Tallulah started to rock her head back and forth in her sleep, and then reared back just long enough to flip her head to the other side.
“Her face,” I started to snicker.
Tommy looked down to see the imprint of one of his patches on her cheek, and he started to shrug out of it.
“No,” I stopped him. “Leave it on. She likes it.”
And she did. She loved his cut. She loved running her hand over the patches, loved chewing on the snaps—something that I’d thought he would have a coronary over the first time he held her in his arms and she went right for them.
However, he did nothing but hold her and watch her.
Just like he was doing now.
“So you’ve been through the stomach bug and an asthma attack…what do you think?” I took a seat on the couch, and he followed me, taking the seat directly beside me. “Are you ready to run yet?”
He snorted.
“No,” he disagreed, taking a seat beside me. “My niece is about six months older, but weight wise, these two are like night and day. Tallulah is so small…she makes me feel like I’m going to break her.”
“She was five and a half pounds at birth and has always been on the lower end of the scales. She’s something like ninth percentile in her weight, and fifth in her height,” I murmured, reaching forward to grab the TV remote off the coffee table.
Flipping it on to a movie that I’d seen hundreds of times, I tried to control the butterflies in my belly at having Tommy in my home, knowing that it was once his.
“Does the place look different?” I asked him suddenly.
He knew exactly what I was talking about.
“Yes and no,” he murmured. “Furniture is different. Some of the paint is different. But the majority of it isn’t. Looks like it did when it was still my parents’ house.”
My heart started to throb.
“What else happened?” I turned slightly on the couch to I could see him more clearly.
“My parents finally realized what had happened,” he sighed. “I kept coming home. Kept going back. Kept threatening the judge—your father—with harm.” He groaned and let his head fall back on the couch. “I want to punch myself for all the stupid shit I did and nearly ruining my life in the process. I’m just lucky that your father never pressed charges against me. That he only resorted to getting a restraining order instead of sending my stupid ass to jail.”
“I remember some of what had happened…”
The toilet paper that had been in our trees every weekend for weeks. The broken plastic forks in the ground that were nearly impossible to get up. The spray paint incident.
“I tried to apologize,” he murmured, eyes staring at the ceiling. “Sent letters after I got my shit together. I couldn’t very well visit him when I could get arrested for being within five hundred feet of him.”
“That’s why you stopped so far down the driveway that day you dropped me off…because you couldn’t get that close to him.”
“Right,” he murmured. “Well, the restraining order expired years ago, but I’ve kept my distance to respect him.”
“What would happen if my father were to come into the ER. How does that work if you’re there, working?” I questioned.
“When the restraining order was still active? Not a clue,” he admitted. “When I saw him in a store, I left. That’s what I was always told to do…something I follow even now.”
“What made you stop being that asshole you keep speaking of?” I finally worked up the courage to ask.
He smiled.
“Stone.”
My head tilted to the side.
“The officer who was killed?” I clarified. “The president of your MC?”
He grinned and nodded.
“Your father made Stone enforce the law, and Stone caught me being a dumbass,” his smile widened. “He helped me pull my head out of my ass and forced me to pretty much be his bitch.” His smile was wide and blinding as the memory played out in his head. “Worked my ass off for that man. Got my shit together. Finished school. Prospected. Got my patch. Then I went into the Marines.”
The happiness on his face as he talked about Stone was bittersweet and hurt my heart. I hated that he was no longer here, especially when it was clear what an impact he’d had on Tommy, if the way he was talking about him was anything to go by.
“I’ll talk to my dad.”
He placed his free hand that wasn’t holding Tallulah to his chest on my exposed thigh.
“Don’t.”
It was a short, sharp demand that had me jumping in surprise.
“Why not?” I stiffened.
“Because once we can make this official, I’ll talk to your dad. It has to be me who fixes this, and I’ll get there with him, Tally. I promise.”
I could see the sincerity in his eyes and knew he would do whatever it took.
This big, bad, tattooed biker who belonged to a motorcycle club was going to grovel to my father. The thing is… I wasn’t sure I wanted him to.
Chapter 20
Coffee—because fuck waking up. Fuck mornings. Fuck going to work. Fuck dealing with people.
-Tommy’s secret thoughts
Tommy
The phone rang, startling me from my sleep.
I turned, started to snatch the phone up, and realized it wasn’t my phone, but Tally’s.
We’d been asleep maybe three hours, because after our deep discussion on the couch, Tallulah had started to throw up again—and I’d decided that she’d needed to have a few tests run.
First, I wanted to make sure she wasn’t dehydrated. And second, I wanted to make sure there wasn’t something more serious wrong.
We’d taken her to my clinic, where I checked her ears and then swabbed for the flu and strep before deciding that what she had was a simple stomach bug.
I started her on some IV fluids—which, by the way, was the worst feeling ever, starting an IV on a little baby who just wanted you to hold her and didn’t understand why I was holding her down and forcing something sharp into her skin—she instantly began to bounce back to her normally happy self.
