by Kacee Kupser
With a nod, she leaned into me, resting her head on my shoulder.
Joker and I started chatting over the lady’s heads, both women just sitting there quietly and listening.
Looking down at Brenna, I noticed she had fallen asleep. “I’m going to take Bren to my room. I’ll talk to you later brother. Let me know if you hear anything from any of our contacts.”
I put an arm around Brenna’s back and under her legs, standing up from the couch and walking to the back of the clubhouse, where the rooms were. When I got to my room, I had to dig into my pocket for my keys, juggling her in my arms trying not to wake her.
Once we got into the room, I quietly closed and locked the door behind us and lay her down on the bed.
After pulling her shoes off, I moved her to the opposite side of the bed, drawing the covers over her.
I sat down on the bed and pulled off my boots and shirt, getting comfortable, before crawling in beside her and pulling her back into me.
I woke up what seemed like minutes later, but when I looked at the clock, we had been asleep for over two hours.
Brenna was still fast asleep and knowing she needs to get as much sleep as possible, I pulled my arm out from underneath her and got out of the bed.
Going into the bathroom, I closed the door behind me, before turning the shower to hot and jumping in before the water had heated up.
When I came out of the bathroom, Brenna was sitting up in bed rubbing her eyes. “Good morning sleeping beauty.”
She looked over to me with a small smile on her face. “How did we end up in here?”
I came further into the room and sat on the armchair across from the bed. “You fell asleep on my lap, so I brought you back to my room and we had a nap. I woke up a bit ago and since you were still asleep, I figured I’d have a shower.”
Brenna came over to the side of the bed and swung her legs out of the covers so that she was sitting on the edge facing me. “What time is it?”
I looked at my watch and saw that it was closing in on 1 o’clock. “It’s almost 1. Do you want a late lunch?”
“Sure. That sounds great…Oh wait, are we still able to go to dinner at my parent’s house tonight?”
I stood up and came over to the bed, sitting down beside her. I grabbed her hand off the bed and wrapped our fingers together. “It’s still okay to go, we’ll just need to take a prospect with us as extra protection.”
Brenna leaned over and put her head on my shoulder. “Okay good. I wasn’t looking forward to telling my mom I wouldn’t be coming anymore.”
Standing up, I kept hold of Bren’s hand and pulled her up behind me. We were both dressed so we left the room and went down to the kitchen. “What can I get you for lunch, Baby Girl?”
“Actually, I’m starving. I’d love a sandwich please.”
She walked over to the fridge to get out fixings for her sandwich while I grabbed the bread and a couple of plates.
We made the sandwiches and sat down to eat them at the island.
“So, can you tell me what this soft lock down is about?”
I finished my bite thinking about what I was able to tell her. “Unfortunately, I can’t tell you everything, but I can tell you the basics.
We don’t know who keeps messing with our businesses, but we are doing everything we can to try to figure it out. Until we know more and can deal with it, we are having a soft lock down. That means that everyone is staying here for the foreseeable future, but everyone is allowed to leave, as long as they have a brother with them to offer protection.”
She nodded as I explained this to her. “Okay, so what is a regular lock down?”
“A regular lock down is similar to the soft lock down. Everyone stays here and the only people allowed to leave are the brothers, and even they can’t leave alone. Everyone travels in pairs so that we can all watch each other’s backs.”
I was watching her face closely as I explained this to her to see if I could gauge her reaction. So far, she wasn’t giving anything away.
“Okay sounds reasonable. Do you guys have to do lock downs very often?” she questioned.
“Not really. In the time I’ve been president, this will only be the second time.”
We continued eating our food and chatting about mundane things. It surprised me that she wasn’t more upset about the restrictions she was about to experience. Her acceptance was just more proof that she was going to make a great Old Lady.
When we were finished eating, we headed back to the couches and had a seat, just relaxing and watching some TV to waste some time before we had to go.
Chapter 28 - Brenna
I know Beast was expecting me to be more upset about having to stay at the clubhouse, but really as long as I got to sleep in his arms all night I really didn’t care where we slept. It was an inconvenience, but really when it came to keeping the baby safe I would do just about anything.
After relaxing for a few hours we headed out to Beast’s truck to drive to my parent’s house. Griff, one of the prospects, was sitting on his bike beside the truck, presumably because he was the prospect who was our back up today.
Beast helped me up into the truck, got behind the wheel and turned to me expectantly. “What?” I asked.
He smiled at me indulgently before responding, “well, we are going to your parent’s house and I’ve never been there before so at least an address would be appreciated.”
Shit, could I be experiencing baby brain already? It’s not like I’m that far along. “Shit, sorry. My parents live over by my house. If you just head that way I’ll give you directions.”
When we pulled into my parent’s driveway my mom came out of the house to greet us. She wasn’t usually this anxious to see me, so obviously she was curious about who I was bringing with me.
