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When I walk back toward her with a tray of food piled high, she grins, rubbing her hands together with excitement. Yep. Definitely my mom.
“I love you, Gray,” she squeals, barely letting me set the tray down before she reaches for the first taco she can get her hands on.
The noise of the people drifts away as we sit and eat in comfortable silence. Seeing her like this fills me with love and appreciation for her. She needs this more often and I’ve let her down.
“I’m sorry we haven’t been doing this for you more often, Mom, but we’ll change that, okay?” I say, wiping my mouth with a napkin.
She smiles softly in acknowledgment. “We live a crazy lifestyle, Gray. It’s not the norm for us to be able to take our foot off the gas and just appreciate life for a minute, but I’m glad we’re doing it now.”
“Well, I appreciateyou, we all do. Everything you do for the club, for my brothers, for me and Shift. I’m eternally grateful. We shouldn’t just expect it though, not when you don’t get anything in return.”
Her eyes gleam and crinkle as she smiles. “Scarlett is a good influence on you.”
“She’s a good influence on all of us.”
“Agreed.” She glances off, lost in thought, and I give her a moment. “Everything you’re saying to me, you need to say to her too, Gray. She would single-handedly give her soul over to you guys and protect that club with her life, but she needs gratitude and appreciation in return as well.”
“You’re right, I’m going to make sure of it.” My heart feels full at the mere thought of her. I want to give her everything, and never because it’s in response but because she deserves it first.
“You love her a lot, don’t you?” my mother muses, a wistful smile on her face and I nod. “The way you look at her, it’s just how your father used to look at me. He would have liked her.”
“He would have liked her sassy mouth and no-bullshit attitude,” I mutter in agreement, and she grins.
“He would’ve loved to see you happy too.”
My heart warms, but I don’t reply, saying anything else would spoil the moment. Reaching between us, I lift her hand and press a kiss to her knuckles. She squeezes my hand tighter, eyes shimmering as she takes in the warmth between us.
“Let’s head home, honey, I’ve got a lot of things to organize before I go out later,” she says.
I grab all of her things and head to the SUV I brought. It’s a good job we came in the damn thing with everything she bought. It’s as if she saw the size of the trunk and thought ‘challenge accepted.’
Driving us home, I let her take control of the radio, and she plays some country music, singing along as she watches out of the window. I glance at her out of the corner of my eye a time or two and my heart constricts. Even as her child, I will never know how hard her life has been, what she went through before I was big enough to understand, but I’m here for her now. To protect her, to appreciate her, and to make her smile just like she is at this moment.
All too quickly, we’re pulling into the compound, and I spot Axel outside, smoking. “Brother, help a guy out,” I holler as I jump down from the SUV, pointing at the trunk as my mom chuckles.
“I’ll get the coffee machine going,” she says with a grin, heading inside.
“What’s up?” Axel asks, rounding the vehicle with me, and I point to all the bags as the trunk opens. I may have carried them all while I was there, but there’s no way in hell I’m doing it now if there’s someone here to help me.
No thanks.
“What the fuck did she buy, man? Is there anything even leftatthe mall?” he asks, tossing the butt of his cigarette away as he leans in to grab some of the bags.
“Don’t even get me started. That woman is a weapon when it comes to shopping. As if she needed any more talents than she already rocks,” I grumble, grabbing the other half and heading inside. “Are they back from the campus yet?” I ask, and Axel nods.
“Yeah, she went for a nap. I think she might actually be in your room.”
My dick twitches at the thought of her in my bed, and my steps quicken. When I enter the bar area, my mom points at the booth in the corner, insisting that we drop everything there.
Swiping a hand down my face, I glance at the time. “Axel, could you do me a favor?”
“I’d rather I didn’t.”
I roll my eyes at him like usual, but he stays where he is, waiting to see what I want. “Could you take my mom to the diner tonight? She’s having food with some of her friends, but I was hoping to catch Scarlett for a bit. We were having a… moment yesterday before Molly interrupted, and I was hoping to skip back to that.”
He cocks a brow at me, making it clear that my discreet phrasing is pointless.
“You mean you want to fuck her.”
