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“I’d love some, pumpkin,” he quickly agreed.
Not wanting them to know I was eavesdropping yet, I held back a sniffle. Hearing Garrison use the same nickname for our little girl that my dad used for me always made me emotional. Seeing what a great dad he was to CeCe had finally been enough to make my dad fully accept Garrison into the family. He’d even gotten the boys 3-wheel toddler motorcycles for their second birthday.
“There you go, Daddy. How about you, Gavin?”
“Sure,” our oldest boy—by a whopping fifteen minutes—answered.
“I want some, too!” Jensen cried.
We’d named the boys after our fathers, which had definitely earned Garrison some extra brownie points from my dad.
“Oh, no,” CeCe cried dramatically. “We’re out of tea. Sorry, Jensen. There isn’t enough for you to have more.”
“Aw, man,” Jensen complained.
Taking that as my cue to make my presence known, I lifted my hand in the air as though I was carrying an imaginary teapot and walked into the room. CeCe was standing next to our youngest son, who was seated at the small round table along with his twin and dad. Garrison barely fit in his chair, and his knees were almost all the way to his chest. But that wasn’t what made me giggle. The tiara perched on top of his head did that, along with the two stuffed animals who flanked him on either side.
CeCe was obsessed with teddy bears—the bigger, the better. A light brown one was seated to Garrison’s left, and a bright pink one was to his right. They had tiaras on their heads, too. So did our sons. And none of them looked the least bit embarrassed for me to find them this way. Our daughter had them all wrapped around her little finger, and they’d do just about anything she asked. It was so darn adorable.
Forcing my lips into a pout, I said, “You guys started the tea party without me? I guess I’ll just go and drink this whole pot by myself.”
CeCe raced over to me, shoving the empty toy teapot into my other hand before taking the pretend one from me. “More tea! Yay! You’re the best, Mommy!”
Jensen flashed me a big grin. “Thanks. I was thirsty.”
CeCe poured some more pretend tea into his pink plastic cup. “Tada!”
He lifted the cup to his lips and made a slurping sound. “Mmm, good.”
“How about you pour your mom some too, pumpkin?” Garrison suggested.
“Good idea!” CeCe raced over to the kitchen set and grabbed another cup and saucer for me. Then she realized all the chairs were taken, and her smile fell. “Oh, no. There’s nowhere for you to sit.”
“Sure there is.” Garrison scooted his chair away from the table and stretched his long legs out. Then he patted his lap and flashed me a sexy smirk. “Best seat in the house.”
Thinking about how I’d ridden him this morning before the kids were up, my cheeks filled with heat. “It really is.”
Once I was carefully perched on top of him, he wrapped one arm around me and pressed the other fist to the floor to make sure we didn’t topple over. Pressing his mouth to my ear, with his beard scraping my skin and making me shudder, he whispered, “Glad you’re back, baby. I missed you.”
I’d only been gone for an hour, but I knew he was telling the truth. Garrison still lived up to his road name with everyone else, but he was a teddy bear with our children and me. And I loved him all the more for it.
EPILOGUE
BEAR
“Dad?”
I glanced to my left where Gavin was lying on his back, underneath his bike. Both of our boys had been riding since they were old enough to sit in front of me on the seat of my hog. Eventually, they’d each bought bikes of their own, though they’d been in pretty bad shape since it was all they could afford. We’d fixed them up together, and even though both of them were freshman in college, we still spent time each week out in the garage working on our motorcycles or ones we repaired and sold.
“Yeah?”
“I was wondering.” He stayed focused on the repair he was doing, clearly avoiding looking over at me.
Frowning, I put my tool on the tray next to me and turned on my stool to face him. “What’s going on?”
Jensen swiveled around on his stool, turning his attention from the paint job he’d been working on. “Just rip off the fucking Band-Aid, dude,” he told Gavin before pushing his glasses up his nose and swinging back around to continue working.
Gavin finally sat up and looked at me. “I know you’ve always hoped Jensen and I would join the Silver Saints, and I hate the idea of you being disappointed in me but—”
