Chapter 18 #2
Mickayla gave her a closed-lip smile and jerked her head toward me. “I can see how tight you and her are and something makes me think she’s gonna be around for a while. Which means you’ll be around, too. I’d hate it if someone didn’t forewarn me if they knew someone might string me along.”
Kristen nodded. “Makes sense.”
Mickayla moved to the towel dispenser. “I’m sorry if I wrecked your plans with Killian.”
Kristen shook her head. “Far from it. You reminded me to think of my girl first. Making things awkward works both ways, so I appreciate it.”
We meandered between tables to get back to ours. Killian had a sharp focus on us the entire time, and even knowing who he was, I struggled to differentiate him from Ryan.
Killian had shaved, but I wouldn’t be able to count on that all the time. The thought of Ryan with a beard appealed to me. I wondered if he’d be cool with that.
Chad looked up and grinned, prompting Ryan to turn in his chair.
Yeah, I could tell the difference in their eyes.
“As ever, you worked your magic. Our food came out a minute ago,” Chad said.
I settled in my seat and Ryan leaned toward me. “Did my sister make you uncomfortable?”
I choked down my laughter. “Kristen did, but I’m used to it.”
“Are you going to see Debra tonight?” Chad asked.
“Not tonight,” Ryan said.
Chad’s gaze shifted to me. “Ivy—”
“It’s okay, Chad. I’m gonna call her when she’s off work.”
“One of you needs to fill me in, here. I hate being the odd one out,” Killian said.
I shifted my eyes to his. “Lark is my biological dad, but I haven’t told my mom that I found him.”
“Or that you were still looking,” Chad muttered, with more sass than necessary.
I twisted a hand up. “She knew that I might try, considering she gave me the sperm bank info ten months ago.”
Killian did a spit-take, but got his napkin to his mouth in time. “Are you shitting me?” he demanded.
“You can’t be surprised. He does all kinds of shit on the fly. Imagine him in his twenties,” Ryan said.
Chad aimed a dramatically pointed look my way.
“I don’t do anything that spontaneous,” I said.
Kristen laughed. “Girl, if someone said, ‘dance on this table,’ you’d be on it in under ten seconds.”
“Dance on this table,” Killian said.
“Killian,” Ryan growled.
I glanced between Kristen and Chad. “Dancing in public is not the same as donating my reproductive DNA.”
“That’s why it was private,” Killian said in a low voice.
“Great work, Sherlock,” Ryan bit out.
I rested my hand on Ryan’s forearm. “It’s okay, Nickel. Really.”
Ryan turned his face toward me. “Yeah, but he needs to back off.”
“Brother, I’m just trying to understand what’s goin’ down,” Killian said.
“And now you do,” Mickayla said.
We rode to the clubhouse on Ryan’s bike. I hated being without my car, but I couldn’t deny how much fun it was riding on his bike in the daytime.
He carried my duffel bag and the bag o’ books to his room with me trailing behind him toting my leftovers.
I closed the door to his room while he set the bags down.
“I got a mini-fridge where you can put your leftovers,” he said, gesturing to the far corner of the room.
I stashed my food in his fridge, straightened, and edged closer to him. “You make your bed every day.”
He chuckled. “No. A prospect makes my bed.”
“I see.”
He sat down on the foot of the bed. “You gonna dance on a table for me one day?”
I laughed. “Maybe. I’ve calmed down a lot these days.”
He pulled me on to his lap. “Are you sure Mick didn’t freak you out?”
I grinned while running my fingers through the hair at the side of his head. I loved the prickly yet soft feeling. “Yeah. She’s a good woman, even if she may have kept Kristen from going there with your brother.”
He nodded and let his hands drift down to my tush. “I have an hour and a half before I need to leave.”
“Oh. Do you need to do something before you go?”
That devilish smirk of his appeared. “Yeah, you.”
Ryan grabbed his keys from a dish on his dresser and shoved them in his pocket. Then he shrugged on his leather vest.
“Do you always wear your vest?” I asked.
He looked at me. “It’s a cut, and if I’m on my bike, yes.”
“Even in the rain?”
“Yep. Though I put rain gear on over it – assuming I don’t take a cage instead.”
“A cage is a car, I take it.”
“It is. Come give me a kiss before I go.”
I met him at the door, snaked my arms around his neck, and kissed him. It quickly turned into a mini makeout session, even though we had spent the last hour working off lunch.
And even though I’d just had two orgasms, I felt like I could jump him again, but then he’d be running late.
