Chapter 3
Bolo
“Your favorite son is here!” I called out as I stepped into my parents’ house the next night.
The lunch date with Devyn had gone great.
I’d texted her this morning and she was actually answering back.
Seemed like she was serious about trying to make it work.
It was easy to see she was still hesitant about trusting me, but I’d prove to her that she had nothing to worry about.
“He’s been here for about half an hour,” Isaac said with a smirk. He was sprawled on the couch with a beer.
I flipped him off then walked into the kitchen, gave Mom a kiss on the cheek as she stood at the stove, then hugged Dad. He slapped me on the back so hard it would have knocked me to the side if he didn’t also have one arm wrapped around me. “Relay’s not here yet?”
“You see him more than we do,” Mom said, with disapproval heavy in her tone.
“Especially now that you guys are living at your club,” Dad added. “You need help?” he asked Mom, looking over her shoulder at whatever she was making.
“No. I’d like dinner to be edible, thank you. Go away.” She looked over her shoulder and planted a kiss on his lips.
“Beer?” Dad asked me as he moved to the fridge.
“Sure.”
“Make it two!” Relay called out from the other room. He must have snuck in after me.
Both Relay and Isaac came into the kitchen and sat at the table while Dad and I leaned against the counters.
This was our habit. We didn’t go into the living room to talk because it left Mom in here alone cooking.
We always offered to help, but other than some basics none of us were very skilled when it came to food.
We could all build damn near anything you needed, but managed to burn anything not on a grill. Even then it could be dicey.
“Anyone bringing home a woman?” Mom asked, still staring down at the stove.
Good thing she was because that woman was perceptive as hell and would have seen me nearly choke on my beer.
Relay caught it though. His eyes narrowed on me, though he did me a solid by not saying anything.
Probably more from curiosity than brotherly loyalty.
I wondered if OD and Kilo had opened their big mouths to him and told him my news.
I sure hoped not. It was my job to tell my family about what was happening.
“Someone is going to need to give me daughters-in-law, you know,” Mom continued. “None of us are getting any younger.”
Dad snorted into his bottle as he took a drink. After he swallowed he eyed us. “As much as she wants daughters-in-law, she’s looking for grandbabies.”
“We know,” Isaac said in a wry tone. “She’s not exactly subtle about it.”
Mom turned and planted her hands on her hips. “I had all boys. I’m dying for some female companionship around here-” Her blue eyes began to narrow when they stopped on me, so I quickly looked down at the floor, like I was suddenly interested in the intricacies of the patterns in the wood. “Bolo-”
“Don’t worry, Mom,” Isaac said, going over and smashing her into a giant hug, and distracting her at the same time. “I’ll do the family proud and bring home a wife, eventually.”
We all rolled our eyes. Mom smacked at him to get him to let her out of the crushing bear hug. “You’re thirty-seven years old, Isaac,” she told him. “I’ve all but given up on you.”
His mouth dropped open. “What? I’m still young. Practically a teenager.”
“I had teenagers at your age,” she said, poking him in the stomach.
“You only act like a teenager,” Relay added. “You look old as shit.”
Isaac glared at our brother. “The fuck I do!”
“Language,” Mom said, turning back to the stove, but her tone was mild because she’d basically given up on trying to train us.
Not teach us manners. That was what you did with kids.
She’d once stated that feral little beasts like us required training.
She wasn’t wrong, especially once the food came out.
I was going to owe Isaac his choice of alcohol later, because I’d just about been busted when he’d distracted Mom for me.
Going over to the table, I sat down next to Relay.
Maybe distance would help keep her from prying my news out of me before I was ready.
It was a futile attempt, but right now wasn’t the time for my announcement.
It took another thirty minutes, lots of swearing, and a fight over whose turn it was to set the table—it was Relay’s—before we were all seated and ready to eat.
We waited as Mom dished herself up some pot roast, potatoes, and green beans.
It was a rule my father had put into place when we were ravenous teenagers that ate everything in sight.
Mom got her food first. It was one of the few pieces of training that actually stuck.
As soon as her plate was filled with everything she wanted, Isaac and Relay started dishing up. Dad grinned at me. There was no rule saying I needed to be last. No rule that had been spoken out loud anyway, but I’d started waiting to dish up last when I was fairly young, around thirteen or so.
There were two reasons for it. One, my dad would always take his food after everyone else and he had always been—and to this day remained—my damn hero.
And two, I ate so damn much I wanted to make sure everyone got enough.
Despite Mom always cooking enough for an army, I made sure there were never any leftovers.
Somewhere over the years it had devolved into Dad and I dishing up at the same time.
“This looks great, Honey,” Dad said. “Thanks.”
“Yeah,” Isaac said, shoving half a buttered roll into his mouth. “Great.”
Mom smacked him lightly on the back of the head.
“No wonder you have no wife. You have no manners. Girls don’t want to see you shove as much food as possible into your mouth, Isaac.
” She sighed. It was a long-suffering sound.
She really had done her best to instill manners into us.
Only about a third of them stuck. Dad’s genetics for stubbornness were just too strong.
“Yeah and chew with your damn pie hole closed,” I told him with a grin.
He flipped me off.
