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“Get some rest,” Matt instructed, grabbing his things. “The faster you recover, the faster you can get out of here.”
“Yeah, yeah. Stop nagging, Mom.”
He punched me lightly in my good arm. “Don’t make me kick your ass, bro. You know I can take you.”
“You wish, bitch.”
Chuckling, he followed Bash out the door. “Later.”
As the door shut behind them, I caught a glimpse of Spider standing in the doorway. Trying to relax, I picked up the remote to the small TV mounted in the corner of the room. There was nothing on but kid shows and crappy sitcoms. Even the sports channels were boring as hell.
Muting the television, I grabbed my phone.
“Hello?”
The sound of her voice calmed all the noise in my head, and I closed my eyes. “How did the move go? Did you get all your stuff?”
“I didn’t have much, just a few boxes of books, clothes, and all of Reid’s stuff. With all the help, we got it loaded in less than two hours. Grandpa’s house is a mess right now, though, until I can get it all put away. But I’m too tired tonight to do it. It can wait for now.”
My eyes snapped open again. “Why didn’t you take it to my house?”
“Um, because I don’t live there. Grandpa left me his house and the business to run. Reid and I will move in there once this lockdown bullshit is lifted.”
“Jos,” I growled. “I want you to live with me. You and our son are my responsibility now. I want to take care of you both. Please move in with me.”
There was a long pause on her end, one that set my nerves on edge all over again. Finally, she let out a harsh huff. “If you really want to live with me, then you’ll move in to Grandpa’s house with us. There isn’t enough room for your brother and his growing family plus us.”
“Growing family…?”
“Oh please, don’t tell me you didn’t know Rory is pregnant. It’s all everyone is whispering about here at the clubhouse right now.”
“No, I didn’t know. Matt hasn’t said anything.” I was going to beat his ass in the morning for keeping me in the dark about it. I was happy for him, thrilled to be an uncle. He should have told me.
“Well, don’t stress over it. I’m not sure they’ve actually made any announcements, but it’s kind of hard to hide the fact that she’s been losing her breakfast a lot lately when everyone is confined to the same four walls for so long.” I heard her moving around and pictured her sitting in the middle of the bed with her legs tucked up under her.
“What are you doing?” I asked quietly.
“Flipping through the channels in your room. There is nothing good on, but I’m too tired to socialize.”
“What did you usually do in the evenings when you lived in Oakland?” The time she’d been living away from me made me curious about her life.
“I didn’t watch television, if that’s what you’re asking. I was working two jobs just to pay the bills and for childcare, so things that weren’t a necessity weren’t important. Mostly, I read if I had the night off. Or just played with Reid.”
“Sounds like you were pretty busy.” I didn’t like that she’d taken on so much all by herself, but I wasn’t going to lecture or yell at her for not telling me about our son. I’d fucked up spectacularly when I did what I did, but at the time, I thought I was protecting her. “Do you need anything, Jos? What can I do to help take the strain off you with taking care of Reid?”
I heard her swallow loudly before she spoke. “The fact that you’re alive and getting better every day is all I need from you right now, Tanner. We can talk about other things later, once you’re back to normal.”
“You really going to let me move in with you?”
“We can talk about that later too,” she said after another pause. “You might not be ready for that yet.”
“I might not, or you might not?” Because I sure as fuck knew I was ready. I wanted to be with my family, and that was Jos and our kid.
“No comment,” she muttered.
“I don’t want to push you, baby. But fuck, it’s so hard to be away from you even for a few hours,” I told her honestly, needing her to know how it was for me. “The last two years, I was going crazy missing you.”
“Tanner…”
