Chapter 11 Derrick
DERRICK
“Morning, babe,” Sienna calls out to him. He walks over and pulls her into his arms.
“You’re up early.”
“Someone had to let the caterers in this morning,” she says, giving him a look. His face drops as he looks at the caterers running around the kitchen.
“Sorry, I guess I slept past my alarm.” The boys went to a Sons of Brooklyn concert last night, I declined going and chose to stay with Sienna and the girls.
I haven’t seen or spoken to Chance since Sienna’s birthday the other month.
I’ve been stalking his socials, but he sucks at them, and usually I have to hunt any information down about him via the other guys.
Of course, there are images of him leaving with some new starlet on the gossip pages, and each image is like a knife to my chest, but it makes me realize I did the right thing in distancing myself.
To be fair, I haven’t hooked up with anyone since him, which is sad.
It’s not that there haven’t been opportunities, but because I’m a sad sack and my dick is pining for his playmate.
“Momma Wyld, Happy Thanksgiving,” I say, greeting Evan’s mom, who is an angel of a woman. She’s your stereotypical Texan woman, blonde, blue-eyed, perfect makeup, immaculately dressed, and talks in a thick Texas accent, which makes this Aussie laugh.
“Oh, sugar, don’t you look handsome.” She hugs me tightly. I soak in all the hugs and kisses Momma Wyld wants to lay on me.
“Please, look at you,” I say, giving her a wink.
“Y’all, should I be worried?” Evan’s dad asks as he walks into the room, laughing as he spies his wife hugging me.
“Papa Bear, please, you know that woman only has eyes for you,” I tell him. One day, I want a love like Evan’s parents have, even after all these years he still thinks she is the most beautiful woman in the world.
“Only when you have your shirt on, she does,” he jokes.
“Morning, everyone,” Charlotte says, joining us in the living room.
“Baby girl, you get more beautiful each time I see you,” Papa Bear says to his little cub. So adorable. Sienna and Vanessa’s families were the first happy families I ever met, and it took me a while to not feel uneasy being around them.
“Damn straight, she is. Charlotte has many admirers lurking around,” I tease.
Papa Bear and Evan glare at me which makes me smirk.
“Oh, hush, you two. She’s a grown woman and hasn’t been a baby girl in years,” Evan’s mom chastises them for being overprotective of her. If only they knew what she was getting up to with a certain bad-boy rock star.
“Well, I have a safe full of guns, sweetheart. If any boy breaks your heart, just send them my way,” Papa Bear adds sternly.
Evan’s mom changes the topic. “Sienna, look at you, I swear your belly has popped overnight. Look at this beautiful belly.”
“Nothing fits me anymore.” Sienna groans. “Luckily, it’s getting cooler, so I can live in leggings and sweaters.”
Sienna is gorgeous with her baby bump, plus I don’t think Evan is complaining about her changing figure, the two are always fucking.
“I think you are even more beautiful than the day I met you,” Evan says, kissing her forehead. See, gag, but also my girl deserves it.
“He’s a hopeless romantic, that boy,” his mom declares. “And next year we will have an extra family member for Thanksgiving,” she says excitedly. You can tell how excited she is to be a grandmother, it’s so cute. That’s so weird that, like, Sienna is going to push a human out of her vagina.
“Yeah, son, we couldn’t be prouder,” Papa Bear says, and you can see the pride radiating from Evan, which only makes him even hotter, damn fucking DILF.
We’ve been busy all morning decorating Sienna’s backyard to look like a pumpkin jerked off over everything, with orange and fall colors everywhere.
I’m kind of excited, I’ve never celebrated Thanksgiving before, and I’ve only ever seen it in the movies.
The morning has been busy with catering staff coming and going everywhere.
We keep trying to de-stress Sienna because of the baby, but she wants it perfect.
Now that every man and his dog is coming to the day, the pressure is on, but as her bestie, I will take on her stress because that’s what best friends do.
The doorbell hasn’t stopped with all the Dirty Texas family coming in, so when I look up and see three strange, gorgeous men, I have questions.
“Who the fuck ordered strippers?” I ask as they walk into the backyard.
“They’re my brothers,” Finn explains.
