by K. J. Dahlen
“Me too, but I have to go to work soon.”
“Can we do this again?” she asked.
“I hope so. I really hope so.” Mountain rested his forehead on hers. “I’m no good at one night stands. I really hate them and I want this to last as long as possible, if that’s ok with you?”
Izzy smiled. “I want that too. I don’t know where this will go but I want it.”
“Do you know if Melora is going to be ok with this?”
“Melora is going to be fine with this,” Izzy assured him. “In fact last night, was her idea. She encouraged me to come to you.”
Mountain chuckled. “I’m so very glad you did.”
“I supposed that means I have to get up and start the day as well,” Izzy grumbled. “I hate mornings. It comes from tending bar all night. I haven’t gotten out of that habit yet.”
“So have you found another job yet?”
“No and its driving me nuts. I hate having to depend on anyone else. Melora has been very good about it but I hate it.”
“I think I’d rather have you home with her too,” he stated quietly. “I know that doesn’t sit well but she needs someone there for her and I’d rather it was you than Sam.”
Izzy chuckled. “You really don’t like him do you?”
Mountain shrugged. “It’s just that he’s older than I am and he has a habit of running out on his kids when they need him the most.”
“But Melora loves him,” Izzy defended softly.
Mountain sighed. “I know and he keeps telling her he isn’t going anywhere this time.” Then he frowned and asked, “If she loves him, why won’t she marry him and give the baby his last name?”
Izzy rested her chin on her hand. “Because she wants to know he loves her for herself and not just for the baby.”
Mountain shook his head. “Some men can never say those words.”
Izzy snorted. “Yeah, well that’s what she’s waiting on and that girl is just stubborn enough not to settle for anything less.” She gave him a look. “I have a feeling she’s just like her daddy.”
“Probably more like me than either of us are ever going to admit.” He shrugged then lifted her off him with very little effort. “I have to get up or I will be here all day.”
“Don’t tempt the fates like that,” Izzy called out as he went to the bathroom. When the door closed behind him and she heard the shower start, Izzy grabbed the towel she wore last night and wrapped it around her.
Just when she was about to open the door, Mountain stuck his head out of the bathroom and asked, “Where do you think you’re going? Get your butt in here.”
Izzy grinned and raced to the bathroom like she was the little kid about to get the best cookies from the jar.
~* * * *~
An hour later, Melora sat in the living room with a cup of tea waiting for Izzy to join her. She’d seen her father leave the house about twenty minutes earlier.
Finally, the door opened and Izzy came out. She grabbed a cup of coffee and sat down on the couch.
Melora looked over at her friend and smiled. “So how did last night go?”
Izzy grinned. “Very well…actually.”
“And?” Melora urged.
Izzy sighed. “I don’t know where it will go but both of us want the chance to find out.”
“Izzy and Mountain sitting in a tree, k i s s i n g.”
Izzy rolled her eyes at her. “He asked me to call him Talon.”
“Really?” Melora’s eyes widened.
“Your dad is the best lover I have ever known,” Izzy whispered dreamily.
“Eww…I really don’t need to hear that,” Melora whined. “On second thought, I don’t think we can share this like other things we have discussed.” She laughed.
Izzy slapped her leg. “Get over it bitch.”
“I’m glad for you both.” Melora grinned. “I spent the night with Bones, if you’re interested.”
Izzy turned her head and raised her brows. “You slut, you. Riding them bones, bad girl.” Then she grinned. “I hope it works out for you too. I know how much you love him.”
“Yeah, I do,” Melora admitted. “I think he loves me too, he just may not know it yet.”
“And you want him to say the words, don’t you?” Izzy asked softly.
Melora nodded. “Yeah, I need to hear the words. He’s asked me to be his wife and I’m having the man’s baby, but he’s never told me he loves me.”
“Then I hope you get your wish.”
“Me too.” Melora sighed.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
A while later, Melora and Izzy arrived at the clubhouse. Cassie, Peaches, Reva and Deke’ sister Quinn were waiting for them.
