word.

  Well, not her, but her friends. But then she’d defended them, blatantly lying to my face, and it’d pissed me the hell off.

  Which was why I’d said rude words to her about her mother getting her the job in the ER.

  Ever since, she’d been cool and distant, whether we were in class or in the ER, and it was starting to grate on my nerves.

  She finally turned to face me, and my gut tightened at seeing the tear tracks on her face.

  There wasn’t much that affected me.

  I was an ex-Marine and had served as a doctor for four years before I was discharged and came home to Mooresville to start my career. I’d been here for almost three years, and I’d seen and done a lot in all that time.

  Tears, though, they were my undoing.

  Seeing a woman cry—young or old—was enough to make my stomach clench and my heart start to ache.

  “Yeah, Tallulah is mine.” Her mouth quirked. “Thankfully, I’d been smart enough to know where I was going with my life after college. Started taking dual credit classes and graduated with my associate’s right out of high school. Took Microanatomy one and two during the summer before classes started, and about killed myself that summer.” She hesitated, “I went a little wild during that week between classes, and made a huge mistake by sleeping with Tallulah’s father. Got pregnant. Thankfully, I was able to make it through my entire first semester and most of my second semester before I had her, only missing two class days due to giving birth. Thank God I was able to make them up. Took the summer off with Tallulah, and then picked right back up during third semester.”

  I blinked, surprised by the information dump.

  But then I saw her face and realized rather quickly that she was nervous.

  “Your car here?” I asked, looking around the nearly empty lot.

  She pointed to a red, late model 4-Runner, and I gestured for her to start walking.

  “Come on,” I ordered.

  She fell into step beside me.

  “I graduated school when I was fourteen,” I said. “Started college almost immediately after that. Once I graduated with my MD, I went into the Marines where I stayed for four years. Got out. Been here for three now.”

  Lightning lit up the night sky and was immediately followed by a rumble of thunder.

  In that moment of light, her face was illuminated, allowing me to see her pleasure at hearing my story.

  “That sounds like you’ve been busy,” she said, reaching into her pocket for the keys just as the first raindrop hit. “Are you going to ride in this?”

  Another raindrop fell, landing on my arm.

  I nodded my head.

  “Yep,” I said, turning around and walking away. Then, as an afterthought, I yelled over my shoulder so she’d hear me clearly. “A biker doesn’t just ride in the sunshine, Tally. There’s always bad that comes with good. Gotta take life as it comes.”

  With that the heavens opened, and I smiled as I reached my bike.

  Bikers fell into two camps when it came to riding in the rain. Some hated it. Some didn’t mind.

  Me, I loved it.

  As long as it wasn’t thirty degrees.

  On a night like tonight, with it being eighty degrees, the cool raindrops felt nice against my skin.

  Pulling out my leather jacket from my saddlebags, I shrugged it on and zipped it up, before I snatched up my helmet and seated it on my head.

  Then I started the bike up, and roared out of the parking lot, sparing a look back twice to see if her eyes were on me.

  They were.

  Chapter 4

  I used to be addicted to the Hokey Pokey, but I turned myself around.

  -Bumper Sticker

  Tally

  “You’ve got to be kidding me,” I shook my head. “No way in hell. Y’all, we have a freakin’ test tomorrow. We literally cannot do this.”

  “Come on,” Hadley pulled my arm. “Go get it and let’s go. It’ll be fun.”

  Those words were how I ended up having a vibrator race.

  I shook my head in refusal. “No. Just no.”

  The girls, my closest friends, grinned.

  “I really can’t. I asked my parents to watch Tallulah so I could study for this test. I have to utilize…” Hadley placed her hand over my mouth and shook her head.

  “No,” she glared. “I already had this discussion with you. You pay for daycare, and they don’t mind taking her there. They also don’t mind watching her on the days you have tests, or to work on the weekend.”

  I glared right back at her.

  “I don’t feel like this is a productive use of my time. If I wasn’t going to study, I’d just have Tallulah with me,” I growled at her, yanking my hand from hers.

  Elba, seeing that this was going to be another knockdown, drag out fight between us, backed away and took a seat on my front porch steps, turning her back to us.

  “Seriously,” Hadley crossed her arms. “You’ve been studying since Doc Bones’ class. There’s absolutely no reason that you can’t just come with us for an hour.”

  She had a point. I’d been studying for about seven hours now.

  But I wasn’t like her.

  I couldn’t scan over the work once, and then have it all down for the test.

  I had to actually work at it. Study the materials. Read the goddamn chapter.

  She was one of those students who could scan the notes before class and then take the test, no problem.

  And it made me want to cunt punch her.

  She acted like this was all a joke, and
it wasn’t.

  I had thirty thousand dollars in freakin’ student loans to pay off once I was done. I couldn’t fuck around here. If I didn’t graduate, I was screwed, and not in a good way.

  “One hour,” I said. “And I’m taking my notecards.”

  Everyone cheered, and I shook my head and slunk back inside, my white socked feet shifting against the carpet as I moved.

  “Wear something nice,” she ordered.

  I flipped her off, causing her to laugh.

  I didn’t own anything nice.

  Why?

  Because I was overweight.

  BT, or before Tallulah, I was skinny. I fit into size six jeans, and could squeeze my breasts into a small tank top.

  Now I was in a size fourteen pants, and I could barely fit my breasts into a size large.

  My boobs had grown from a 34B to a 36D.

  And all of my tops were now maternity tops because Tallulah nursed just as often as she ate solid foods.

  Sure, she likely could’ve stopped nursing by now, but she was so unhealthy that I felt like I needed to give her every opportunity to beef up her immune system.

  She had asthma and had been hospitalized for it four times during her short eight months of life. She was always on antibiotics for this sickness or that, and there was never a day that went by that I didn’t wonder if there wasn’t something more serious going on with her than what her doctors had found.

  So I did everything I could do to make sure she had the best lot in life, and if that meant that I breastfed the child until she was seven, then so be it…though I hoped to God I didn’t have to. I was in a love-hate relationship with my breast pump already.

  “Don’t forget it!” Hadley screamed.

  I turned the corner of the hallway and headed to my room.

  My house was a two-bedroom cottage on the backside of my parents’ property. It was more what you would call a tiny house minus the wheels, but I’d bought it all on my own, and it was mine.

  There was a small living area that tied straight into the kitchen. A loft above the kitchen that I put all my school work in so Tallulah wouldn’t be tempted to mark on any paperwork that I had to turn in for clinicals or tear into my books—something I’d learned the hard way.