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 surprise 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 rubb
ed 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.
Still, as it turned out, my advice to our boys wasn’t always going to be taken the right way. The next day Poppy got called into the Principal’s office and refused to leave until I got there to sit in on whatever the hell was going on with Brantley too.
“Mr. Lewis,” Principal Morris intoned as I moved into the room where Poppy was hiding her face as her shoulders shook. What the hell was so bad that my son had her in tears?” I turned to look at Brant who rolled his eyes at Poppy’s display and shrugged his shoulders at me. Then I glanced back in time to see Principal Morris cover up a grin he’d been trying hard not to show.
“Brant, go wait out in the chair by the office door.”
“But,” he started to argue.
“Go, now! I had to run down here from the station. You know what that means?”
“Yes, sir,” he offered up dejectedly knowing he’d be in deep shit later for me having to leave the station in the middle of a shift. I had a radio with me, and would leave this meeting in a hot second if a call came through for us, but that didn’t matter. It would still set my team back to not have me on board with them as they rolled out.
Once our boy was out of the room, Poppy’s groan caught my attention and I watched as she wiped a track of tears from her cheek. Then she looked guiltily toward the principal. “I’m so sorry, it’s just…” she could not contain her chuckling. “His dad’s bad advice led to this, and I couldn’t help it.”
“Understandable, Mrs. Lewis,” the principal consoled her and then turned his attention to me.
“What the hell is going on here?” I finally had to ask.
“Brant is being suspended for the day for assault on another student,” the principal informed me.
“What the fuck?” I turned to see Poppy, still trying to contain her laughter. “Our boy assaulted someone, got himself suspended, and you’re laughing about it.” She couldn’t even respond. I turned back to Principal Morris. “Who the hell did he assault?”
“Well,” he glanced down at some paperwork in his hands. “A young miss Kaylee Swinson was on the playground minding her own business,” he started and it was my turn to groan as I went and parked my ass in the chair Brant had vacated when I sent him out. “I see you already might know where this is going?”
“Shit!” I huffed out. “What did he do?”
“Brantley marched right over to her, yanked her ponytail and kept hold of it until the girl was forced to look at her, and then said,” he shuffled a paper out of the way. “Ah, here it is,” he glanced up at me with a grin. “I’m quoting here, ‘I’m the only guy who gets to pull your hair, Kaylee. You’re my girl. I’m snatching you up.’”
I noticed Principal Morris appeared to have more to say on the matter and I sighed deeply. “What else?”
“Mrs. Shelton tried to intervene and get him to let go of Kaylee’s hair, but he refused.” He eyeballed me then before continuing. “I’m quoting here again, ‘My dad said that’s how you gotta claim your woman this way!’ was his defense when Mrs. Shelton tried to get him to stop, and asked why he wouldn’t let go.”
“Jesus!” I huffed out. First of all, it was the first time Brant had acknowledged me as his dad. I’d seen him think about it a time or two as the twins had arrived and Sophie had grown old enough to call out for her daddy whenever she wasn’t getting her way with someone else in the house. My heart physically squeezed tighter in my chest as that sunk in. Then I had to laugh, because I had basically told him that. I just didn’t think he’d run with it so literally.
“Mrs. Lewis thought it best if you heard it from me, rather than dealing with the situation on her own. She said that you had given your boys some creative advice just last night.”
“Yeah, Mr. Morris, I did,” I admitted while shaking my head in disbelief over the situation. “Just be glad the twins are still too young to take the shit I say to heart. You might have had three cavemen out there dragging their women away.” Both Morris and Poppy laughed at that.
“What are we going to do with him?” Poppy asked through her laughter.
“I’m thinking we need to not let me give middle of the night life advice to the kids.”
“That’s probably for the best,” Principal Morris stated while getting his own chuckles under control. “While I can see this was all a harmless misunderstanding, little Miss Kaylee had a few strands pulled from her hair and was humiliated on the playground, so I’m afraid I’ll have to insist the punishment still be served.”
“I understand. I’ll talk to Brant about it when we get home,” I told him as I stood.
“Maybe, you should let your wife take over from here,” the man told me deadpan, and Poppy started in on a whole new round of laughter.
“Yeah, you got me there.”
Chapter 20
…Three years later…
Poppy was staring blankly at a wall when I walked up to her after putting the twins down for their nap. “Maybe we should add on another room?” She asked the wall, not even realizing I had moved into the room with her.
“Why would we do that? The twins are okay sharing for now, and by the time they want their own space, Brant will probably be in his own place.”
“Yeah, but where will that leave the new baby in seven months?”
“What?”
She turned to grin at me while holding out a familiar pink and white stick. It only took a quick glance down to see that there were two very predominant pink lines showing in the window. “We’re having another baby!”
“We’re having another baby?” I questioned while mocking her very words. I was stunned. We already had Sophie still running around trying to play little mommy to the twins who were getting big enough in their terrible three stages to resent it now. The boys were far too independent in their terrorizing ways to want their big sister to treat them as the dolls she seemed to think they were
.
“Yeah, honey, maybe it’ll be a girl to help even things out around here,” she hummed happily. Another girl? Sophie was already showing signs that she’d be a stunner by high school. Not that she wasn’t already, but she didn’t exactly know how to match her outfits, and there were the big gaps in her teeth from where she was losing her baby teeth left and right. Still, those big green eyes of hers and the dark reddish-brown hair were going to bring boys to a standstill one day. What the hell would happen if I managed to survive her dating, only to have another girl coming up behind her?
“Are you panicking about another girl?”
“Have you seen our daughter?” I asked incredulously. “Her future dating life just played out in my mind and I can’t imagine going through that twice.”
Poppy laughed at me. “Stop being ridiculous. We have three boys, I’m far more afraid of how they’ll turn out when they start dating. Besides, look at the influences they have. A club full of men, who are mostly all good looking and have their pick of women,” she insisted.
“A club full of men who are all settling down with good women,” I corrected.
“There will always be the younger prospects and members that they look up to. You know how club life is. Our boys will want to join the club too. Think about it. What happens when one day I show up with you to a party, only to see one of our boys, or more than one of them, doing things no mom should ever witness.”
“Now you know why some of the old ladies stop coming around late nights,” I chuckled.
She smacked my chest. “I want a girl!” The words came out of her mouth in a demand.
“Well, babe, I hate to break it to you, but you’re already knocked up. I think you get what you get at this point.” She didn’t miss the smugness in my tone. I’d given her two boys at once last time. I was sure I shot another boy into her this time. “Then I’m getting a girl.”
“Let’s just hope you’re only getting one this time, whatever it is,” I mentioned after reminding myself that we’d turned one fertilized egg into two kids last time. Horror flashed across her face momentarily before she glanced down at her belly and her features smoothed out almost immediately. That was my woman. She had already fallen in love with whatever was growing in there. It didn’t matter if it was a girl, boy, or another set of twins.
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