Ten minutes later, Nora needed help with geometry and couldn’t reach her dad on the phone. I looked at it, and it’s likely I could’ve read through the last couple of lessons and figured it out, but barring that, I had no clue. I made good grades in geometry when I took it, but I don’t remember the specifics. I mean, I can figure out how much paint I need for a certain square footage, and other things artists need to figure out, but that was all I’d retained. We only had so much time for them to do their homework, so I called Frost and requested video. His face popped up, and I said, “I have a huge favor to ask. Any chance you can help Nora with a geometry question via video chat?”
“Sure, let me move to another room so I have some quiet. Hand her the phone and have her show me the problem.”
I turned the phone towards her and said, “Ya’ll say hi, first.”
Once they’d gotten that over with, Nora took the phone and showed him what she’d done. The conversation lasted less than five minutes, and she was all, “Wow, that’s easy. Thanks so much!”
When they’d hung up, she said, “He’s smart?”
“Yes. Engineering degree from Georgia Tech. He’s the top person who runs a general contractor firm.”
“Dad says he’s an outlaw biker.”
“He’s a biker. He was in jail for a misdemeanor because the gun he used during the big battle is technically illegal. Also, his truck was blown up, and he found a car that worked – the people in it were dead, so he pulled them out and used the car to try to get to safety. So, they got him for car theft and possession of a prohibited weapon, which sounds bad, but you have to understand the circumstances. We still have an hour until we need to leave. Homework.”
Everyone went back to work.
Dinner went better than I could have imagined. Gil was on his best behavior, and the kids ate close to their body weight in food. Okay, not quite that much, but it seemed like it.
Partway through the meal, Gil asked Nora what she’d needed him for, and apologized for not being able to answer his phone right away.
“OMG! Dad! Did you know Frost is smart!?”
Gil gave me the stink eye, and I shrugged. “She needed geometry help. I had no clue, but I knew someone available who could help. He didn’t come over — he did it over video chat.”
“And he made it seem easy, Daddy! I totally understand it, now!”
I could tell it took everything in him to merely say, “I’m glad he could help.”
Since the kids were spending the night with me, we went to Gil’s house first, so they could open presents there. He got them clothes, shoes, a basketball and basketball hoop for his driveway, and a foosball table as a joint gift. He also bought a climbing wall kit, and told them they’d have to help build it. When I saw the plans for it, I understood this would be their first true construction project — leveling the ground, preparing the foundation, building the three-sided structure, and then securing the footholds and handholds. I approved.
When we made it to my house, it seemed best to let them open Frost’s gifts first, so perhaps what I got them would shine louder, and their dad would only have to hear a few times about how happy they were to finally have gaming consoles at my house.
“The two packages on the mantle need to be opened first. Frost couldn’t be here, but he wanted to get ya’ll a gift.”
I felt Gil looking at me, but I didn’t turn to him. I focused on the kids. They opened them at the same time, and I was unprepared for just how excited they’d be. Also, it seems these were later consoles than the ones they had at home, so I now had better gaming systems than their dad. Oops. And then they saw the gift certificates, and started planning for which games they wanted to buy. Gil was pissed, but he sat quietly and didn’t say anything.
“Okay,” I told them when it was time to move on, “we aren’t hooking them up tonight, so put them to the side and open your other gifts.”
I got them build-your-own-robot kits, which would make them need to learn some electrical skills and some programming skills. Also, some shirts and jeans, which they didn’t care about quite yet. I also bought them both a .22 rifle. And yes, Gil knew, and he approved. The weapons would stay in my safe, and the boys would only use them under my direct supervision. Shortly after moving in, I’d set up a target area in my backyard, with an earthen backstop to catch the bullets.
We, of course, had to go out back and shoot the guns right away. Gil helped one child while I helped the other. They’d both shot rifles before, so we weren’t starting from scratch with the safety stuff. They knew how to handle them, but these worked slightly different. Also, they looked really cool.
It was more than an hour past the boys’ bedtime before I wished them a final happy birthday, kissed their cheeks goodnight, and turned their light out. I’d given them both a bedroom, and they’d turned one room into a playroom and the other into their bedroom. Neither boy wanted his own room.
Nora was waiting for me in my bedroom when I went to take my own shower.
“Are things better for you? I think you’re doing better with your wolf since your principal started helping you.”
“Yeah. I am. Daddy was pissed about the gaming consoles.”
She’d sat on my bench, and I sat on the loveseat. “Your father is going to have to come to terms with the fact Frost and I are an item. Give him a little more time.”
“Daddy still loves you.”
“And I still love him, but not romantically. I hope he can find someone who’s a better fit for him as a wife.”
“You have sex with Frost more than you did with Daddy.”
“I am not talking to you about my sex life. I will talk to you about your sex life all you want. I will answer any questions you have about sex and boys and even girls if you decide that’s your thing.”
“What? Ewww! No!”
“Okay then, boys it is, but I just needed to say I’ll love you no matter who you love.”
