“Zoey?” the older woman called the second I stepped out of the car. She walked down the steps and gathered me in her arms. Damn, I am not going to cry. “Are you okay, I have been so worried about you, and then Ranger came home and told me you were pregnant. My goodness, why didn’t you tell us, I would have made sure you had the proper vitamins and nourishment.”
I closed my eyes and sighed and then put a smile on my face and opened them. “I’m fine, I swear, just a little dizzy and all that, no need to worry. I was planning to tell you and Ranger soon, it just never seemed to be the right time.”
Mrs. Honeychil made a noise, which I assumed meant she wasn’t going to give me a lecture quite yet about keeping secrets, for this I was grateful, I really just wanted to change into my sweats and lay on the couch for a while. Getting out of the hospital had been exhausting, which was strange since it should have been the opposite. But I was wiped out, and just needed a nap.
“Well, come inside, Rucker is playing quietly in the living room and you can get comfortable and lay around for the day. I will take care of everything. I have some soup on the stove and a nice pot of tea already brewing for you,” she said and then put her arm around my waist and directed me to the steps.
I wanted to scream that my legs weren’t broken but I couldn’t. Ranger walked behind us quietly and I glanced over my shoulder to see him scowling, probably realizing he couldn’t interrogate me in front of Mrs. Honeychil whom wouldn’t stand for it. Well, at least not for a few hours, hopefully by then, everyone would have calmed down.
I went into the house and sighed as I entered, I was so glad to be home. I turned to tell my brother I was going to change when I saw the look on his face. Yeah, I was totally not going to be lucky.
“Kitchen,” he ground out and I rolled my eyes, big bad gruff brother was coming out, it was time to pay the piper.
Mrs. Honeychil smiled at me encouragingly and I almost wanted to run behind her and beg her to save me like I used to do when I was a kid with my mom. However, at this point, I just needed to get it over with, it was none of my brother’s business who the father of my child was, I was going to be a single parent and that was fine.
Rucker stuck his head out of the living room and saw me and smiled. “Aunt Z, you are home.”
I smiled because who couldn’t when looking at my adorable nephew’s face. He was an amazing kid. It made me sad to think his mother would never know how amazing her son turned out to be. Life sucked sometimes.
“Zoe!” Ranger barked and I rolled my eyes and winked at Rucker and then walked back to the kitchen. We lived in a Brownstone house, and I loved it. It felt like a tiny little community all to itself. Our kitchen was painted pale yellow, and when I walked into it I smiled. It was soothing. Since Ranger’s wife had died, he redecorated the whole thing in order to erase his daily sadness of seeing his late wife’s décor. I had picked the colors of the kitchen. It was bright and cheery, with little yellow daisies decorating the counter backsplash.
Mrs. Honeychil took Rucker back into the living muttering to him she would make him a snack but he needed to give the adults some time to talk. Which her words meant she had every intention of being involved in the conversation with my brother. Yay, two against one, this would be so much fun.
“Sit,” Ranger barked and I had reached my limit with him.
“Ranger!”
“Hell no, sis, you are going to answer some questions and stop avoiding this shit. How in the hell could you not tell me you were pregnant when you came back into town? Shit, I would have made sure everything was taken care of. I would have gone to appointments with you and whatnot. You need prenatal care, it is important, to you and the baby,” Ranger snapped.
“Did you ever think that maybe I didn’t know how to tell you. I just graduated college and moved back home. I knew that with everything going on around town it was a stressful time for you. I guess I figured that when the time was right I would tell you. I didn’t plan on any of this. That being said, I am an adult, Ranger, and I do not need you to hold my hand when I screw up something,” I snapped back. I would always love my brother, but he had a major issue of still looking at me as though I was five.
“Screw up?” Ranger laughed. “I don’t see this as your screw up, Zoey, it is the guy who knocked up my sister and left her. That is seriously fucked up. I want to know who this asshole is, because if nothing else, he can pay for half your medical bills. I know how much it costs to have a baby, and even with your job and insurance, it is still fucking expensive, he has responsibilities.”
