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Chapter Twenty-Six
“Tell me!” Hadley moaned in frustration, swatting at my back as I walked down the staircase.
I chuckled. “That would ruin the surprise.”
“I don’t like surprises anymore. So tell me,” she tried to reason unsuccessfully. I could practically hear her sulking as she trudged down behind me. Hadley really didn’t like surprises. She liked information. She liked to ask questions and be informed. I think it made her feel secure and safe. Like if she had all the information, she knew how she could protect herself.
“Christmas is like a week away, you’re so damn impatient, woman,” I grumbled as we hit the main room and I veered toward the bar.
Hadley slipped her arms around my waist and pressed a kiss to my back. “I’m just gonna go check on Macy.”
Reaching around, I hooked her around the neck with my arm and pulled her against my chest. “I can see her from here,” I told her, brushed my lips over her soft hair and inhaling her scent. I could see Macy, Jayla, and Harlyn through the patio doors, chasing each other around the playground outside as Jess and Phil watched on. “She’s fine.”
Hadley shook her head and looked up at me with that stunning smile that just a few months ago had floored me. “Have I ever told you that you’re an amazing dad?”
I laughed loudly. “Maybe a couple times.”
“Hey Had, you want a drink?” Skylar asked as she popped up on the other side of the bar.
Hadley shook her head. “I’ll have to pass. I have a paper to write tonight.”
Skylar grinned. “I know the feeling. Luckily our professors took pity on us and gave us a few weeks over Christmas, assignment free.”
Hadley was determined to finish college and get her teaching diploma. It had taken me a long time to convince her to let me help pay for some of the costs because she was so damn stubborn. I just wanted her to be fucking happy, and if teaching hormonal teens with bad attitudes did that then I would support her entirely.
“I’m kinda hungry, I’ll grab Macy and take her into the dining room to have an early dinner before you lot get the drunk munchies and eat everything in sight,” Hadley said, reaching up on her tiptoes and kissing me on the cheek.
“I’ll come in soon. I just wanna chat with Ham quickly.” She nodded and ducked out the patio doors.
It was going to take a while for me and the rest of the club to get used to calling him Shake. It always does take a while when you earn your road name. I searched the room with my eyes until I found Ham sitting on a sofa off to the side of the room with two club girls, Kay and Ash,‘welcoming’him to the brotherhood. With his hand palming Ash’s firm ass and his eyes glazed over in what was obviously the result of already too many beers, I was about to tell him to take it to a room until the kids had gone to bed.
We had some pretty wild parties, and when that was the case, it wasn’t unusual to see brothers and girls fucking out in the open. But with the kids still awake, we all knew it wasn’t appropriate.
“Meyah…” Hearing Hadley call my niece’s name, my eyes flicked to the open doorway where she stood staring at Ham with wide eyes and tears already dripping down her cheeks. I cringed and took a step forward at the same time Ham pushed the girls away and stumbled to his feet.
Meyah, though, didn’t wait around. She shot back out the door like hellfire was on her heels. My eyes met Hadley’s, and she shook her head. “Watch Macy, I’ll go.”
I huffed out a harsh breath but nodded. Looking over to Ham, I half expected to have to grab him and stop him from going after Meyah too, but all he did was stumble toward the bar and drop onto a stool a few feet from me. Skylar shot me a sympathetic glance as I approached and she slipped the kid another beer.
“You should really slow down,” I warned cautiously.
“Shouldn’t you be punching me in the face or something?” he scoffed, looking up at me. I could see pain in his eyes, pain I wasn’t used to feeling from him. Ham was usually very level-headed and always had a smile on his face.
I leaned against the bar as I took him in.
This definitely was something new.
“Because of Meyah?”
He threw back a mouthful of his beer. “You saw her face.”
“Meyah is a teenage girl, I saw that face from her when Zayn left One Direction.” A small giggle from the end of the bar had me turning and narrowing my eyes on Skylar. She held her hands up in surrender but didn’t bother to wipe the amused look off her face. “Anyway… what I mean is, girls her age get hurt easily. But you just need to talk to them, explain things.”
Ham shook his head. “She’s too young. She looks at me like I’m her hero…”
“And you look at her like she’s the center of your universe,” I countered, obviously startling him. “I’m not an idiot. I see the way you watch her. I love Meyah like she’s my own daughter, and I will protect her from anything and everything I think may hurt her. But I also see how much you care about her.”
He continued to shake his head but I knew. “She’s too young.”