I broke the kiss and exhaled hard. “What are you doing to me?” I whispered.
He rested his forehead on mine. “Been asking myself that all week, Trouble, because this is…”
“Unreal,” I suggested when he trailed off.
“Something like that,” he said, his arms giving me a squeeze.
He kissed me once more with a single tongue touch and stepped back. “I gotta jet. Lock the door after me. I’ll see you tonight.”
After I locked the door, I dug my phone out of my purse to check the time. I had a few hours to kill before Mom would be done with work. I grabbed the thick rom-com from my stack of books, climbed into Ryan’s bed, and started reading.
Around four-thirty, I heard the clinking of glasses and the occasional traces of voices coming from downstairs. The extrovert in me hated being holed up in Ryan’s room, but I’d made him a promise. In a way, it reminded me of dorm life. While everyone else was partying, I had to stay in and study.
I took my phone off the nightstand and called Mom.
She answered after one ring. “Hey, Ivy-bean. It’s been a while. How are you?”
“I’m good,” I said, unsure of which topic to broach first.
“You don’t sound like you mean that.”
“Are you cooking right now?” I asked because Mom ate early and often made homemade meals for one.
“Nope. You caught me before I got up to start dinner.”
I took a deep breath. “I probably should have told you this sooner, but I’ve been searching for my biological dad.”
She kept quiet.
I opened my mouth to apologize, but then she spoke. “I suspected as much when you and Chad went up to Atlanta and made that supposed impromptu side-trip to Memphis.”
I fought off a frown. “Chad oversold it with Graceland, didn’t he?”
Mom’s tone went gentle. “Chad’s never been an Elvis fan, and I still don’t understand why.”
I chuckled. “You’re right, but he loves Paul Simon.”
“Seeing as you’re finally telling me about your search, I’m guessing you’ve found him.”
I took a deep breath. “Yes.”
I didn’t know what else to say. Part of me felt like finding Lark was a betrayal to Jeff, and that made me realize maybe Mom wouldn’t want to know and probably wouldn’t want to meet him.
I really should have thought longer and harder about this rather than spontaneously following my stupid heart.
This was when I needed Chad to be around. He didn’t need to be there to hear Lark semi-reject me, he needed to be here now that I was navigating uncharted waters with Mom.
Actually, I wished Ryan were here more than Chad, and I wondered why I didn’t do this when he was still in the room.
That brought me up short.
Chad and Kristen were my ride-or-dies. How did Ryan jump into the front seat?
I knew I could fall for him, but it struck me that I was already falling.
Crap.
“Well, what’s he like?” Mom asked, dragging me from my monumental thoughts.
I stared at Ryan’s dresser and blurted, “He runs a bar and he’s a biker. A real one and he’s a member of a club.”
“A gang?” Mom asked.
“No, it’s a club,” I said, remembering my conversation with Alexandra and the way that she made it clear that the club was more like a family and not a gang.
“There’s something off here. I wish you were sitting in front of me, but from your tone…What aren’t you telling me?”
I wondered if there was something about being a mom that had her dialed into me and every little nuance, and even over the phone I couldn’t pull anything over on her.
“Was he a jerk to you?” Mom pushed.
I shook my head. “No, no. When I first tried to see him, I wound up meeting someone.”
“Okay,” Mom drawled, not hiding her skepticism. “Is this person the same age as your biological dad?”
“No, but he works with Lark and he’s a member of the club.”
“Ivy, I don’t know about this.”
“Mom. Please keep an open mind. I wanted to tell you these things in person, but—”
“Then why didn’t you? Come over for dinner after you get off work.”
I pressed my lips together, this conversation was getting out of control. “I can’t. Not tonight.”
“Why? Is this new man in your life being uber controlling? I don’t have to remind you of how Austin was—”
“He’s nothing like Austin,” I said, harsher than I’d intended.
“Ivy F. Brummis, watch it, young woman.”
I closed my eyes and almost smiled. Only my mom would inadvertently give me a name that sounded like the very procedure that got her pregnant.
“I’m sorry, Mom. There’s so much more to this story, it’s not funny.”
“Lay it on me anyway.”
“You might want a glass of wine first.”
Mom paused, then blew out a breath. “You know, I think you’re right. Let me go uncork a bottle of white.”
“While you do that, how are things with you?”
“From the sound of it, not nearly as fascinating as your life right now. On Saturday, there’s a knitting group meeting at the library and I’m going to check it out. If you still have that purple yarn, you should join me.”
In the background, I heard the glug of the wine pouring from the bottle.
