“Don’t worry, you’ll do fine. It’s not like we’re going to give you a helmet and leave you to it. You’ll be safe.”
Yeah right. “Ok,” I swallow, nervously.
He opens the door to the building and ushers me outside like a gentleman which is when I see a beast of a truck with a dirt bike loaded up in the back and a tiny little pink four-wheeled thing beside it. I can’t help but smile at the sight. I never realized they make such small ones, though, I couldn’t imagine kids being allowed to do this sort of thing.
“You’re not going to put Georgia on that, are you?”
“Yeah,” he grins as we near the truck. “She’s going to kill it, she’s a bit of a tomboy and a daredevil.”
My eyes widen in fear for the little girl but I only see excitement shining through hers. “That my bike,” she tells me as she points to the four-wheeled monstrosity in question and I instantly realize I was wrong to doubt it. She’s not my child and I have no idea of her limits. I’ve never done this before so I really shouldn’t have an opinion on the topic. Besides, after seeing how Sean cared for his daughter the other day in the hospital, I’m sure he’s not about to go and put her in harm’s way.
Sean goes to the backseat and gets busy buckling Georgia into her car seat so I take the leap and pull myself up into his truck. Crap, there’s no going back now.
The second the door closes I’m smacked in the face with a smell that makes my insides quiver and my thighs clench, and I realize it’s all him. Georgie’s singing in the backseat distracts me as Sean climbs into the driver’s seat and starts the truck.
I look over at him and can’t help but wonder if this is a date? It sort of feels like one, but the situation leading up to it would suggest otherwise. I find myself kind of wishing it is but then, would he bring his daughter on a date? Maybe it’s a pre-date? His way of getting to know me before he makes the decision to actually ask me out, after all, he’s got a kid to think about.
Yeah… wishful thinking. It’s exactly what he said it was. A way to say thank you, but that doesn’t mean I can’t hold out for more.
He pulls out of the parking spot and turns to me with curiosity in his deep eyes. “Tell me about yourself, Gigi.”
Chapter 7
Sean
“Tell me about yourself, Gigi,” I ask as the overwhelming need to know this girl comes over me. It completely freaks me out. She pulled open the door in jeans and a black top that shows just a bit of cleavage and I nearly fell over. The woman is fine, I mean, like she’s really fine. I know I saw her in the hospital the other night, but this is different. So much different, it’s almost like… I don’t know, like I can actually see her.
Her hair was back in a braid with little wispy bits of light brown hair falling around her face and framing it just beautifully. She has just a touch of lip gloss of her lips making them look juicy as fuck and I found myself wanting a taste before quickly dismissing the thought.
I felt like an absolute bastard the second the thought entered my mind. I mean, my wife is six feet under and I’m standing in another woman’s doorway, thinking about kissing her. What the fuck is wrong with me? How could I ever betray Sara’s memory in that way?
It was strange though, I’ve never had a reaction like that to any other woman apart from Sara and to be honest, it scared the shit out of me.
So, I stuck to the plan and ignored my traitorous thoughts. I walked her out of the apartment like a gentleman and went out of my way to avoid helping her up into my truck. I mean, I wouldn’t want her to get the wrong impression here. We’re just two people spending the day together with the rest of my family. Nothing more to it.
We’ll all have a great time, I’ll thank her for everything she did for Georgie and take her home afterwards, never to see her again. It’s as simple as that.
“What do you want to know?” she questions before turning around in her seat and giggling at the way Georgie gets the words wrong to ‘Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes’.
I find myself gazing at her, taking in the way she watches Georgie with adoration in her green eyes and I’m completely thrown off before I remember I’m driving a big, mother fucking truck and force my eyes back to the road. Shit. What was her question? Right, what do I want to know about her? Pft… everything.
“Um, you’re a nurse?” I question, making myself look like a complete twat. Of course, she’s a fucking nurse. That’s why we’re all here, dumbass.
“Yeah,” she smiles.
“How long have you been doing that?”