Mrs. Honeychil came into the room and quietly fixed a cup of tea while listening to my brother and I fight. It was a never ending battle, which I was going to win, my brother didn’t control my life.
“Ranger,” I said and shook my head. “The father is out of the picture; can’t we just leave it at that. It really was my stupid mistake.”
“No,” Ranger said. “Either you tell me, or I will find out from someone else, namely your old roommate, Brit, she will tell me.”
“That’s ‘cause she has a crush on you, but trust me, in this instance, she doesn’t know anything either,” I said warily.
“Why are you being so stubborn?” Ranger shook his head and looked out the window.
I wanted to cry looking at my brother’s back, I felt like I had let him down, pregnant and alone, damn it. Mrs. Honeychil had to read my mind because she walked around the counter and pushed my brother into a chair. Then she grabbed the pot of tea, a small plate of cookies, and sat down as well. While she poured us a cup of tea she began to talk.
“My husband, God rest his soul, was a good man, he was a little bit like you, Ranger. He huffed and puffed and tried to make sure everything was right. He was big on young men taking responsibility for their actions. I swear, if we would have had a son, my husband would have raised him to be a good man, just like your parents raised you. Now, women in my days who had a child out of wedlock were labeled a Jezebel, but not anymore because that is just wrong. I learned a long time ago that it is not my place to make a judgment about anyone. Nor should you, Ranger. Zoey here is your sister, you are not her husband, nor her father, you are supposed to be her friend, and yes, her protector because you are her brother. Now, I didn’t hear her say in any way the father of her child hurt her. She said he was out of the picture, which we have to respect. She is a grown woman, and if you don’t want to drive her away with your judgment, you need to listen to her. Zoey could have stayed out west and never came here to help you, but she didn’t, she came here knowing she was going to have to tell you about the pregnancy. Now, a child is a blessing; your sister seems to be happy about it at least. So can we stop all this bickering and move on?”
To say I was surprised was an understatement, hell, I wanted to throw my arms around the woman and kiss her. She got it, and I was so happy that right now she was on my side, especially since Reese and Michael were here in Brooklyn and if my brother found out they were the ones who got me pregnant, he may be arrested for killing a person or two.
Ranger hung his head. “I just don’t want you to ever get hurt, you know? Being a single parent kinda sucks sometimes. Before you came back I thought I was going to go crazy.”
I reached out my hand and squeezed his forearm and smiled. “I know that, and I also know I can’t do this alone. I’m going to need my brother’s help.”
Mrs. Honeychil sighed, “Okay, now that the drama is over with. Zoey honey, when are you due? Do you know what it is?”
Zoey smiled softly at her brother and then focused on the older woman who was more certainly going to be my child’s honorary grandmother. “Nope, I want it to be a surprise.”
Thank God for the phone, when it rang I jumped to answer it while Ranger glared at my back.
“Hello?” I said into the receiver and Cora said.
“How are you?”
I smiled and then turned and saw Ranger was still glaring and I stuck out my tongue
, childish yes, perfect reason to avoid, hell yes.
“Fine, just a little lightheaded. I will be back to work on Monday. Hey, can you bring Brant’s file to me tonight? I have to make sure the notes are in order for next week. So before I come to work I have to visit his place of employment. It is the last thing I have to do before he will be approved.”
“Sure,” Cora laughed. “Do you think maybe you should rest though?”
I rolled my eyes. “I was a little lightheaded, I am fine. But I don’t want to be the reason for the holdup in this case. The judge needs me to sign off on the gym as a suitable place of employment. I am sure it is fine, but still it has to be done.”
“Well, he is working for O’Malley’s, right?” Cora said with a smile in her voice and I laughed.
“Yeah,” I replied.
“Maybe I should tag along; you know, as a supervisor only. I mean, you are technically still in training. I should probably come along so I can approve the hard sweaty bodies of the men who Brant will be associating with. I would hate to have you suffer through that all alone, especially since you have been sick. What if being close to them makes you lightheaded again, I know it would make me lightheaded,” Cora said slyly.
