Some and the Flame

by Michelle, Christine

  I immediately went on edge as I watched Poppy’s demeanor change immediately. She didn’t want anyone taking her daughter from her, and I couldn’t blame her. I wasn’t too fond of the idea either. Not even realizing I was doing it, my chest puffed up and I prepared for a fight.

  “Calm down, daddy. You can come and watch her get her first bath. She never has to leave your sight.” I wanted that, because we were all our daughter had back here to protect her, but at the same time there was no one else here with Poppy aside from the doctor and another nurse who had come in at some point. Still, they were strangers.

  “I’d rather you stay with her,” Poppy finally said after registering the conflict she could see playing out on my face. I finally agreed and followed the nurse out in the hall. Chief was standing out in the hallway still and when I realized I tipped my head in the direction of the room.

  “Stay with her while I go keep an eye on the baby, yeah?”

  “Never had to ask, brother. I’ve got your girl. Go take care of the little one.” Chief wasted no time moving back into the room.

  I nodded and followed the nurse out of the room, reluctantly leaving behind my love to chase my daughter. Somehow, I felt like this was a bit of foreshadowing. A girl. I was happier than hell to heave a healthy baby girl, but flashes of her teen years starting hitting me as I watched the nurse roughly washing the white cheesy shit and blood from her tiny little body.

  “Hey, you need to tone that shit down!” I called to her as the bitch rolled her eyes at me. Did she know who she was fucking with right now?

  “Calm down, Mr. Lewis. All babies get this treatment. They’re not as breakable as you think, and we need to get her clean.”

  “So you say,” I told her as I glared while she continued to do her thing. My baby girl wasn’t even putting up a fuss at all the attention, so I figured all was well.

  “Look at this sweet thing. She wants to be clean, don’t you, suga?”

  I had to laugh at that. “Don’t you laugh, daddy. I betcha any amount of money this little one is going to be the high maintenance type. She gets dirty, it’s going to be a screaming fit until she’s cleaned up again. Isn’t that right, little miss?”

  Another nurse came by and tucked a little notecard looking thing into a holder on the back of the plastic bassinet on wheels that had been set aside for my daughter. The card proudly announced that she was Sophie Layla Lewis. The grin on my face at seeing the name Poppy had given her couldn’t be contained. Our baby girl had been named after both of our sisters. Baby girl’s aunts would never get to know her, but she would carry their memories with her forever.

  “Whoa, whoa, what the hell is that?” A second nurse had just approached my daughter with what looked like a security device stores used to put on clothing back in the day. Both nurses smiled at me.

  “It’s a security device. You and your wife will be given a matching wristband. If anyone other than the two of you attempt to leave the premises with the baby and they don’t have the matching band, they will be stopped. If the baby is moved to a location not authorized while wearing the band, it triggers a lockdown of doors and elevators as necessary. Alarms will be triggered if the band is tampered with as well.”

  “Damn, girl, they knew they had a biker baby coming in and they slapped an ankle monitor on you already. See that, you’re already trouble.” Both nurses laughed as I continued just watching my daughter, in total awe of her.

  “Mr. Lewis, if I could have your left wrist?”

  “Sure,” I held out my hand to her and she attached a band to it. I read the information on my band and compared it with what was on Sophie’s band. They were a perfect match. “Are we good now? Can we get her back to her momma?”

  The older nurse gave the younger one a knowing look. “She’s probably tuckered out and sleepin’ right now. Why don’t you give her a little more time?”

  “No offense, lady, but you don’t know my woman. She won’t rest until her daughter is back in her sight.”

  “We hear that all the time,” the younger nurse tittered just as an intercom went off.

  “Is baby girl Lewis ready? Her mother is throwing a fit that her baby hasn’t been brought back to her yet.”

  I just cocked my brow at the two women as if to ask them what they thought now. “Just point the way, ladies,” I told them as I took my daughter into my arms.