She sighed. “I guess I should say the same thing. I still love you, even if you and Daddy aren’t getting back together.”
“And I will always love you.”
Cheyenne
I spent the morning in the office — going through invoices, matching them up to jobs, logging everything in the computer, and then printing and signing checks. I got those ready to mail, and then started on payroll. We had ninety-three employees now, but the foremen logged their men’s hours in, so it didn’t take terribly long to look through the logs and then let the software do the work. The payroll checks were printing when Gil walked in with barbecue, fries, buns, and lemonade.
I lifted my brows at him. We’d agreed not to force ‘having lunch’ on each other at work.
“Yeah. I know, but we need to talk, and we may as well do it while we eat. No one else is in the office. It’s the perfect time.”
Our shop is a huge old warehouse with a large bay door, so we can park our fleet of trucks inside when they aren’t on a site, and so we have tons of indoor storage space for our tools and equipment. We built five offices and a breakroom/conference room in one corner of the warehouse. I followed him to the breakroom.
“I didn’t appreciate Frost buying them expensive gifts.”
“He didn’t outdo either of us monetarily. I wouldn’t have let him do that. You still bought them better gifts.”
“It’s possible his gift was better than yours. They’ll certainly use the gaming consoles more than the rifles.”
I shrugged. “I’m okay with that.”
“Nora has a little crush on him.”
“Which is going to get more and more intense because you’re making him forbidden.” I put meat on a bun and poured barbecue sauce on the meat before I turned it into a sandwich.
“I don’t feel like you’re supporting my parenting decisions.”
“And I feel like your parenting decisions are being made from...” I sighed. “Fuck, Gil. Tell me you aren’t making decisions based on your own childish feelings? You
don’t want Frost in my life, but you can’t control me anymore, so you’re trying your damnedest to control my life through the kids!”
“Wow. That’s what you think of me?”
“Not usually, but you don’t want me dating, and you seem to have lost your ability to adult. I’m really hoping it’s temporary.”
“You threatened to cut me out of the business.”
“Yeah, I did, and I don’t regret it for an instant. If you completely cut me out of the kids’ lives, I’ll have no reason to continue trying to get along with you.”
He put his food down and stared at me. “That’s the only reason you’re still...”
“No, not the only reason. The business is our baby. We started it. We grew it. We have two joint ventures, Gil — running the business and parenting the kids. We either do both, or none.”
That sounded harsher than I intended. I blew out a breath, and an unintentional growl escaped. I tried again. “Look. If I got pissed at you, and instead of working with you to resolve it, I took your name off everything that allowed you the control you have now, and then fired you, so you no longer worked here at all, would you still pretend nothing had happened when it came to the kids?”
He stared at me a good fifteen seconds before he shook his head. “So, I have the legal leverage with the kids, and you have the legal leverage when it comes to the business. Neither of us can actually use our leverage without losing at least as much as we gain.”
“Pretty much.”
He sighed. “I’ll contact Frost and see if we can have lunch in the next day or two. Depending on how that goes, we’ll figure out when and where to introduce him to the kids.”
“Nora will be proud of you for being an adult.”
He rolled his eyes at me. “No one told me a teenage girl would be such a damned pain in the ass.”
“You’re an awesome dad, Gil. I’ve always respected that about you. The two of you are so much alike, it’s no wonder you butt heads so much.”
He sighed. “She’s going to start having sex soon. Probably not with this guy, but the next one, or the next. You’re on all the forms so you can get health care for her. You have my permission to take her for birth control when it’s time, and you have permission to tell me it’s because she has painful cramps, instead of telling me why. I think I’d prefer not to know when she becomes sexually active.” He gave me a sad smile. “I can only afford to put my head in the sand about it because I trust you to handle it.”
“She’ll still be your baby girl.”
“I know, but I honestly don’t want to know when it happens.”
“Okay. I can’t make any promises, but I’ll see what I can do.”
“I’m going to tell Nora I’ve instructed you that it’s okay for you not to share sex stuff with me. Anything she tells you about that, stays with ya’ll.”
It took me a minute to figure out what he was saying. He was clearly uncomfortable with this conversation. “Okay. That might make her actually open up to me, or it might not.”
“How serious are you and Frost?”
“I’m pretty sure he’s going to be around a long time. Did you know owls are freaking monogamous? I thought birds fucked around. Shit.”
He chuckled. “I didn’t know until I looked it up. Surprised me, too.”
“Look, someday you’re going to meet a woman you want to spend time with. Someone you want to bring home. As long as she isn’t a complete bitch, I promise I’ll do my best to make her feel welcome, and to convince the kids to do the same.”
“And I promise I’ll try not to fall in love with a complete bitch. Maybe only a partial one.”
I rolled my eyes at him. If he was making jokes, we were okay. “Thanks for agreeing to make an effort with Frost.”
“Not making any promises. We’ll see how lunch goes.”
“It’s a start.”
