I can’t picture Hatch going down an inner tube and start laughing at the picture in my head. “Somehow, your dad and Snow Mountain doesn’t compute very well,” I say when Maysen looks at me.
“What’s Snow Mountain?” she asks.
“Oh my goodness, you can build a snowman or you can go sledding down a huge man-made hill,” Danika replies.
“Hey, squirt, didn’t see you there. Mom and Dad pick you up on their way in?”
“Yep, bright and early. I’d barely gotten out of bed from all the blisters I earned wrapping the mountain of presents Grandma Hazel had waiting for me. Now, stop changing the subject, Snow Mountain?”
“That sounds like a lot of fun!” Maysen states. “Can we go?”
“We can do whatever you want, baby,” I tell her.
“That’s a good attitude to have, Son. Whatever makes them happy, keep doing that so you stay out of the doghouse. Read the sign on the wall.” I read the referred to sign that states… ‘if momma ain’t happy ain’t nobody happy’ hanging above dad’s head.
“As if you’ve ever been in the doghouse, Daddy,” Danika states.
“You don’t know everything,” Dad gives a pointed look at Danika.
“I know enough, these walls aren’t very thick,” she scoots off of her stool and heads out the door.
“What?” Mom asks with a horrified look on her face.
“It’s okay, Mom. Let’s just say we used to wonder what all those weird noises were before we learned about sex.”
“Pete, fix it!” Mom demands.
“What?”
“We can’t have our children knowing that about us! Put soundproofing in or something!”
“What, that we have sex? Kinda think they know that by now. I mean, the storks didn’t deliver either of them that I recall.”
“Smartass,” Mom mumbles, gulping the rest of her mimosa. I’m studiously avoiding looking at either of them right now. There are some things you know but shouldn’t ever have referenced in your presence and the thought of my parents getting busy is one of those things.
Then a thought occurs to me. “Dad, I’ll help you with that project.” Shit, what have they heard coming from my room over the years? I always attempted to be quiet, but I worry that maybe I wasn’t. My dad looks at me and gives me a shit-eating grin. Guess that answers that particular question.
* * *
Christmas Day
* * *
The days have flown by and Maysen and I are currently standing outside freezing our asses off waiting for Hatchet to make his slow ass down the driveway. You’d think the asshole had never seen snow before. “Why in the hell is he driving like a ninety-year old woman?” I mean for fucking real, my Grandma Hazel could walk it faster than he’s driving.
“He doesn’t like driving in the snow or on ice, it makes him nervous. We don’t see much of it in Texas you know.”
“At the rate he’s going, we’ll be doing an at-home surgery on my toes, not to mention my balls,” I state.
“I can warm them up for you later if you’d like,” she replies, giving me a sly wink. Little minx. I pull her close and kiss her quickly, hoping that our lips don’t freeze together.
In a few more ice-cold filled minutes Hatch finally makes it up to the house. When we get all of their belongings in the house I can no longer feel the tips of my fingers. And I had fur-lined gloves on.
Hatch ran into the house and stood in front of the fireplace. He better never say a damn thing about me again or I’m going to throw how much of a pussy he is in the cold weather. DJ is standing next to him with her hands on her hips and a scowl covering her face. “I just can’t even with you,” she mutters.
“I didn’t do nothing,” he says, turning around and warming his hands.
“We could have been here an hour ago if you were going the speed limit at least! I told you I would drive since I’ve driven in this before but you wouldn’t let me. And making the kids bring in our stuff? Really? They both look blue!”
“It’s not an issue, they’re young they can handle it. And you really wanted me to let you drive after you got pissed off at that truck driver and shoved your head out of the window flipping him off with both fingers? No thank you, you behind the wheel while pissed off isn’t good on dry streets let alone slick ones.”
“Mom, look,” Maysen says, holding out her hand.
“What?” DJ asks before turning and seeing my woman’s ring finger. “Oh my goodness, look Hatch! He’s gonna make an honest woman outta her!”
“Why’s he gotta make an honest woman out of her, they ain’t having sex,” he states.
“Oh you poor, pitiful man, living in the land of denial,” DJ replies, a grin on her face. Fuck, this could go south pretty quick.
“I choose to believe that he knows better. Let me live in my very own little make-believe world.”
“Daddy, we’re not in the eighteenth century any more.”
“Maysen Elise, you’ll always be my baby,” he says. “If I wanna think that you are still as pure as the driven snow, don’t burst my damn bubble.”
“Fine, I won’t tell you then, okay?”
“So, we have a wedding to plan?” DJ inquires.
“Not until they’ve graduated,” Hatch replies. “We’ve already discussed that, right, Maddox?”
“Yep.”
“When do you want to get married, Maysen?” Her mom asks, ignoring her dad.
“I want a July fourth wedding. I’ve always thought it would be special if after we say our I do’s the fireworks go off in the background.”
