No one could say no to Ollie.
Rooster followed over at a slower pace, both of their white elephant gifts under one of his arms. He stopped to say hello to a few people as Ollie carefully poured Emmett’s drink and told him about the gifts he and Six had gotten for each other.
Emmett smiled a hello at CJ as he came over and was just taking a sip of his drink when Ollie said, “Of course, I think my favorite gift is going to be the sounding training kit he got me,” and he nearly spit all over the place.
“Ollie,” CJ said, hurrying to clap Emmett on the back, “you can’t just blurt stuff out like that.”
Ollie rolled his eyes. “Like Rooster and Tank didn’t get you guys sexy gifts too.”
The blush in CJ’s cheeks spoke volumes, but he kept his lips pressed together, miming zipping them shut. Emmett chanced another sip of his drink as he thought about all the gifts he’d opened the night before. Most were toys and things for when he was little…
“I don’t think so,” Emmett finally said, shrugging. “I did get a dragon though.”
Ollie looked at something just behind him as he crossed his arms over his chest. “You didn’t get him asinglesexy gift, Rooster?”
Emmett turned and offered his daddy a smile. Rooster had left their wrapped gifts for the White Elephant game later somewhere, but he was holding a gift bag in one of his hands now. Emmett tried to peek inside, but there was so much tissue paper he couldn’t see anything.
“Depends on what you think is sexy,” Rooster said, smirking as he met Emmett’s gaze. “I think the pj’s I got him areverysexy.”
Ollie and CJ giggled and tried to guess what they looked like, while Emmett felt his cheeks getting warm as he remembered the onesie pajamas he’d opened that had ambulances on them. Rooster thought he’d look sexy inthose?
“I do have one more gift for you, little boy,” Rooster finally said, shooing Ollie and CJ away as he gripped Emmett’s elbow and led him to a quiet corner. “I wanted to give it to you last night, but Six has been waiting weeks to get his sewing machine repaired, so he just finished it this morning.”
The scary-looking club Enforcer grabbing Ollie’s ass at the moment owned asewing machine?
Not sure what to expect, Emmett took the bag and handed off his drink to Rooster. As soon as he started pulling out the tissue paper and spotted the black leather, his heart started racing. By the time he pulled the vest out of the bag, his hands were shaking, and his palms were damp with sweat. The front just had his name on it, but when he turned it around…
Tears pricked at his eyes, and he blinked them away as he stared at the large patch that would go across his shoulders that readProperty ofand the one across the bottom that saidRooster.
“I know you’re nervous about riding on my motorcycle, and we’ve got months before we’ll be able to take her out of storage,” Rooster said, sounding almost nervous as he watched Emmett run his finger over the wordProperty. “But it was important to me that you have this now. You don’t have to wear it if you don’t?—”
“I’m wearing it!” Emmett exclaimed, nearly dropping it in his haste to shrug it on over his Christmas sweater. He smiled up at Rooster and twirled, pretending like he didn’t see everyone watching them. “How does it look, Daddy?”
“Fucking perfect.”
Emmett threw himself into Rooster’s arms and hugged him tightly, eyes burning and emotions thick in his throat. He was scared about riding on a motorcycle, but he also trusted Rooster. With every single part of him, including his physical well-being. He knew all the way down in his soul that Rooster would keep him safe when the time came to go for a ride.
“I don’t know,” a sassy voice said behind him. “Looks a little plain.”
Someone else snickered, and CJ added, “Agreed. We’ve got a lot of work to do to get that vest up to snuff.”
Emmett turned and eyed his friends, running his hands down the leather sides of the front. His vest was perfect. He loved it just how it was. “What do you mean?”
“We’ll show you Ollie’s later,” Kenneth said, smiling. “And a few websites where you can pick out some patches to have Six sew on.”
“Oh!”
Rooster’s cut had some on it that he’d admired, and giggled over the one that saidThick Thighs Save Lives, but he hadn’t considered the fact that he could decorate his own vest. He wondered if he could find a purple dragon patch…
“You do have to get one specific one,” Ollie said, nodding seriously when Emmett raised his brows at him. “We all have it. It’s a Sub Club tradition.”
Rooster snorted. “Sub Club?”
Ollie waved a hand at him dismissively. “Obviously, you aren’t invited, but Emmett is. There’s a group chat and everything. My friends Vinnie and Mason are in it, who you haven’t met but you’ll love.”
Tears once again gathered at the back of his eyes, but he blinked them away. Ollie’s easy—and sometimes overwhelming—friendship was exactly what he needed after the fiasco of dinner the night before. CJ stepped forward and wrapped an arm around Emmett, leading him away from Rooster.
He gave him an extra squeeze and said softly, “You okay?”
