Chapter 28
Hush
“Let’s get this over with,” Seek said with a sigh, as she linked our hands together and walked up the driveway.
I’d parked my bike at the curb in front of her mother’s house.
It was a nice neighborhood. One of those places where the HOAs kept everything clean and the houses were all packed together on the street.
I preferred Seek’s house. It was set further out and didn’t share a fence with her neighbors.
The yard was larger—probably something she’d wanted for the dogs—and there was a little more privacy.
The clubhouse was even better. Thanks to the bar, we were out on a parcel of land that spanned over five acres and didn’t have houses nearby.
There were a few other businesses across the street, but that was it.
I didn’t care to have neighbors—none of us did.
It was too much opportunity for someone to poke around in our business.
That was the last thing we needed when we played vigilantes on the regular.
She walked through the doorway, pulling me along behind her.
I didn’t share her dismal outlook on how this dinner was going to go.
I could be damn charming when I wanted to be and parents usually loved me.
I’d learned that when I ended up seducing the mother of one of my high school exes.
Although in this case I wasn’t going to be that charming.
I slapped a smile on my face and greeted Seek’s mother as we rounded the corner and found her in the kitchen. “Nice to see you, Melinda.”
She returned my smile. “You, too. Thank you for coming.” Her eyes lingered on my cut, curiosity in her gaze, but she was too polite to ask about it.
The smile slipped off her face when she saw the cut that Seek was sporting.
“Oh my God! Jamie, what happened?” she rushed around the counter and fussed.
Seek patted her mom’s hand, settling for taking it in hers to keep Melinda from probing at the sore spot. I’d cleaned it up and put a butterfly bandage on it. She should heal with no problems. “It’s nothing Mom, I wasn’t watching where I was going and ran face first into a column.”
Melinda narrowed her eyes on her daughter then looked over at me, with a touch of menace in her gaze. “Oh. Okay, because if someone had done that to you, they’d have to deal with me.”
It was clear she suspected I had something to do with her daughter’s injury. Since it happened in my club, she wasn’t technically wrong, but I’d never lay a hand on my old lady like that. Seek was shooting me a warning glare, so I kept my mouth shut about what’d really happened.
“Have you met Joanna?” Melinda asked, motioning to the living room where Seek’s younger sister was coming out of the back hallway.
“Oh, hi,” Joanna said, walking up and shaking my hand.
Her wide eyes slid past me and landed on Seek.
I didn’t need to ask to know that Joanna knew about Seek and I breaking up.
There was curiosity on her face, mixed with a cool expression.
She wasn’t sure if she was supposed to be nice to me, or give me a lecture for what I’d done to her sister.
Amazing how much could be communicated between sisters with just a glance.
I didn’t turn in time to see what Seek mouthed to Joanna, but her sister’s expression brightened significantly in the span of seconds.
“Nice to see you again,” she finally said.
“You’ve met?” Melinda asked.
“Briefly,” I told her.
Brad chose that moment to come barreling through the front door. “Sorry I’m late. I- Oh shit!” He walked straight over to me and held up his hand for a fist bump. I tapped our knuckles together. “Good to see you, Hush.”
“Bradley, don’t cuss,” Melinda called out.
Brad sighed and muttered. “My name isn’t Bradley.”
I bit back a laugh as Melinda went right on talking as though he hadn’t spoken at all. Seek’s mom was a firecracker. Now I saw where she got it from.
“Everyone take a seat,” Melinda called out from the kitchen and we dutifully sat around the table.
The girls started dishing up their plates as their mom sat, and Seek nudged a bowl of green beans toward me. It didn’t take long before everyone was eating and her mom decided she’d given me enough time to prepare myself.
“So, Hush,” she said, watching me with calculating eyes. “Tell me about yourself.”
It wasn’t going to be as easy as I thought to charm this woman. I kind of liked that about her. She obviously loved her daughters a lot, something else I could appreciate since I loved one of them as well. My fork froze, midway up to my mouth as that realization sank in.
