Page 1 of Grumpy

PROLOGUE

Six Months Ago

Jesse “Grumpy” Bell stared across the refurbished diner, and with a twitch of his shoulders, grunted.

His young companion, with dirty blonde hair and glasses falling down his nose, looked up. Around a giant spoonful of ice cream, Scotty asked, “What’re you grumping at, Uncle Grumpy?”

Grumpy lifted a silent eyebrow at the made-up verb. And yet, it seemed to be such a common-place word in his life that his other club nieces and nephews, and even his club brothers, had started using it. But it would forever be a “Scotty Word” to Grumpy. After all, when Grumpy had been named “Grumpy”, Scotty had barely been ten years old.

Fuck, how had it been ten years already since he’d crossed into Mount Grove? These days, Grumpy was feeling every single second of his forty-one years. Some thought his grumpiness was an act he put on to live up to his road name, but in truth, Scotty had aptly named him. He really was just a grumpy son of a bitch. And who was Grumpy to begrudge the teen that goofy smile of pure unadulterated joy when he got to tell the story of how he’d named his Uncle Grumpy? Only one other member had that honor, and that was Pirate.

Scotty told that story a lot, and to anyone kind enough to stand there and listen. Then again, a look from any of the adults with Scotty, and the poor bastard being subjected to the story, whether it was his first time or one hundredth, had no choice but to stand there and listen. At least his grumpy reputation was good for something.

Today was Scotty’s day at the autobody shop with Grumpy. Since graduating high school, the club had worked out a schedule to rotate who took Scotty to work with them. Harper worked at the high school as a special education teacher, and could not bring Scotty with her to work. Lucky was an art welder, and as much as Scotty loved going to work with his daddy, he did get bored extremely easily. There’d been one-too-many near accidents at Lucky’s art studio for Lucky to take Scotty with him and expect to have a productive day. So the club had come up with a Scotty Schedule, which also freed up the club nannies who were hired to watch the younger children and infants.

Not that anyone minded. The entire club adored Scotty, who was very aware that he had all his aunts and uncles wrapped around his little finger. The plan following graduation was for Scotty to attend a postsecondary education college program designed for special needs students like Scotty—but after Melanie’s murder, Harper and Lucky wanted to keep Scotty home with them for an extra year. Scotty was now enrolled and all set to attend starting the upcoming fall semester.

Mount Grove wasn’t going to be the same without this adorable goofball around every day. Grumpy knew that it was good for Scotty to get some real-world experience, or as real-world as an adult with Down syndrome could have. The club was very aware that Scotty was spoiled and sheltered—and frankly, that’s the way it should be. Grumpy never wanted to see Scotty’s light tainted by the dark crap the rest of the world had to face every single fucking day. The college program would continue Scotty’s education in the basics, like math, English, and science, while also expanding into trade skills, like carpentry, cosmetics, or even auto mechanics.

Grumpy just wished Scotty’s college was closer to home. He would live on campus with a full-time aide and come home on the weekends. Mount Grove just wasn’t going to be the same. Many of Scotty’s uncles were already plotting the teen’s jailbreak to “kidnap” him from college and take him for a motorcycle ride before returning him. For all his talk of wanting Scotty to get the best education and life-experience he could, Grumpy had no doubt that Lucky would be leading the charge when they actually left to go get their nephew.

Scotty made a face that told Grumpy his giant bite of ice cream had gone straight to the teen’s head. Poor guy. Then again, maybe Grumpy should be more concerned about Scotty’s teeth after the amount of gummy worms and bears he’d added on. Because, according to Scotty’s logic, gummy worms and bears were animals and therefore as nutritional as their real-life counterparts. Grumpy did not have the heart to inform the teen that it wasn’t protein those things were made out of.

Neither had his Aunt Sophia, who had piled the sundae bowl high when she’d seen Grumpy and Scotty enter.

