Chapter 24
Twenty-Four
Not to be dramatic, but it’s only fucking Wednesday.
—Jasper to Calli
JASPER
She was wrong.
Everyone knew exactly what we’d been doing.
We’d overlooked just one thing.
On the outside, Calli was the epitome of cool, calm and collected.
She was wearing an entirely borrowed outfit.
Bright red leggings, white socks that came up over the bottom of her leggings.
Red Crocs with white fur lining the inside and a black strap that made it look like Santa’s belt.
She had her Rudolph sweatshirt on, and her hair was down around her neck.
Literally, she looked so fuckin’ cute that it hurt.
But we’d miscalculated.
The hickey on the side of her neck was so prominent against her pale skin that there was no way you couldn’t see it—hence Calli wearing her hair down.
Searcy looked from that hickey to her sister to me.
“Something you’d like to tell us?” Searcy asked.
“Yeah, my house burned down,” Calli said. “But I was able to save some of the cookies.”
“That’s not exactly what I was thinking you’d be addressing,” Doc grumbled, his glare focused entirely on me.
“Well, then that’s the only thing we’re going to discuss right now until you get that weird look off your face.” Calli looked down the hall. “Where are the kids?”
“There was a surprise visitor,” Searcy said. “He’s right…”
“Koda!” Calli cried out.
I watched, a small smile taking over my face as Calli hit her brother like a battering ram.
Koda, the badass elite fighting machine that he was, went back onto a foot when his little sister hit him.
He wrapped his arms around her and held on tight, a look of relief flooding his face.
“Never had my guts feel so messed up as they did when I heard your house burned down.” His eyes came up to meet mine. “Guess I have the ‘guy that hates you’ to thank for bringing you into his place.”
Calli choked and stepped back, her eyes alight with laughter. “He didn’t save me, really. We were already at his place.”
“I figured as much based on what I heard from Searcy,” he said as his gaze met mine. “Why don’t you introduce me to him?”
We’d met before, of course.
Though we hadn’t spent anywhere near as much time together as I did with the rest of the Hodges siblings.
“Whatever.” Calli rolled her eyes. “I’m going to help Searcy. Boys! How could you not give me a hug?”
The youngest, Dalton, squealed when his aunt came into view.
Calli bent down and snagged the wide-awake little boy from the floor where he’d been doing tummy time in front of the Christmas tree.
My heart stuttered in my chest as I got a good look at Calli with a baby.
I’d always loved babies.
As long as they weren’t mine, anyway.
But the idea of seeing Calli holding a child that we’d made with each other…
“Get that look off your face,” Doc grumbled. “She’s too young yet.”
I snorted. “I think their mom might’ve scared her off of ever having kids. But doesn’t mean that I can’t dream.”
Because that was the dream, wasn’t it?
Having a child with the woman that you loved?
“She did a number on them, that’s for sure,” Doc said. “I thought we’d never have any. Then bam. Now we have three.”
“Jasper.”
I held out my hand for the second-eldest Hodges sibling.
He took it in a firm grip, and didn’t complain about the scars.
“Nice to see you again,” he said.
“I’m glad you made it home.” I dropped his hand. “Calli was worried about you.”
“Calli?” Koda scoffed. “She’s made of napalm and bullets. That girl doesn’t worry about anything.”
As he said this, Calli raised her voice and made a “ah-ah-ah” sound as she saw Pane climbing up onto the counter in the kitchen to do lord knew what.
“She worries about everyone,” I disagreed. “In fact, I would counter and say that she worries too much. It’s just easier for her to hide how she feels than deal with acknowledging those feelings.” I looked at Doc then. “In fact, she thinks the club hates her. And you just tolerate her.”
Doc’s lips thinned. “I see.”
Calli came into view, deposited Dalton in my arms, and walked off.
I expertly repositioned him in my arms, his head going up near my neck and his little butt sitting solidly on my forearm.
“You look like you’ve handled a kid or two before.”
I had a good chuckle at that.
“My dad owned a gym when we were growing up,” I explained. “I had a lot of days in the daycare room so I could watch members’ kids. And then my sister popped out several of her own. I’ve been very involved in their lives since the beginning.”
“Expert level one thousand,” Kent said. “You like her?”
I knew what he was asking.
I hesitated, wondering if I should share the depth of my feelings with the man that might very well punch me in the face for defiling his beloved sister-in-law…fuck it.
“I love her.”
Doc inhaled sharply.
Koda grinned. “That right?”
“That’s right,” I confirmed.
“You can handle her?”
I really did laugh then, startling the baby I was holding.
