However, he was serious about being done talking. He needed to stop overworking his pounding brain and simply spoon with his woman. “Look, how ‘bout we just take this whole thing one day at a time, okay?”
She sighed. “That’s all we can do.”
He was glad she agreed because it was the best plan he had at the moment. Hell, it was the only plan.
Maybe one day he’d do a better job of figuring shit out.
Today wasn’t it.
Tomorrow probably wouldn’t be, either.
“I need you to forgive Easy, Trip. I need you to forgive me, too.”
Leaning across the bar with his weight on his elbows, Trip’s dark eyes focused on Easy standing by her side. Her brother straightened and sucked sharply on his teeth before asking him, “She talkin’ for you now?”
She squeezed Easy’s hand. She decided to take it before walking into The Barn, a neutral spot she picked for them to meet.
She had waited a week after Trip had clubbed Easy with The Punisher to schedule the meeting with her brother. But it was now time to get past what happened, smooth things out between them and move on.
Her gaze fell on the stained, wood club with the leather strap hanging on the wall near Crazy Pete’s cut. It was kept there as a reminder of what could happen if one of the Fury members broke a rule. Or did something stupid.
She was damn sure Cage and Easy would never need that reminder again. One party with The Punisher was all either would ever need.
“Don’t need her speakin’ for me. But she asked to do the talkin’ and I’m respectin’ that request.”
“Unlike respectin’ your president. Or the club rules. Rules you damn well knew about but ignored.”
Easy’s fingers tightened around hers. “I respect you, Trip. Always have. Also thankful for what you’ve built here. For acceptin’ me as a prospect. For allowin’ me to patch in. For providin’ a place to settle and a way to make scratch. For makin’ me a part of a family, since I no longer got one of my own.”
“You forgot one… For providin’ my sister for you to knock up. Now you’re gonna have that family for sure.”
“Wasn’t planned. We took precautions.”
“Maybe you shouldn’t have taken the sayin’ ‘fuck around and find out’ so literally. No fuckin’ reason you two needed to sneak around like that. None. But you did it anyway.”
Of course Trip would think that. To him, everything was cut and dry. When, out of anyone, he should know life wasn’t neat, it was messy as hell.
“We didn’t want to be pressured, Trip.” Tessa shook her head. “No, I didn’t want to be pressured. That’s exactly what would’ve happened. You can’t deny that.”
He cocked one eyebrow. “And now you got a kid comin’ that wasn’t planned. That ain’t pressure?”
“Of course it is, but…”
“You know what bugs me the most, Tess?”
She didn’t bother to answer him because whether she wanted to know or not, her brother was about to tell her.
“You not only kept secrets from me, but you kept them from him.” Trip jerked his chin toward Easy. “You kept the fuckin’ fact you were pregnant from the man who you were…” He sucked in a breath. “From him. You went about this whole fuckin’ thing the wrong way.”
“I’m aware of that. I was wrong for not telling Easy once I knew the baby was okay.”
“You shoulda told him even if it wasn’t!”
Trip’s voice had risen, just like his temper. If she matched his energy, he would only get worse. Instead, she took a breath and continued on as if it hadn’t. “I also didn’t want anyone else to find out before you had his blanket party. I knew if you somehow found out, you would’ve been even more brutal with The Punisher.”
“No shit,” Trip muttered.
She couldn’t get that last strike to Easy’s uncovered head out of her own. It replayed over and over when she least expected it. She could’ve lost the father of her child right then and there. “I couldn’t risk that. For either of you. I wasn’t lying when I said I made him keep us a secret. I had my reasons and he respected that.”
“Respect. You two keep usin’ that word. But what you did disrespected the core values of the Fury and our club family.”
“We all got secrets,” Easy muttered.
With a tilt of his head, Trip stared at him. “Yeah, we all got secrets. And you probably woulda got away with this one if you didn’t crash your fuckin’ bike and risk my sister’s life or gotten her knocked up. You know what she got out of that secret? A fuckin’ baby and a goddamn broken arm.”
“She got me.”
Trip either hadn’t heard Easy or he simply disregarded that response. “It coulda been so much fuckin’ worse. Both her and my niece or nephew coulda been dead. And if that woulda happened, E, you woulda been, too.”