AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He pushes back, looking over my shoulder. “Hi, I’m Twipp, this is my daddy.” My boy smiles wide.
I turn to find Brooke standing in the mouth of the hall. The pain in her eye hits me like a semi-truck to the chest. She turns to my mom. “I-I shouldn’t b-be here. I’m going home.”
Brooke bolts for the door, ignoring everyone trying to stop her. Derrick steps in front of me. “I’ll go after her.” I nod, grateful to my friend.
“Daddy?”
I turn to look at my son. “What, bud?”
“She’s fwom the pictures.”
I nod.
“She looked sad—we should cheer her up.”
Fuck, how is this sweet boy all mine?
“I think that’s a good idea,” I tell him. “Mom, I’ll go grab some takeout.” I look out the front window and don’t see them. I walk into the kitchen and look into the backyard. The sight before me fills me with both rage and sadness. Brooke and Derrick are lying in Mom’s hammock. She’s wrapped up in his arms crying.
“I’ll get her back in bed while you’re gone,” Mom says from beside me. “It’ll be okay, I promise.”
***
I sit on my back deck, drinking a beer, and watch the sunset. It’s been a week since Brooke’s moved in temporarily with my mom and dad. When Tripp is there, she doesn’t leave her room, and I hate that, because I know if she got to know him, she’d love him.
The brothers and I have been looking for Austin, but the guy’s gone to ground. I’m not worried because we’ll definitely find him, and he’ll be fucking sorry when we do.
Luckily most of the bruises Brooke’s been sporting are starting to fade. Mom says she won’t talk about what happened and is planning on going back to work tomorrow.
I think it is too soon, but I know that if I said anything she’d laugh in my face, or she’d slap me again.
The brothers are going to help me keep an eye on her, whether she wants it or not. The sliding door opens, and I look behind me to find my boy coming out and crawling onto my lap. “What’s going on, buddy?” I ask quietly.
“Why doesn’t Brooke like me?” He snuggles up under my chin and my stomach pitches.
“Oh bud, that’s not it. Remember I told you about Gage?” Just saying that name makes my heart hurt.
“I member. Do I remind her of Gage?”
The kid is too smart for his own good. “Yes and no, but I promise you that once she gets to know you, she’s going to love you to pieces. Maybe tomorrow morning we can bring her flowers before her first day back at school.”
I know it’s pushing it, but Brooke used to tell me I was pushy, so…there you have it.
“That’s a great idea, Daddy. We’ll pick her up da prettiest flowers ever.”
I drain the last of my beer and carry him into the house. In his room, I toss him on his bed. I cover him and bend down, kissing his forehead. “I love you, little man.”
“I love you too, Daddy.”
He smiles up at me and then rolls to his side, closing his eyes. I turn on his nightlight before I step out of his room, leaving his door open a crack. I head out to the living room and sit down on my huge dark-brown leather sectional.
I grab my laptop, opening my photo app, and begin the slide show I made of the only woman I will ever love. Brooke was so fucking sassy when we were kids, I’d asked her out, she’d said no because she was super shy, or at least I thought she was. To make her jealous, I’d asked another girl out right in front of her.
Brooke stood up and stomped toward me, kicking me right in the balls. I fell in love with her while writhing on the ground in pain—we were inseparable after that. We were each other’s first.
Our first time had been in my basement while my parents were at the compound partying with the club. It had lasted about three minutes. Luckily, I had gotten really good at making her come with oral before we went all the way.
I won’t lie. We got good at sex because once we got the hang of it, we did it all the time. There haven’t been many since Brooke—my primary focus is my son. Of course, I’m no saint and sometimes I needed something more than just my hand.
