Chapter Nine
Pee Wee
After the fiasco at the house yesterday, I took the day off to fix my bike. I needed the distraction to keep from tracking down Diana and putting a fucking bullet in her brain.
Fucking bitch.
It was one thing to fuck with me; I was used to her shit.
But doing some shit that affected our boys? Naw. I couldn’t even begin to wrap my fucking head around it.
Parents were supposed to look out for their kids even when they were pissed at the rest of the world.
I heaved out a breath.
The truth of the matter was, the only thing holding me back from tracking her ass down and ending her miserable life was the fact that she was the mother of my children.
“This is a nice garage,” Brody said, breaking into my spiraling thoughts.
He and his brother were sitting on the back of Bentley’s tailgate, both of them kicking their legs as they looked around the detached garage.
The massive dark gray steel building had three bay doors that went all the way up.
There was plenty of room for my truck, McKenna’s car, the bike lift I had my bike on, and a couple more vehicles.
So much room that Bentley hadn’t even hesitated to pull his truck in when he and his brother rolled up after school.
It was nice. I was enjoying listening to them shoot the shit and rag on each other while I worked on my sled.
We didn’t do that much anymore.
Mostly because I never wanted to hang around the house, because all Diana did was moan and bitch.
“Yeah. It was a selling point for sure,” I finally answered.
Honestly, the garage was one of the major selling points about the property when I bought it.
I’d grown up poor and had always promised myself that one day I’d have a nice house on a little piece of land with a big garage.
Then Diana happened.
She wanted to live in town in a subdivision with an HOA. She thought it gave her status or some shit. I never cared about keeping up with the Joneses. I wanted peace and quiet.
We compromised and moved into a subdivision with an HOA.
Turning my attention back to the carburetor, I focused on the small parts in my hands, enjoying the quiet as my boys sat watching me work.
“So…” Brody said, pulling my attention back to him and his brother.
I arched a brow, waiting for him to go on. I knew it’d take him a minute to spit it out. Of my two sons, Brody was the quiet one.
A hint of pink tinted his cheeks.
Seeing his hesitation, Bentley rolled his eyes. “What Blushing Betty is trying to ask is, is McKenna your girlfriend? And don’t lie. We know she’s not just your assistant. ”
“Well…” Blowing out a breath, I thought about my options.
I could lie, which was pointless, because clearly there was more between McKenna and me.
My boys weren’t stupid. We came here last night, and she hadn’t even hesitated to let us in.
Then I called her baby and slept in her bed.
It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out McKenna meant something to me.
“Yeah,” I finally admitted, giving it to them straight. “McKenna is my girlfriend. We’ve been together for a year.” I paused, then added the most important part. “She makes me happy.”
The boys exchanged a look. “But what about Mom?”
I rubbed at the back of my head. No way in hell was I telling them the truth about their mother tricking me into marrying her ass. Regardless of how much I hated her, I loved my sons more than life itself, and I wouldn’t change a thing about my life because it gave me them.
“It’s complicated.”
“Uncomplicate it,” Bentley shot back, his eyes showing he was serious. He wanted to understand.
Fuck.
“They never loved each other,” Brody said .
He wasn’t wrong, but it was way more complicated than that. “Son?—”
“Dad.” Brody cut me off, his eyes intense. “We know. You guys were never like our friends’ parents. It was obvious.”
I nodded, wiping grease off my hand with the shop towel. “You’re right. But we both love you guys.”
I didn’t know what else to say.
Suddenly, Brody smirked at his twin. “Told you they were doing the dirty.”
Bentley laughed and punched his brother’s arm. “She’s a MILF, bro.”
I stood there frozen for half a second, then rolled my eyes.
Jesus.
“Watch your mouth,” I warned, but I couldn’t help the laugh that escaped me. That was about the response I should have expected from my sixteen year old sons. My boys weren’t little kids anymore. They were damn near men.
“Where is she now?” Brody asked, still grinning as he glanced toward the house.
“She had some errands to run.” I wanted to ask her where she was going this morning, but I didn’t want to overwhelm her after showing up out of the blue last night with Brody and Bentley .
