Chapter 7
D osia groaned as rays of sun hit her closed eyelids.
She turned into her pillow, wanting to hide from the world a little bit longer.
She needed to get up. Especially after missing JJ’s bedtime last night, she was not going to miss breakfast with her daughter before she dropped her off at school.
Additionally, Dosia needed to find Grandma Solstice and ask for her help putting a curse on Calliope.
What. The. Fuck. Had her aunt been thinking?
She’d known . She had to have known. It was the only explanation for her actions.
Gods, Dosia felt like an idiot for not seeing it coming, but how was she possibly supposed to have guessed that her daughter’s baby daddy would be at the same restaurant?
Especially a restaurant Calliope had clearly manipulated Bart the Banker into taking her to.
Dosia liked steak but not that much . Not enough for it to have come up in a casual conversation or mentioned as a food preference for a first date.
She’d known Calliope to make some pretty wild and out there predictions over the years, but the chess game she’d played last night…? Dosia had no idea her aunt was capable of that . Which was scary.
As frustrated as Dosia was with her aunt, though, everything that had happened after Dosia had gotten to the restaurant was on her. Solely and completely.
Thank the gods that almost kiss had been interrupted. Pumpkin’s disappointment had been palpable, but he’d stated it was neither the time nor the place.
What was it about that man that made her lose all her inhibitions? She couldn’t believe she’d just stood there and allowed him to… No, that wasn’t right. That she’d waited for him to… No, that wasn’t right either.
Letting out a groan, Dosia pulled her pillow over her head as she had to face the embarrassing fact that she’d wanted him. She’d been just as disappointed as he that they’d been interrupted. There were no two ways about it.
But unlike him, she didn’t think it was because it wasn’t the time or the place. Because there was no time or place. She couldn’t, wouldn’t, get involved with him.
Pulling her pillow off her head, Dosia rolled, facing the ceiling again. But…why couldn’t she? Was that instinct? A gut reaction to six years of thinking him an awful person and someone she wouldn’t want her daughter around? Dosia had already admitted she’d been wrong about that.
Fuck. But how did she fix six years of hiding such a huge secret as the man’s daughter?
No, it had been a good thing that kiss had been interrupted.
Even if she wanted something with him—which she wasn’t sure if she did or she didn’t—it wasn’t even a possibility, a consideration, until she told him about JJ.
And Dosia was a big enough coward to admit she wasn’t ready for that yet either.
The fear of his reaction was part of it.
One night couldn’t change six years of belief at just the snap of her fingers.
She still needed to learn so much about him.
To come up with a game plan for when she did tell him he had a daughter.
Gods, she still couldn’t believe how wrong she’d been about him. She didn’t know how to get past that. How he would get past that.
After seeing Pumpkin with his son last night? It was easy to anticipate his reaction when he discovered she’d hidden a daughter from him all these years. Would he believe her? Understand that she’d done what she’d done to protect her daughter? Even if that meant protecting her from her own father?
Dosia’s eyes fell on Pumpkin’s jacket in the corner, the patches on the back of the leather illuminated by the morning sun.
The man really was sweet. The temperature had dropped lower than Dosia had anticipated—and Calliope had encouraged her to only have a light sweater over her dress.
Pumpkin had immediately taken his jacket off and put it over her shoulders.
“I have others, ” he’d said when she’d tried to give it back to him in her grandparents’ driveway.
Dosia wanted a father like him in JJ’s life, a father who was kind, funny, and despite his size, gentle. JJ deserved that, and gods above and below help Pumpkin if last night was some fucked up act he’d put on for her. Some twisted game he played to try to win her back over.
Dosia didn’t think so, but she couldn’t be too careful.
Not when it came to her daughter. Maybe she needed a clean slate, to not think about who he had been to her.
Put Vodka to rest and discover who Pumpkin was.
And then, once she felt comfortable and assured that he wouldn’t break her daughter’s heart or try to take her daughter away from her, she would tell him about JJ.
It wasn’t often that Pumpkin was wrong, but he wasn’t so stubborn that he couldn’t admit when he’d made a mistake.
The day SJ had been born, his mother, Cheryl, had been executed by the club.
The guilt Pumpkin felt about her death had nothing to do with her, but the fact that it meant SJ would grow up without a mother.
