Chapter Eighteen
Aspyn
One Year Later
I stare out into the café from the back of the house. It’s a busy Sunday morning and we’re packed to the gills. Biscuits just came out of the oven and I immediately slid another batch in. It looks like we’ll need at least two more trays to get us through the breakfast rush.
I’m a little low on cinnamon. I’m going to have to grab some more before lunch. Liam told me I’d need more, but we got tied up with more important things last night.
Quite literally.
The guys had me tied up in the barn and they each had their way with me one at a time. Bent over the hay bales, against the fence post, on my knees out in the field. I never thought I’d be the girl who liked being restrained. Turns out, I love it. In fact, I’m soaked right now, thinking about all the kinky things that went down last night. Spanking, demands, a little hair pulling… I shiver as the memories come flooding in.
Dishes clank in the dining room and people murmur as the creak of the oven hinge sounds behind me. I do most of the cooking here at Magnolias, but we’ve hired some sous-chefs that help me out when things get crazy. This is one of those mornings.
A big, rough hand lands on my lower back and the warm rumble of a deep voice leans into my ear. “Hey, little cat. How’s your morning going?”
I twist back toward Jake and lean into his hard chest. He smells like fresh honey. I’d guess he’s been spooning it into the butter topping for the biscuits. “Good. We’re staying out of the weeds, so that’s a plus. How is it out at the police station?” About six months ago, Jake took Ranger up on his offer to help out and the two of them have been running the town of Maple Grove ever since.
“We’re out there serving and protecting.” He rubs his hand over my expanding stomach. “And how’s the little one? You staying off your feet as much as possible?”
I meet his gaze and grin. “I was off my feet last night. That was fun.”
A slow, wicked smile creeps up onto his face as he leans into my neck. “You’re a naughty little girl, aren’t you?”
“Yeah, I am. I think I’m gonna need more spankings.”
He drags in a deep breath and lets it out slowly. “We can make that happen, but first you have a visitor out there waiting.”
My brows narrow and I twist back toward the breezeway, looking out at the restaurant. I can’t imagine who would be visiting me. I spend ninety percent of my time with the guys, and the few friends I have were already here this morning. “Who is it?”
He nods toward the circular table in the back of the café, where an inked-up man sits in the corner. He wears a long black beard and a red flannel shirt.
“Okay… who’s that?” I feel bad, but that guy looks like a lot of other guys in town.
Jake leans in close. “That’s your brother.”
My heart stalls, and the air that should be circulating through my lungs isn’t. I’m not sure where it went or if it’s coming back. I’ve thought about my brother every day for the last year. I’ve imagined where he was, what he looked like, if he found happiness. Truthfully, after months of internet research on witness protection, I didn’t think he was coming back.
But there he is, my brother.
Jake nods toward him, then kisses my forehead. “I’ll handle things back here. He doesn’t have long. Go talk to him.”
If I could form words, I’d ask Jake what I should say, how I should act, how long I had. Instead, I move like a zombie through the small café filled with smiling folks and settle into the back corner of the restaurant where my brother sits. If Jake hadn’t told me it was him, I’d never have known. He’s gone from skinny to thick and jacked. His shoulders seem wider, his hair is longer, and though he always despised a beard, the one he’s wearing is long and wild. He even smells different, like fresh cut cedar, leather, and exhaust, like he’s been riding a bike.
Good Lord, is my brother a biker?
He stands from the table and leans in to hug me. This close, I see it’s most certainly him. It’s funny that a person could change so drastically and still their eyes would give them away.
“You’re pregnant.” He glances down at my stomach before sitting again.
“Six months. We’re having a baby girl.”
“You have a name picked out?”
“Lainey.” I’m speaking in a near whisper because I still have no idea what to think of this whole thing.
“That’s a good name.” He nods and sips from his cup of coffee. I wonder if this is as awkward for him as it is for me.
