“Fu-fudge if I know,” Prophet replies, quickly changing what word he was going to use since we now have a young lady in the house that will most likely mimic words she hears used.
Snickering, I look up at Ash to see him glaring at his brother and I poke him. “She’s going to hear those words, honey,” I whisper. “They’re bikers, after all, and we’re living here until the house is finished. It’s not fair to make them change everything about their lives.”
“They can curb the urge,” he grumbles.
“Maybe so, but we’re kind of invading their home right now,” I point out. “Anyhow, give me a number as far as how many boxes you think we need so I can buy them.”
“You’re not paying for them,” he growls, his gaze now focused on me.
“Whatever. I’m ordering twenty more boxes, Prophet,” I loudly say. “Whatever we don’t use on the tree, we can use to string around the room.”
“Sounds good,” Prophet replies.
He’s been off for months now, ever since he and his girlfriend broke things off so spectacularly. She wanted more and he wasn’t ready, so she gave him an ultimatum, hoping he would cave, and he walked away. I can’t say as I blame him for kicking her to the curb. She was a bit… high maintenance if I’m being completely honest, and I’d seen her turn her nose up a few times when the brothers were a bit rowdy while at the bar.
They aren’t bad guys at all; they just live life on their own terms and who in their right mind doesn’t want that freedom? I’m pulled out of my thoughts as Ash lets Becca down then helps her with removing her jacket before she runs closer to the tree so she can ‘help’ the men. Every one of them has been wonderful with her and I’m seeing her come out of her shell, which is a good thing because she’s stuck with us.
“When does the stuff arrive?” Prophet asks.
“By ten tonight,” I reply, heading toward the kitchen. It’s time to get dinner on; there was no way we were going to let Esther cook since she was getting up to get the turkeys in the oven in the morning. It was bad enough that she and Holly were going to be up hours early in order to cook the four birds we were having. Paul and Rebel were smoking another one and also trying out the fryer for a sixth turkey. I’m still in awe that we’re going to havesixturkeys tomorrow, but I suspect there won’t be a lot left once we’re done. I’ll be putting in two hams myself, but they don’t take nearly as long to cook as the turkeys, that’s for dang sure.
“We ordered pizza,” Prophet yells as I breach the doorway into the kitchen. “Should be here any time now. Sent the prospects to pick them up.”
“Did you get breadsticks?” Becca asks. “They’re so yummy.”
I watch Prophet’s face soften as he looks down at her. “We did, and we also got lots and lots of wings.”
“Then all we need to do is put on a Christmas movie,” I decree, changing direction to head to the huge ass television in the opposite corner. “Now, where’s that dang remote?”
CHAPTER
EIGHT
Ash
Watching my family decorate the tree has my emotions scattered all over the place. Ever since Marnie was stabbed, and hurt so badly, a level of fear has coursed through me. Hell, as close as Rebel and I are, his motorcycle accident didn’t gut me nearly as bad as seeing Marnie lying there with blood steadily pooling around her prone body as she struggled for each breath. Shaking my head at my morose thoughts, I hear Becca giggle at something Prophet says as I make my way behind the bar. With the prospects currently picking our dinner up, I decide it’s a helpie-selfie kind of night.
I grab the ingredients and make a root beer float for Becca, as well as myself. I do my best to eat as healthy as possible, but this is a guilty pleasure I want to introduce to her. Once I have them made, I clean up my mess, then grab the two mugs and head to one of the tables closest to the tree since she’s currently ‘helping’ my brothers as they start putting ornaments on the upper branches.
“Becca, come here, please,” I say. I watch as fear briefly crosses her face and wish again that I could go into the jail and permanently maim my sister. I wonder if it’s the words I used or something else, then decide I’ll ask her later when we’re upstairs.
It’s not as though my brothers aren’t aware of the situation she was in because we had church so I could explain it to them. But eventually, it’ll be just the three of us living in the house I’m building, and she needs to get used to how we do things. I snicker when I think about how much of a pushover we’re both going to be when it comes to Becca. Marnie has shared how it was for her during the times she had to stay with relatives, and it’s why she’s so invested in my niece.
She slowly makes her way to me, and I smile while patting the chair next to mine. “I think you’re going to like this,” I tell her as she climbs into the chair and looks at me. “It’s one of my favorite things in the world.”
“What is it?” she asks.
“I’m going to tell you, but first I’m going to say that this was also your father’s favorite thing in the world.”
“It was?”
I know she doesn’t really remember her parents, which breaks my heart. My brother and I didn’t always see eye-to-eye once we became adults, but he was a good guy and I have a lot of great memories of the two of us being boys and getting into trouble. The keyword there is that we did it side-by-side. We learned to hunt and fish together and spent countless hours outside as long as the weather was good. When it wasn’t, we found other ways to occupy our time.
“Yes, it was,” I confirm. “It’s a root beer float, sweetheart, and I think you’re going to like it. Go ahead, try it and see.”
I watch as she takes a cautious sip through the straw I found, then grin like a fool when I see the wide-eyed expression on her face. “This… is… yummy,” she squeals between sips. “And my daddy liked it too?”
“We liked them so much, we would drink them at any time of the year regardless of the weather,” I reply. I don’t tell her that they were an occasional treat, predicated on whether or not my father was in a good mood, because she’s never going to meet him. A little white lie in this instance isn’t going to hurt a fucking thing as far as I’m concerned.
