Mae may be more outgoing than Abi since Mae chatted nonstop, open with her love of life and family, while Abi was solidly marked with the Fox blood. Anytime she looked at you, you felt like she was making fun of you inside her head.
Both girls were crazy about their father therefore curious about Cash. Abi made Dev work a little harder to gain her attention than Mae did, but she seemed to do it on purpose. Probably a trait she learned from her dad.
“He’s the one Daddy kissed when we were at the apartment,” Mae burst out, giddy with joy. Her hands rushed to her lips, covering her mouth as if she’d dropped the biggest secret of them all.
“I knew she couldn’t hold it,” Abi said, using her fork to pick at the cornbread dressing on her plate. She had proclaimed to the table she didn’t like onions and picked every one out of each bite. “You owe me five dollars.”
“I do not. I didn’t make that bet, you did,” Mae shot back. Since each girl sat on either side of Cash, Mae was almost in his lap when she spouted off at her sister.
“Not at the dinner table,” Dev said. He sat to the left of his mother, directly across from Mae and reached over, tapping the side of the plate with his fork. “Mae, eat.”
“I wondered if you were the one,” Carly, Dev’s mother, said. “She’s been talking about you more than she’s talked about her new puppy. She’s taken with you.”
Cash glanced down as Mae wiggled her hips to scoot closer to him in her seat. Her big eyes stared at him. She wore a bigger smile now and a happy shiver encased her whole body.
“Momo says boys can marry each other. Do you have tattoos?” she asked, not waiting for his response, she continued, “I didn’t see any the other morning.” She turned back to her grandmother as if they were having the conversation. “He wasn’t wearing his shirt when he was in Daddy’s apartment. That’s why I think they’re gonna get married. Wait.” Her finger came up as if she had a great idea. She looked at him again. “Was that line going up your chest a tattoo?” Again, she didn’t wait for his answer when her curious gaze shifted to her father, not missing a beat. “You can fix that tattoo, right, Daddy? It wasn’t very good.”
“Mae,” Dev warned, looking at her then her plate.
“I’m all done,” she answered, pushing the plate away. “Daddy can give you tattoos.” She moved her hand over her body then down each arm. “He’s gonna give me tattoos when I’m fifteen.” She looked back at her father for confirmation.
“Eighteen,” Dev said and extended a hand to push the plate back closer to her. “Eat more green beans. They’re good for you.”
“Eighteen,” she confirmed proudly. “I’m gonna do a sleeve of all the princesses. Daddy can draw them. He drew them once when I couldn’t sleep.” As she spoke, her eyes grew bigger. He could practically see another lightbulb moment gaining momentum. “You can have all the superheroes. You look like one. You can draw them, can’t you, Daddy?”
“Told you. We have a bet on when the ADHD, emphasis on the H, is diagnosed,” Dev said to Cash, referring to their earlier brief crash course on Dev’s children’s habits he’d gotten on the drive over this morning. Dev had barely stopped shoveling the food in his mouth since they’d sat down, and added another bite, nodded, then covered his mouth and looked pointedly at Mae. An instruction of silence she seemed to understand. Mae covered her mouth too.
Another interesting thing Cash had noticed was that Dev’s mom had an influence on him. Dev was different inside this house. More relaxed, more civilized, less edgy. The curse words he used in every sentence he spoke were barely uttered since they’d been there.
“He has the biggest muscles out of all Daddy’s club brothers,” Mae burst out. Again, those adoring eyes lifted to Cash.
“He’s not club…” Abi said to Mae before stopping and asking, “Does he look like the rest of Dad’s brothers?”
The sounds of motorcycle pipes rumbling loudly stopped everyone from saying anything more. A tension infiltrated the room, infecting every person sitting at the table. Cash glanced at Shanna who sat directly across the table from him. She squared her shoulders, her spine stiffening. Even the chatterbox beside him stopped talking and moving.
As if the room was held suspended, they all waited for the source of the pipes to arrive. Dev’s fork had slowed its path to his mouth. Cash found himself pausing too.
“Where’s everybody at?” A loud, deep voice boomed from the kitchen. Anger laced each syllable. Seconds later, a door slammed shut with too much force.
He’d heard the voice through surveillance but nothing like the hard edge or booming sounds.
“We were almost done,” his mother whispered with a sigh to the table, reaching for her glass of chardonnay. “We’re in here, Edgar.”
Cash lifted his brows at the use of Fox’s given name. He looked at Dev who gave a noiseless laugh and shrugged. “She refuses to call him what everyone else does. It drives him crazy.”
“What the fuck?” Fox pronounced, coming inside the dining room. “You fuckin’ said be here at two. It’s one thirty.”
Nothing prepared Cash for the underwhelming visual. Fox. The man who made grown men cower was intimidating as hell, but Cash wasn’t sure why. He looked like a standard run-of-the-mill older man. A mechanic. His face was weathered and worn. His head shaved almost bald with long hairs popping out of places they shouldn’t.
His swollen pot belly indicated too much beer and not enough physical activity. He had aged tattoos on both exposed arms, and also on his neck, based on the cut of the faded T-shirt he wore. There were also assorted mismatched tattoos on his face. His biceps were large, and his hands showed a strength the rest of his body lacked. An unkempt beard and mustache shot wildly in every direction from underneath his nose down his chin.
He wore a belt holster, decorated with a one-percenter design. A Glock was secured inside. There were other notable weapon accessories attached to the belt—a couple of knife holsters, one housing a horizontal knife, the other holding something close to a bowie knife.
Generally, those weapons were worn for show, not force.
Probably at some point in his life, Fox had been considered attractive but not anymore. He didn’t fit this family. Dev had started eating again, reaching for a bowl of mashed potatoes. He wasn’t as completely unaffected as he tried to appear to be. Cash noticed the tension flexing in his neck and shoulders.
“Sit down. Stop trying to intimidate the room. We aren’t having it today,” Carly said as if he were Mae’s age and needed redirection.
