Chapter 4
Hyde
The next day I take for myself, using it to say goodbye to my favorite parts of this town.
As I’m about to head back to my parents’ house, I get a text from Molly.
Trinity is here with her daughter. She left her boyfriend. I’m sending Royce and the ‘monsters’ to dinner, but I need to stay home. Come to the bakery before you leave. Or else.
Fucking Trinity and her never ending drama.
Christ that woman has the worst timing. I used to pant after her something fierce, from the time she moved here, there was never a family party at the clubhouse that she didn’t come dressed to thrill.
But it was all look and don’t touch, with her. I wasn’t the only one chasing after her, but I was the first one Trinity agreed to go out with.
I thought we had something special, at least until the day Molly came to see me—unable to lift her red-brimmed eyes up to mine. I knew what she was going to say before she opened her mouth.
Turns out, Trinity had been hooking up with one of her professors at her university. The guy’s wife had caught wind of it and not only alerted the school, but called Trinity’s father, back in Indiana, as well as Molly.
When her professor begged his wife’s forgiveness and stayed with her, Trinity announced she was pregnant. She effectively hammered the final nail into that man’s marriage.
To this day, when I actually stop to say a prayer, I’m thankful that the DNA test proved I wasn’t the baby’s father. Because, yeah, the sniveling bastard tried to avoid his duties by pulling not only me, but an undergrad frat boy she was also fucking, in for the paternity test.
The problem with that kind of betrayal when you live in a clubhouse? You never have a second to mourn your first love. I had to shrug it off and party with my brothers, without missing a beat.
God only knows what road name I would have been saddled with if I hadn’t.
While Molly and I were tight before that episode, the way she came and talked to me directly was what solidified our relationship in my mind. Trinity is her blood, the cousin she helped to raise. Me? I’m just a stray that Molly’s biological father happened to take under his wing.
That day, Molly showed me that our pseudo-sibling relationship was something she valued and didn’t want jeopardized because of what Trinity was doing, behind both of our backs.
Later on, when Royce shows up to dinner that night, not only are his four sons with him, but his mom and step-dad.
While the shock of his long-single mother hooking up with a grizzled old guy like Mack, originally threw Royce for a loop, there’s no denying how happy those two are together.
“Mack-Daddy, Mack-Daddy,” Royce’s youngest, Sean, is chanting as they enter.
Bree, Flint, and I aren’t in on the joke but there’s no mistaking the mischievous looks across the faces of Royce’s brood.
“Mack-Daddy, you gonna make me regret letting you drive the kids over?” Royce asks, raising an eyebrow as he tries to keep a stern look on his face.
“Okay, shoes off or Granny will withhold dessert!” Flint growls out the emptiest threat, ever.
“I have to say, your timing is impeccable,” Royce’s mother, Colleen, says to me when we get a moment alone. “I’d hate to see you get tied up with that girl again.”
“Ma! We talked about this,” Royce mumbles under his breath.
“No, you told me to leave it be. That doesn’t mean I agreed.” Colleen corrects him. “I understand Molly loves her, but Trinity only cares about Trinity, and Joe deserves better than that.”
The grunt that Flint lets out from where he’s taken his seat half-way across the room tells me there’s nothing wrong with his hearing.
Suddenly I feel like I’m under a microscope by every other adult in the room, and I throw my hands up in the air.
“Need some help dishing up dinner, Mom?” I call out to Bree. She’s peeking out of the kitchen but by the look on her face, I know she was waiting to see if I needed a life raft.
“Please, I’ve never been much good at cutting the ham,” she easily lies, and I eagerly accept the help she offers me.
“It’s easy, you give me half of it and slice it really thin for everyone else.”
My teasing gets various replies from everyone gathered and while I had invited them to be a buffer from Mom, I can see that backfiring now.
“I talked to Riley this morning,” Bree says, stacking the plates beside me. “She felt bad about how difficult dinner was last night.”
“Yeah, you know I love those kids, and seeing Leslee that upset tore my heart up,” I admit, as always, saying things to Bree that I’d never say to anyone else.
“Nice idea about the postcards,” she says, hip checking me when I shrug.
“I’m lucky Gunner won’t let her have a cell phone yet, she probably would have suggested a tracking app.” I chuckle with a shake of my head.
“You saved the night with the peas,” Bree counters with a laugh of her own. “Remember when she was little and you’d pick the peas out of the veggie blend for her?”
I give Mom a sideways glance, not realizing she knew about that and she rolls her eyes at me.
“You’ve always had the kindest heart,” she whispers.
“You better take that to the grave with you,” I respond as I finish up slicing the ham.
“You’re not eating the ham in there, are you, Hyde?” Flint calls out just as I’m chewing on an odd-shaped piece.
“Granny, remember the time you let Liam and me eat dessert first?” Sean asks, running into the kitchen with his cheeks all red like he’s trying to hold onto his temper. “Finn and Aiden said I’m making it up.”
Holding her finger over her lips, Bree stops what she’s doing to break a brownie in half and gives it to him as she whispers in his ear. As the treat disappears, his eyes widen and he looks guilty. “I forgot.”
He turns to run back to the great room. “Never mind. I was wrong,” he calls out around the sweet in his mouth.
“A secret’s only as strong as the people who share it.” I shake my head at her.
“He’s young, he’ll get there.”
“Still doing the eat dessert first thing sometimes, huh?”
“The nice part of being my age, is having ice cream for dinner if I choose to,” Bree answers with a little smile. “Come on, we better get the food on.”
Tonight, dinner is more relaxed, thanks to the presence of Royce’s four boys, but even with them around, everyone seems focused on telling stories that center around me. There’s no escaping it, so I just sit back and laugh, and occasionally defend myself when Flint’s exaggerations go a bit far.
“I’m coming back, Mama Bear,” I promise her for the dozenth time, finally getting up to kneel next to her chair and hug her when she returns with dessert. “You two are the best parents I could have hoped for. I’ll check in with you regularly.”
“I love you, Joseph,” she gushes. And I cringe at the name only some of the Ol’ Ladies call me.
“Gonna hold you to that.” Flint’s voice is deeper and rough nowadays.
Last summer, Bree all but held a gun to him to get him to a doctor—only to confirm what they suspected. We were all relieved that the tumor in his throat was still considered stage one and removed endoscopically.
Besides the tumor, him getting a trike, was a wake-up call for all of us. That Flint’s age and lifestyle were catching up with him; as ours would catch up with us all one day, was eye opening. Living this lifestyle isn’t easy, and our bodies pay for the abuse we heap on it, day after day. When I see him putting pressure on this arthritic thumb joint, I wonder how long it will be before Bree convinces him to see another specialist.
I’d never put this weight on anyone, but Flint’s health issues were what stirred up my desire to set out and see the rest of the country. Because if I didn’t do it now, would I ever? I figure that by leaving now, I’ll be back in a couple of years and be around when Flint and Bree really need me.
That’s the plan, at any rate.