How was it possible that I loved Seek already?
I’d only known her a short time. As much as the idea freaked me out, it was the truth and there was no denying that.
Not to myself anyway. Another part of me wondered how I hadn’t realized that I loved her sooner?
It was obvious. Why else would I have been so twisted up?
“Something wrong with the pot roast?” Melinda asked. Her tone was sarcastic and knowing. It was almost like she’d reached right into my head and plucked that thought out without my permission.
I shoved the bite into my mouth and shook my head. As soon as I swallowed I answered her. “Nothin’s wrong. It’s delicious.”
They were all watching me. Whether that was because I’d just frozen mid-bite and sat there for who knew how long, or because they were enjoying watching the battle of wills play out between Melinda and myself, I didn’t know.
“Not much to tell about me,” I finally said, answering her early prompt.
“Is Hush your real name?”
I grimaced, like I always did when I had to tell people my name. “No. My real name is Davis Jenkins.”
Seek jerked next to me and I glanced over to find her smothering a laugh. “Sorry,” she whispered so only I could hear her. “You don’t look like a Davis.”
That was when I realized I hadn’t ever told her my real name.
She hadn’t asked either, content to call me Hush.
It was the same way I was content to call her Seek versus Jamie.
Though I always introduced her as Jamie to the other club members.
She could choose to let them use her nickname if she wanted.
“My first name was my mother’s family name,” I explained to the table.
“How old are you?”
“Mom,” Seek responded. Her tone was a mix between embarrassment and a warning.
“Fifty-one,” I replied.
Melinda’s eyes widened and then darted over to her daughter. “He’s twenty-one years older than you, Jamie.”
My smile was sardonic. Melinda didn’t care who was in the room.
That was merely a detail. When a thought entered her head it was a straight line to her mouth.
The concept of privacy was simply dismissed.
I knew, for her, it was all in the tone.
This was now a private conversation between her and Seek.
“I can count, Mom,” she said, eyes flashing dangerously at her mother. “I’m thirty years old and I can date an older man if I want to.”
She looked at me, as though it had just occurred to her, for the first time in thirty years, that Seek could in fact make her own decisions.
I wasn’t insulted. Honestly, I found this amusing.
If my parents were still alive I’d probably be getting the same talk, though maybe not in front of Seek.
Her mother was nothing if not upfront and honest. Again, it drew me toward Melinda.
I had a feeling we’d end up being friends if she could get past the age difference and the fact that I was in an MC.
I knew that was going to be coming up here soon. No way that it wasn’t.
“I’m sorry,” Melinda told me. Not for questioning our relationship, but for doing so where I could hear it.
Her eyes were the exact color of blue as both her daughters.
It made it easy to forgive her for pretty much anything, since it was like looking into the bottomless depths of Seek’s eyes—something that got me every time.
Both women looked like carbon copies of their mother.
“It’s just… She’s my baby and I’m protective. ”
Seek groaned and let her head fall into her hands, which were propped up by her elbows on the table. “Mom,” she said in a small, distressed voice.
Placing my hand on her back, I rubbed soothing circles. “No problem. It’s damn near impossible to offend me,” I told Melinda with a smile.
“That’s good,” she responded. “And no cussing, Davis.”
I bit my lips to keep from laughing. Again, the tone said it all. ‘I don’t care how old you are, you’re dating my daughter and that puts you in the category of one of my children, therefore I will treat you the same as them’. “You can call me Hush,” I offered.
She tilted her head and speared me with a look. “I like Davis.”
Davis it is. If it kept her happy and off her daughter’s back she could call me ‘that bastard’ for all I cared.
The only reason I wanted her to like me was for Seek’s sake.
Though, I knew it was only a matter of time before I won her over.
I was looking forward to the challenge. Melinda was going to keep me on my toes and there was something fun about that. I liked strong-willed women.
Melinda switched topics, probably thinking she was doing her daughter a favor, but moved right into another line of questioning that made Seek’s head drop further into her hands. “I hear you’re in a motorcycle gang.”
