“Don’t. It’s not worth questioning,” Hank says. “They’re already talking about how old our kid should be before they start taking them for motorcycle joy-rides.”
I laugh and he continues. “Luca and Luke are already in a heavy debate about what club they will belong to.”
“And what if it’s a girl?” I ask. We decided not to find out the sex and thankfully we’re not having twins. Not that I wouldn’t love having two babies, but one will be so much easier.
“Who says a girl can’t ride a motorcycle and belong to a club? If she wants to, and they deny her, well, then she’ll just start her own and I’ll back her.”
And yet another reason I love this man.
“Let’s go. I’m starving,” I tell him, opening the door to get out of the truck. The guys are already heading across the yard to us, smiles on their faces.
Luke and Josh both take a turn hugging and kissing me as if they hadn’t seen me just a few hours ago.
“We already unpacked the boxes we brought over. If there’s anything not where you want it, we’ll make sure to move it,” Josh reassures me. Always the one to pay attention to detail. Guess that comes with being a doctor.
“There’s my favorite sister,” Luca says boldly, arms already open wide to give me a hug.
“I’m your only sister,” I remind him, but wrap my arms around him, squeezing him tightly. I’m so happy I have him back in my life. We missed so much of each other’s lives growing up that we never want to miss out on anything again.
He just blows me off before slipping a hand around my waist, holding me tightly.
“Now that I’ve got the three of you knuckleheads together, it’s time we have a chat.” His face loses the cheerful smile it just had, and morphs into a serious one. “This is my sister, and the three of you hurt her. You broke her. I wanted to kill you, but she stopped me.” He takes a swallow of his beer. “I’m glad that ya’ll were able to work shit out, and she has her beautiful smile back. But mark my words, if any of you hurt her again, cause her to shed one tear, you’re dead. I may not have a pig farm at mydisposal, but trust me when I say I know how to make a body disappear.”
“Luca!” I reach over and slap him on his chest.
“What!” he exclaims. “They need to know I mean business. The Rejects’ clubhouse ain’t no place for a pregnant sister, or my niece or nephew. They’ll be the ones who disappear from sight.”
“You don’t have to worry, Luca,” Josh steps up and says. “If we make her cry, I’ll come to you personally.”
“Good. Since we have that all cleared up, I’m eating for two and I’m starving. Where’s the food?”
With that we all head inside leaving the prospects to keep working on the swing without supervision.
Luke
August
The three of us are sitting out back; the late afternoon sun dipping low enough that the yard is mostly shadow. The cooler sits between our chairs, half full of beer and melting ice. Crickets are already starting up in the grass.
And the house is quiet. I can’t help but smile because I know it won’t be for long. Soon our little baby will fill the air with laughter and tears.
Vee’s at her baby shower, that we were specifically told by Arizona we could not attend. Men should be able to go, it’s our kid too.
I take a long pull from my beer, leaning back in the chair and stretching my legs out in front of me, crossing my ankles.
Hank cracks open another beer. “No men. No bikers. No ruining the decorations.”
Doc huffs. “Like we would. We can be civilized.” He looks over at us with a smirk. “Well I can,” he snorts.
“Oh, look at you usin’ your big fancy words. Civilized.” I mock him before taking another swallow.
The breeze kicks up, rustling the trees behind the fence.
Doc takes a drink and then shakes his head. “She’s due next month. Can you believe that? It went so fast.”
“Don’t worry, I plan to have her knocked up again as soon as I can.” I wink.
I stare out across the yard, the reality of that settling heavy in my chest. Next month. Next month there’s going to be a tiny human in our house.
