Cross
I don’t know how in the hell I was the designated chaperone for Beau in his hospital room. But after Moon spoke with the doctor who assured her that Beau wasn’t in grave danger, she’d run home to get him a change of clothes. The poor kid had sweated through his own during his ordeal. Now though, two hours later, there was no sign that anything had ever been wrong with the kid, aside from his pale skin. His blue eyes were big and wide, sparkling with excitement.
“What’s up, kid?”
He bit his lip, a move his mom often did when she was deep in thought or concentration. “What does your club do? My mom says you’re in a motorcycle club.”
His words surprised me, not his curiosity, because Beau was smart as hell and twice as curious and interested in every damn thing. What surprised me was that Moon had told him anything about the club and that she hadn’t called it a gang.
“We own a few businesses together, we ride together and we’re friends, though we think of each other as family.”
His inky brows dipped into a low vee across his forehead in confusion. “Like me and my mom?”
I nodded and he mimicked my actions.
“I wish we had more family, but Mom says you don’t always stay with the family you’re born with. Is your club big?”
I couldn’t help but wonder what had happened to the family Moon had been born with, because based on the few hints she’d dropped, they were old money and controlling as fuck.
“Pretty big. There are about fifty of us and some of those guys have wives and girlfriends. Kids.”
Every year there were more and more women and kids around, which I loved because roots gave a man a reason not to fuck up too bad. But I also hated it because it reminded me of what I didn’t have. Likely wouldn’t have again.
“Fifty people? Cool!” Beau’s big blue eyes were filled with mischief. “Can I meet them?”
I laughed. Beau was a wily character, using his adorable charm to work around his mother. “We’ll have to ask your mom.”
His bottom lip stuck out in a pout that was more adorable than anything, especially since he didn’t seem like a kid prone to tantrums. “Wanna play cards?” he asked.
“Uh, sure. What do you know how to play?”
I hadn’t played any kid games since I was a boy myself, and that was too long ago to even consider.
“Can you teach me a game?”
How could I say no to that face? As much as it hurt to be around him and not think about how my own kid would have been, each time we were together, it got easier. “Sure.”
Beau handed me the deck of cards and I taught him how to play a man’s card game, which was how Moon and Dr. Yang found us.
“Mom, I got a full house!” Beau, already forgetting the importance of secrecy in the game, held his cards up high for the women to see. I folded.
The little boy had gotten me to fold trip Kings. “I’m out.”
Beau giggled when Moon came closer, holding her fist up for him to bump. “Good job.”
I frowned and sat up. “You’re not upset?”
She blinked slowly, her black lashes fanning sensually over cool green eyes. “Well you have given him another game to beat me at, so yeah I’m a little upset. But why would I be upset about poker?”
“Gambling?”
She laughed. “Poker isn’t gambling, Cross. If you know how to play it’s like driving. You do the best you can with the information you have and you hope all goes well. Sometimes it doesn’t.”
I stared at her for a long time, trying to figure out if she was for real or just doing that thing where women pretend something is okay and then freak out about it later. If she was for real, she was damn near perfect.
“Okay. Good.”
Her lips twitched but Moon stayed quiet and turned to the doctor.