Wait. These are Finn’s brothers? “Where the hell have you been hiding these men from me?”
“D, I don’t think they can handle you,” Finn teases.
“True, but I sure would like to find out.” I smirk.
“Get a couple of beers into Parker, and he’s anyone’s,” One of the brothers who looks like GI Joe says, as he slaps the back of the boy who looks to be the youngest and chuckles, which earns him a punch in the guts from his brother.
“Fuck you,” he says, then turns to me. “You are a very good-looking man, and if I were gay, I would so totally fuck you, but I have a thing for pussies.” It takes a lot to surprise or shock me, but this boy does, and I can tell he’s not meaning it maliciously at all.
I think he’s going to be my new best friend, as I swing my arm around his shoulders.
“I like you, you’re funny. I make a great wingman, just so you know. ”
Parker smiles. “I like where your head is at. The chicks would go crazy for you, and then when you tell them you prefer dicks, they will be all over me.”
This makes me burst out laughing. “You’re a smart boy.” We walk off toward the bar.
“Not according to my brothers,” he grumbles.
“I’m going to hazard a guess that you’re the youngest?” I ask him. He nods. “And GI Joe is the oldest?”
This has him bursting out laughing. “Hudson? GI Joe. That’s so true. Jackson is probably more GI Joe, seeing as he’s ex-military.”
“I like a man in uniform.” I smirk.
“Jackson doesn’t swing that way,” he explains. Dammit. Always my luck. “Hudson is the oldest and a war photojournalist. He goes into war zones and captures pictures.”
Oh wow. That would be scary. “That seems dangerous.”
“It is. I would never do it, but it was good to know that Jackson and Hudson had each other while they were away. Like Hudson would make sure that nothing would happen to his little brother. Except it did,” he says quietly.
I grab us both a couple of beers from the bar and hand him one. “Did something happen to your brother?”
“Yeah,” he says, taking a large swig of beer.
“You don’t have to tell me.” I realize that it’s rude of me to ask about something so personal.
He shakes his head. “I’m surprised you don’t already know.
I guess it’s been a while, and I know Jackson’s accident affected everyone differently, so they don’t talk about it, which sucks because I think it’s healthy to talk about those kinds of things so that trauma doesn’t fester, you know.
” I nod. “His tank was hit by an unexploded IED during a patrol. Jackson was rushed to Germany, where they tried to pick out the shrapnel in his legs, but they couldn’t get it all.
Unfortunately, he lost a couple of his friends, and his best friend lost his leg.
It’s taken my brother a long time to stop walking with a limp, it’s only every now and then that he does. ”
Wow. “That must have been scary.”
“It was. Luckily, I was modelling in Paris, so I wasn’t far away. I was the first one there. Seeing my older brother lifeless and hooked up to all these machines was hard to see because he was always this larger-than-life guy to me. It wasn’t his time.”
“And how are you?”
Parker pauses for a moment. “You know what, you’re the first person to ever ask me that,” he says sadly. “Jackson’s accident isn’t about me.”
“But it was something traumatic you went through.”
He nods. “Yeah. But I’m safe and healthy.”
“You can still be traumatized, though.”
He shakes his head. “As long as my brother is alive, that is all I care about. Urgh. Sorry, I’ve just met you and dumped my trauma on your back. I’m sorry.”
“Seems like you needed to get that off your chest.” I chuckle.
“Seems like it,” he says with a frown as he throws back his beer. “You’re easy to talk to, Derrick, was it?”
“It’s my good looks, it disarms people,” I joke, which makes him laugh.
“You could be a model, but I haven’t seen you around so what is it you do?” he says, complimenting me.
“I’m a struggling stylist and co-own a boutique with Sienna.”
He looks me up and down. “You do look very stylish.”
I then look him up and down. “As are you.”
Parker smiles. “I know a lot of people in the fashion industry. I could introduce you to them.”
“You would?”
“Of course. Let’s swap numbers. I’m catching up with some friends while in LA. They are models, actors, and some work in the fashion industry here in the city, so they are probably good people to know.”
“I appreciate it so much,” I tell him as we swap numbers. “Any of your friends swing my way?”
