I gasp. “Kelsey!”
“What?” she asks with a smirk. “If you don’t want us to hear you, then you should be more quiet.”
My cheeks heat. “I’m so sorry! We’ll be quieter.”
“Oh please. No you won’t,” she mutters, giving me a side-eyed look.
Cora bursts into laughter, and the three of us walk deeper into the room, easily welcomed by everyone there.
Chapter Forty-Six
Grizz
The clubhouse smells better than it ever has before. All sorts of food and sweets and fuck, I am starving and really need to eat.
The aluminum tins are lined up along the counter, still with foil on top. No one has made a move to eat yet, but fuck all of them. I’m hungry and I am going to eat.
I make my way over, grab a plate, fork, and some napkins, then manage to scoop food onto my plate while holding Dorothea in one arm.
“Where’s your baby backpack?” Snapper asks as he moves beside me, putting a slice of spiced ham onto his paper plate.
“It’s a carrier, not a backpack. And I forgot it.”
He stares at me like I’m diseased as I try to shake off a potato that’s stuck to the fork.
“Good Lord,” he mutters. “Give me the baby.”
He reaches out, taking her from my arm before I can say anything. My jaw drops just as the potato does… right onto the floor. It rolls away, but I can’t be bothered to worry about that.
Snapper is holding a baby.
Snapper… is holding a baby.
“Stop looking at me like that and get your food,” he says, looking at the baby curiously. There is no aggression in his voice, no snark like there normally is.
It takes me a moment, but I do as he says and make the rest of my plate, putting a little of everything on it. When I’m finished, I head to the table to put it down. There is a red table cloth over it with a plaid runner down the center, and the chairs have green coverings.
I turn to get Dorothea from Snapper, but he’s walking over to the table, holding her in one arm while carrying his plate of one slice of ham in the other.
“Sit and eat,” he demands, and though I never listen to shit he says, I do as he says right now. I’m so dumbfounded by seeing him with a baby, that I don’t know what else to do.
Snapper nearly had a conniption when I was at his house because of the germs. It’s no secret he’s a bit of a germaphobe and is very specific about things and the way they need to be. A baby is… germy and unpredictable. Okay, so obviously Dorothea isn’t full of germs. She’s a clean baby, but she has been starting to drool a lot.
“If she sneezes, you better not drop her or something,” I say.
He scowls at me, then takes a seat across from me.
I start eating and don’t miss the looks he gets by everyone else who notices. Whispers start as they talk about it, heads whip in his direction, but he just ignores it and cuts into his ham with one hand then picks up his fork to stab the chunk.
More people grab food and sit at the table, including the girls. I try not to take offense to Anastacia sitting with them at the otherend and not me. Of course Cora is by Shark, but Tommy is over here with me, so it’s not just Anastacia who made that choice. I’m glad she has friends to sit with at all. She needs women in her life, and they need some girl time to themselves.
Once Gunner is out of the picture completely, I’ll feel more comfortable with her going out to do that sort of stuff. Not that I’ve stopped her—because I haven’t, but if she asked, I’m not sure I would say yes. I know I can’t control her, but fuck, I wouldn’t want her going out alone. She hardly leaves the house as is, and if she does, it’s always with me or Tommy. She won’t even go out alone with Kelsey. I hate that for her. I want her to have a normal life and not live in fear. Maybe she doesn’t when she’s home, because of me, but I want her to do that on her own too. I don’t want her to feel like she always needs me to protect her. She shouldn’t need protection 24/7. I guess, soon enough she won’t.
Gunner needs to go. I can’t keep dragging this out. The sooner he’s gone, the sooner we can move on, which is what Anastacia said we needed to do in the first place.
“Interesting sight.” Lucian takes the seat beside me.
“You’re telling me,” I say with a shake of my head, as I scoop up some squash. The food is delicious, as it always is. Spam needs to open up a restaurant or some shit. Maybe he’ll go work at the diner.