“What’s for dinner tonight?” Bentley asked.
I chuckled. My boys could eat. Their stomachs were like bottomless pits.
“I was thinking we could take her out. There’s a decent steakhouse not far from here.”
They groaned simultaneously.
“We were hoping she’d make that TikTok Spaghetti she was talking about last night,” Brody said.
I grinned. I couldn’t wait to try it either. McKenna was one hell of a cook, and her baking was out of this world.
“Wait until she starts baking.”
Bentley groaned. “All this talk about food is making me hungry.”
I pulled out my wallet and handed them some cash. “Go grab some burgers from Stacked. Bring me something back, too.”
Stacked had kick-ass burgers, and their onion rings were aces. I’d have to spend an extra hour at the gym, but it’d be worth it.
“We’ll be back,” they said in unison, hopping into Brody’s truck.
I watched them back out of the garage, still feeling like I was in some alternate reality. My sons and my woman were under one roof.
Turning back to my bike, I let my mind wander to McKenna. She’d taken the boys’ sudden appearance in stride, cooking dinner, making them feel welcome.
Maybe it was time to start thinking about making this arrangement permanent.
Dropping the fancy, red cloth napkin McKenna insisted we had to use because they were festive on the table, I patted my stomach. I felt like I was going to explode. “Damn, that was good.”
When McKenna got back from running her errands, I suggested we go out for dinner so she didn’t have to cook again.
Her cheeks turned an adorable shade of pink, and she admitted that she’d secretly been excited about cooking the TikTok spaghetti.
Apparently, the only time she made the dish was when her nephews came over because it made such a huge batch, and she’d never be able to eat it all.
“You ate two plates,” Brody teased.
I nodded. “Hell yeah, I did. It was fuckin’ good.”
It wasn’t ordinary spaghetti. It was spaghetti on crack. It had tomato sauce and Alfredo sauce, and was the best damn pasta I’d ever eaten .
Bentley was eyeing the mostly empty pan in the center of the table. “I’m stuffed, but I don’t want to throw that away.”
McKenna grinned. “I’ll stick it in a Tupperware dish and put it in the fridge so you guys can have the leftovers.”
Bentley nodded, a look I’d never seen before crossing his face. “Thanks, McKenna. For all of this.”
My girl smiled softly. “It was just spaghetti, honey.”
Bentley shook his head. “No, it’s not.”
With that, my boys pushed back from the table and took their dishes to the sink.
McKenna’s eyes came to me, her brows pulled together. “It was just spaghetti.”
Reaching out, I placed my hand over hers. “No, baby. Their mother never cooked for them. She never sat down at the kitchen table and talked to them about their day.”
My girl’s gaze moved to the kitchen where the boys were rinsing off dishes and loading them into the dishwasher, her eyes turning glassy.
It was clicking exactly what she’d given to them and the impact it had because she grew up with a piece of shit father who was never around.
She knew exactly what it was like to have an absent parent .
“Come on, babe. Let’s go to bed.” My girl looked tired, and tomorrow would be a long night at the Underground since it was fight night.
Taking my hand, I helped her out of her seat and led her down the hall to our bedroom, once again thinking how right it felt being here with her and my sons under the same roof.
Stepping into the bathroom, I grabbed my toothbrush.
“Tired, babe?” I asked, watching her in the mirror.
She nodded. “Yeah.”
Spitting in the sink, I rinsed my mouth, put my toothbrush back in the holder, then opened the top drawer for the floss.
What I saw inside had me freezing on the spot.
What. The. Fuck. Is. That.
Grabbing the plastic stick like it was a ticking time bomb, I stared at the two pink lines.
Noticing the look on my face, McKenna’s eyes darted to the pregnancy test in my hand, and her eyes went wide. “I can explain.”
“Is this for real?” I croaked. We’d never talked about having kids.
She bit her lip, nodding slowly. “I went to the doctor this morning to confirm it.”
I stared at the test, my mind racing.
A baby. We were going to have a fucking baby.
Fuck.
“You’re pregnant,” I said, the words feeling foreign on my tongue.
“Yes,” she whispered, moving her hand to her stomach.
That one word changed everything.