Quinn had come to the compound to recover from her illness shortly after Melora returned from Boston. Both she and Charlie lived there now. Deke and Quinn were getting to know one another and Quinn was slowly letting Sam back in her life.
Charlie now had a job at the bike shop and he was settling in to life with the MC.
When they got inside the clubhouse, Cassie looked relieved to see her.
“What’s going on?” Melora asked.
“We decided to throw you a baby shower,” Cassie replied.
“A baby shower?”
“Yeah, we want to set you up for the baby,” Peaches added.
“But I have months to go before the baby is born,” Melora argued as she sat down.
“That time will fly by and this is something we want to do for you and the baby.” Cassie stressed.
Melora frowned but nodded. “Ok, if you’re sure.”
“We are,” Peaches agreed. Getting to her feet she urged, “Come on, let’s go shopping.”
They all piled into the cub van and Reva drove them to town. They stopped at the Baby Boutique and when they got out, Cassie held her back and whispered, “Thank you for this. Quinn is driving everyone nuts and we needed to give her something to do.”
Melora nodded. “That’s ok, I really need to get ready for this little one.”
“So have you and Sam decided on a name yet?” Cassie hooked her arm in Melora’s and led the way inside.
“I already have a name picked out but Sam doesn’t know it yet,” Melora announced.
“Are you ready to tell us what it is yet?” Peaches asked with a grin.
“Nope, not yet.” Melora smiled. “I know it’s dumb, but you’ll all know the name when he’s born.”
“It isn’t dumb at all,” Cassie countered.
“So I’m told this baby is my little brother.” Quinn remarked. “In that case, I’m surprised Sam is still around. Doesn’t he usually leave his women high and dry when they tell him he’s going to be a daddy?”
Melora was a little surprised by the feeling in her comment. It was almost snarky. She watched as the other woman turned and walked away. Turning to Cassie, she frowned.
“She’s been like this for weeks. I don’t know what to do with her anymore. Deke is pulling his hair out and Sam isn’t helping at all.” Cassie sighed. “I am sorry about pulling you into this.”
Melora shrugged. “Don’t worry about it. I know she doesn’t like Sam and I really can’t blame her. He did leave her and her mother.”
Neither of them noticed Quinn come back. “But he didn’t leave us,” she said quietly. “Not really.”
Melora turned to her. “What do you mean?”
Quinn shook her head. “He came to see us all the time. I know he left Mom money every month. I’d see him from a distance all the time.”
“Then why have you been fighting him?” Cassie asked. “He just wants to know you.”
“I’m not sure really.” Quinn shrugged. “All my life, he’s been there in the background but never in our lives. My Mom told him to stay away and he did. But that wasn’t really what either of us wanted. Did you know my mother loved him very much until the day she died?”
�
��Oh Quinn, why didn’t you ever say anything to Deke about this? Or even Sam?” Cassie asked.
“Because there was a time right after my mother died, when I hated Sam,” Quinn explained. “She died alone and unloved by the man she loved for my whole life and it wasn’t fair.” She lowered her head and whispered, “He threw us away like we didn’t matter and I was mad. My life mattered—I mattered. My mother mattered.” She looked up and asked, “Why couldn’t he love me too?”
Melora shook her head. “Oh sweetheart, Sam does love you. He talks about how much he’s missed out of your life and that bothers him. It bothers him a lot.”
“Then why can’t he say something?” Quinn sighed.
“Because sometimes he’s an idiot?” Melora offered. Sighing deeply, she went on, “Sam is like most men, he doesn’t think he needs to explain his feelings. He screwed up when he took Deke when he was a kid and because he screwed up, Deke came to almost hate him for it. It took a long time before Deke accepted the fact that Sam was his father. Then Sam left you with your mom and brother and he left his other daughter with her mom. He doesn’t have the first clue how to raise a child and he has even less of a clue how to express his feelings to other people.” She shrugged. “Maybe the man just doesn’t know how, I really don’t know.”