“We think so. I’m hoping to have a home birth. The guys asked me to marry them at the farmhouse. We had our wedding there, and I’m hoping we’ll have our babies there too.”
His head moves back and forth as he continues to sip his coffee. I wonder if he’s angry. Maybe he hates his new life. Maybe he resents me for living freely.
“I’m so happy for you, little sister. I caught up with the guys this morning and y’all sound so amazing. Seems like you’re being taken care of really well.”
“I am!” I reach my hand across the table, relieved that he isn’t angry. “So well. Liam helps with all the books here and comes up with all these amazing ideas for the café. Ranger and Jake do their thing at the police station, and in the evenings, we all take care of the animals and cook together.” I rub my free hand over my stomach. “We can’t wait for this little girl to come. The guys finished her room last night. It’s the cutest thing with little ponies and an explosion of pink.” I laugh. “I think the guys are secretly hoping for a boy next time, but they don’t show it. How about you? What are you doing these days?”
“Ah shit. Well… I’m up in this little mountain town called Whiskey Falls. It’s small as fuck, but it’s quaint and there’s not a lot of action, so people kind of stay to themselves for the most part.”
“I thought small towns were good for gossip?”
“Not giving ‘em much to gossip about, I guess. Not yet anyway.” He laughs and bites into a buttered biscuit with a groan. I guess he likes them.
“You meet anyone special?”
“There’s this one girl, but I’m not sure what’s going to come of it. She’s got this asshole fiancé. Someone called the MC I’m with and asked us for help protecting her, but she doesn’t seem to want the protection.”
There’s so much information in that one sentence, it’s hard to process it all. “Hold on. So, you’re in an MC, like a motorcycle club, or you emcee at the local club?”
He laughs. “No, a motorcycle club. I know. I never thought you’d see the day I did something like this, but the guys have become family, and I needed it. They give me purpose.”
“That’s good. You need purpose right now. What’s with the girl? Sounds like she’s with someone. That’s weird, right?”
“She shouldn’t be with that guy. He doesn’t love her, not like he should.”
My brows narrow. “Oh shit! You’re not going to do something crazy, right? You’re not getting too hot for her drama, are you?”
He drags in a deep breath and lets it out slowly. “It’s Molly.”
My chest tightens and blood rushes through my neck so hard that it burns. “Molly? Oh my God. So, Ranger hired you? Does he know how invested you’re getting?”
“Nothing for him to know. I like her, but nothing can come of it. She’s still with that asshole and if I’m being honest with myself, I know half the guys at the MC are into her. I have no fuckin’ clue what she sees in that fuck. I’ve been on the edge of breaking him like a hundred times.”
His fists clench and his jaw tightens. This version of my brother is completely different from the strait-laced, business suit version I’m used to seeing. “Don’t say anything to Molly. I probably shouldn’t have told you.”
“No, it’s fine. You should tell me. I missed you. I want to know things. Also, I get it. Trust me, I pined after the guys for years, thinking nothing could happen, until it did and my whole world changed.”
He groans, sitting back to readjust his shirt as the waitress delivers a pitcher of sweet tea to the table next to us. I really love the vintage turquoise pitchers I chose. They’re so cute! “Well, I don’t think my story is going to turn out like yours. Like I said, even if she left the asshole, there are lots of dudes on the roster. She wouldn’t choose me.”
“She has history with you. That counts for something.” Why am I convincing him to go after Molly? I’m not sure what Ranger would think of that, though I’m guessing he doesn’t have much ground to stand on considering he’s with me, his best friend's little sister.
“Not if I freak the fuck out and murder this asshole who’s screaming at her every night. I really don’t get why she puts up with it.” There’s a ragged anger in his voice as he talks.
“I don’t get it either. I think she feels trapped. At least, that’s what I get from her when we talk. They get in these cycles where things are really bad, and then, all of a sudden, they’re great again. I’ve tried reading her articles about toxic relationships and why they’re so damaging to your brain, but she won’t listen.”
