My Bad- Lani Lynn Vale

by Vale, Lani Lynn

  I blinked when they all stared at me expectantly.

  “What?”

  My dad looked pointedly at my stomach. “So do you have anything to tell me?”

  I pursed my lips. “I haven’t gone to the shooting range in like, six weeks. And I’m still concealed carrying.”

  His frown went fierce. “If you’re going to carry, you need to practice. Thems the rules.”

  I laughed.

  “I haven’t changed the oil in the truck for six thousand miles,” Phoebe piped in.

  Oh, shit. That was way worse than my admission.

  My dad’s head whipped around to stare at Phoebe in horror.

  “I took an Uber home from a party off base last week,” Piper supplied.

  Annnnd Piper was the winner. Dad hated Ubers. He said it was the dumbest thing that any person could ever do, getting into a car with a stranger.

  My dad pressed his hand to his chest and rubbed as if we were giving him chest pains. “Did nothing I taught y’all stick?”

  I blinked innocently. “All three of us are here now. We can go to the shooting range. I even have my gun in my purse.”

  He pinched the bridge of his nose. “Please, enlighten me how you’d get it out and use it if your life was in danger?”

  I pulled my purse open only to have it snatched from me. “Hey!”

  He glared. “And that’s exactly what would happen if someone saw you go for your purse during a time when one might need a gun.”

  I sighed. “I was just joking.”

  I lifted my shirt to show him the gun that was strapped to the waistband of my jeans. “I had to resort to using the sticky holster that you bought me. I can’t button my pants anymore since I’m pregnant.”

  Dad snorted. “At least you’re admitting it now, I guess.”

  He handed my purse back to me and grinned.

  “Are you excited to be a grandpa?” Phoebe teased.

  My father winced. “I’m too young to be a grandfather.”

  “I’m old enough to get pregnant, so I’m fairly sure that you’re old enough to be a grandfather,” I pointed out.

  “I’d rather not think about you being pregnant, if that’s okay,” he said. “At least how you got that way, anyway.”

  I snickered. “What’s wrong, Dad? You were the one to have the birds and the bees talk with us.”

  Piper and Phoebe burst out laughing.

  My mother had talked with us about it herself, but my father felt it prudent to inform us if we ever made him a grandfather before he was ready, he’d kill us. And, at the age of fifteen and fourteen, it’d been the greatest of feelings to act like we were clueless as to what it was he was trying to say to us about safe sex.

  Now, looking back, I realized it was kind of mean to make him think we didn’t understand what he was trying to say. Yet it was still hilarious.

  My dad gave us a fierce scowl. “Let’s go to the range. Then I’ll take you out to eat.”

  We all converged on my father at once, wrapping him up like we’d done since we were babies.

  Dad wrapped his arms around all three of us and gave each of us a kiss. “Miss you girls.”

  I felt tears sting my nose once again.

  Hoax would be a good daddy, too.

  I just knew it.

  Chapter 18

  I would tell a joke about pizza, but it’s cheesy.

  -Text from Pru to Hoax

  Pru

  Three weeks and four days later

  There was no denying that I was pregnant anymore.

  With the daddy of my unborn babies aware that I was pregnant, there was no reason to wear excessively baggy clothing to work anymore—even though at times it was nice to have extra-large pockets to stuff things inside.

  I was also rocking the cute, pregnant belly.

  At least, I was when I was first starting out work.

  Now, twelve hours and thirty minutes after I arrived at the hospital, I was tired.

  So tired, in fact, that I didn’t pay attention to my surroundings at first.

  My mother, who was stopped one too many times by an employee wanting to ask questions, I’d left behind two minutes ago.

  I kept walking. I was tired, my feet hurt, and I’d had a really bad day.

  That really bad day had centered around a certain asshole who’d walked into the ER this morning thinking he owned the place.

  His father, the CEO, had been at his side. Likely, the only reason he’d been allowed to come into our domain in the first place was due to his father being there.

