Page 55 of Hard Corps (Selected Sinners MC 7)

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Late summer 2014, Austin, Texas, USA

It had been a month since Katie and I started dating, and our time together was always enjoyable. Ripp and Shane shocked the family three-weeks prior, announcing simultaneously that their wives were pregnant. I couldn’t have been happier for either of them, and was excited for the day to come when their children arrived. In my opinion, no one was more excited than Katie’s father, who was having a hard time hiding not only his excitement, but his naturally protective nature of those he loved.

He pulled his fork from his mouth and wagged it toward Ripp. “You need to give that woman some space, Mike. You’re crowding her. Inch over and give her some damned room.”

I shifted my eyes toward Ripp. Sitting in his wife beater, covered in muscles, and littered from head to toe in tattoos, he probably didn’t appear to be a soon-to-be father by all of those who saw him, but I knew where his devotion lied.

He lifted his head from the piece of chicken he was eating, glanced toward his father, and glared.

“The table ain’t shrunk since we was all here last has it, Dekk?” Ripp asked as he stared at his father.

Shane looked up from his plate. “Not that I know of.”

“A-Train, table seem smaller to you?” he asked without shifting his eyes from his father.

My assigned position at the table had changed from being seated beside Ripp to across the table between Manda and Katie. I peered over the table toward him and shook my head.

“Same size,” I responded.

Still staring at his father, and his father steadily staring back, Ripp released his piece of chicken dramatically and tossed his hands into the air as his chicken fell to his plate.

“How in the hell can I be crowdin’ her when we’re all sittin’ in the same spots we’ve always sat in, Pop?” he growled.

“She needs more damned room,” his father growled in return. “She got one in the oven.”

“It’s the size of a damned piece of rice,” Ripp said as he reached for his piece of chicken. “And Vee’s fine, aren’t you, Vee?”

“I’ve got plenty of room,” she said.

His father shook his head. “A piece of rice? Where in the Sam Hill do you get your information? That kid’s the size of a damned orange.”

Ripp sighed loudly, lowered his piece of chicken from his mouth and let it dangle from his fingertips. “Internet, Pop. Maybe you heard of it.”

“Oh, Lord. You can’t go believing everything you read on that damned interweb” he said as he glanced down at his plate and began to eat.

“It’s true, Mr. Ripton. Rice baby. I’ve looked,” Kace said.

Mr. Ripton raised his head, turned toward Kace, and lowered his chin. “Is that a fact? Never would have guessed it.”

Ripp glanced at Kace, shook his head, and shifted his eyes to his father.

“So Kace says it and it’s a fact. I say it and I’m an idiot?” Ripp howled.

“You are an idiot. Rice baby or not, you’re a damned fool, Mike. Now, eat your chicken,” his father said with a gesture from the tip of his fork.

“Don’t call Michael an idiot, it isn’t nice,” Mrs. Ripton said.

I grinned and glanced around the table. Everyone in attendance acted as if this was typical, and from what I had seen of the dinners at the Ripton residence, it was quite normal for the family to act in the manner they were acting. Vee rarely spoke unless spoken to, and Shane never said a word unless asked a question or paying Mrs. Ripton a compliment on the food. Manda, Ripp and Katie’s sister, seemed to have a hidden agenda, and attended the meals only to eat, never saying a word one way or another.

Ripp cleaned the meat from the bone he was chewing on and tossed it aside. “You need to treat everyone at this table the same, Pop.”

“I do,” his father said without glancing up from his meal.

“Don’t either,” Ripp responded. “I said rice baby, and I’m a damned fool. Kace said rice baby and you said is that a fact. Be fair. I’m not a damned fool, and stop calling me one. I’m excited about this baby.”

“So am I, Michael,” his mother said.