  “Sir, you have to transfer her down the hall while in the bassinet.”

  I glared at the woman. “If you think you can tell me I can’t hold my daughter, you have another thing coming to you, lady.”

  “Sir, it is hospital policy.”

  “Well, it’s my personal policy to bond with my daughter as much as possible, and that requires actually holding her instead of wheeling her around in a plastic tub.” One of those twats could follow me to my woman’s room with the fucking tub that my daughter wouldn’t be rolling around in as long as I was there.

  The minute I walked into the room holding our daughter, Poppy’s eyes were all for the baby in my arms. Her smile was something I wish I had been able to take a picture of, because there had never been anything more beautiful on this earth. “I got it,” Chief called out from somewhere to my right.

  “Got what?”

  “The picture of her face,” he told me, and then I turned my gaze from the love of my life to her brother, my club brother, who understood what that moment meant to me. I tipped my chin at him and then went to place our daughter in Poppy’s arms.

  “She’s so sweet, just look at those pouty little lips. Oh my God, she’s going to be gorgeous,” she cooed at the little bundle.

  “Might want to bump up the armory in a few years,” I commented. Chief stood and came over to the side of the bed and took a look at his niece.

  “I’ll help with that.”

  Chapter 17

  Truth be told, I thought I’d have us in a bigger house before the baby came along. There always seemed to be something that got in the way when I thought about house hunting though. Then, our little Sophie-bug came early and well, that meant I had to get creative in order to surprise Poppy. I managed to find one just before we headed down to Georgia, and I put an offer in, but I hadn’t heard anything until the day we got back. As much as I didn’t want to leave her to her own devices after just giving birth and having to travel with a newborn right after going through that bullshit divorce proceedings, I needed to get help to distract her.

  That was where Leanne came in. She managed to weasel her way in the door and asked politely if I wouldn’t mind going to help Ghost with some shit they were working on at the clubhouse. I saw Poppy’s eyes dim a bit when I readily agreed. “I’m a phone call away, honey. You need me, I’ll come running.”

  “I need you,” she whined.

  I smiled down at her as Leanne laughed softly. “Let’s have some girl time for a bit and let Smoke go do the guy thing. He’ll be back as quickly as he can be.”

  It took a little more convincing before I managed to make it out the door and down to the real estate office where I signed the papers and paid out the hefty fee to be able to move in immediately rather than wait. Over the next two days, the guys managed to help get all new furniture moved into the place, as Poppy had been marking things in magazines and saving shit to her Pinterest account that gave me an idea of what she’d want in the house. The whole process was tiring and quite frankly, pissing Poppy off every time I made a new excuse to run out the door. I’m sure she was having flashes of Walker doing just that and running to be with a club whore, especially since she was out of commission in the sexual department during her postpartum rest time.

  She would realize what I’d been up to soon enough though. She’d had it with my shit, and asked if Leanne could come pick her and the baby up and get them out of the house for a little while. She thought Brantley was still staying with Kent, who had watched him and Bubba while we’d gone to Georgia, but he was helping out with the house, and excited to s
urprise our girls.

  We had just finished setting up the last of the nursery when the sounds of a car pulling up in the driveway made its way in through the window that had been cracked for a couple days in order to help air out the fresh paint smell. “Dey Hewe!” Brant shouted.

  “Okay, little man, calm down. We don’t want them to know we’re in here just yet. It’s a surprise, remember?”

  “Me Membas.”

  He put his little finger over his mouth and made a shushing sound that had Chief, Ghost, and Surfer chuckling. We all headed down the stairs and into the living room right about the time the door started to jiggle.

  “They just gave you the keys?” Poppy was asking Leanne.

  “Yeah, of course, when you’re trying to sell a house you want as many people to go through them as possible. They just told me what time to pick them up and here we are.”

  “I thought you loved the house you’re in.”

  “Um, well, I do,” Leanne fumbled as she jiggle the lock, clearly unsuccessful with the key I’d given her. Ghost shook his head and walked over to unlock the door for her and then he stepped back.

