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George straightened, looking around wildly. “Where?”
Rolling my eyes, I muttered, “She’s staying at the hotel in town. She showed up for Scribe’s wedding and she’s apparently staying to make sure I marry Claudia.”
“Dude!” My brother grinned. “Taking the vows. That’s awesome.”
“Not awesome. Claudia doesn’t want me. No one does.”
“You’ve always been too hard on yourself, Frankie.”
“Whatever. What happened with Emily? Granny really liked her.”
“Yeah. So did all the doctors in my practice.”
I cringed at that.
For as long as I could remember, George and I were on opposite sides of the dating pool Where I rarely dated at all, George had a plethora of women fawning over him. The only problem George had was finding a woman who would stay faithful to him where I couldn’t even get them to look at me.
Yeah, total opposites
Only two years older than me, George and I never really understood each other. For a time, I wanted to be just like him. To have lots of friends, be popular in school, have a cute girl hug and kiss me. Anything to take my mind off the fact that I was different.
“So, it looks like I’m going to be an uncle.”
“Seems that way.”
I reached over the bar to grab another beer. Taking two of them, I handed Georgie one when he asked, “You gonna tell Granny?”
“Nope, and you’re not going to tell her either.”
“Claudia seemed pretty broken up over everything. Even got sick earlier in her office.”
Damn. Now I felt like shit.
I didn’t mean to make her sick.
Looking at my hands, I whispered, “She gonna be okay?”
“Depends,” George said, looking at me. “You gonna mope and drag this shit out, or go tell the woman how you really feel about her? I saw the way you looked at her, Frankie. You are in love with her. Don’t even deny it, and before you start giving me hundreds of reasons why she’s better off without you, I want you to remember one thing, little brother. You deserve love just like everyone else. I know you believe you don’t, but you are one of the kindest men I know. If anyone deserves love, brother, it’s you. Plus, she is pregnant with your babies. Yours. Not mine. Not anyone else’s.”
“She doesn’t want me.”
“Yes, I do.”
Spinning around, there stood Claudia with Charlie in her arms, along with Jessica, King, and Bailey. When neither of us moved, Jessica took Charlie while King gently pushed Claudia forward.
Sniffing, she wiped her eyes and clearly said for all to hear, “I’m sorry, Frank. Truly I am. I should have told you it was me from the start. I shouldn’t have kept it from you. I’m sorry I handcuffed you to the bed and the club found you naked. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about the babies, but mostly, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner how I felt.”
King pushed her forward again. “Keep going.”
No one moved.
The entire clubhouse looked on, enthralled, as Claudia bore her heart out.
“I was so stupid. I let my past dictate how I reacted to everyone. I saw the way you looked at me. The blushes, the silent pleading, the longing. I ignored you because I was afraid, Frank. Then, I got it into my head because Eugene was a club brother, that it was wrong. That you’d never consider me. So, I threw myself into my job. But even that didn’t work. And then New Year’s Eve happened. I thought if I could just spend one night with you. How, if I got that, then I could move on. Only I couldn’t. You’ve been all I can think about. Well, you and Charlie. God, Frank, you are so good with him. Charlie adores you. Hell, he responds better to you than to me. I guess what I’m trying to say is—”
“I love you too, Claudia.”
Her head snapped up. “You do?”
