Page 50 of Found Through Fire

“Can we move this in the house so I can finish up the food while you all give me shit?” Willow asks as she turns and walks through the door without looking back. Smoke and I look at each other in question, and all the other giant guys sigh and follow her into the house. My little Fox is always in charge around here, it seems.

We follow Willow into the house, and I notice two more men sitting in the living room, waiting for us to come back. I recognize them right away; one is her dad, and the other is the asshole from the plane. I tense up as I see him, and Smoke does the same. Neither of us were okay with the way that he spoke toWillow before getting on the plane, and we were not about to let it happen again. I wonder how her dad and brothers feel about the way he treats her. He looks over at Smoke and I, glaring at us just like we are him. Michael looks back and forth between us, stands, and walks over to Smoke with his hand out to shake.

“Jackson, it’s good to see you again, even with the bad circumstances,” he says with a smile while he shakes Smoke’s hand. He seems sincere about being happy to see him again, so he gets a point for that. I’m still deciding if I’ll accept this new family for my best friend. He deserves one that wants him around.

“Good to see you too, Michael, and yeah, this is a lot to walk into, but I guess I will have to get used to it,” Smoke says as they release the handshake. Then, Michael turns to me.

“We weren’t able to properly meet last time. I’m Michael, Willow’s dad,” he says in a stern voice and gives me a hard handshake with a pointed look. I pretend not to notice the warning in his voice or show any sign of discomfort on my face as he squeezes the shit out of my hand.

The number one thing that you learn growing up in an MC is to never show weakness. Not sure if it is because my dad is the MC President or if he can tell that I am mildly obsessed with his daughter. Either way, how he greeted me lines up more with how I thought he would act as a mercenary. I’m glad it’s with me, though, and not Smoke, who he seems to like.

“Good to meet you, Michael. We were in a rush last time and already interrupted your meeting. I’m Flame,” I reply as he releases the firm handshake that I was matching with just as much force. We stare each other down for a second before he turns back to Smoke. This is the first time I’ve “met the father” of any girl that I have been interested in, and I feel like that went pretty well, considering that I’m a tattooed mechanic that’s next in line to take over an MC.

“Jackson, this is Grey. He works at Vital,” Michael says to Smoke and gestures to the asshole sitting on the couch, who looks annoyed at first, but stands up and gives Smoke just as hard of a handshake as Michael did me.

“Grey. I’m Smoke, Willow’s brother,” Smoke says, still shaking the dick’s hand. A look of shock hits his face, then it morphs into confusion. Grey turns to Michael in question.

“He’s the son of my wife,” Michael says to him to clear the air. Grey nods at him now that he’s in the loop. He looks over at me in question, but I wait for him to say something first. The fucker hasn’t said one word since we walked in, and I’m not helping him out. He can either look like a dick in front of his boss for not introducing himself, or he can suck it up and speak first. I got nothing to prove, so I don’t mind fucking with him.

After a second of tense silence while we stare each other down, he finally reaches out his and grunts, “Grey.”

“Flame,” I reply with some of the humor in my voice that I’m fighting to hold back from winning our face off.

“Fucking men are so damn dramatic all the time,” we all hear Willow mumble and watch as she turns and marches off to the kitchen, over all of the power trips that were just thrown down. Michael, John, and the triplets chuckle, while the rest of us look confused. This must be normal for her.

“She is just like Lilly,” John says as he pats Michael on the back, following Willow to the kitchen.

“Don’t get me started. But she keeps us all in check, and we need that with all of the hot heads in this family,” Michael says as he nods for us to follow.

Taking the hint, we all follow into the kitchen that is so big; even with all of the men now in the room, there is plenty of seating and standing space for those of us too wound up to settle. We all stop and watch Willow cook, not sure what it is, but it is the best thing I have ever smelled.

I’m not a cook, and neither is my dad. Home-cooked meals are something that I lost with my mom. My little Fox is just getting better and better by the second.

CHAPTER 20

WILLOW

Ican feel all eyes on my back while I stand facing the stove, and it’s driving me insane. After today’s bullshit, I decided on comfort food. I’m frying up the last of the chicken and pulling out the homemade cornbread from the oven. The mac n’ cheese, green beans, mashed potatoes, and gravy are already done. I figured it would take a while for all of the guys to leave when they were at this level of high alert.

I decided to just make enough food to feed an army and hope that they calm down a little after they are well fed. I was not expecting Grey to still be here, but I guess he didn’t want to look bad to the boss for leaving when they were still concerned, so I made enough for him to have some, too. Living with him while we were away was one thing, but I’m not sure how I feel about him being in my space.

I sneak a peek at Knox, who is leaning against the counter next to the fridge, speaking in a low tone to Jackson standing in front of him. I take a second longer to check him out since he is distracted. His long brown hair is tied up in a man bun today, and it makes me want to take out his hair tie and run my fingers through it, but now I can see that his ears are gauged. His beard is cut closer to his jaw than the last time I saw him, so it makeshis sharp jaw line more defined. He is wearing black Vans and jeans that look like they have been well worn by all the grease and paint splatter on them. I notice that the shirt under his cut is just a plain black V-neck that allows the top of a tattoo that is on his chest to peek out from underneath.

I knew he was muscular the last time that I saw him, even though he was wearing a sweatshirt. Now that he’s not, I can see that one of his huge arms is completely covered in colorful tattoos, while the other is bare. After finishing my stealthy check-out session, I look back to his face, and my blue eyes clash with his black ones. Jackson is now talking to my dad, who must have walked over to them while I was being a creeper. Shit. He just caught me checking him out. Knox smirks and winks at me. I quickly turn my head and focus on the fried chicken in front of me, but I can feel my face heating up.

“I don’t want you staying at the house by yourself, baby girl,” my dad says for the hundredth time since they cleared the house, and I was able to come back in and shower while they all freaked out in my living room. I was not about to sit with them, listening to them talk about everything that could go wrong and speak over me every time I tried to say something. I was going to wait to give my opinions when they were too busy stuffing their faces to interrupt me. It was one of my mom’s tricks, and they had no idea.

“We’ll talk about it when we all sit down to eat, Dad. Dinner is almost done anyway.” I take the last of the chicken out of the pan and start bringing the food to the table that I already set in the dining room. Dad and the idiots do the same, since they were well trained by Mom. When I set the plate down in the center of the table, I notice Knox bringing the last dish, setting it down, too. I give him a small smile, which he returns.

I quietly mumble a “thanks,” and take a seat, averting my eyes as fast as I can before I start blushing. I really don’t needmy dad and idiots to pick up on the fact that I think this man is ridiculously hot. I have never shown any interest in a guy in front of them, partly because I have always been too busy to have a relationship or be around the opposite sex romantically.

The other part is because the closest that I have ever been to dating someone was in the cancer ward the second time around, and when the idiots found out, they were not happy about it. Fortunately, they were in school, and it was mostly Mom that hung out with me. She thought it was good that I was able to be close to someone that could relate to what I was going through.

When he left the hospital without saying a word and never reached out after, I got to experience the closest thing that I have ever gotten to a first heartbreak. I was depressed for a while after, and my idiots were about to hunt him down for hurting me. I appreciated it, but having my family in my hospital room treating me like I was even more breakable made it worse. I always hated seeing the pity in people’s eyes when I was sick, and promised myself that I would never be seen that way ever again.

I look over to my dad while everyone loads up their plates, and his eyes dart between me and Knox. Damn it.

I look over at Gig next, and he is doing the same. People always say that men are oblivious; why can’t I have that problem with the men in my family?