With that, the lawyer saw himself out, and Iris watched him go until she heard the man’s car start and drive off as if he couldn’t wait to be away.
There was an even longer silence before she said, “What the fuck?”
I snorted out a laugh.
“You didn’t think he’d leave you anything?” I guessed.
“He was sleeping with my sister, Callum. Why would he leave me anything?” She shook her head. “It’s really fucking weird.”
I agreed, but…
“If you’re serious about not keeping the money, which might I add is kind of…” I looked for a more succinct way to say ‘dumb’ but couldn’t find one in time for her to fill in a blank.
“Dumb?” she snickered.
“Yeah,” I admitted. “I mean, that could enable you to work part time at the airlines, keep your foot in the door, so to speak. It could enable you to go to school and do what you want to do, if being a flight attendant isn’t it. Or, it could be just a cushion that you have to put our kids through college, because Lord knows that I won’t be making bank. I mow lawns, own my own business, but I’ll never be a millionaire. And college is fuckin’ expensive.”
Her eyes flared with heat. “You sayin’ you’re going to have babies with me, sunshine?”
I hooked my hand in her belt loop, pulling her in tight to my body and said, “That’s where this is goin’. Maybe not today, or tomorrow. Next year, though? That’s a solid maybe. Because, let’s face it, neither one of us are spring chickens anymore. Being in your thirties when you have kids is hard. We wouldn’t want to waste too much time putting off what we know we want.”
“And me is what you want?” she wondered.
I pressed my hips into her thigh, letting her feel my erection before saying, “Yep.”
There was a bang on the door, and I sighed. “That’s my ride.”
She pulled away, her eyes going to my crotch where my dick was now straining the fabric of my favorite denim jeans.
“Better put that away,” she teased. “Wouldn’t want you scaring away the little workers you have.”
After placing a solid kiss to her cheek, giving her ass one final slap, and telling her to listen for the house phone if I needed her—yes, I sadly still had a house phone. With my internet company, you had to have a phone number to use their internet—I headed out the door to mow some lawns.
• • •
IRIS
Plans changed.
They changed in the way that before Callum had left for work, I’d been planning on making him dinner and staying in.
But when I saw the layer of dust on his bike indicating that he hadn’t gone out on it in long enough for it to collect that layer of dirt, I knew that an intervention was needed.
That started with texting his brothers.
And to do that, I had to turn my phone on.
Ignoring the 99+ symbol on my voice mails, I scrolled down to his brothers’ names, started a group chat, and sent out a text.
Me: Iris here. Your brother needs a night off. Anybody want to go have dinner with us and ride for a bit? Also, add Cannel to this group chat. I don’t have her number.
The first person to respond was Price, followed shortly by Haggard.
Price: I can swing dinner, but not the ride. Got things to do tonight.
Haggard: Those things include my place, you don’t have to worry about it. We can ride tonight.
Me: Yay!
Rook: I’ll come, as long as you never say Yay! Again.
Giggling like the loser I was, I read every single text the brothers sent and was relieved to see that Bram eventually agreed to come, too.
So, hours later when Callum was finally dropped off for the night—sadly half an hour late—there was no time but to get him in the shower and out the door if we were going to meet his family on time.
“Quick,” I said as I all but divested him of his dirty shirt. “Get in the shower. Throw me your clothes. We have plans to meet your brothers and Cannel and her husband at Clock’s at six thirty. I didn’t know you’d be this late. Hurry, though. It’ll take us half an hour to get there if you drive fast.”
Bemused, Callum took a quick shower while I ran a load of laundry, only starting it once I heard his shower turn off.
When he arrived back outside, I had his Battle Crows MC cut in my arms and waiting for him.
“Do the women that belong to the men of your club get a cut that says ‘property of so and so?’ Or is that just something that movies do?” I wondered as he shrugged it on, likely not needing my help. But I gave it to him anyway.