Jasper looked uneasy at the prospect, he didn’t know Skylar and he’d yet to leave Isla alone with someone he didn’t know. To help ease his fears a little, I explained, “Skylar’s got four kids. Oldest is what, eleven now? Youngest is only a few months older than Isla. She knows what she’s doing.”
“Four?” Jasper looked horrified at the prospect, making Skylar laugh.
“I brought two from my first marriage, Butch brought his daughter, and we had Ryder together. I’ve managed to convince him to wait before deciding on more, but I’m pretty sure he loves being a daddy more than he loves riding his bike, so I’m not sure that’ll last more than a year or two.”
I gave her a mock horrified look. “For shame, Mama Bear.”
She gave me a look. “If you say anything about bros before anything else, I’ll hurt you.”
I put my hands up in surrender, grinning at her. I didn’t actually believe in that shit. For me, it was my brothers because they were my family. Family before anything. Real family, anyway. Blood relations didn’t count, present company excluded.
After laying Isla down and making sure she went to sleep, Jasper hovered by the crib, frowning like he wasn’t sure what to do with himself. I waved for him to follow me, pointing toward the door. “Come on. I’ll show you what I do.”
And meet some of the guys. A few worked in Butch’s shop, and it’d be a good opportunity for Jasper to meet them. He hesitated for another long moment until Skylar said, “There’s a baby monitor on the shop floor. You can have Butch turn it on for you so you know what’s going on,” she offered, pointing toward a camera that was aimed above the crib. When I raised an eyebrow, she shrugged. “Butch takes the kids sometimes when I’m working elsewhere. He can’t always stay back here with them, so he made the set up so he could watch them.”
Big softie. I was going to tease him about that later.
The monitor thing seemed to help a little, and when we stepped out onto the shop floor, I snagged the portable monitor that was on a bench by the door, turning it on and offering it to him when the image of Isla’s sleeping form popped up on the screen. Then I led him around the cars being worked on, giving a two finger salute to the guys as I passed. Butch was near theback, standing next to the broken rig his guy was supposed to be fixing, the one he’d called me in for because the guy couldn’t find anything wrong with it. Next to him was Rooster. He had Ryder strapped to his chest, little ear protectors on him and a pair of eye protectors to boot. I couldn’t help but laugh seeing him.
“Dude, he’s a little young to be putting him to work, don’t you think?”
Rooster smirked, pointing at the plastic baby toy in Ryder’s hand that looked a lot like a wrench. The kid was chewing on it, unbothered by the noise of the shop around him, and when Butch straightened from where he’d been leaning over the rig, he looked unconcerned about having his kid out on the floor.
“Rooster’s on break. He’s got baby duty. Come here and look at this thing. Deek thinks there is an electrical issue.”
Jasper stood awkwardly to the side, frowning at Rooster like he’d lost his mind. Jury was out on that one, but Rooster wearing a baby strapped to his chest had become commonplace over the years. He took his job as uncle very seriously, even went to parenting classes the minute Ellie showed up, and he was the first to volunteer to babysit. It honestly shocked me that he hadn’t knocked up some chick just so he could have one of his own.
“Jasper. Want to see what I do?”
Jasper’s gaze flicked to me, then back to Rooster. He must’ve decided it wasn’t worth it to say anything because he followed me to where the rig’s electrical panel was, watching as I checked the power, made sure the thing was turned off properly and the hydraulics weren’t active before touching the panel. I explained as I went, pointing out what I was looking for and what looked normal.
“Most common issue with stuff like this is fuses. I always check that first, as well as the cord to plug the thing in.” I pulled one out and showed it to him. “These look fine, which theyshould because I replaced them not that long ago. They last a while.”
Jasper looked torn between his normal scowl in my direction and mild interest in what we were doing. Since he wasn’t snarking at me, I figured I’d just keep going. If he got tired of listening, he could go back to the office and chill on his phone for a while.
It honestly surprised me that he stayed out there the whole time I was working. He didn’t ask questions or anything, but he didn’t pull out his phone either. He watched me work, listening to me drone on about relays and voltage, and when I tested the lift after fixing the problem, he looked mildly impressed. I felt pretty good about that.
Of course, Rooster had to ruin his good mood by coming to bug us as I was cleaning up. He’d handed off Ryder at some point, his mechanic’s coveralls unzipped and tied around his waist because he was an idiot and didn’t actually care if his clothes got stained or dirty.
I knew he fucked up the second he tried to toss an arm around Jasper’s shoulders. The kid jerked away hard, glaring at him, and his fists clenched at his sides like he was ready to start throwing punches before he’d let Rooster touch him.
“Knock it off, Rooster. Leave him alone,” I growled.
Rooster lifted his hands, eyes wide. “Hey, I was just gonna ask if he wanted a snack. Mama Bear’s been stocking the break room with donuts.”
“Ask without hanging on him,” Butch grumbled as he came to join us again. “And get back to work. You’re supposed to be working on that gold sedan.” He lifted his chin at me. “All fixed?”
“Yeah. Just a switch fail. Nothing you need to worry about.”
He nodded. “Sounds good. Send the bill to Skylar. She’s got the accounts working like she wants them and she said I’m not allowed to touch it anymore after last time.”
I snorted, raising an eyebrow at him. “What’d you do?”
His grimace was hilarious when he explained, “Accidentally deleted some shit. She fixed it fine, but she said she can’t trust me on the computer anymore. You won’t hear me complaining about that. She’s better with it anyway.”
“You’re okay with a woman doing that?” Jasper asked suspiciously.
I hadn’t expected him to speak up, he’d been quiet since we arrived, but apparently Butch’s comment confused him enough to speak.