  “Oh, I got it,” Leanne called out in triumph.

  “That’s good because this car seat is heavy. I never knew our little peanut was going to give me such a workout,” Poppy sighed out. I almost chuckled, because it wasn’t the first time she’d made mention of how much our little chunky girl weighed. She was already tipping the scales over eight pounds, but when you added in the weight of the car seat baby carrier piece, it became a bit more.

  The door opened and everyone whisper-yelled, “Surprise!”

  “Oh my God!” Poppy called out when she saw Brant and me standing there, but she didn’t seem to be catching on.

  “Welcome home, honey!”

  “Welcome… what?”

  “This is our new home,” I told her and that’s when she really looked around and started noticing things. Her eyes widened and I watched as tears started to pool there. Moving quickly to get to her side, I took hold of our little bundle, unstrapping her, and plucking her up from the seat and cradling her to my chest before taking Poppy’s hand in mine. “Come on, I’ll give you the tour.

  She turned back to Brant. “Come on baby, let’s take a tour,” she offered while holding out her other hand.

  “A seed it, Popwee. We puts all dis togeder.”

  “I see,” she told him and then made a show of glancing around again. “You did a wonderful job, big guy!” She ruffled his hair as she said it and he reached around her legs, hugging tightly to her as he puffed his chest out with pride. “I’m so proud of you,” she told him as she leaned in and hugged him back.”

  “Wuv you, Popwee!”

  That was when she lost her battle with the tears, and they started streaming down her face. “Love you too, big guy!” Chief swooped in then and picked Brant up.

  “How about we let your Uncle Smoke show Poppy around the house, okay? You can come have a beer with me in the kitchen.” Brant wrinkled his nose.

  “Gwoss,” he muttered.

  Chief laughed. “Okay, root beer for you and a beer for me,” he amended which brought back Brant’s grin.

  “Wets go!”

  Poppy turned to me once they were clear of the room, and not caring who was watching, she slipped up onto her tip toes and brought her lips straight to mine, planting the sweetest damn kiss on me. “Thank you,” she whispered with her lips sweeping over mine as she did so.

  “Anything for you, honey.”

  “I think you really mean that,” she mumbled.

  “Don’t ever doubt it.”

  Chapter 18

  Nerves had never been my thing. I always prided myself on not freaking out over too many things. I dove headfirst into fires to save lives for fuck’s sake. There simply wasn’t time to be nervous, but as I stared at the back doors to the clubhouse, my heart ticked away the beats as if it were trying to escape my chest. My world was turned upside down when I’d met Poppy, and now it was time to make her officially mine. Since she surprised us by delivering our daughter earlier than expected, just after her divorce was finalized, we had to wait a little while for our lives to settle into something resembling normal again before we could put this shindig together.

  That’s why I had a little trail of sweat trickling down my back. It sure as fuck wasn’t the pyramid glass tube propane heaters the guys had placed around the deck to keep everyone warm. My palms were starting to sweat too. Hell, it wasn’t even that Surfer was over there looking too cozy as Mr. Mom while holding my baby girl. Shit, that might have been part of it. I’m not too much of a manly jackass to admit that I didn’t want anyone else soaking up my daughter’s time. She was my baby girl, and so damn special. I was watching Surfer in his attempts to earn one of her rare and precious smiles when a hush fell over the crowd. My gaze quickly shifted to the doors that were now opened. Chief stood there in his Sunday best – which for him consisted of dark jeans, a button-up shirt, and his kutte along with recently spit-shined boots. On his arm was my woman, looking radiant as ever in a simple blush pink sheath dress that hugged her curves that had been exaggerated by giving birth to our daughter so recently. I loved every inch of her beautiful self as she beamed one of her gorgeous smiles my way before looking down at the other man in her life. In her right hand, she held Brantley’s, clasped tightly.