I gave her another minute because I couldn’t share this with her standing up.
Finally she let out a long exhale. “Okay, I’m back on the couch. Give me the whole story.”
“I’m gonna tear off the Band-Aid here, Mom. We’re fine. Everything is fine, but on Monday, Ryan and I were abducted at gunpoint.”
“What?” Mom splutter-yelled, and I suspected she really did do a spit-take.
“It’s fine, Mom.”
“And you’re involved with this man!”
“He didn’t abduct me.”
“You need to get checked out for Stockholm Syndrome.”
I swallowed down a sigh. “That’s when someone has feelings for the person who abducted them. Ryan didn’t abduct me.”
“Well, he’s obviously a bad sort.”
“Don’t be so quick to judge before you’ve even met him. Chad loves him already.”
“Was Chad there?” Mom asked, her voice incredulous.
Oh boy. Now I’d stepped in it.
“He showed up late, and alerted Lark to me being MIA.”
“MIA. Do you hear yourself? Were you hurt?”
“They hit both of us over the head, but neither of us had concussions.”
“The doctors told you that, right?”
I bit my lip, when I should have kept talking.
“You didn’t go to the doctor. Ivy, why wouldn’t you go to the ER?”
Yep, definitely should have done this in person.
“Mom, when people show up with head injuries nurses and doctors ask questions.”
“And you have answers, young lady. Someone who abducted you, hit you over the head.”
“But the authorities wouldn’t be able to find them, and it—”
“Did Ryan kill them?”
I scoffed. “I didn’t say anything like that.”
“Then why can’t you leave this to the authorities?”
“Ryan and I worked together to…get free.”
“You wouldn’t hurt a fly, Ivy.”
I glanced down at my lap. “I’ve swatted many a fly, Mom. And being taken against my will brings out a whole other side of me.”
“Let me get this straight. You went to speak with Lark on Monday night, got abducted along with Ryan, and that fast, you’re involved with him?”
I explained about the first time I met Ryan.
“My girl, I know you’re an adult, but I can’t leave this unsaid. You’re moving way too fast with this man. After three days, you can’t know that much about him.”
That made me angry even if I understood her concerns.
“It’s funny you say that because I mentioned that to him, and he rattled off that he’s a triplet, he’s from Biloxi, a member of the club, where he works, and then he offered up his political leanings.”
“That is not enough in—”
“Mom. We’re getting to know each other. It’s a process. I’m not betrothed to him or running off to Vegas.”
Silence crept along the line. I heard her take in a breath. “You sound like you would.”
She was right. I didn’t understand it, so I couldn’t explain it.
“He’s a triplet,” Mom prompted.
I grinned. “Yes. He has a brother and a sister.”
“And Chad likes him.”
“Yes. He said he’s better than Austin by a long shot.”
“I’m sorry dear, but that’s not saying much.”
“Please, Mom. Keep an open mind. You haven’t even met him.”
“I will, sweetheart. It’s just hard for me to ignore that he didn’t take you to a doctor, and for some reason you aren’t able to come see me.”
Before we went to lunch, Ryan had told me more about Blood and his wife, Abby.
“You’re right, but he did call an ER nurse who’s married to one of the MC brothers. Then he set an alarm to wake us up every hour.”
“He slept at your townhouse?”
I explained how we wound up at his room. “As for being able to swing by for dinner, the person we assume is in charge called the office this morning and insisted I call him back. Until the threat is gone, Ryan’s insistent that I be somewhere he knows is safe.”
“He might be growing on me,” Mom said dryly.
I chuckled. “That’s good to know.”
“Yes, but I’m calling Chad tonight.”
“Mom.”
“Oh no, dear. He should have called me the minute he knew you were missing.”
“And worry you for nothing?”
“No, to worry me for everything that matters in my world.”
I sighed and fought off tears. “I’m sorry. Don’t beat him up about that. He doesn’t need a guilt trip. Heck, before he met Lark, he wanted you to meet him after I did.”
Mom laughed. “That man. Ever the matchmaker.”
“I’ll let you get to cooking. I love you, Mom.”
“I love you, too. Bring Ryan to dinner on Thursday. I know that’s short notice, but I want to meet him. You’ll tell me Sunday’s out, Friday and Saturday are out for me, so tomorrow night it is.”
“Could you make it a brunch? He works at a bar and grille, you know.”
“We both work during the day, so not likely. Figure it out, sweetie. I’m meeting him, and it’s going to be sooner not later. Bye!”