Chapter Twenty-Eight
“I’m fine, Dad,” Morgan huffs. “I’m good enough to go back down to my cabin, see?” She does an awkward, hopping twirl thing—which actually does nothing to allay my fear that she’s ready to go down and join the ranks again after just three weeks. “Honestly, I’m getting tired of doing stairs with these.” She shows me one of her crutches.
“Alright,fine,” I concede, “but you’re still on light duty. No overdoing it.”
She mock salutes me with a smirk. “Yes, sir.”
“I mean it, Morgan Marie.”
“Ooh, whipping out the middle name. I’m quaking in my fiberglass boot.”
“Hey, stop giving Mr. G a hard time!” Colton scolds her, coming to take her duffle off her hands for her, and shooting me a grin.
“Whathe said,” I tell her.
“What’s that? Can’t hear you! I’m hopping away now! I’m a deaf kangaroo!” Morgan giggles as she hobbles down over the hill.
I sigh and plunk my behind down on one of the porch rocking chairs, next to Evan. He hands me my coffee. He even put it in my ‘Proud Cat Dad’ mug that Morgs got me one year for Father’s Day.
“What are we going to do when they fly the coop for real?” I hum, staring off into space.
He snorts. “You act like we’re eighty. I imagine we’ll still have jobs to do, bills to pay, and be up to our ears in responsibilities. This place obviously cannot run itself,” he notes.
Glad he recognizes that, because Kai never could. That’s what sets him so far apart from my ex. Since Morgan has been recovering, Evan has taken on so much in addition to the maintenance tasks. He’s really gotten down there and interacted with the campers, and it’s been fun to watch him play and participate in activities with them. Just yesterday, he led them on a kayak expedition around the lake.
Several of them have also gotten to go for rides on his Harley with him, since he made an overnight trip back out to get it recently. I got a little nervous one morning, when I woke up and Evan's side of the bed was cold and empty. The surge of relief I felt when I heard the rumble of his motorcycle coming down the driveway nearly leveled me. One of the campers begged him to take them out for a ride, which quickly turned into several other kiddos all begging for rides. He told me he was so ecstatic at the prospect that he couldn't sleep. Then he made up for scaring me, thinking he'd left again with no warning, by jerking us both off in the shower.
I swing my head over to look at him. “Can we still make time for motorcycle rides?”
He grins. “We can still make time for motorcycle rides, but we'd better hurry. Summer's ending soon. Speaking of, I need to go backto Ternbay at some point and swap my bike back out for my truck. I've got all Colt and Petro's shit I need to drag back. You want to come with me, maybe meet my parents? Damn, I feel lame for asking that…”
I chuckle. “Yes, I’d love to meet your parents. And Gannett, he sounds like quite a character.”
“He’s something,” Evan grunts.
“Did those hurt?” I ask, pointing at his knuckle tattoos.
“No. Why, you thinking about getting some?”
I smirk. I am, but it’s a surprise. So I tease, “I’m not sure I’m allowed entry into motorcycle clubs without ‘em. What’s the policy on leather chaps?”
He chuckles. “I’m not a member of a motorcycle club, so I wouldn’t know. I know myownstance on leather chaps, though.”
“Oh yeah? What’s that?”
“You’d look fuckin’ hot in them,” he hums, taking a sip of his coffee and giving me a salacious side-eye.
“Perv.” I snort.
His lips thin into a small smile, but he doesn’t deny it as he strokes a hand through his beard. “Been calledthatbefore.”
“Yeah, by me!”
He nods. “Yep,” he agrees, popping the ‘p.’ “Not going to sit here and lie and say you didn’t give me impure thoughts in that corset thing the other night. Also, I know I mentioned it before, but it’s worth mentioning again: lace jocks and that fuckin’ ass of yours are a hell of a combination. Move over PB and J, you’ve just been outed from your top spot in the rankings.”
I roll my eyes.
“Aw cripes, no,” he gripes, looking down at his lap. I shoot up thinking he’s just spilled some hot coffee on himself, but then he laughs. “Look what fuckin’ happened again. Popped another bonerjust thinking about how you screamed my name as I ate out that pussy of yours while wearing it.”