Beast helped me out of the truck and grabbed my hand before walking towards my mom. “Hi momma.” I walked up to her and gave her a hug, whispering in her ear “you’re never this happy to see me. Curious much?”
With a tight squeeze my mom ignored me, stepped away from me and turned to Beast. “I’m Shannon, Brenna’s mum. And you are?” she asked while offering her hand to Beast to shake it.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you Shannon. My name is Grayson, Brenna’s man.” He took her hand in his and gave it a gentle squeeze and shake.
“Well, let’s get into the house. There’s a little girl in there who is very excited to see her aunty.”
I dropped Beast’s hand and ran around my mom. I loved Inara, just the thought of her made me smile. Running through the front door I ran past my dad sitting in his chair watching TV “Hi Dad!”
I stopped at the bottom of the stairs and yelled out “Squishy! Where’s my Squishy?!”
“Aunty!”
Looking up to the top of the stairs I saw Inara come charging towards me, my sister Danielle following behind her. “Inara, stop right now!”
I smiled up at my sister. I was always the one to get Inara riled up and my sister may love me, but I’m sure there are times she hates me and it makes me gleeful.
Hearing her mom’s tone of voice Inara stopped immediately. She knew her mom wasn’t messing around. “What momma?”
Danielle came to a stop beside Inara and crouched down in front of her. “You need to be safe baby. Momma doesn’t want you to fall down the stairs. You can go down to Aunty, but you need to take your time.”
“Okay momma.” Inara reached up and grabbed her mom’s hand and they started walking down the stairs towards me.
“Hi Aunty. Did you bring me a present?”
“Hi baby. Of course I did, I brought you a new friend to meet!”
“Yay, a new friend! Did you hear that momma? Aunty brought me a new friend!”
I looked away from Inara and looked at my sister’s face. She was grinning at me knowingly, she obviously knew something was up because I never brought someone home to meet the family.
“I heard her baby. I’m very excited
to meet Aunty’s new friend.”
When they got to the bottom step Inara let go of Danielle’s hand “catch me Aunty!” She launched herself off the step and into my arms.
“Oh my goodness, my Squishy is getting so big. I’m not going to be able to catch you soon!”
I gave her a squeeze and started giving her kisses all over her face. “Aunty, stop kissing me. I want to meet my new friend.”
I put her down on the ground and grabbed her hand before turning around to go find Beast. I didn’t have to go far. He was standing right behind us.
Inara let go of my hand and started hugging my legs. “Aunty, is this my new friend?” she whispered to me.
Beast crouched down in front of her so that he wasn’t so high up and stuck his hand out to her. “Hi, you must be Inara. I’ve heard so much about you and I asked your Aunty if she could bring me over here to meet you.”
I looked down at Inara and she was just staring at Beast in awe. She’d never met anyone quite so large. My dad wasn’t a short man, he was 5 foot 11 after all, but he was nowhere near the size of Beast. “It’s okay baby, he’s big, but he’s very sweet. Give him a hug, it’s just like hugging a teddy bear.”
She let go of my legs and launched herself into his arms. Beast held her and stood up, giving her a squeeze and causing her to squeal.
Inara threw her arms around Beast’s neck and squeezed him back. “You’re right Aunty. He’s like a giant teddy bear. I’m so happy you brought me a new friend to meet!”
“I’m so happy to meet you too Inara. I’m glad you want to be my friend. Let’s go see how grandma and grandpa are doing.”
Beast turned to walk back towards the living room with Inara in his arms. My parents were watching us with smiles on their faces. He walked towards them, but before I could follow him Danielle came up behind me and whispered in my ear “damn, he’s HOT and he’s great with kids.”
I turned to look at her, but she wasn’t looking at me, she was staring at Beast. I elbowed her in the side “watch it lady, he’s my man.”
I wrapped my arm through hers, leading us over to where my parents were chatting with Beast. They hadn’t begun to drill him yet, but I’m sure it wouldn’t be long before they did.
“Mum, is there anything I can help with for dinner?” The conversation stopped at my question, everyone turning to look at me.
“Thanks Bren, but we’re good. I figured we could eat outside since the weather isn’t too hot today.” My mom loved to eat outside whenever possible.
“Great, why don’t we head outside then so this one can run around the backyard?” I responded.
Putting Inara down so that she could race outside, Beast turned to me and pulled me into his side. Wrapping his arm around my shoulders we followed her out with my family conspicuously quiet behind us. I’m sure they didn’t know what to make of all of this.
Chapter 29 – Beast
So far meeting Brenna’s family was going well. Her niece, Inara, was adorable and a great icebreaker. We all headed outside to sit down and chat before dinner. Hopefully it wouldn’t be too long before we ate. I’m pretty sure Brenna was probably starving, but until we told her family that she was pregnant I knew she wouldn’t say anything.