“Oh yeah, I am sure I need supervision,” I drawled and then thought to Michael, the tattoo parlor was on the same premises, would I see him? The thought alone was enough to make little Zoey clench with need. Dammit, they weren’t even here and I wanted them.
“Good, it is a plan. I will bring the file by on Monday morning and we can stop on our way into the office. That way we can kill two birds with one stone. Besides, I think there is a Starbucks close, right? I will need a gallon of coffee for next week,” Cora said and I frowned and thought.
“Why?”
“Court,” Cora sighed. “Next week you are put into the rotation for court cases so at least that is something, but still we are all assigned to the family court next week, it is our turn.”
I groaned, I hated court, I usually got slammed with a million cases that came in over the weekend. It sucked. Putting a hand to my head I nodded. “Okay, yeah, that is good. See you on Monday,” I said and put the receiver down and Ranger was right there to pick up where he left off.
“You can avoid me for only so long, sis, and then you are going to have to face the facts,” Ranger said and I sighed and then returned to my chair settling in for the lecture of a lifetime.
Chapter Eight
Michael
“Are you sure this is the address?” I asked Reese as we rolled to a stop in front of the brownstone that matched the numbers on the paper we had tracked down.
When we had arrived at the hospital, we had been told Zoey had been checked out and sent home. Both of us had been worried, especially when the nurse had refused to tell us what was wrong with her. The whole HIPPA thing was annoying as fuck when all I wanted was to get some information. Unfortunately, the nurse refused to tell us anything other than she had been there.
“That’s the address Mom gave us,” Reese replied and I nodded.
“Well, it is now or never,” I said and Reese grinned and nodded his head.
“Ma is gonna shit kittens when we tell her we found the woman for us.” Reese laughed. “We are on the same page, right? I mean, we both want her, we felt something when we met her.”
I nodded, Reese and I had talked about all this, and like always we were on the same page. Shit, we were never gonna hear the end of it when Brook found out.
We got out of the car and walked up to the front door and rang the bell. Reese was grinning as the door opened and a young boy was standing there.
“Hey,” the little boy said and I laughed. He was cute, his two front teeth were missing.
“Hi there,” I said and leaned down. “Does Zoey Marshall live here?”
The boy nodded and squinted his eyes. “Yep, that’s my aunt but you can’t talk to her right now. They are having an adult’s conversation; no one is to interrupt.”
“Oh,” I said with a grin. “Well, maybe you can just tell her that we are here to see her.”
The young boy thought on it for a second. “Nope, can’t, they are talking about babies. Dad is yelling at Aunt Z because she isn’t taking natal pills for the baby. When Dad gets mad you have to listen.”
I stood and frowned and looked at Reese who looked just as confused as I did. “Natal pills?”
“Pre-natal pills?” Reese asked and I shook my head.
“No, that would mean Zoey is pregnant.” And then my eyes went wide. “Zoey is pregnant?”
Reese stepped back down a step and looked at me. “Shit, did we use…?”
My eyes closed and I groaned a little, damn it, how could we be so stupid.
“Rucker!” I heard a male voice say inside the house. “What are you doing?”
The young boy turned and shrugged to his father. “I was just telling these guys that Aunt Z is in trouble for not eating natal pills.”
“Shit,” Ranger said and stepped into view. When he saw Reese and I he frowned and then said, “Uh hey, guys, sorry about that, what’s up?”
I looked at Reese who had gone a little pale and he nodded slowly. “We need to see Zoey.”
“Why?” Ranger said. “I mean she is fine, guys. It is nice of you to check on her an all but, she is good.”
“Uh, man,” Reese said and looked at Ranger, “you really need to let us in.”
“Why?” Ranger said and folded his arms across his chest and glared at us. Great, this was so not going well.