“Mom!” Both girls barked at Melinda, Seek’s voice muffled since she was still hanging her head. She snapped it up with a sharp look for her mother after Melinda’s comment.
I didn’t take offense to it—this time. Most people didn’t realize calling a club a gang was one of the most insulting things you could say to a biker. “It’s a motorcycle club,” I told her. “We’re not a gang.”
“Hush is a veteran,” Seek told her mom.
“Oh!” Melinda’s eyes lit up. “Thank you so much for your service.”
I shot her a grin. “Thanks for the support.” That did it. Now she was watching me with the same appreciation that Brad was. It wouldn’t be long before she was as wrapped around my finger as I was her daughter’s.
“What branch of the military were you in?” she asked.
“Marines,” I told her.
“Badass,” Brad whispered, only to catch a glare from Melinda. He cleared his throat and dropped his eyes down to his plate.
“What did you do in the Marines?” she asked, picking her fork back up and finally continuing to eat. The interrogation seemed to be over…for now.
“Marine Force Recon.” At her blank stare I added. “The Marines’ version of special forces.”
“Oh okay, a Navy Seal.”
Seek choked on her food and then shot me a look filled with misery. She clearly loved her mother, but also had warned me coming into this that her mom would dig into every facet of my life and make up her own conclusions if she didn’t like the truths I provided.
“Basically, only Marine, not Navy,” I replied with patience.
In reality, not even close. Every branch had their version of something that would be considered Special Forces.
But they all had a specific mission and training.
We were not interchangeable. Most civilians didn’t know much about the military, so they defaulted to what they did know thanks to Hollywood.
It was pretty common to answer these kinds of questions.
When they inevitably compared us to Navy Seals, for the sake of time and understanding, I would just agree.
I could tell that Seek was worried her line of questioning would annoy me, but that wasn’t the case. There wasn’t much I wouldn’t do for Seek—and now Melinda by default—and having dinner with her family was pretty easy by comparison.
“That must have been very exciting,” Melinda continued.
“It was interestin’. Got in when I was young and did a lot of growin’ up over the years.”
“Mom volunteers at our local VA,” Seek said, finally forming actual words again. Seek and Melinda smiled at each other, affection apparent in their expressions.
“I’m sure that’s very appreciated by everyone,” I told them.
“The men and women are very kind,” Melinda said.
“Whatever happened to Michael?” Joanna asked, a sly look crossing her face.
“Who?” Seek asked, instantly clueing into the fact that there was something her sister knew that she didn’t.
Melinda’s face flushed red as we all stared at her. “Nothing happened to him,” she said, her tone prim. She was trying to convince us that there was nothing to know. It wasn’t working.
“Who is Michael?” Seek asked, enjoying the fact that she was getting to flip the script on her mother.
“A man she met down at the VA,” Joanna replied, wiggling her brows.
“Ooh,” Seek said in a conspiratorial tone.
“Girls,” Melinda snapped, narrowing her eyes on her daughters. “Michael is just a friend.”
“For now,” Seek replied. She grinned at me as she teased her mother. “Seriously though. Anything there?”
Melinda frowned, but shrugged. “Maybe.”
Both girls fought to hide their happy smiles. “Ask him out,” Joanna suggested.
“He already asked me to dinner,” Melinda admitted in a shy tone.
That shocked her daughters into silence.
That alone was enough to tell me their mother hadn’t dated much—if at all—after their father had died.
It was a shame. Melinda was a gorgeous woman and still in her prime.
Some man would be lucky to be dating her.
A woman her age was who I should be dating.
Daphne had only been thirty-nine when she died.
I hadn’t necessarily always been attracted to women who were a lot younger than me, it just so happened that Daphne had been, and Seek was as well.
Twenty-one years was a big difference, I knew that.
There was just no denying my attraction to her.
Even though I’d tried, she’d drawn me in from the moment she’d jumped out of her truck at Picacho Peak.
I focused back in on the conversation and settled in to enjoy a night of watching these women verbally spar with one another.