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“What about Ashlynn?”
Breakneck laughed and it sounded all kinds of wrong, as if it was more a noise of disbelief than humor. “That bitch doesn’t give a shit what happens to that kid as long as he continues to breathe and be an anchor keeping Kip in line.”
I didn’t know what to say about that. I’d already thought as much but hated myself for the jaded outlook. There was still this part of my brain that refused to acknowledge a mother could just discount their own child or use them to further some agenda and not care about them otherwise. Even knowing that my own mother was just like that, it was still hard to fathom.
“Eventually, when you’re comfortable, I’m hoping you’ll want to stay in here with me at night instead, but I won’t rush you.”
“Are we still exclusive with one another?”
“Have been since we talked about it, sweetness.”
“Okay, I wasn’t sure if…”
“I told you, if things change for me, I will let you know before I go there.”
“Okay,” I whispered, wanting to believe him even while a tiny part of my brain rebelled against the idea that the man could ever take that vow seriously.
Chapter 25
Breakneck
“Where are you taking me?” Nova asked in that timidly sweet voice of hers that told me she was nervous, but in a good way.
“On our second date. You didn’t think I’d forget just because we’re on lockdown, did you?”
She eyed me suspiciously, and I couldn’t really blame her. She’d only seem a small part of the clubhouse so far, but what she’d seen probably left her with a bad taste in her mouth when she thought about having ‘date night’ here with me. Still, she allowed me to take her hand and guide her through the common area and out the backdoor. A couple of my club brothers and Scout knew what was up because they helped me get everything ready. At first, I felt like a sappy dick putting the date together, but my girl deserved a little normal.
I had ulterior motives beyond making Nova smile. There was no way she was putting out until we had another official date or two and I couldn’t wait much longer to get her sweet body underneath mine.
“We’re going outside?” She questioned.
“Stop asking things and just wait and be surprised.”
“It’s fair to say anything you do at this point will be a surprise,” she teased.
“Women,” I huffed.
“Will there be mac-n-cheese?” She asked in a playful tone that made me want to throw her in the grass and show her why her new favorite food didn’t even compare to what I had to give her.
“If you have the same thing on every date it wouldn’t be any fun,” I explained.
“Maybe not, but it would taste good.”
I chuckled and she laughed along, knowing she was being ridiculous. I was sure she did it on purpose to cover for how nervous our impromptu date made her. We walked around the giant fire pit in the middle of the backyard area and the gazebo came into view. It was something that had been built when Tripp married his wife, Kim. He and Mack had taken their time to build the thing to make her happy.
Some shit went down back then, and Kim nearly ran from the club, Tripp, and even her brother Mack while she was still pregnant with Kip. The gazebo was part apology for whatever went down and part wedding gift. Tonight, it was the setting for my second date with Nova.
I reached into my pocket and hit the button Scout told me to press. The sun had set only moments ago and the minute I pressed the button, the gazebo lit up with what looked like a million fucking twinkle lights.
“Oh my God,” Nova cried out in surprise as she took in the sight. “It looks like it was covered in stars.”
“Then it’s a fitting setting for a woman named Nova,” I teased. She turned to me with a huge grin on her face before she finally ran ahead of me to go investigate the place we’d spent all day rigging up for this moment.
“There’s a picnic basket in here and…” She choked out a shocked laugh. “Is that champagne in the ice bucket?”
“It is.”
“I’ve never had champagne before. My dad – Jeremy let me try some wine before, but it was gross.”