“Because I am guessing the baby your sister is carrying is ours,” I finally said and Ranger’s eyes widened and looked back and forth between Reese and I and then apparently made his decision. Ranger pushed his son back into the house and before I could say another word, I saw Ranger’s fist coming at me. Fuck, take it like a man was the only thing I thought as his fist crush into my cheek.
Reese
Fuck my face hurt like a bitch and I looked at Michael who was also holding a bag of ice against his cheek. Ranger was seriously a badass, I hadn’t even had time to prepare for the punch that knocked me on my ass. Not that I didn’t deserve it, ‘cause yeah, if I found out two men had slept with my sister and got her pregnant and then skipped out, I would have done the same thing.
Although Michael and I had yet to tell anyone we hadn’t skipped out. But since that was what Ranger had barked at us while he got his shots in, I assumed that was what they thought. Fuck, it was kinda the truth, but not the whole thing.
“How could you!” Zoey yelled at her brother and poked him in the chest as she grabbed another ice bag and replaced the one on my face. “I said I would take care of it, damn it. You can’t go around punching every single guy I slept with until you find the one who got me pregnant. I was there to remember, and never once have you asked me if I forgot the protection.”
“It’s the man’s job,” Ranger began to yell and I grimaced, yeah it was, my mom taught me that a long time ago. Shit, my mom, she was going to fucking kill me.
Zoey held up her hand to her brother, “I did not just hear you say that shit. Go, I will deal with this, just get the heck outta here.”
“Hell no,” Ranger snapped and stepped forward and looked at Michael and I. “I’m not leaving until they tell me how they are going to take care of MY baby sister.”
“Um no,” Zoey said pushing her brother’s chest. “You so don’t get to have a say in this.” I was sure if my face hadn’t hurt so fucking bad that her standing up to her brother on our account would have been hot as hell but as the cheek throbbed to the beat of my heart it wasn’t doing a damn thing for me.
Mrs. Honeychil walked into the room grinning, she held a tray carrying three cans of beer and one glass of orange juice. “Well now, I have some refreshments here.”
“Do not give them my beer!” Ranger snapped and Zoey turned with her mouth open.
“Seriously?” she snapped back.
“Hey,” I s
aid and held up my hand thinking I should do something before blood was shed between two siblings.
“Stay out of this,” Zoey yelled at me and I leaned back a little shocked. Who was this spitfire? The woman they met had been fun, soft, cute. Hell, she had been close to perfect, but with this addition to her personality, Michael and I were getting to watch true perfection in motion. Damn, the throbbing was forgotten because frankly she was hot when she was pissed.
Michael leaned forward grinning and he hit my leg. I nodded and smiled. Ranger pointed at us and glared. “What the fuck was that?” he snapped.
“What?” Zoey looked confused as she looked back and forth between Ranger and us.
“Oh I totally know that look!” Ranger barked and pointed his finger back and forth between me and Michael.
“What look? Are you nuts?” Zoey was shouting, which didn’t help us because it just made Michael and me grin wider.
“No, no, no. I am a guy, I saw that look, you guys are seriously sitting in my living room getting hard-ons for my sister because she is being feisty. It is a proven fact, I know, guys like you love women who are feisty, you want to tame them. But no fucking way, dudes, you aren’t taming my sister.”
“Oh my God, you did not just say that!” Zoey voice was just above a whisper. I looked over at Rucker because of the language that was being thrown around the kid and he sat in a chair as if grownups yelling and cussing was an everyday occurrence.
“It’s true, I know, I did the same thing with Noel,” Ranger growled. “I fell in love with her the second she got pissed at me for leaving the toilet seat up and proceeded to put all my underwear in the bowl and flush. It was hot as hell when she stood up to me.”
Zoey threw up her hands. “You are nuts; I cannot believe you would even say that.”
The doorbell rang and Ranger paused as Mrs. Honeychil stood and announced, “Oh good, Reese’s mom and Michael’s parents are here. I figured now would be a good time to have a family meeting, you know, since we are gonna be one big happy family.”
Pierced and Inked (KO Ink Book 2) Page 6
