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Chapter Twenty-Three
Bear was working inthe diner this morning. He had to sign paychecks and oversee their ordering. Although he had capable people working for him, he still needed to make sure everything was perfect. Regina trusted him and he wasn’t letting her down.
They’d had the kids a week and had finally gotten into a rhythm. Despite he and Winnie wanting to do things on their own, there was no saying no to their dads. At least they’d convinced them to only come in the early mornings.
He and Winnie were able to sleep in until seven, which was a blessing. Rascal or Locks was taking the five a.m. feeding. They’d use their key to get in, feed Joey and then put him back down. Joey was now sleeping at least two hours between feedings and sometimes longer.
He smiled thinking of Phoebe’s disgust with the voting for the name. She and David had come in and said they didn’t like any of the top three names. He and Winnie had asked them which ones they liked. They both said the same name. Winnie had looked at him and said well, you’re the siblings so you get extra votes. Let’s tell Joey his new name.
Later that same evening, Winnie’s sisters had invaded and decided they needed to do a dance party. When theFriendsthem song came on, Phoebe started singing along and knew all the words.
Beth had asked her how she knew the song. Phoebe had looked at her like she was stupid then said, “It was Mommy’s favorite song, silly. That’s who I’m named after,” then the name the kids had chosen made perfect sense. They’d all had a good laugh that no one had realized Phoebe Lisa and David Ross were from the show. Even though there were numerous Matts in the MC, they had to name the baby Joseph Matthew. His crazy woman and her sisters had more in common with the children than he’d ever known.
The temperature had dropped and snow was forecasted late tonight or early tomorrow morning. Beth, Sarah, Jesse, and Winnie had driven to Wichita to grab essentials for the kids and their house. All the stuff from their friends was nice but Winnie and he both wanted the kids to get to play in the snow which meant snowsuits, heavy gloves and snow boots. Plus, Winnie had a running list of all the things she’d noticed the kids needed. They’d taken one of the SUVs so they’d have plenty of room to bring stuff back.
Remington and Rascal were on kid duty until he got back home. He was going to spend a little time planning some meals for them. The stuff everyone had dropped off was great but he’d been chatting with the kids, finding out their favorite foods. He’d found a recipe for homemade mac and cheese that he wanted to try. The kids raved about their mom’s mac and cheese and when listening to them describe it, he thought he might have figured out the recipe.
They also talked about her making her own pizza crusts and them getting to make their own pizzas. He had a crust recipe and was going to make sure he had all the toppings. He was guessing at how much they’d need because so far someone had always dropped in for either lunch or supper with them. He’d been a little crabby about it at first until he’d realized how the kids loved having family around.
Phoebe had asked about Grandpa Rascal or Grandpa Locks reading a bedtime story to them. He’d sent a text out and had one of them scheduled for tonight and the other for tomorrow night. He couldn’t bring their mom back but he was going to be the best dad for them. They would never want for anything, especially affection and love.
He finished the paychecks, checked over their sales for the last week and was pleasantly surprised with how much apparel had sold. He’d known the food items would fly off the shelves. They were currently keeping their production the same because with it being the week after Christmas, he expected the candy items might drop off because of people switching out of holiday mode.
He scrutinized the shop area as he entered. Everything was clean, orderly and ready for the next shopper to fall in love with something. Scoop was in the shop area. He notified them all he was upgrading the security at all their businesses. Bear had given up trying to keep up with all the modifications. He was thankful his brother was protecting their business.
“Hey, Scoop, how’s the upgrade going?”
“Good. I took the morning shift because I worried about anyone trying to check out people while I was upgrading. I’ll add the sale in manually before I leave today.”
“Thanks.” Bear checked the racks and then the extra storage area behind. It looked like the numbers were correct. They had sold a huge amount of clothing.
“Have you sold any clothing this morning? I’ve been off for a few days and our clothing sales are significantly higher than I projected.”
Scoop laughed and nodded. “Oh yeah, you need to reorder. They have a list here of items people wanted and were out of stock. It looks like the sweatshirts you ordered as a joke for the sisters were put out for sale. There’s a list here of fifty people who want you to order them one. You also have a list of like forty people wanting the property of keychains with our logo. By the way, I’m completely okay with that, but some chick this morning pointed at my name on my cut and asked me if she could get one with Property of Scoop on it. Um, no way! I don’t care how much they’ll pay.”
“You’re kidding, right? About her wanting one with your name on it?”
Scoop clicked a couple of other keys, then shook his head. “I wish I was.”
Bear patted Scoop’s shoulder. “Hang in there. At least she wasn’t trying to get a property of cut with your name on it.”
Scoop shuddered. “Don’t you even joke about that. So, Dad, how’s it feel now that your relationship is out in the open and you suddenly have an instant family?”
“Like it’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me. Almost like a dream because it’s too good to be true. I keep waiting for it to all go to crap.”
Scoop nodded and knocked on the table. “We’ve got your back, brother. Enjoy the ride but know I’m diving into everything I can about the situation.”