  “I’m mawying Popwee, guys!” He shouted after grinning up at her. His announcement stopped both Chief and Poppy in their tracks as they laughed along with everyone else waiting to watch us become husband and wife. Little man was wearing an outfit that mirrored Chief’s, including the little leather kutte my brother-in-law had made for him that announced he was a future biker in training.

  “You better bring my woman over here to me, Little Man,” I called out to him. He grinned big at me before he started trying to drag Poppy down the aisle at a faster pace than the wedding march dictated. More laughter ensued, and it filled me with a peace I hadn’t known much of this year. It was good to see everyone able to have this day of laughter and celebration, considering the gloomy months prior where we had so much loss and took so many chances as we brought justice to our fallen family members.

  I wish I could recount the vows we made to one another, but anything I said about them would be a lie. I couldn’t tell you a single word I spoke other than, ‘I do’. I was simply too mesmerized by Poppy, and the fact that she was about to be mine in every way. I remember her saying, ‘I do,’ and whispering, ‘Love you always, baby’. Then I was kissing her and Brant was being Brant.

  “Eww! Why deyz kissin’ wike dat?”

  “You’ll be doing that with girls one day too,” one of my brothers told him.

  “Nuh-uh. Yukky!” We finally managed to break apart at that.

  Chapter 19

  I held Decker cradled in my arms as I reached into the crib to pat Devon’s diapered butt. Both were a little fussy tonight even though I’d changed them, fed the little piglets, and burped them both. The door squeaked causing me to cringe because the last thing any of us wanted was for Poppy to wake up. She’d barely been getting any sleep and it was starting to show in her crankiness. Not that I blamed her. Having twin infants, a preschooler, and then eight-year-old Brantley was nothing to shake a stick at. These kids were keeping us on our toes, and since I also had to work my shifts at the fire department, that meant most of it rested on Poppy alone while I was gone.

  I turned expecting to see her and was instead greeted by my bleary-eyed eight-year-old. “Hey, little man, what’s shakin’?”

  “The babies, I guess,” he told me as he rubbed his tired eyes. “When are they ever going to sleep at night?”

  “I don’t know, Brant. Wish they’d learn it soon.”

  “Me too. Sophie wasn’t like this.”

  “No, Sophie still loves her sleep even when the boys are crying.”

  “She must be magic.”

  “Some girls are. She
takes after her momma that way,” I told him. Then I leaned in and kissed Decker’s crinkled little forehead. “You boys happen to have the best momma in the world, and one day, when you grow up and become men, you’ll know the only woman for you because she’s going to live up to your momma’s example.

  “Can’t I just marry Poppy, since she’s so pretty and nice?”

  I chuckled at that. “She’s already mine, kiddo.”

  “Why do you get the good woman?”

  “Because I’m smart, and I snatched her up the minute I found her.”

  “That’s what I’m gonna do too. So, I guess it can’t be Kaylee,” he told me with a bit of a sad hesitation in his voice. “I didn’t snatch her up. I just pulled her hair a little bit, and she ran away from me.” He started tugging at his bottom lip, a sure sign of agitation with Brant.

  I laughed again, gently so I didn’t wake Devon who had finally fallen off to sleep. “Little man, one day you might just figure out that pulling a girl’s hair and snatching her up to be yours are pretty much the same thing. If you want her, you just make sure she knows you’re the only guy who gets to pull her hair.”

  I heard a bit of feminine chuckling from the other room and knew that my own woman had awoken and listened in through the baby monitor. I’d show her all about the hair pulling later when she had a little more sleep, and we conned Chief into babysitting our brood again. Yeah, we had to count a babysitter most of the time to get any in this house full of heathens. Damn Brantley had some kind of special radar. Every time I got my woman naked, he came barging in like the little tike version of a cockblock. Hand to God, the little shit could pick locks. He’d figured out how to pop something into the hole on the door to get it to open up, despite the lock being engaged for a reason.