Once she was rehydrated by the IV fluids and after some nausea meds that calmed her stomach, she was finally able to sleep.
So were we.
Needless to say, having the phone ring at four o’clock in the morning did not put me into a good mood.
In fact, I was right pissed once I saw who it was.
“Hadley,” I murmured as I unplugged the phone and passed it over to Tally who was up on her elbow in the bed beside me.
Her feet were tangled with mine, but her body was rolled and twisted sideways, giving me a nice view of her ass.
“Thanks,” she murmured huskily. “Hello?”
Barely a few second into the conversation, Tally tensed.
“No, I cannot come and get you, Hadley. Tallulah’s sick and has been throwing up all night. She’s exhausted, and I can’t take her out to come pick you up,” Tally’s tired voice sounded. “Have you tried Elba?”
Hadley screamed something at Tally through the phone, and I distinctly heard the word ‘bitch’ before I took the phone from her grasp and hung up on her screeching.
Turning it on silent, and ignoring Hadley’s return call, all the while under the watchful eye of Tally.
“Nothing to say?” I asked her carefully.
She shook her head.
“It’s time,” she murmured. “I’m tired of hearing how I never put her first.”
I clenched my teeth.
“Putting your daughter first isn’t selfish, and I don’t want you to think that it is.”
She shrugged. “I know.”
I studied her carefully, then nodded, reaching over to turn out the lamp I hadn’t even realized that I flipped on.
“Good,” I grumbled. “Now, let’s get some sleep before we have to go meet my mom and sisters for breakfast�
��you’re going to want your wits about you when you do.”
She curled her body into mine, and I opened my arms to pull her closer by wrapping them around her lower back.
“Are they going to like me?” she asked worriedly.
I rolled and pinned her underneath me.
“I like you, that’s what matters,” I informed her. “They’ll come around, or I won’t be spending any more time with them.”
She stared at me with such concentration that it caused me to nearly smile.
Nearly.
I could tell she was wondering the same thing about me. If her parents didn’t like me, would she be able to ask them to stop coming around?
“I won’t ever force you to make that choice,” I told her, reading her thoughts before she could voice to them. “I promise.”
Her smile was small, but she didn’t disagree or agree.
“G’night,” she murmured softly.
I pressed my lips to her forehead before I rolled back over and laid my head down on my pillow, my eyes closing in contentment.
The woman that I was falling hard for was in my arms.
What more could I ask for?
***
“See, that’s the problem with Tommy,” Ellen said. “He would never be a good debater.”
“Why?” Tally asked. “He’s good at arguing with me!”
Ellen gave Tally an ‘aren’t you so cute’ look.
“Masturbator, yes, he was the freakin’ King of Masturbation. But a debater…no. Why? Because he starts every argument he’s ever had with anybody but you, I’m sure, with ‘now listen here, motherfucker.’”
I snorted, covering my face up with my fist that was still holding my beer.
“Jesus fucking Christ, Ellen,” I grumbled. “Where the hell do you get this stuff? And how much have you had to drink?”
Ellen’s face was lit with humor.
“I’ve been drinking since this morning when you brought Tally to meet our mother. I haven’t stopped since.”
“That sounds like him,” Seanshine agreed, ignoring Ellen.
“Why are you even here?” I asked him curiously.
He shrugged. “I was invited.”
My browns rose. “You were?”
“Yes, he was,” Ellen broke in. “Now shut up. It’s my birthday. You have to do what I say.”
Tally went to pick up Tallulah when she saw her creeping closer to Adrienne, and my sister’s words stopped her.
“Don’t worry about trying to keep Tallulah away from Adrienne. She’s been exposed to the stomach bug all week thanks to her entire freakin’ day care dropping like flies with it,” Alexandria murmured, breaking into our sister’s drunken musings.
“That was the same thing that happened at mine, although Tallulah was one of the first ones to get it,” she sighed. “And one of the lasts. I’m so tired of cleaning up puke.”
I agreed.
Though, Tallulah hadn’t thrown up since I’d given her a dose of anti-nausea meds over eight hours before.
“Girl, don’t I know it,” she grinned. “So my brother here tells me that you’re going to school to become a nurse?”
Tally nodded.
“Almost there. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.”
Alexandria grinned, “I’m going for my bachelors of nursing right now. I started out as an LVN twelve years ago, and then went on to get my associates in nursing. Now I’m back at it for my BSN,” she sighed. “I should’ve just done it this way in the first place.”
“That was definitely one of the thoughts I had when deciding what college to go to,” Tally nodded her head in commiseration. “I first thought I’d go ahead and get my associates, but I’d already gotten my associates in art by the time I’d graduated high school thanks to dual credit classes. It made more sense for me to get my BSN.”
She nodded, and the two of them started babbling about how hard it was to pursue their degrees with kids.
My mom chose to use Tally’s distraction with my sister to bombard me.