  Kelley had sneered and snapped at me the entire morning, and my good mood and day had slowly swirled around the drain until it’d plunged to the point of no return when he commented about me being pregnant.

  The comment had specifically been ‘if you can’t do this job while you’re pregnant, maybe you need to find something easier and more suited for your condition.’

  I’d wanted to punch him, but I’d held my cool and gone about my work, even though we were a nurse and a physician’s assistant short thanks to the stomach bug that’d been going around.

  Being five months pregnant with twins didn’t allow me the same luxuries—such as holding my pee for eight hours—as it had before. Meaning I’d been forced to take many potty breaks despite being busier than hell.

  Needless to say, the very last person I wanted to see when I walked out of the doors to the hospital was Kelley—likely standing there waiting for me.

  Luckily, I could see my father, who’d been very cautious lately with my mother and me, waiting in the spot he usually occupied since Mr. M had lost his life.

  Now, he waited every single day for us to get out, and he’d walk me to my car and my mom to hers. If for some reason he wasn’t there, Bayou or one of the other guys from the Bear Bottom Guardians were. And, if one of them couldn’t make it, one of my pseudo-uncles were.

  I was literally never left alone.

  Though, I had a feeling it’d be a common occurrence until I gave birth to the two babies that were currently occupying my body.

  “Ms. Mackenzie,” Kelley sneered, falling into step next to me.

  I felt my heart rate start to pick up. “Yes, Kelley?”

  I managed to keep the sneer out of my voice, but barely.

  The fact that he was here, still working at the hospital after the shit he’d pulled in the break room, was a slap in the face. The worse part was that he wasn’t even reprimanded. After explaining his actions as ‘innocent,’ he’d continued on as if nothing had changed.

  Meanwhile, I’d been freaked way the hell out and could barely be around him or in the same vicinity as he was without having a minor freak out that he’d pull the same shit and this time Hoax wouldn’t be there to save my ass.

  I was almost to my dad’s bike when he spoke next, and I knew that he’d said what he said for my dad’s benefit, enabling him to hear just so he could get a rise out of him.

  “I was wondering,” he said, sounding proud of himself. “Are you planning on making that child legitimate, or are you going to let it be born a bastard?”

  I felt something inside of me chill at the man’s words.

  Of course, my father wouldn’t leave something that vile, said by a man that was supposed to be my superior, go untouched.

  “Listen here, Kelley.” My dad’s body was strung taut as he came to stand beside me. “I don’t think my daughter’s marital status, or her physical state, is any of your business. And even if you for some reason thought it was in your delusional, oversized head, it’s not.”

  Kelley’s lips tilted up slightly, and his eyes lit with amusement.

  Kelley’s eyes returned to my father. “I don’t think I asked your permission. If her performance at work is suffering, then it’s our business, because she’s made it our business.”

  “I’m not quite sure you understand how this whole ‘business’ works,
but I could enlighten you,” my father offered.

  Kelley’s smile was mean. “Oh, please do. You’ve just started to dig your daughter’s grave deeper. Soon, you’ll have only to cover her up with the dirt you’ve already dug out.”

  Dad’s arms crossed over his large chest, and he looked at Kelley like he was a bug he was about to use to bait a line with.

  “Why are you here again?” Dad asked. “I’m not quite sure that it’s appropriate to confront an employee of yours in front of the ER parking lot where anyone can walk up and hear you carrying on.”

  “If I see my employee acting in an unsavory way, which’ll reflect on our business, I have no problem with confronting her in a public place,” he countered.

  “Go away,” Dad ordered.

  My eyes flicked back and forth between the two men, and I barely noticed that we’d drawn a crowd because I was too worried about what my father was about to do.

  “And,” Kelley ignored my dad’s jibe. “Saying that, if she didn’t want her personal matters splashed all over the community, maybe she should first start with not posting disgusting comments about her personal life on Facebook. I haven’t said anything that she hasn’t said over the last three weeks.”