Following Inara outside, Brenna under my arm, I led us over to the table that was set up on the back deck. Their backyard was beautiful. It wasn’t huge, but they had made good use of what space they did have. There was a play area for Inara, lots of white and green flowers and plants, and an outdoor kitchen that was enviable.
While Inara played on her swing set, all of the adults sat down to chat. Brenna’s dad, Connor, was the first to ask me questions. “So Grayson, how did you and Brenna meet?”
Smiling at Connor I answered him while looking down at Brenna, who was leaning into me, still under my arm. “Well, we met a few months ago. Brenna was at Everly’s, who happens to live across the street from my best friend Declan. As soon as I saw her getting out of her car I knew I had to meet her and it’s been going strong ever since.”
Shannon was the next to speak up. “And what do you do for a living Grayson?”
I turned to look at Brenna, gauging her reaction to this question. I wasn’t going to lie to her parents so I wanted to make sure that she was okay with me answering that question. When she gave me a slight nod I turned back to her mom and answered her. “Well, I am the president of a motorcycle club so I spend most of the day dealing with any issues we have that come up. The club owns a couple of businesses so deal with personnel, payroll, and even looking into new business opportunities.”
Surprisingly, I didn’t notice any looks of shock or disdain on their faces. I wasn’t sure what their reactions were going to be, but I was happy to see that they didn’t seem unhappy that I was with their daughter.
After we had been chatting for a little while Inara came running up to the table. “Grandma I’m hungry. When’s dinner?”
Connor reached over and picked Inara up, putting her on his lap. “Is my little girl starving to death?”
She turned to him and looked up into his face with such seriousness it made me smile. “Grandpa I really am. If I don’t eat soon I may just die!”
Shannon started laughing and got up from the table. “Okay little drama queen, dinner will be ready in a few minutes. Aunty and I will get it all set up and bring it out. Go play with your grandfather until I tell you that it’s time to eat.”
Obviously Brenna’s mom wanted to grill her while they were alone so I gave her a kiss on the head before helping her up. She went into the house behind her mom and I wandered over to the play set with her dad and Inara.
“So, what are your intentions with my daughter?” Connor asked as soon as I walked up beside him.
I appreciated his candor. He wanted to make sure his girl was all right and wasn’t going to hold anything back. “Well, right now my intention is to be with her as much as possible. I’m finding myself falling for her more and more each day and I’ll be with her as long as she’ll let me.”
Connor seemed satisfied with that response because he nodded at me and wandered behind Inara, starting to push her on the swing.
About 15 minutes later Brenna came out of the house with her mom and her sister, both of whom had huge smiles on their faces. Obviously she’d told them our news and they were happy for us.
“Dinner is ready, everyone to the table!” Yelled Shannon.
“Catch me Grayson!” I turned around just in time to see Inara launching herself off of the swing. Thankfully I had pretty good reflexes because I was able to catch her.
“Oh my God! You need to give a man some warning beautiful. What would have happened if I didn’t catch you?”
Inara just smiled at me, wrapped her arms around my neck and gave me a kiss on my cheek. “Oh Grayson, I knew you would catch me.”
I put her on my hip and walked us over to the table and sat her down beside me. Brenna came over to us and sat on my other side, looking around me at Inara. “Do I have some competition caveman?”
Turning to look at her I leaned in and said against her lips “you’ll never have competition Baby Girl.”
I heard a sigh from across the table and when I looked over Danielle was sitting there with her elbows on the table, her chin resting on her upturned hands, looking at us with googly eyes. Brenna turned to look at her sister with an evil smile on her face. “Watch it D, I already told you once, he’s my man.”
Danielle took her chin off her hands and turned to look at her sister. “Oh Bren, when you bring a sexy man to dinner you better expect that I’m going to stare. Doesn’t mean I’m going to try to take him away from you.”
I interrupted them before this could go too far. “I appreciate the compliment Danielle, but just know that you would never be able to take me away from Brenna.”
Brenna put her hands on my face, pulling it towards her, and resting her forehead against mine. “Right answer Beast.”
She ga
ve me a kiss, and conscious of the fact that we were with her parents I made sure it didn’t go too far. I didn’t want them to get a bad impression of me, which was another first.
Danielle interrupted us, “hold up. Beast? Why did you just call him Beast? Please tell me it’s because of his prowess in bed.”
Shannon put the last plate of food on the table, interrupting the conversation. “Good God Danielle, get your mind out of the gutter for once. If you need to know these things ask your sister in private, and then make sure to tell me!”
Connor just shook his head at his women’s antics. Obviously he was used to them being so outspoken. I, on the other hand, would have to get used to it. My mom may be a strong woman, but I can’t even imagine her talking like these women were.