“Boys,” Dad said, not even looking up from his pot roast as he cut the tender meat up. “Enough.” We were thirty-three, thirty-five, and thirty-seven and he still called us boys.
Relay was too busy shoving his own dinner into his mouth to comment for once.
“When’s the last time you ate?” Mom asked him, concern filling her tone.
“This morning,” he grunted. He looked up. “I’m fine, Mom.”
Worrying about us was in her job description and she took it seriously. And we all worried about Relay more than anyone else. He’d been through so damn much during his time in the military. Our parents and brother didn’t know the half of it. But I did.
Relay shot me a look and I frowned when I read the apology in his dark brown eyes. Why was he looking at me like that? What was he-
Oh shit.
I didn’t even get the chance to non-verbally threaten him before he was chucking me under the damn bus.
“Bolo has some news.”
Bastard. He’s going to pay for that.
Our family had taken to using our road names—which started off as nicknames from our military days—so it was rare for any of us to use our given names anymore.
Isaac was the only one who didn’t go by his nickname.
He wasn’t in an MC and his name from the military had never really stuck.
He just preferred Isaac, so that was what we went by.
“You do?” Mom asked, her hopeful eyes landing on me. And then the look in them sharpened as she focused fully on me. “You do.”
That second statement was more of a demand to tell her. The military seriously needed to employ her as an instructor at SERE school. She was so damn good at digging information out of you that it was actually impressive.
I shot Relay a look that promised retaliation. He just shrugged, happy enough to be out of the spotlight for the moment that he didn’t give a shit what happened later. “I thought I’d wait until-”
“Your thoughts always get you in trouble, may as well tell us now,” Dad said, a grin growing as he watched his wife study me.
Sighing, I looked back and forth at all the expectant faces. Even Relay was watching me with curiosity. It confirmed that he didn’t know what my news was, just that I had some. “I’m…seeing…someone.”
Mom beamed at me. “Finally!”
I chuckled at that. “We’re not exactly dating.”
Her smile slipped. “Why not?”
I blew out a breath. Was it better to beat around the bush or rip the bandage off fast? “She’s pregnant.” I went for the bandage method.
They all blinked at me, some trying to figure out exactly what that meant. I got her pregnant? She was pregnant before meeting me? I could read all the questions on their faces. “It’s my baby.”
The silence was so damn thick I could cut it with a knife. I gave Mom a quick look, then sighed. “Why are you crying?” There was panic building up inside me. I glanced over at Dad, who was now glaring at me for making his wife cry.
“You’re having a baby?” Mom asked, sniffing back tears.
I was sure at some point my news would sink in enough for me to get a lecture. But for now her face and eyes were soft and wistful. “Yeah.”
“Is your girl that cute young thing you met in the bar?” Dad asked. Then he winced as Mom’s head snapped in his direction.
“Yeah,” I told him, hiding my grin as my mother glared at him.
“You knew he met a girl and didn’t tell me?”
“There wasn’t anything to tell at that point,” Dad said, trying to defend himself. “She wouldn’t give him the time of day.”
Isaac and Relay hooted with laughter at that.
Flipping them off, I explained, “It took some time to convince her to go out with me. She’s a little skittish.”
“She’s not a horse, Bolo,” Mom told me.
At the same time Relay spoke up. “Well, no shit.”
Scowling at him, I asked, “What’s that mean?”
Isaac speared some mashed potatoes with his fork and waved them in my direction. “She probably thinks you’re going to eat her, you big bastard.”
“Or drag her off to your cave at the very least,” Relay added.
Mom gave Dad a look. He cleared his throat. “Leave your brother alone. At least long enough that he can answer our damn questions.”
Mom rolled her eyes. “What’s her name?”
“Devyn,” I said, still scowling at my brothers.
“Is she doing okay?”
I blinked at her. “What’d you mean?”
She heaved out a sigh. “With the pregnancy, Bolo. Is she doing okay?”
“Oh, uh, yeah, I guess. Said she’s about nine weeks along. Maybe. She’d not exactly sure yet.”
“That’s good,” Mom said, her voice calm. It was like she was soothing a wild beast, which made me wonder if I looked like one.
I was feeling a little protective. Not because my brothers were giving me shit.
That was par for the course, but I was tense.
I realized it was because I was waiting for them to potentially say something about Devyn.
Something that would force me to beat my brothers’ asses.
But they didn’t. Which reminded me that even though my brothers were assholes we all actually loved each other.
Not that any of us would say that to each other.
It went against brotherly code to mention that out loud.
I answered my mom’s questions as she rapid-fire shot them my way.
Though I could tell from her expression she was displeased at my lack of knowledge.
I didn’t know what the hell was happening because Devyn hadn’t told me everything yet.
Or she didn’t know. This was a first for us both.
Worse, Mom was asking things I didn’t know that I should know.
I stored the information away for later to ask Devyn, or a doctor, once she got to her appointment.
“When do we get to meet her?” Mom asked.
“When are you marrying the girl?” Dad asked at the same time.
Relay choked on the beer he’d just taken a drink of and Isaac slammed his palm into our brother’s back until Relay had to punch him to get him to stop.
Just another day with the Dunn family. I sighed and stared down at my food mournfully. They weren’t going to let me eat a bite until I answered their questions to their satisfaction. I knew my parents far too well. This was going to be a long night.