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“She said she had an errand to run first.”
“What errand?”
Luke’s shoulders rose, then dropped. “Got me.” He parted his lips to say something else but was distracted when his phone vibrated. After checking the screen, his fingers flew over the keyboard, typing faster than I ever could. I hated texting. I much preferred calling. Quicker that way.
“Who’s got you smilin’ like that?” I asked, smacking him on the arm when he tucked his phone into his back pocket. Last chick he’d been with, whose name escaped me, had left him in Seattle after her grandmother died. It was why he’d moved back to California.
“Nobody.”
“Uh-huh. Just make sure to wrap it up. Your ol’ man doesn’t wanna be a grandpa yet.” I winked before adding, “Did he have the talk with you yet?”
“About sex?” Luke asked, frowning at me.
“He’s gonna be twenty-three,” Tripp answered. “I had the talk with him when he was twelve.” He glanced at his son. “And Hawke’s right. We’re not ready to be grandparents anytime soon.”
“I’m not getting anyone pregnant. I just started talking to her.”
“So, there is someone,” I teased, bumping his shoulder.
“I’m gonna go now.” The corners of his mouth kicked up before he walked toward the exit.
“I still see him as a kid,” I confessed. “He’s ten in my mind, even though I know he’s a grown man now.”
“I know what you mean. I feel like we were old at his age, but yet he’s still so young.”
“That’s because he’s been protected his whole life, as he should’ve been. Whereas we were involved in a lot of dangerous shit when we were his age.”
Both Tripp and I had become members of the Knights Corruption in our early twenties. Our dad hadn’t been a part of the club, but he’d been good friends with Marek and Stone’s ol’ man. It’s how we knew each other. He worried about the goings on of the club, but he knew us enough to realize we wouldn’t be easily deterred from joining. Luckily, we were able to keep all forms of danger away from him while he was alive. After he passed was a completely different story, a tale I was happy had ended.
“Which is why he’s been shielded. I wanted better for him. Safety for my family was my ultimate goal.”
“And we have it. Finally.”
We’d managed to end the war with the Savage Reapers decades ago, but another one brewed last year with other members of that cesspool of a club. Thankfully, we put an end to them, once and for all, ensuring the protection of our families. Those were harrowing times, but we’d come through alive and well. For the most part.
“Hey, brother,” Brick greeted, bumping into me as he stopped next to me, closer than was typical. Because of his sheer size, he crowded me without realizing, or at least that was my impression.
“Hey.” I took a breath. “Wanna give me some room?”
“But I miss ya,” he teased before taking a step to the side, returning the majority of my personal space.
I hadn’t always gotten along with Brick, but we’d overcome our differences, and I was proud to call him not only my brother, but a friend. He was a good guy. I’d trust him with my life, and vice versa.
Unfortunately, we also shared an experience over what happened to our women at the hands of an old enemy. Not a bond I ever wanted to have with someone, but for as much as I wished to change the past, I couldn’t, so the connection existed.
“Wanna beer?” I asked, leaning over the edge of the bar, and snatching him a cold one.
“Thanks.” He popped the top and gulped down half, the muscles in his throat working to make the tattoo on his neck look like it moved. He wiped his mouth afterward. “I needed that.”
“Trouble at home?”
“Nah, nothin’ like that. Well…” He paused a beat, seemingly collecting his thoughts. “The baby’s been super fussy and we’re not gettin’ much sleep. God love Zoe. She deals with it more than me because she’s breastfeeding. I have no idea how women do it.” Their daughter, Isabelle, was born a couple months ago.
“I can’t imagine.”
And I didn’t want to. One thing Edana and I agreed on wholeheartedly was that neither of us wanted kids. We liked them but didn’t want to be responsible for raising any. We enjoyed other people’s kids because we could give them back.
Brick gave me a look I couldn’t decipher before prying his lips open once more. “I want her to have a sibling, but I’m not sure we can do this again.” He shook his head and looked away for a moment. “I guess I should wait and see, right?”