“Fan-fucking-tastic, I can blow shit up,” Hatch mutters.
“Jayden Hatchet, you will not!”
“You never let me have any fun, woman. Pete, you got any whiskey?”
“Are you okay, Daddy?”
“I’m outdone with today already.”
Danika walks into the room with JJ on her hip. “We took care of that hunger bug, he’s feeling much better now.”
“Presents!” JJ screeches.
“Who says there are presents here for you?” Maysen teases. When she sees his eyes fill with tears, she goes over and takes him from Danika, saying, “C’mon, little man, let’s go see what the tree looks like. Maybe we can talk Mom into getting us some hot chocolate? Grace has marshmallows.” She’s so good with him and it gives me a picture of what she’ll be like down the road when she becomes a mom.
We all head into the family room where the biggest tree known to mankind is in the corner, gifts piled all around. “Pete, you ready to hand out gifts?” Mom asks.
Once Dad’s done distributing all the presents, Mom says, “Okay, since I know JJ probably can’t wait any longer, let’s go youngest to oldest this year.” I silently groan because that means it’ll take forever. Well not forever, exactly, but we all went a little crazy buying for JJ, who is tearing into his presents as if he’s afraid they’ll be taken from him.
“Boy, I don’t know if we’ll have enough room in the car for all of that,” Hatch says as he opens another Lego playset. I grin because Maysen and I were responsible for several of them.
“Daddy! We can get a bigger car,” JJ says, pulling his stuff closer.
“Don’t tease him, Jayden. You know he’s going through a phase right now.”
“Yeah, a stingy phase,” Hatch does not look impressed with his son or his wife. “Wonder where he gets it from,” I barely hear him whisper as he turns his head away from the room. DJ must not have had a problem hearing him because she balls up her fist and nails him right in the thigh.
“Woman, what have I said about frogging me?”
“That if I do it I should make it count, did I?”
He doesn’t say a word to her, instead he leans down and kisses her on her nose. “Good job.”
“Jesus, is this their form of foreplay?” I ask Maysen.
“I stopped thinking about it a long time ago,” she responds. Yeah, I’m not gonna think about it e
ither, it kind of skeeves me out.
“So, who’s next, Danika or Maysen?” DJ asks.
“Danika’s younger than me, Mom,” Maysen replies.
And it goes on like this until Dad opens his gifts. We head out for a day on Snow Mountain where I have tons of blackmail photos of Hatch. If he says one word to me, I’m sending them to Uncle Braxton to share with his brothers. I know from Maysen that they tend to play jokes on one another and with some of the shots I got, Hatch would never hear the end of it. It was an awesome day with the family and the woman I love.
Epilogue
Maysen
End of the year
“I can’t believe that you only have one year left before you graduate,” I pout.
“You know that I’m not leaving. I’m going to intern for a buddy of my dad’s until you graduate. Don’t look so sad, baby.”
“Maybe I can double up on classes,” I muse. “If I do that, then we can get married sooner rather than later.”
“Let’s stick to the plan, baby. We’ve only got a few years to go before we can get married. We’ve got this,” he tells me.
“With the way our moms are going, I’m reconsidering a wedding and thinking of eloping,” I say. They’ve been insane with the plans, even though it’s years down the road and I’ve started calling my mom Momzilla and Grace Milzilla. Well, not to their faces, of course, but if they keep it up, it’s bound to slip out. “Are you sure we have to wait, Maddox?”
“I promised your dad, and I’m a man of my word and don’t plan on breaking the promise I made to him. Now, let me have that remote, I don’t want to watch another episode of Brides Gone Wild.”
“But, this is a good episode, it’s where Jamilla slaps her bridesmaid!”
“Well, you can play that one out with Rae and tell me how it ends up.”
“Are you kidding me? We’d end up in a full out brawl.”
“Just give me a heads up so I can bring the jell-o.”
I glare at him before I hit the button to record the episode then hand him the remote. Lily keeps me up to date with the antics of the crazy train conductors, and has promised she’ll try to reel them in if she can. I don’t hold out any hope, though. Maddox has even threatened to call his uncle and get his aunt involved because she’s the only one who can rein my mom in. Again, I feel it’s a lost cause, but if he wants to do that, more power to him. I’m not gonna waste my breath.
“So, did Rae ever tell you what put her in a foul mood?” Maddox asks.
I sigh then say, “She took that guy she’s dating, Richie, home over the break, and apparently, she and Jaxson ‘had words’ according to her when he called Richie a weak-kneed pussy.”
“No shit?”
“Yeah, I mean, Richie’s okay but he’s not for Rae. I think she took him home to protect herself against Jaxson, only it backfired. He got in her face and told her that college had obviously not made her smarter based on her choice of partners. Then she told him he had no say-so in what she did and he needed to shut his mouth and go back to the skanks he was used to. She also might have insulted his manhood by saying he would end up old and alone because he was too stupid to see the nose in front of his face.”