“Uh, just coming up to five years now,” she says with a smile, clearly letting on that she absolutely loves what she does. I can’t blame her, it certainly would be a rewarding job, though, I don’t doubt it comes with a handful of it’s dark days.
I pull up at a red light and turn to her. “Have you always worked in the Emergency Room?”
“No, actually, I was just covering a shift there,” she explains as the light turns green and I creep out into the intersection. “I started in the ER and after being thrown in front of a woman during childbirth, I studied a little more and went into midwifery.”
“Wow, really?” I question, finding myself completely intrigued by this woman. I mean, she helps delivers babies for a living.
“Yeah, I absolutely love it,” she tells me. “I swear, helping a baby come into the world is just so…. I don’t know, I want to say rewarding, but I feel that doesn’t do it justice.”
“I get it,” I tell her. “It sounds incredible. Only a handful of people would have the guts to be able to do a job like that.”
“Yeah, I guess,” she says proudly. “What about you? What keeps your day busy?”
“Apart from Georgie?” I grin. “I’m a criminal lawyer.”
“Whoa,” she says with wide eyes. “I don’t think I’ve met anyone as badass as you.”
“Bull,” I grunt,” I’m sure you’ve had your fair share of badasses come through the hospital doors.”
“This is true,” she tells me. “We had a stab victim come in on Monday night.”
Crap, this sounds awfully familiar to me, right now. “It wasn’t a blonde dude with tattoos, was it?”
“Yeah?” she asks.
“You didn’t work on him, did you?”
Say no, say no, say no. Please, say no.
“No, I wanted to, though. Why?” she questions.
Oh, thank God. “Conflict of interest, is all,” I explain. “He’s not a good guy. I’m defending the man he shot two minutes before. Had you worked on him it wouldn’t be right for me to be spending time with you.”
“Seriously? Sounds like you really know what you’re talking about,” she asks, giving me the impression that’s she’s impressed with what I do.
“You’d hope so,” I laugh.
“So, you’re doing the real criminal stuff, not just petty things like stealing a car?”
“That’s right.”
She looks at me with a smile in her eyes. “You any good?” she teases.
“The best,” I confirm.
“Is that your ego talking?”
“No, seriously,” I laugh. “I’ve got the highest conviction rate in the country.”
“Shit,” she gasps with wide eyes. “That’s… wow. I’m impressed.”
“Thank you,” I smile proudly as I pull into the vacant land I own with my brothers.
“Where the hell are we?” Gigi asks as she looks around while I drive us down a long dirt road.
“It’s where me and my brothers come to ride. We bought it off this old guy a few years ago who was struggling to keep up with it all. We’ve come out here every few weeks since.”
“Wow,” she whispers as she takes it all in. “How big is this place?”
“About a hundred acres,” I tell her. “Give or take.”
“Shit, you could have awesome parties out here and no one would have a clue,” she says as we come into the clearing where I see both my brothers
’ trucks and Jax’s parked under the shade of a massive tree.
The girls are all busy, setting out an area for the kids to play safely as the guys grab chairs and coolers out of their trucks.
I pull up beside them as Gigi gasps from beside me. I look over at her to notice her eyes wide, staring at both Carter and Logan before flicking her eyes back to me.
In three… two… one.
“Are you guys triplets?” she asks, excitedly. “You all look ridiculously alike.”
“Sure are,” I laugh.
“Wow, that’s awesome,” she says as she opens the door and hops down from the truck.
I go around and unstrap Georgie before walking with Gigi to meet the others. “Hey guys, this is Gigi,” I introduce as I place Georgie down with her cousins. I go around and let her know all their names and her face instantly brightens and she recognizes Brianna.
“You… were you my midwife?” Brianna questions, a little unsure of the connection.
“Indeed, I was,” she smiles.
It all becomes clear. The other night in the hospital I had recognized her face but I couldn’t figure out why, but now it finally makes sense.
“You remember?” Bri asks, proudly.
“How could I forget?” she laughs. “You guys were getting high and sleeping in the bathtub.”