Grumpy picked at his burger, his attention split between his brain-frozen nephew and the beautiful waitress who was fucking smiling at another customer. Grumpy’s eyes narrowed. He was very aware that he had no right to be pissed off about this, but from the moment his eyes had landed on Kelly Doyle years ago, he’d felt an intense possession over her.

Newly divorced and pissed at the world, Grumpy still hadn’t been certain he was staying in Mount Grove, despite the prospect cut he’d been wearing at the time. The club was still new, the club’s garage wasn’t yet making ends meet, and Grumpy had no ties here. He’d never been the type for casual relationships, but he also knew he wasn’t in the right headspace to be someone worthy of a woman at that time. So he’d kept his distance, and watched from afar.

There might have been some light stalking. Including following her on a date or two, and in one case, breaking the fingers of a drifter who had put his hands where they didn’t belong when she served him his order at the diner. But Grumpy wasn’t some creep. He genuinely cared for Kelly. Hell, she was probably one of the few people in this town who could actually get words out of him instead of a conversation filled with grunts.

Grumpy knew that Kelly had worked at the diner since high school. She’d never gone to college and rarely left Mount Grove. She lived in a small single-story house with her aging mother. Grumpy’s house was secluded, and less than a mile from hers as the crow flies. Sometimes when she was at work, Grumpy would slip over and check the exterior for maintenance needs. Simple not-creepy repairs that were not obvious but needed to be done. He’d never crossed the line of going inside when she wasn’t there to see if there was anything that needed fixing—but damn was he tempted.

Kelly was this diner, which was why Sophia had made her the hostess when she’d taken the diner over from her parents. There wasn’t a resident in Mount Grove that Kelly didn’t know by name, face, and favorite order.

She was fucking perfect, and no matter what was happening in her life outside these walls, she always had a smile on when she was here. Okay…maybe…Grumpy felt more for her than possession. But he wasn’t going to act on it.

With his luck with women, it wouldn’t work out anyway. So what was the point?

The bell over the door chimed, drawing both Kelly’s and Grumpy’s attention toward it. For a moment, their eyes met before continuing towards the door.

Jigsaw entered, followed by Ranger and Poker. It was still odd to see Ranger without Ghost beside him, but since Ghost had literally stolen Ranger’s sister from her own wedding, marrying him instead of her fiancé, Ranger had been a bit testy towards his best friend. Some of the club thought Ghost had lost his mind while others were more concerned with trying to repair the rift between Ghost and Ranger. Personally, Grumpy found the whole situation hilarious, but was also staying out of it. Ghost and Ranger had been through too much together to allow a woman to come between them, even if that woman was Ranger’s little sister.

If Grumpy had any siblings, maybe he’d feel different. Instead, he was choosing to watch from the sidelines and not get involved unless bullets started flying.

Seeing Grumpy and Scotty, the three club members headed over. Ranger and Jigsaw squeezed their way into the booth on either side of Scotty, playfully squishing the teen between them and making him giggle. Apparently brain freezes could be cured by laughter. Who knew.

Grumpy slid closer to his left as Poker sat on his right. Newly patched, Poker suffered from PTSD and did not do well in tight spaces. Scotty’s giggles aside, Ranger and Jigsaw both knew that Poker needed the seat that placed his back against the wall. Thankfully, the booths Sophia had chosen during the diner’s refurbishment last year were longer and able to easily fit three grown humans across.

What the manufacturer hadn’t taken into account was the shoulder-width and muscle of most military men. Even so, Ranger and Jigsaw were over-exaggerating the tight squeeze for the sake of Scotty’s giggles.

“These booths just keep getting smaller and smaller,” Jigsaw complained, purposefully loud over the giggles coming from his right.

“So weird,” Grumpy muttered as he reached across the table to snag a drop of ice cream that had started to drop over the side of the sundae glass.

Seeing Grumpy pop his ice cream-covered finger into his mouth, Scotty voiced his first complaint. “My ice cream!”

“Oh no!” Ranger feigned surprise. “Scot-Man! I didn’t see you there. I am sooo sorry.”