“Ah hell, kinda makes me sad we missed that, I bet it was epic.”
“Oh yeah, Jaxson stormed off after muttering some things she couldn’t hear and the next time she saw him, after Richie decided he needed to get back, he had some badly dyed scrawny redhead wrapped around him. I think she’s giving up, but who knows with Rae? She’s been attracted to him forever, kind of like us.”
“Except we’re not so far apart age-wise.”
“What difference does that honestly make if a couple loves one another?” I ask.
“I would normally say not much, but Rae is young. Very young compared to him and he has a lot of life experience on her. If they’re meant to be, it won’t happen until she’s older, if not, then I hope she finds someone on the same mental and emotional level as she is and they make each other happy.”
“I don’t know if she’ll ever truly be happy without him. That’s what worries me so much,” I admit.
“Rae is a strong woman, Maysen. Don’t count her down before she’s even had a chance to grow and learn. I have a feeling that when she finds her man, it’s going to be forever, like us.”
I glance down at the ring that I’ve worn since he gave it to me and smile. “I can’t wait for our forever to start.”
“It will be here before either one of us realizes. Time will pass quickly because we’ll be happy while it happens.”
“I just hope all of my friends and family find what we have.”
“Guess we’ll have to wait and see.”
* * *
The End
* * *
Wanna keep up to date with the kids from the RGMC? Stay tuned and keep your eyes open for the Next Generation and New Beginnings books.
About Liberty
Liberty has been an avid reader for most of her life. When she was younger she used to sit and fill spiral notebooks full of stories for her grandmother. As she got older, she took the jobs needed for raising her boys as a single mom until she met her amazing husband. She has stopped working in the last few years and started off by promoting authors, then she took up blogging and reviewing for authors. This has led her down the path of writing and creating characters and telling their stories. She loves getting creative and working behind the scenes with her characters and bringing her imagination to life.
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Find me on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authorlibertyparker/?ref=bookmarks
About Darlene
I am a transplanted Yankee, moving from upstate New York when I was a teenager. I live with the brat-cat pack and a small muffin dog, all rescues, as I plot and plan who will get to “talk” next!
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Find me on Facebook!
https://www.facebook.com/darlenetallmanauthor
Other Books by Liberty
*Rage Ryders MC*
Taken by Lies
Taken by Rage
Taken by Vegas
Taken by Sadistic
Taken by Chaos
Taken by Temptation
* * *
Templeton Charter
Faithfully Devoted
* * *
*Current Standalones*
What Should’ve Been
Charlee’s Choices
* * *
Diva’s Ink Trilogy
Blank Canvas
Clean Slate
Beautiful Template
Other Books by Darlene
*Mischief Kitties*
Co-written with Cherry Shephard and Alex J.:
The Mischief Kitties in Bampires & Ghosts & New Friends Oh My!
The Mischief Kitties in The Great Glitter Caper
* * *
*Standalones*
Want to read my books?
“Bountiful Harvest”
“His Firefly”
“His Christmas Pixie”
“Her Kinsman-Redeemer”
“Operation Valentine”
“His Forever”
“Forgiveness”
“Reese Black Tuxedoes MC
“Christmas With Dixie”
“Our Last First Kiss”
“Dragon: Falder Clan”
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Coming Soon
Scars of the Soul
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Keep turning the page for a sneak peek of Faithfully. Devoted by Liberty Parker and Draegon by Darlene Tallman.
Liberty and Darlene’s Co-written Series
RGMC
Braxton
Hatchet
Chief
Smokey & Bandit
Law
Capone
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Old Ladies Club
Book 1 you can find under author Erin Osborne
Book 2 you can find under author Kayce Kyle
Book 3 you can find
under Darlene Tallman
Book 4 coming soon and will be published under Liberty Parker
* * *
Next Generation of RGMC
Talon and Claree
Jaxson and Ralynn…TBA
* * *
Nelson Brothers Trilogy
Seeking Our Revenge…
Seeking Our Forever…TBA
Seeking Our Destiny…TBA
* * *
New Beginnings
Reclaiming Maysen
Book 2 TBA
* * *
Twisted Iron MC
Mercenary and His Outlaw
(Liberty Parker & Kayce Kyle) coming December 2018
Faithfully Devoted Teaser
Blurb
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Lizzie
* * *
I grew up knowing I would have an arranged marriage. When my father decides that it will be to a member of the Rage Ryders Motorcycle Club to further his connections, my prayer is that we can get along.
When I meet him for the first time at the altar, I'm captivated. Tying myself to a man that I've only just met seems like something out of a book, but here I am.
* * *
Justice
Reclaiming Maysen Page 15