“Oh, my God, I’m so sorry,” Brianna cringes, completely embarrassed.
The girls instantly fall into easy conversation about the kids and I get the strange feeling that Gigi is going to be well loved amongst my family.
With the girls happy, I head around the back of my truck and start unloading my dirt bike. “Shit,” Carter grunts as he appears at the back of my truck and gets a good look at Georgie’s ATV. I look to him in confusion. “I just bought Georgie the same fucking ATV.”
“No, shit?” I laugh. “Even with the pink plastics?”
“Yep,” he says, shaking his head as he jumps up into the tray to start releasing the safety straps from my bike. “Looks like Lilly has a new ATV.”
“Dude, she’s like six months old,” I laugh.
“She’ll grow into it,” he says as we get the dirt bike down before starting on Georgie’s ATV.
I help the boys with the other dirt bikes and before we know it, the clearing is filled with them. We get back to the group and I drop down in the chair beside Gigi. “So, Gigi’s never ridden before,” I inform the girls.
“I don’t blame her,” Elle grunts. “If I had my way, I would never have tried it either.”
“Were you forced into it, too?” Gigi questions.
“Yes,” she scoffs.
“Babe,” Logan interjects. “’Forced’ is a bit of a strong word for it.”
“You’re shitting me, right?” Elle laughs. “You put me over your shoulder, kicking and screaming, and physically put me on the stupid thing.”
“Come on,” he grins. “It wasn’t that bad.”
“Ah, yeah, it was,” I agree.
His response is cut off by the sound of Jax kickstarting his bike. The noise scares the shit of out of all of the babies and makes the little ones burst into tears, apart from Georgie who’s used to the sound.
Jax takes off and soon enough, Cassie is jumping to her feet and kickstarting her bike to race after him.
“Wow, they’re good,” Gigi murmurs beside me as Max crawls to her legs, demanding to be picked up. She scoops him into her arms and he grins up at her with his toothless smile.
“Yeah, apart from Bri and Elle, the rest of us have been riding since we were kids.”
“So, you’re all that good?” she gins.
“Basically,” I laugh.
“Is there anything you can’t do?” she questions.
“Nope,” I say, absolutely loving the ego boost while Carter and Logan make their disagreement well known. “Didn’t you do anything like this as a kid?”
“Not really,” she says. “I’m an only child with two workaholic parents. My childhood consisted of making sure my homework was done before my parents got home.”
“Oh, I’m sorry,” I say, unsure as to why it bothers me so much.
I watch as Georgie gets up to grab her bag of riding gear. She hauls it across the grass over to Bri before pulling all the contents out. Bri gets the hint and starts getting her ready, so I do what any other parent would do and get her ATV warmed up.
With all her safety gear on, she rushes across the grass and instantly jumps on her ATV, putting her hands on the handlebars and pretending to rev the engine, making sure to spit all over me as she mimics the noise of a dirt bike.
Gigi gets up with her phone before recording her first ride and I’m thankful. This is a moment with my daughter I’d like to member and show her when she’s older.
I go through all the instructions with Georgie, making sure she knows the stop from the start and watch as she takes off at a speed way too fast for my liking. Shit. I run after her. “Slow down,” I scream at her giggling back.
She finally slows down and gives me a big cheesy grin. “Fun, daddy,” she laughs.
“Yeah, fun isn’t a word I would use to describe that, kid,” I say before quickly adjusting the accelerator so she can’t go quite so fast. “Alright, missy, you good?” I ask.
“Yep,” she smiles.
“Show me the stop.”
She points it out.
“Show me the start.”
Again, she does as she’s told.
“Alright,” I say before pointing out a big tree. “If you go past that tree, I’ll have to turn it off, okay?”
“Yes, daddy,” she says before taking off again, this time at a speed that doesn’t give me a heart attack.
I head back to the girls as I watch Georgie puttering around. “She’s doing great for her first time,” Elle says proudly.
“She sure is,” I say. “She’s too confident, though. I don’t want her getting ahead of herself.”