  My dad moved until he was standing beside me. Once he was at my side, his hand raised and he squeezed my neck, urging me to calm down. Outside, he appeared calm, cool and collected.

  Though, like me, he also had a volatile temper. Just a few more sharp, targeted words out of Kelley’s mouth, and I might very well snap. My dad’s reassuring hold on my neck or not.

  “I’m sorry, but am I not allowed to announce my pregnancy?” I asked tartly. “I wasn’t aware that was against the rules.”

  It wasn’t.

  In fact, the worst thing I’d said on social media in the last month was that I was gassy.

  “I think,” I heard a menacingly, tightly controlled voice say from behind me. “That you’ll either back the fuck off of my girl, or I’ll make you.”

  My heart started to pound, and all it took was one look over my shoulder to see the man standing behind me to send it into overdrive.

  Holy. Shit.

  Hoax stood behind me, but this wasn’t the same Hoax that’d left.

  This one was darker, angrier, and hotter.

  And, he had less control of the beard that was covering his face.

  Plus, the t-shirt he was wearing with the black tactical pants made him look divine.

  And, oh my, he was wearing a gun.

  Looking straight at him, he had an angry red line across the length of his outer bicep that peeked out from beneath his tight t-shirt. It was stitched with black threads that clearly led me to believe he’d sustained a very nasty cut.

  Lastly, he looked pissed off enough that he could happily kill the man boasting in front of me and not give a single shit.

  “I’m sorry, but who are you?” Kelley asked snottily.

  Kelley knew exactly who Hoax was if he’d been stalking my Facebook page looking at my posts. He knew that Hoax was my baby daddy seeing as they’d met once or twice in the hospital throughout the time that we’d been dating in the beginning.

  There was no mistaking the ‘mine’ vibes that was rolling off of Hoax in waves.

  Without giving it much thought at all, I was turning and throwing myself at Hoax.

  He didn’t miss a beat.

  One second he was five feet behind me, and the next he’d taken one giant step and caught me before I could gather up too much momentum.

  I buried my face in his chest, and then, blissfully, his arms closed around me and everything was all of a sudden perfect again.

  His arm curved around my waist, pulling me in tighter than tight, and I took in a deep, gulping breath of air.

  He smelled like everything I never realized I missed. All manly and yummy.

  “You’re here,” I breathed.

  He squeezed me once more, and then released me.

  It felt like a piece of my soul was now missing.

  I whimpered at him letting me go and wished that he’d pull me back in, but then I realized that we were still standing in the middle of the parking lot and the world hadn’t stopped spinning while I’d been in Hoax’s arms.

  Kelley was glaring at Hoax, and my dad was grinning.

  So, my dad was happy Hoax was back.

  Well, I was, too.

  Only, likely for a much different reason.

  “I’m the father, and the fiancé,” Hoax supplied, answering Kelley’s earlier snotty question.

  Fiancé?

  What?

  Not that I was upset about it or anything.

  “Fiancé?” Kelley sounded like he’d choked on the words as they’d poured from his lips.

  “Fiancé,” Hoax confirmed. “Actually, I just got permission from her dad. I’ve yet to officially ask her yet, but I have no doubt that she’ll say yes.”

  I snorted.

  Hoax turned slightly and winked at me.

  I’d have to be dumb to ever say no to him. These last months that he’d been gone had been torturous. There really wasn’t a way that it could’ve been easier, yet, impossibly, knowing he was mine might’ve made it just a smidge better.

  “I’ll say yes,” I told him bluntly. “In fact, let’s act like that was your marriage proposal…where’s the ring?”

  He snickered. “You’re not taking that away from me. Hold your horses.”

  I sighed and turned back to my dad. “I guess you weren’t needed.”

  Dad winked. “Still gotta get your mama. Not sure she’d care too much for riding double on a bike.”

