Page 10 of Romeo

Though she was pregnant with his twins. I hadn’t known that, nor had she. Even if I’d known, I still would’ve chosen her.

And at the time I chose Claudia, Frank wasn’t my brother.

I’d been living on the streets when I gave birth to Charlie. I’d been a tossed-out, pregnant foster kid with nowhere to go. Not because of my parents. They’d been amazing, though the only real memory I had left of my mother was of her singing to me when I was sick.

My parents died in a car accident when I was a child, and when no family could be found, I went into the foster care system. From there I bounced from home to home until I met Billy Johnson.

When I found out I was pregnant, Mr. and Mrs. Jones kicked me to the curb. Though I didn’t think they told the state. Couldn’t collect that paycheck if you gave the foster kid back.

God, the system was so screwed up.

Diana Peters had been different. She’d helped Frank and Claudia adopt Charlie, but she hadn’t stopped there. When Granny wanted to adopt me, Diana stood in front of the judge and spoke on my behalf.

Someday, I wanted to do that for someone else.

That was why I was planning to go to college and become a social worker.

Granny adopting me was how Frank and Georgie became my brothers; though legally they were my nephews. Granny was their grandmother, so her adopting me technically made me their father’s sister.

Yeah. Our family tree was complicated.

But we didn’t stand on legalities. Everyone in Rosewood called Martha Steiner Granny.

That could’ve been on account of her best friend’s name also being Martha. But regardless, Granny was now my adopted mom, and she was almost as good as my real mom.

That might not have sounded fair to Granny, but she understood. Right after she adopted me, she told me the law might see her as my mother, but she wasn’t looking to replace my mom—she’d step in as my grandmother instead.

I didn’t know where I’d be if she hadn’t.

Sheriff Brewer had wanted to arrest me for abandoning Charlie. It wasn’t his fault. He was just doing his job. But, boy, did that make Granny mad, and if there was one thing you did not want to do, it was piss off my Granny.

I was pretty sure even King might’ve been afraid of her.

King was the president of the Sons of Hell Motorcycle Club here in Rosewood. Frank and Georgie were in the club too.

Jasper was a biker too.

Just not in the Sons of Hell.

His club was the Silver Shadows MC in Nebraska, where everyone called him Romeo. Georgie had made a point of making sure I understood exactly how he’d gotten that name, as if I were too young to understand about sex.

Hello... gave birth to a child—alone I might add.

I knew Georgie meant well. Knew he was worried about me being taken advantage of again. But I didn’t see what Billy and I had done as being taken advantage of. I knew the law classed it as statutory rape, but I’d known what I was doing. I’d also known what the risks were.

Or at least, I’d thought I did.

At fifteen, I’d thought I was in love.

What fifteen-year-old didn’t think she was in love with the handsome older boy who paid attention to her?

I was older now. Eighteen, a senior in high school and about to go off to college. Georgie had to understand that at some point, he needed to let me make my own decisions when it came to my life.

When it came to Jasper.

I didn’t want to call him Romeo, because despite what Georgie might’ve thought, I knew exactly how he got that name. And while he was much older than me, and I wasn’t naïve enough to think he hadn’t been with a ton of women, I preferred to think of him as Jasper.

Not that he’d ever want to be with me anyway.