“But he isn’t leaving you or this baby?” Quinn pointed out.
Melora nodded. “Maybe he’s just tired of watching someone else raise his kid.”
“Or maybe for the first time in his life, he’s in love with the woman carrying his child,” Quinn surmised.
Melora shrugged. “I don’t know, he hasn’t said anything to me about how he feels.”
“And that’s what you’re waiting on.” Quinn smiled. “Him telling you, he loves you.”
Melora grinned. “I told him I wouldn’t marry him just for the sake of the baby.”
“And you’re waiting on him to realize that he does love you,” Quinn confirmed. “Oh, this is going to be good.” She rubbed her hands together.
“So will you at least give Deke a break and stop blaming him for something his dad did?” Cassie spoke up.
Quinn flushed a deep red, her beautiful ivory skin becoming pink. “Yeah, I can do that. Actually, I kinda like Deke. He’s been cool about the whole brother sister thing and he’s accepted Charlie without question. And Iceman gave him a job at the shop. Charlie is in seventh heaven.” She paused then added, “I’m sorry I’ve been such a pain in the ass. I wanted to hate Sam for what he did but my mom wouldn’t let me. She said it worked out better this way. I just hated the fact he watched us but would never come over and talk to us. I think that’s what my mom was waiting for—what I was waiting for…”
“Well, now that we have that settled, can we get on with the baby shopping?” Cassie suggested. “Or that baby is going to be here without anything to wear.”
“Well, we don’t want the baby to be naked and sleeping in a drawer.” Quinn grinned. “Let’s get on with the shopping party.”
Over an hour later, they left the store. Each one of the women had several bags of clothes and baby items with several large items to be delivered to the house over the next few days. The trip ended up being so much fun, Cassie, Peaches and Reva all felt relaxed.
By the time they reached the clubhouse, they were all laughing and giggling. The tension from earlier was gone completely and the women were fast becoming good friends. When they got back, the dooryard was filled with bikes.
Melora recognized Sam’s bike as well as Mountain’s and his brothers.
When everyone went inside, the men were laughing and having a good time. Little Sam, Jemmia and Jesse Jr. were over in a fenced off area playing with Alaina, Benny and Jack. When the women arrived, the whole extended family was together again. Cassie, Peaches and Reva joined their men and Sam pulled Melora down on his lap and Mountain did the same to Izzy.
~* * * *~
Quinn just rolled her eyes at all the coupling and sat by herself next to Mountain’s brother, Chance. She picked up the nearest beer bottle and took a sip. Wrinkling her nose at the warm brew, she set the bottle back on the table.
Chance snorted then picked up the bottle and drained it. Then he reached for two cold beers from the cooler on the floor beside him and after taking of the cap, he handed her the cold brew. “Try this one. At least it’s cold.”
Quinn took a sip and nodded. “Better.”
~* * * *~
Sam wrapped his arm around Melora’s big belly and smoothed his hands down along her front. He could feel the baby moving. “So what have you girls been doing today?”
Cassie glanced over at him and grinned. “We’ve been baby shopping. Your son now has clothes, a crib and everything he’ll ever need.”
“Is that right?” Sam stiffened as he glanced at Melora. His tone sounded grim. “I thought that would be something you and I would do together.”
“Sam, I’m sorry,” Melora said softly. “I didn’t know you were interested in that sort of thing.”
He shrugged. “I’ve never done it before and I thought it would’ve been nice to pick out the furniture together.”
“Well, he’s all set up now,” Cassie stated. “He’s gonna be the best dressed baby in Troy.”
Sam’s hand stilled on her belly, he then began rubbing her baby bump again. The baby began kicking. After one rather vicious kick, Melora gasped and tried to move away.
Sam wouldn’t let her go. “What’s the matter?” he frowned.
“I don’t think the baby likes the fact that you’re mad,” she whispered back.