He’d been wrong.
Being around the club and the mix-and-match families some of his brothers had, Pumpkin really should have known better. It should have been obvious to him, and not something that only occurred to him once he was face-to-face with the woman he would call his.
Because Dosia was his .
Fucking old biddy who interrupted their near kiss by clearing her throat. Sure, they were blocking the bathroom hallway, but the lady couldn’t have waited a few minutes? Isn’t that why they made Depends ?
In the long run, that kiss didn’t matter. Disappointing, yes, but didn’t matter. Because Pumpkin had still claimed her. Maybe it was a bit manipulative and sneaky, but he’d gotten his cut on her. Thank God for the cold mountain winds and flimsy cardigans.
The look Frankie had given him when he’d placed his jacket over Dosia’s shoulders screamed volumes, but she wisely kept her mouth shut. At least, until Dosia was no longer in the cage with them.
“If you don’t tell her the significance of her wearing your cut the next time you see her, I will ,” Frankie had threatened.
And good on her. While Pumpkin wasn’t intimidated, and he would tell Dosia when he was good and ready, he appreciated Frankie’s defense of Dosia and he was proud Frankie was comfortable enough with him to make the threat. That took courage Frankie didn’t normally display.
Frankie was taking SJ over to the clubhouse to play with his club cousins that morning.
Pumpkin, unfortunately, had physical therapy.
Darrin was playing chauffeur again for him and Bones, but Pumpkin had no intention of going to PT.
He’d feign forgetting something and needing Darrin to drive him “back”, but really, he’d have Darrin drop him off in town.
Pumpkin wasn’t ready to share his discovery or claiming of Dosia with any of the club yet. It was still too new, and those Chatty Cathies would definitely tell Dosia the significance of her wearing Pumpkin’s cut. He also hadn’t told Keys.
Mount Grove might be a small town, but Pumpkin was a transplant.
Unlike Lucky, Bear, Bulldog, and Carlos who had grown up here, Pumpkin didn’t know who lived in every house in town.
While he knew that Dosia was living with her grandparents and that’s whose house he’d dropped her off at last night, he had no idea who her grandparents were.
But he’d been able to discern from their conversation the night before that Dosia was taking over a family business from her aunt.
That would be news that the townspeople could not keep to themselves.
A stop by the bakery, a friendly chat here or there, and Pumpkin should be able to figure out where Dosia worked without involving Keys or anyone else from the club.
Hell, she hadn’t even given him her last name when she’d put her number in his phone. Just ‘Dosia’, which was so unhelpful. She was a mystery wrapped in an enigma, but Pumpkin would figure her out. He’d learn everything about her, and then he’d claim that kiss.
Dosia looked in the box. She really shouldn’t have. The salty, fishy smell was enough to make her gag without even trying one of the samples. Calliope, though, was ecstatic!
“Look at all they sent me!”
Dosia covered her nose and took a step back. “Yeah, um, congrats. Now get that thing away from my books!”
Calliope just laughed and shook her head.
They were standing behind the counter of the bookstore just after lunch.
An elderly couple Calliope knew by name were the only customers in the store at the moment, but that was fine.
Dosia was hoping for an uptick after school let out thanks to her flash sale on kids’ books.
The local single mom’s group Dosia had joined online had all joined the bookstore’s social media sites.
Her hope was that by announcing spontaneous afternoon sales based on genre, she could decrease the afternoon lull.
A dead store from the hours of three to five gave a different meaning to the ‘witching hour’ when the store had been owned by an actual witch.
Calliope was working hard this week getting her New Age store ready to open.
She’d wanted it to be on or around Samhain, but the more work she did, the more work she found she needed to do.
Dosia wished she could help more, but she’d already completely taken over running the bookstore so Calliope didn’t have any responsibilities there anymore. It was a bit of a Catch-22.
However, Dosia had volunteered to help her sample retail items. She hadn’t minded when it had been what selection of tea Calliope should stock. But now that a company who produced seaweed snacks sent Calliope a box of samples? Gag .
Calliope reached inside and pulled out a bag of seaweed chips. “Oh, these look good.”
Dosia’s voice came out stuffy as she still had her nose covered. “Calliope, if you open that bag, I will ban you from my store!”