Chapter Eighteen
Frost
I had no idea what to expect over lunch with Gil, but he’d told me the location was my choice, and then hadn’t argued when I’d said to meet me at the Rolling Thunder Restaurant at one. I didn’t expect he’d try to start shit on my territory, but I also hadn’t expected him to agree to meet me there.
Velvet put us in a booth near the bar area, since they have higher backs and conversation tends to stay in the booth, so others can’t hear you.
A nearby speaker played oldies hits, which would also cut down on people listening in. We’d probably need to talk about shapeshifter stuff at least a little.
I got our table, ordered some appetizers, and had Velvet primed to see him come in, address him by name, and bring him to me. I stood as they neared, we shook hands, and I told him to let Velvet know what he wanted to drink.
He chose a local beer, and I motioned for him to sit.
“Everything’s good. Special today’s chicken-and-dumplins. I’m leaning towards ordering the pork tenderloin.”
When we’d ordered, Gil leaned back and eyed me as if he were sizing me up. “I have a couple of specific concerns, and I hope we can talk about them without being antagonistic.”
“That’s my hope as well. Your kids are important to Cheyenne, and I believe she’s an important fixture in their lives. I’m going to be around a lot, so we need to figure out where I fit. I realize you’d prefer I wasn’t part of the equation, and I can appreciate that, but I don’t think keeping me locked out is feasible without making things difficult for Cheyenne and the kids.”
“Shy and I know what we can do without overstepping boundaries. Most things, you can ask her about, but if she needs to pull me into the conversation, I need you to trust her judgment.”
“Sounds fair. If that doesn’t work, we’ll talk about it.”
He nodded. “I don’t want a revolving door. Shy says you’re going to be around a while, but I guess I want to hear it from you. I don’t want the kids getting hurt when you decide this isn’t working for you and you ghost on us.”
“I intend to be around a long time. I won’t ghost on the kids. If we have something planned and Cheyenne and I have problems, I’ll honor whatever obligations I have with them.”
He blew out a breath. “I need to understand why you’re trying so hard. You spent a lot of money on those gaming consoles, and then the gift certificates to buy more games on top of them? It was a lot. You dropped whatever you were doing to help Nora with her homework.” He leaned forward and spoke lower. “My Alpha reminds me that the more people who care about my kids and want them to succeed, the better, but I guess I need to understand your motives before I can get on board with this.”
“Again, it’s a fair point, and I don’t know if I can answer the question to fully satisfy you. I can try, but my guess is you’re just going to have to see me in action for a while. All I can tell you is that I’m serious about fitting my life into Cheyenne’s, and her life into mine.”
“This is going to cut in on your sex life — you know that, right? At least at first, they’re going to want to be at Shy’s house when you’re there. My fault, for making you the forbidden fruit. I’m working to fix that now.”
“We’ll work through it.” I was going to want at least three nights a week without them around, but that wasn’t information Gil needed. Cheyenne and I would work that out.
“One last thing, and it’s a dealbreaker. I don’t want my kids around your biker friends.”
“Can they eat here when my brothers are in the restaurant? Kids are in school now, but come dinnertime, it’s a family restaurant and nearly every table has kids at it.”
He’d meant to draw a firm line in the sand, and I’d already fucked with it. He wasn’t happy.
I gave him a few seconds to look around, and I decided to try another tactic. “The next time we throw a big party, I’d like for you and the kids to drop by, or to show up with us and stay for a short time. There will be other kids, they won’t be the only ones. We’re family friendly while the sun’s up. Stay for t
wenty minutes to an hour, and then you and Cheyenne can talk about whether you want them around my brothers or not.”
He didn’t say anything, and I shrugged. “Eventually, you’ll need to trust my decision-making ability if this is going to work without friction. I get that I need to earn your trust.”
“Several of my packmates spent some time inside with you. Destruction of property — burning a house down with a doorway to hell inside it. Couldn’t explain that last part to the cops, so they did time.”
I smiled. I knew exactly who he was talking about. “Good men, all around.”
“You helped them during their first full moon inside. They said you didn’t ask for anything in return.”
“I couldn’t give them the night, but I got them into an area without cameras for an hour, so they could change for a short time, at least.”
“Your people didn’t try to negotiate with the Alpha, either. There was no in-kind payment, according to them.”
I shrugged. “They hadn’t been there long enough to figure out a solution, and I could tell they were having to fight their wolves. Caged, having to pretend submission to the screws, not even close to enough food... it was the least I could do.”
At his confused look, I explained, “Sorry, guards. We call’em screws inside.”
He chuckled. “Every last one of my packmates told me not to piss you off, and to never take a swing at you, but they said you’re made of good stuff, even if you’re a bird.”
“Your Alpha put you with them for a Q&A?”
“Yeah.”
Before the battle, we’d had a combative relationship with the Pack, but things seemed better now. Part of it was that the new Uber-Alpha was friends with the Chattanooga RTMC chapter, and all other Alphas in this part of the country came under her in the hierarchy. Mostly, though, it seemed we’d earned the local Alpha’s respect during the fighting.
Frost (Rolling Thunder MC Birmingham Book 3) Page 12