“Plenty. You want me to play cupid?” Parker smiles.
“I’m not looking for love, just dick.”
Parker chokes on his beer before bursting out laughing. “My friends are going to love you.”
“Happy Thanksgiving, Derrick,” Chance says, nodding in my direction as he glares at Parker who is standing beside me.
“Same to you,” I say, holding my beer up to him as silence falls between us.
“Oh, hi, I’m Parker, Finn’s brother,” he says, introducing himself and breaking the awkward silence. Chance smiles and shakes his hand, and thankfully, before it gets too awkward again, Johnny calls Chance over to him and he goes.
“Well, that wasn’t half awkward. I’m guessing there is something going on there between the two of you,” Parker asks.
“Yeah,” I say as I sip my beer.
“Something that no one knows about?” Parker pushes.
“Yep. You can’t say anything.” I turn to him.
“Wouldn’t dream of it,” he adds. “Come on, let’s grab a seat, it looks like the food is almost ready.”
Vanessa stands and clears her throat. “Thought I would start the tradition off first today with what I am thankful for.”
“Angel, I know you’re thankful for me,” Christian pipes up.
She pegs a bread roll at him, making everyone laugh before continuing with what she is thankful for, “I’m thankful that my best friend has found true love and happiness. And she’s just down the road from me again instead of a twenty-hour flight away.”
I’m disappointed that she isn’t thankful for me because let’s be serious, everyone should be thankful that I am in their life.
Evan stands next. “I am thankful for the life Sienna is growing inside of her. I am thankful for the love she shows me every day, and I am thankful that I found her.”
Aw. That’s sweet. And I can see the love radiating from Sienna as she looks up at her rock star love. When he sits down, she kisses him like crazy, making the table erupt.
We listen as the rest of the guys say what they are thankful for.
Finn gets up and says he’s thankful for Jackson surviving, which makes his mom teary-eyed.
Christian said he was thankful for Vanessa and everything that she does for the band.
Axel got up and said how thankful he was that the boys wanted to take this next step in their careers.
Oscar was thankful for his sister and family.
Who knew Ragnar could be a little pussy cat?
Then it came time for Chance and my heart stopped.
I knew he would never say he was thankful for me, but a tiny bit of me hoped that he would come out and tell the world that we were kind of together.
Instead, he said how thankful he was for his bandmates and Dirty Texas for having faith in them, basically reiterating what the others said.
I was so stupid to think he would say anything else, to think he would acknowledge what we have.
And now it’s my turn. I stand up and clear my throat as I look at all the people sitting around these large tables, I truly am thankful for everyone who is sitting at this table.
“I am thankful for Finn and Evan’s hot-as-hell brothers,” I say, giving them a wink, which has everyone bursting out laughing.
“I’m thankful for Dirty Texas. You guys have changed my life.
You’ve welcomed me into your lives with reluctant open arms.” This makes them chuckle.
“You’ve made me feel like I’m part of your family, something I’ve never truly felt before.
There’s a saying I read that says, ‘Family isn’t always blood.
It’s the people in your life who want you in theirs.
The ones that accept you for who you are.
’ And you all have. So, thank you,” I say as I raise my beer up to them, trying not to be an emotional bitch.
“I’m thankful for Vanessa, whose crazy idea it was for us to come join Dirty Texas on tour.
You changed my life with that.” I nod at her.
Tears glisten in her eyes. “And lastly, I am thankful for you, Sienna. My ride or die. My other half. Sorry, Evan, but we all know it’s true. ” I smirk at him.
Evan smiles. “You’re the only person I would ever share her with.”
“Sienna, you saved me when I didn’t realize I needed saving at a time when I was at my lowest. You found me and made life worth living again.
Made me realize I was worth it.” When I look over at Sienna, she is bawling her eyes out.
Sorry, not sorry. Because everyone here needs to know how much she means to me.
And maybe I also need to remind myself that I’m that bitch.
“I love you,” Sienna says, getting up and hugging me.
“I love you, too,” I tell her as we stupidly cry as the table erupts in applause.
“We love you, Derrick,” Christian yells out as everyone starts chanting my name. Wow. Don’t stop. More please. I bathe in the spotlight.