  “Brought my truck,” Hoax interjected. “She’s not getting back on my bike until she’s given me my babies.”

  I shivered deliciously at that.

  Given me my babies.

  “Three and a half more months…at most,” I whispered.

  He turned to look at me once more. “Gonna be a long four months, but I’ll do my best to make sure you don’t get too bored riding in my truck.”

  “As fun as this is, I’m going to go,” Kelley supplied.

  We all ignored him.

  At least, my father and I did. Hoax turned his gaze once again to Kelley.

  “I realize you think you got away with it,” Hoax said quietly. “But you sure the fuck didn’t. I heard every single word that you said, and trust me when I say, I’m not going to forget.”

  There was no voiced threat there, but there didn’t need to be either. We all knew what he left unsaid.

  Hurt me again, and Hoax was going to do worse than kill him.

  Likely, he was going to show him the meaning of pain.

  And I wasn’t sure that I really cared.

  I probably should, but as I thought about that day that was still something that worried me on a daily basis, remembering how scared I’d been, I couldn’t find it in me to care.

  “Have a nice fucking day,” Hoax called to Kelley’s retreating back.

  Kelley’s shoulders stiffened, but he didn’t turn around.

  It was more than obvious, though, that he wanted to.

  I didn’t care.

  I only cared about one thing right then, and he was currently staring at me with a small smile on his face as if he was waiting for something.

  I practically threw myself back into his arms.

  “I leave you alone for a little over five months and look what you’ve done to yourself,” he whispered against my hair.

  That was it.

  There was nothing else I could do.

  I had no other choice in the matter.

  I cried.

  Chapter 19

  Why can’t a bicycle stand up by itself? Because it’s two-tired.

  -Text from Hoax to Pru

  Hoax

  She was still crying as I carried her into her home. Big, bone-wracking sobs that hurt my fuckin’ heart.r />
  After saying goodbye to Sam, and promising that we’d be attending the family dinner at the Mexican food joint they loved later that night, we’d left.

  I was tired as hell.

  After a thirty-eight-hour flight, two layovers, and waiting in the parking lot in the hot as hell heat for an hour with Sam, I wanted nothing more than to take a shower and go to bed.

  But I also wanted to do all that with Pru.

  I did not want to go out to eat.

  I did not want to leave the house.

  I wanted to stay in her place, for the next three days, and get reacquainted with her new body.

  God, when I’d seen her in real life, walking toward me, I’d wanted nothing more than to shove her into my truck and drive like a bat out of hell to her place.

  Instead, Kelley had shown his hand, and let’s just say he lost.

  He didn’t know it yet, though.

  He thought he was still in the clear. He thought that he was invincible.

  Well, I was about to let him know very quickly that he wasn’t.

  “What’s that look for?” Pru asked, running her nose along my neck.

  “I had all these grand plans,” I said. “After talking with your father, and asking for permission to marry you, I was going to get down on one knee and ask you right there in the parking lot,” I told her. “But then he was waiting on you and ruined everything. I want to kick his ass so bad it’s not even funny.”

  She pressed her hand against the opposite side of my throat from where her mouth was resting against my pulse. “Seeing you standing there? That was the happiest I’ve been since you left me in the airport,” she said softly. “And the way you asked me—if that could be declared as a proposal—was perfect. Having you claim me as yours in front of everyone? That was perfect. It may not be the storybook proposal, but it’s us. It’s real. It’s what I wanted.”

  I looked down at her bare finger. “I didn’t give you your ring.”

  She picked her head up out of my neck and stared at me with excitement lighting her eyes.

  “Ring?”

  I grinned.

  When I landed, Bayou had been waiting for me with my truck. I’d also asked him to do me one more favor and pick a ring up for me that I’d picked out online—and let me just tell you something, ring shopping is hard as fuck online. Plus, I had to get Bayou to ask Phoebe to get Pru’s ring size. Everything was so much harder than it should have been.