“You have a girlfriend?” my mother hissed at me. “When were you going to tell me this?”
I sighed and looked over at my mother.
My mom was one of those mothers who always had to have her nose stuck into each of her kids’ business.
Ellen hadn’t been able to have a boyfriend when she was younger who my mother hadn’t been able to run off.
The only reason that my other sister, Alexandria, was even sane at this point was because my mom had me and Ellen to focus on.
Luckily, Alex had found her husband, Axton, early on in life. They’d met in high school, and both had gone to school before marrying right out of college. Now they were on their fourth child, and everyone was happy as damn clams.
However, Ellen and I were the primary focus of our mother’s matchmaking efforts, and I was happy to finally have someone to introduce to the family that I knew my mother wouldn’t try to run away.
See, my mother had a soft spot.
She was a nurse and had been for thirty years now. She was also a NICU nurse and had spent the majority of her career taking care of sick little babies.
And the moment that my mother saw a still sick and tired Tallulah, she was a goner.
She’d forever be in my mother’s heart, even if the unthinkable happened and Tally were to leave my life. I’d literally have to see Tally at every single Thanksgiving, Christmas, family birthday, and holiday.
My mother would never let her or Tallulah go.
I knew that the moment I saw my mother take a pitiful looking Tallulah out of my arms and snuggle her into her own.
She was still holding her, four hours into the birthday party.
“Your father thinks you’ve had this lovely girl for a long time, and that you’ve just kept her a secret from me. Is that why you refused to go out with that girl I tried to hook you up with last weekend?”
“Yes, yes it was,” I told her honestly. “And I’d appreciate it if you didn’t do that from now on.”
My mom’s blue eyes, so much like my own, sparkled with mirth.
“I won’t,” she promised. “As long as you keep bringing these two around.”
I rolled my eyes and turned back to the conversation I’d been having with my dad when my sister had interrupted.
“What were you saying about my motorcycle?” I asked him.
Dad looked over at me, and then back to my project bike.
“I was saying that you need to take that to your new house.”
I nodded.
“I do,” I confirmed. “Just not sure how to get it there.”
Dad sighed. “Would it kill you to ask your old man for help?”
“No,” I snorted. “Dad, would you mind taking my project bike to my new house?”
Dad chuckled.
“You’re a shithead,” he said. “But yes, since you asked so nicely, I sure will take your bike over there. Do you want me to bring the big trailer and take anything else out of my garage?”
I took the hint and nodded my head.
“I was going to come get it eventually,” I murmured.
“It’s been cluttering up my garage for two years now. I think that if you actually planned on coming to get it, you’d have come over here when you moved into the rental.”
“What’s that?”
I turned to find Tally standing at my side, pointing at my project bike.
“Something I started fiddling on when I was sixteen.” I cleared my throat. “Dad managed to get it out of the old house before…you know.”
Tally nodded in understanding. “I think it’s time for me to feed Tallulah. Is there anything you want me to grab you from the house?”
“You don’t have to go inside,” I murmured. “They’ll be all right with you doing that out here.”
She studied my sincerity, and then nodded. “Okay.”
T
hen she went over to my mother and disentangled Tallulah from her arms before settling back into her lawn chair next to my sister, resumed her conversation and adeptly started feeding Tallulah without a single nipple slip.
“She’s cute,” my father chimed in.
I punched him in the shoulder. “Stop staring at her or you’re going to make her feel embarrassed.”
“Feeding your child is nothing to be embarrassed about,” he murmured. “Drives me insane that society treats mothers that way.”
I groaned.
My mother and father were advocates for anything that came to children.
See, my mother was a NICU nurse, but my father was a pediatrician.
Where my specialty was in emergency medicine, my father’s was in children’s medicine.
He freakin’ loved kids, so with my mother already halfway in love with Tally, my father would soon follow.
Even though I could tell that he already liked her since his earlier words had been ‘she’s hot and too young for you, Son’.
Clapping my father on the back, I moved until I resumed my chair in between Ellen and Tally, being sure to pick up a new can of beer on the way.
“How many is that for you?” Ellen asked, eyes slightly glazed.
“Number three,” Sean piped in. “You’re on number eight, though.”
My sister glared at him.
“I didn’t invite you to keep tabs on my beverage intake, Mr. Tattletale Seanshine.”
Sean lifted his brows at her.
“You didn’t?” he drawled. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
Ellen stuck her tongue out at him and I saw Sean’s eyes flare.
“Why don’t you two get a room?” I suggested.
Ellen’s back straightened. “I don’t need a room. I have no desire to do anything in a bedroom with that man.”
“Why not?” Alex asked, clearly reading my sister’s discomfort.
“Because he’s vile, and I don’t like him.”
I snorted.
Sean’s face showed no surprise at my sister’s comments, but there was amusement clearly shining in his eyes.
“Why did you invite him, then?” Alex pushed.
Fear the Beard (The Dixie Warden Rejects MC Book 2) Page 18