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“He’s cute as fuck, but what did we expect from pretty boy here?” Gage said, moving past us. “I’m starving. Let’s eat.”
“Agreed. Can we eat now?” Levi asked Trinity.
She nodded as she held Jagger in her arms. “Go for it.”
“We do it buffet-style here. Trinity makes a lot of food for breakfast,” I explained to Genesis.
I liked the way she stayed close to my side as I led her over to get a plate. I didn’t miss Huck’s knowing smirk as he glanced at the way I was holding her to me. This was going to be used to taunt me for a while. I didn’t give a fuck. Let them find it amusing. At least they wouldn’t find out about the dry-humping we’d done in bed this morning.
“I don’t see a ring. Thought you were engaged,” Levi said across the island from us. His eyes locked on Genesis.
“Not your business,” I warned him.
I should have handled that before Genesis got here. This morning had messed with my head. I’d only been able to think about how much I wanted to do that again but naked.
He raised his eyebrows as he turned to me. “It was just a question.”
“We broke up,” she said. Thankfully, her voice didn’t waver, and I detected no emotion in her tone.
Levi’s gaze swung back to her. “Really? I hadn’t heard.”
Aspen walked up to him and wrapped her arms around him. That drew his attention away. He dropped his gaze to hers.
She smiled up at him. “Let’s leave her alone. Let her enjoy breakfast. Maybe she will come back.”
Levi grinned down at Aspen, then lowered his head to kiss her lips. “Okay, baby.”
Thank you, Aspen.
I relaxed then and helped Genesis fill her plate, showing her my favorites. She turned to look for Jagger and found him back in Shiloh’s arms.
“Do you want to eat? I can take him,” Genesis told her.
Shiloh shook her head. “Oh, no. You eat. I want to hold this pretty boy.”
Genesis’s pleased look made me feel all warm and shit inside. I lifted my gaze from her to see Huck watching me with an amused gleam in his eyes. The corner of his mouth tugged upward, just barely, before he turned back to look at Trinity with that same look.
Twenty-Four
Genesis
Mom placed a cup of peppermint tea in front of me before she sat down at the other end of the small kitchen table in her breakfast nook. I swirled the bag around by the string.
“How was speech therapy today?” I asked her.
Dad took it three times a week still.
She sighed and shrugged. “I see it helping some, but it frustrates him. You know how your dad loves to talk. Tell his stories. It’s hard on him to struggle to speak and be understood. But we are thankful every day that he’s here.”
I nodded. So was I. I missed hearing Dad tell stories, even the ones he’d told so many times that I knew them by heart. I wished I could hear those stories again in his deep voice and jolly laughter.
“He’ll get there. He’s determined,” I said, hoping I was right.
She picked up her cup and took a sip, then put it back on the table. Her eyes never leaving my face. I knew that look. She wanted to talk about something. I mentally prepared myself for whatever it was.
“Kye sure is over at the house all the time. Morning and night. Bowie only stayed one night, and then he was gone.” She paused, and her brows knitted together. “I’m not being nosy. Truly, I’m not. You’re an adult; you pay your own bills. I have no right to question you about anything. But I am your mother. And I love you and want the very best for you.” She took a deep breath. “Gen, honey, why were there baby items dropped off by a scary biker-looking man earlier this week? Are you doing some kind of charity thing and taking donations?”
I had known, at some point, Mom was going to notice something like that. For the most part, it had been easy to hide Jagger from her. I parked in the garage, and we took him out from the house through the garage door. When we went to the park or out with him to a store, we always went to Gainesville to get some distance from any locals. This had been bound to happen eventually.
I took a drink and tried to decide how to go about explaining this. I was very protective of Jagger. My mom could be opinionated. She’d worry about me first. Not think about the abandoned baby who needed someone to care for him.
She needed to see him first. That was best. She’d see Jagger, and when I started explaining it all, she’d accept him. Not lecture me on what a terrible idea this was.
