“I’ll explain the situation to Damara.”
Okay, he used my name. I officially have the right to listen in on this. Magnum knocks on the door right as I’m sliding my sweatpants back up.
“Are you still busy in there with these childbirth panties?” he asks, implying that I might need help with them, which I have already threatened to smack him over before.
“I’m fine,” I respond to him, hurrying over to the door before Magnum gets all overprotective and breaks it down. He sighs and leans on the door frame with a mixture of relief and deep concern for his safety when we make eye contact.
“I have good news and bad news,” he says. “And please… don’t hit me.”
“I haven’t done that in a while,” I mutter defensively. I don’t know why this white boy stays bringing up old shit, but I have been trying out this new emotionally mature rule where I don’t start arguments when I’m tired. It’s common sense anyway to only fight a man when you have energy.
“Okay,” Magnum says. “Come out here. Noelle is fast asleep, we can sneak out.”
“You’re lucky that phone call didn’t wake her up.”
Magnum grunts. “We’re all too tired to think.”
I can’t argue with that. We sit down in our living room together and Magnum brings me a much needed mug of hot coffee so I can stare into our electric fireplace and watch the sun coming up over the horizon through the window behind it. We moved to a home based off of the winning house from Season 5 of HGTV’s Rock The Block because I added that seemingly impossible task to Magnum’s “Relationship To-Do List” and he wanted to start off on the right foot. Our house isn’t in Colorado, we still live just outside of Santa Fe where Magnum owns most of his properties in one of those giant suburban subdivisions far away from any drama.
I love mornings here. But I don’t know how I feel about Magnum’s pending news. If he’s afraid I’ll hit him… maybe I should have figured out how to tap his phone. I’m sure Tamiya has access to that type of technology by now.
“Isaac and Tylee are getting a divorce,” he says, sitting down from me with a look on his face like a dog with an upset stomach. I didn’t know he was that much of a hopeless romantic.
“He seemed like a ride or die for her,” I say softly, more focused on getting the next sip of coffee into my mouth, despite my general interest in biker drama. The newborn exhaustion was too real.
“Tylee flew off the handle at him over the money, then she threatened to kill herself and all the kids so… Hunter and Wyatt took that pretty seriously.”
“Sounds like she’s having a mental breakdown.”
“They’re both no good for each other,” Magnum says. “Never have been. Just because you’ve grown up around the same type of people your whole life, doesn’t mean that’s who helps you to grow. Know what I mean?”
“Yes.”
“Like… Just because all I’ve known is loud women who run my pockets without knowing how to cook, clean or fuck doesn’t mean I have to settle.”
“First of all, I’m loud and I run your pockets.”
“Yeah,” Magnum says, leaning over to kiss my neck. “But I like the way you fuck and fight with me. I would have done anything to make you my baby mama without Tylee’s fucked up scheme.”
He kisses my neck again and I can feel myself getting distracted. Considering how long it’s been for both of us, I can easily see myself losing control and fucking Magnum right here on the couch. The thrill from my neck goes straight between my legs and I squirm with frustration as I suppress my desire to rip his clothes off.
“We have to focus, Magnum,” I say with the most pathetically strained voice I’ve ever heard. Magnum groans, but he knows I’m right. And we have somehow both become mature enoughnot to rip each other’s clothes off without a care in the world for what happens next.
Magnum doesn’t care about anything other than kissing me right now, but he does the mature thing for both of us andthankfullypulls away so we can discuss this like adults.
“Can a biker gang divorce end without division and bloodshed?” I ask, putting out all my fears right there on the table. Magnum promises he’ll do whatever I ask him, right? If there’s even going to be a whiff of the drama I want to leave behind, I’m ready to go on the run again.
“This one might not,” Magnum says honestly. “Isaac wants to stay here and lay low and he makes some good points. Plus… he can work off his debt.”
“Can’t you just write it off?”
Magnum’s face hardens like a real gangster who doesn’t play about his money. I hate how it turns me on a little bit, because I really need to be focused on us not getting a divorced white male in his forties. No offense, but that demographic can be a little questionable around firearms and we have ababy.
“I start writing off debt, people start walking all over me. Remember that trip to Croatia you’ve been planning. No more yacht charter, because I let a gambler play games with my money. I wouldn’t be keeping my family safe if I did that.”
“Okay, baby. Fine. But we have to let him move in with us?”
“If we do that, we don’t have to take any of the kids.”