Sam stilled his hand. “He can sense that?”
Melora nodded and placed her hand on her belly. ‘Yeah, I think he can.”
Sam stared at her stomach for a moment then began gently caressing it again. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to take it out on you or the baby.” He sighed. “I told you before I wanted to be involved with this baby and I feel like you’re not letting that happen.”
“I’m sorry but I didn’t know the girls were going to do this today,” Melora defended.
“Do you still want me to go to your doctor appointment with you tomorrow?” he asked.
“Yeah, I do. The doctor wants to do another sonogram to check how well he’s growing.”
Sam grinned. “I think he’s growing just fine.”
Melora chuckled. “Well, his momma is getting bigger, that’s for sure.”
Sam’s eyes darkened as he whispered, “His momma looks just fine. And she feels even better.”
Melora smiled and as she looked away, she caught a puzzling look from Quinn. Sam’s daughter had a look of longing on her face but as soon as she saw Melora watching her, she hid her feelings. Melora thought back to their conversation in the store and she knew what Quinn wanted. She wanted her dad to accept her. Accept her and maybe even love her. Maybe someone should clue Sam in.
She turned to her uncles. “So how is the new shop coming? Are you guys ready to start building your little hot rods yet?” She stifled her laugh at the almost silent growls from the bikers sitting around the table. She glanced innocently over at her uncle Chance and found him staring back at her.
“As a matter of fact we are.” Her uncle Bowie replied. “Talon found us a good place and we’ve just been renovating the place next door into apartments for us to live in. We’ll open for business next week. We also have part of the shop to show off our work. We brought a couple of our older cars with us when we moved.” He glanced over at Mountain. “We even brought your dad’s first car along.”
Mountain sat up straight and stared at his brother. “You brought my Deuce along?”
Bowie grinned. “Why do you think we wouldn’t let you look in the trucks? We wanted it to be a surprise.”
“Damn,” Mountain sat back and hugged Izzy even closer. “I can’t wait to get that baby running in top form again.”
“Yeah,” Chance agreed. “It might
need a little work. It’s been sitting there collecting dust for the last twenty seven years.” He looked over at Melora. “Your dad built that thing before he went in the service, then after he got out, he did his biker thing. Our dad wouldn’t let us touch Talon’s baby though. He said one day, he’d be back and he’d finish it.” He shook his head. “I just wish Dad would have lived to see it.”
Mountain sobered for a moment then told everyone, “The sign came today. We can hang it tomorrow.”
“What sign?” Izzy asked.
“Well, when my brothers showed up out of the blue like they did and they wanted to go into business with me and the boys, Iceman told me I’d have to get a sign for the shop. He told me where to go and I ordered a huge sign for the front.” Mountain paused then said with his hands spread wide, “It says ‘Morgan Brothers Custom Hot Rods’ on the top and then underneath it reads ‘Associated with the Sin’s Bastards Custom Bikes.’ ”
This announcement got everyone’s attention and the next few minutes they all toasted the new business.
Melora watched everyone’s faces and knew this was as good as life could be at the moment. Then she changed her mind. Life could be better if only Sam could admit how he feels, not only to her but to his daughter as well.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Over the next two months, life settled down into a routine. Izzy and Mountain were now an item and Quinn was getting closer to Chance, much to Sam’s displeasure. Not that he said anything but he watched them like hawks.
The Morgan brothers shop was up and running and the boys were busy. Mountain had told Deke and the boys there was room enough for both shops and he was right. Hot rods and bikes were gaining popularity and orders from all over the state were coming in.
Quinn had made her peace with Deke but hadn’t yet with Sam and that had him on edge. He still had no clue what to do about her.
Quinn found a job at Redemption House working with the kids there. She was a teacher by trade and hadn’t found a job in the school system yet, so she worked at the House. Everyone there had come to love the days when Quinn was there. Her easygoing manner was good for the kids. Their lives were disrupted enough and Quinn brought some structure back for them.