“She’ll be fine,” Bri says, “besides, if she hurts herself, we have a nurse here to patch her up.” I find myself looking over to Gigi and find that she’s really enjoying herself. For some unknown reason, it both warms my heart and freaks me out a bit.
Keeping my eye on Georgie, I head over to my dirt bike and get it started. I hop on and take off to join her. I speed up the dirt road to catch her before slowing to her pace. I can practically hear her giggles over the sound of the engines and it fills my heart with pride.
She’s so amazing. A lot of kids would be shit scared to even try it, yet here my Georgie is absolutely rocking it. Maybe I could put her in competitions. I ride with Georgie for a while before Logan and Carter join us. Cass and Jax come back from their ride and it soon turns into a bit of a pissing competition.
We pass a massive puddle and I point it out to Georgie to be careful not to end up in it, only she doesn’t listen. She flies right for it and splashes water up all around her, absolutely soaking Jax and Logan.
I put my hand out, indicating for her to stop but she zooms right past me, high fiving my outstretched hand with her evil little chuckle following behind.
“Holy shit,” Carter laughs as he takes in the boys drenched in muddy water. “That was fucking hilarious.”
“That kid’s going to get it,” Logan says before racing after Georgie.
“I second that,” Jax grunts before joining them.
Georgie turns back and sees them coming. She squeals and jumps straight off her ATV, leaving it running before taking off up the dirt road. Logan and Jax come to a stop and take off after her on foot while I go after her ATV, which is rolling dangerously close to a hill.
I get the ATV stopped and turn to find Georgie thrown over Logan’s shoulder while he tickles her. She screams and begs to be put down, but I know the boys won’t stop until they have their sweet revenge.
I quickly realize she’s about to be thrown into the puddle, which is bound to turn into a mud fight. I head back to her bag and grab her inhaler just in case
her asthma decides to make an appearance. The last two minutes have been particularly bad on her lungs but she’s been doing fine since the hospital, so she should be ok.
Ten minutes later, Georgie is covered head to toe in mud and I’m proud to see she managed to get the boys as well. Jax whispers in her ear before she looks up at me with an adorable evil grin.
Shit.
She races towards me and I know there’s no way I’m going to get out of this unscathed. She launches through the air and I have no choice but to catch the she-devil and get covered in mud. She squishes her face into my chest, making sure she gets as much of my shirt as possible.
“Thanks, kid,” I grunt as I put her down on the grass and get started stripping her out of her muddy clothes.
Jax and Logan start doing the same while Cass and Elle start swooning over their men, though, it doesn’t go unnoticed when Gigi’s eyes begin to stray their way, with a light flush on her cheeks. I grin to myself as I grab the packet of baby wipes and get started cleaning up this kid.
My best friend, Tom, shows up shortly after and Georgie loses her tiny mind, running up to him and throwing herself in his arms. I introduce him to Gigi and I can instantly tell that he’s on edge about her. It wouldn’t be clear to Gigi, but it’s certainly clear to me, I see it all over his face and make a mental note to talk with him about it later because now isn’t the time.
Though, I can’t for the life of me work out what it is he doesn’t like. She’s pretty much perfect. She’s beautiful, she’s kind, she’s friendly. It’s completely lost on me and what’s more; I can’t figure out why the hell I care so much.
We get lunch done and out of the way before I turn and face Gigi with a smirk, “Alright, Gigi, it’s your turn,” I grin and watch on in pleasure as she promptly begins freaking out.
Chapter 8
Gigi
“My turn?” I question as I look to Sean with my mouth hanging wide open. “Like hell. I’m not getting on that death trap,” I say as Sean practically stalks me.
I’ve been having such a great day so far and now Sean is about to ruin it. I didn’t realize just how good it was going to be hanging out with a bunch of strangers, but now that I’m here, I certainly don’t regret it. The only downfall is when Sean’s best friend Tom showed up, he seems like a bit of a downer.
Sean: Denver Royalty (Book 3) Page 5