He started to let out a wail of a cry, but I soothed him back to calm before saying, “I don’t think anyone handles Calliope, man. But I’m definitely going to be along for the ride. And be damn happy about it.”
“Let’s eat!”
We all filed into the kitchen that had a huge spread in it.
“Why’d you buy this much food?” Kent asked. “Damn.”
“I figured more people would show, but the weather’s being a tit.”
“Tit!” Pane bellowed. “Tit! Tittttt!”
Searcy sighed.
“Guess he could be saying titty,” Doc muttered under his breath.
“Titty!” Pane bellowed.
Doc covered his mouth with his hand and closed his eyes.
My guess was to hide his mirth.
Searcy didn’t bother to try to hide.
She just let out a giggle.
“Pane Bowen Hicks,” Calli scolded the young boy. “We do not say those kinds of words.”
“Why?” he asked.
“Because you have to be an adult to say them,” she said. “Remember what I said about adult words?”
Calli and Pane continued to talk in a language that I had a hard time following.
The group sat down and started to eat.
Searcy offered to take her son, but I waved her off to allow her and Doc to wrangle Cassidy and Pane.
Though, Pane tended to gravitate to his aunt and made no effort to hide how much he loved her more than the rest of them.
“I swear,” Koda said. “She’s seriously the kid whisperer.”
“Remember how Searcy had to work for hours to get us to bed.” Kent chuckled. “And all Calliope had to do was glare at us and we’d be good?”
“That was called fear,” Koda said. “Searcy would give you a thousand chances. Calliope gave you one then set you very straight.”
“That’s true,” Kent said as he reached for the stack of pancakes. “Jesus, what the hell are we going to do with all these leftovers?”
Doc did me a solid and piled food onto my plate, allowing me to eat while still hanging onto his kid.
All the while, I couldn’t take my eyes off of Calli.
Hours passed, and more and more people showed.
First it was Cutter with Milena, sans their kids who’d stayed behind with their brother, Shasha, and his wife.
Audric and Creole were next, followed shortly by Gunner, Lottie, Sutton, and their newest little one.
Copper came sans wife, but he had his adopted son with him.
“Baker’s under the weather.” He smiled. “She could barely get out of the house today. Everything was making her sick to her stomach. The laundry detergent. The smell of leftover bacon. The cab of my truck. We decided that she needed a break.”
Webber and Silver showed as well, though they’d come right on the heels of Chevy and Aella.
They’d all spilled into Searcy’s huge house, and everything was going great.
Until the men had learned that Calli and I were a thing.
Then I’d been hauled outside to “explain” myself and get the third degree.
I’d been out on the deck with the group of men that I called brothers for a solid twenty minutes, and was smiling huge when I looked through the window and saw Calli filling up a glass of wine to the very brim.
She took a hefty swallow and met my gaze through the plate-glass window.
The kids shrieked away in the backyard, laughing and playing in the melting snow like there was no tomorrow.
“You can give me my kid back when you’re ready,” Doc said.
I’d had the kid in my arms for a solid five hours now, only putting him down to change his diaper and then wrap him up in a blanket to head outside with the men.
“I’m good.” I grinned.
“They won’t punch you in the face with an infant in your arms,” Koda drawled.
I looked at the man and winked. “Why do you think Searcy’s let me keep him? She likes me.”
“Searcy’s drowning.” Koda looked at Doc. “You should probably hold off on knocking her up again. She needs a break.”
“I know it.” Doc let his eyes drift to his wife.
Just as he said it, a bull bellowed in the background and Doc narrowed his eyes at the big beast. “God, I wish I could eat him.”
“Searcy wouldn’t let you.” Cutter limped over from where he was leaning against the railing. “Why don’t you look broken right now?”
“Because I work out,” I lied.
I was dying.
My legs were killing me.
But I’d been hiding weakness for nearly a decade now. A little—a lot—leg soreness wouldn’t stop me.
“Whatever.” Cutter continued to limp inside. “I need to go find a comfortable chair. When are we eating dinner? Are we watching y’all open your gifts?”
My stomach sank.
Gifts.
“Shit,” I said. “I don’t have any. All of the ones I got for Calli burned in the fire.”
Gunner’s eyes met mine. “I’ll tell her about the two hours you fucked off at work the other day to find her chips she would eat.”
I opened my mouth to tell him that wasn’t necessary, but then the kid in my arms let out a fart that most grown men would be envious of.
Then started filling his diaper.
I started to hand him off to Doc, but he held up his hands. “Oh, no. You wanted him. You got him.”
I was sure he expected me to argue, but again, I was an old pro.
I took him back to the room that he shared with his brother and got him cleaned up as quietly as I could seeing as Pane was asleep.