“Kat.” Mike snapped his fingers, forgetting her name for the fiftieth time since I’d brought him the portfolio. “East.”
“West,” Joe corrected him. “I think you took one too many hits to the head. Your memory is shit lately.”
He took the words right out of my mouth. Mike had never been a list-writer or even that smart, but he usually remembered everything. His fighting career hadn’t lasted that long, thankfully, or else he’d probably be mumbling nonsense somewhere in a facility that dealt with memory issues. The glory of being an MMA champ wasn’t worth losing your marbles, and he already didn’t have any extra to spare.
“Yeah. Kat West.” Mike smiled, chewing his food with his mouth open.
“Smart business move,” Pop said. “Always best to prepare for the future of the company.”
The girls were chomping at the bit to say something, I could tell when I looked around the table. But they weren’t going to say anything contradictory to my father’s words. They knew why we had to hire someone; they just weren’t happy that the person was going to have a set of tits attached.
I watched over Mike’s shoulder as the children ate outside on the lanai, preferring to be out of earshot as they talked and mostly played instead of eating. They were a mighty crew, requiring a table just as big as the dining room one we sat at to eat outside. Between the entire bunch, there were eleven children, but at times, it felt more like thirty. My parents never seemed to care how loud or rambunctious the kids got, unlike when we were little.
The women sat in relative silence for the rest of the dinner as the guys talked sports and business. Our minds were filled with the knowledge that my mother was going for a biopsy tomorrow and a general unease about the new chick, even though she hadn’t even been hired yet. She could be the most boring and unattractive human being ever born, but it still didn’t sit well with the girls.
After we cleared the table and washed every dish, I relaxed on a chaise around the pool while the kids chased each other in circles, screaming so loud I waited for the police to get a noise complaint.
“What’s wrong, doll?” James asked as he slid behind me and pulled me against his warm, hard body. “Something’s off.”
I curled into him, needing his secure embrace to help calm my frayed nerves. “It’s my mom, James.”
He peppered soft kisses along my neck and caused goose bumps to break out across my skin. “Is she okay?”
“She’s going for a biopsy tomorrow.”
His arms tightened, and he held me closer, bringing his lips next to my ear. “She’ll be okay, Izzy. Don’t panic.”
“How can you be so sure?” I whispered in a haze as I watched the kids lost in their own happy world.
“My mom had one last year, and it was nothing. It’s better to find out and catch it early, yeah?”
His words shocked me. He’d never told me that his mother was going in to have a biopsy. I couldn’t believe he’d kept that to himself. But then again, he was a man, and he handled shit differently from me.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I stroked the top of his hand with my fingertips, moving across every dip and ridge of it.
“I didn’t want you to worry, doll. Why don’t you go with your mom so you feel more in control?”
“I plan on it. I can’t not be there for her.”
“Whatever makes you happy. Remember I’m always here to talk about it. I love you.”
He held me tightly, staring at our kids as they ran in circles, doing cannonballs in the deep end and practically flooding the lanai. We sat like that for a long while, not speaking to each other, just being in that moment.
“James, get your ass in here. It’s bottom of the ninth,” Anthony yelled out the sliding glass doors, stealing our moment.
“Go,” I told him, giving his hand a pat. “I’ll be fine. I have the girls to talk to.”
They were sitting at the table on the other side of the lanai, chatting about all kinds of nonsense that I had tuned out. I could no longer remove myself from their conversation and sulk on my own without James at my side. My mother would drag me over kicking and screaming if I didn’t get my ass in gear and my head on straight.
James gave me a long, slow kiss that made my toes curl, and it made everything, including the noisy kids, evaporate before he pulled away. “I have something tonight that’ll make you forget everything,” he said with a sly grin.
“Other than narcotics? Because that’s the point I’m at, Jimmy.”
He laughed softly, lifting me off the ground and letting my body slide down his, feeling all his hardness. “I have something better than drugs, baby.”
“I look forward to the challenge, big boy.”
I didn’t want to burst his bubble, but I wasn’t even sure his mighty cock would get my mind off my mother. I’d let him try, though. Because I wasn’t a quitter, goddamn it.