“Well, I’ve gotta do something.” He stares out the side window at the field of pumpkins popping up in the distance and I get the feeling he’s about to change the subject. “Mom and Dad would be so proud of you. You know that?”
I nod and squeeze his hand. “I’ve thought about what happened with them so much over the last year. I always put them on this pedestal, like they could do no wrong. Truthfully, I’m not even sure I was thinking about them as actual people. I’m sure that sounds awful.”
“No. Keep going.”
“I guess I just,” I sigh and wet my lips as I think over how to say the complex menagerie of thoughts that have been floating in my head over the last year, “I thought of them exclusively as my parents. Like I was the main character, and they didn’t have lives and dreams of their own they were trying to bring to life. I got so wrapped up in what I was losing that I forgot to see them as people who could be struggling themselves. That came out the night I sent those texts. Texts that I’ll always regret.”
He pinches his lips together and takes another sip of coffee. “The texts were warranted. They would’ve pushed the debts onto you next.” He sighs. “I gotta tell ya, I was so pissed for months. I still don’t fully understand how anyone could toss a pile of shit like that onto their kids, but then I remember the days before all the debt shoveling and the gambling and I realize they were more than who they were the last year of their lives.”
I smile. “Yeah, do you remember when Dad used to take us fishing for halibut up in Homer? Mom would make these huge picnics, and we’d go out there for the week and camp.”
My brother laughs. “You’d spend the entire time singing the last song you heard in the car on the way there, and Mom and Dad would zip us out of the tent for thirty minutes at a time.”
I grin as I think back to all the kisses Dad would steal from Mom those weeks. They were in heaven out there camping with us. “I wonder what they were doing.”
He shakes his head and smiles before standing. “They were happy. We were happy. Those days are what I want for your family, and for mine someday.”
“It’ll happen,” I say, standing with him as he pushes his seat under the table. I’m guessing he’s about to go.
He holds me against his thick frame for a solid minute, then kisses the top of my head. “Love you, little sister. I’ll be back around sooner rather than later. I’ll need to meet that niece of mine at some point.”
“Are you worried about someone finding you?”
“A little, but I took precautions today and I will again the next time we meet. Besides, I’m a bad ass now. You see these tattoos?”
I can’t help but laugh. “Yeah, shit. Sorry. Clearly, you’re bad to the bone. My bad.”
He rings his arm around my neck playfully and scrubs his knuckles against the top of my head. “Get out of here. Make those men of yours do all the work with that baby. Got it?”
“Got it!” I grin, making my way back through the café toward the kitchen.
When I turn back, I expect to see my brother climbing onto his bike through the front window, but as quietly as he came, he’s gone.
Ranger, Liam, and Jake stand in the kitchen with open arms. I’d expected the town to judge us, maybe even reject the café because of our lifestyle. Instead, I get high fives everywhere I go. Turns out, women love the idea of having three men devoted to them, and men think having their best buddies around to watch sports and share responsibilities with sounds pretty good.
It’s nice to be accepted.
“You okay?” Jake reaches out for me, pulling me against his chest.
“Yeah, I am. That was really nice, actually. My brother seems good, and I got some closure I’m not sure I knew I needed.”
Ranger kisses my forehead and Liam rubs my back gently as Jake holds me close. In this space, with the three most amazing men in the universe, I can do anything. I can grow stronger, I can find purpose, and I can prepare for the lunch rush coming soon.
Today’s special is a pimento fried chicken sandwich and a Coca-Cola cake for dessert. I also need to husk some corn for the side dish. I love this café and everything it stands for, but I realize now it was never really my dream.
Deep down, what I was craving was love. Without that, the café would just be a building, our home would just be a house, and the stories of my day would fall flat and turn with the sun.
Love is a gift, and though I’d fantasized about it a lot, I didn’t expect to find it with my brother’s best friends. But true love always finds a way, even if it comes three big, inked up men at a time.
THANK YOU FOR READING
READ MOLLY’S STORY HERE