Mess Me Up (Bear Bottom Guardians MC 1)

It was at that point that I truly understood that Tara wasn’t coming back. At least not in time…and I’d never, ever forgive her for that.

“I’ll try calling her,” I murmured.

Then I did just that, remaining on the couch exactly where I was.

She answered on the third ring, sounding breathless. “Hello?”

I swallowed. “Hi. This is Rome Pierce. I’m…”

“I know who you are,” Izzy interrupted me. “What’s wrong?”

I’d already called her yesterday and explained what days I would need her again, and then reconfirmed with her that she’d be able to take them. After hearing that she could, I’d told her I’d call her the day before to remind her and then had hung up even though I’d longed to continue talking to her.

I cleared my throat. “I have a few errands to run tomorrow. I had my best friend and his wife coming over, but Matias asked if you’d come too so that Tyler could come with me.”

Matias likely didn’t know that he was inconveniencing anybody, but I’d rob a convenient store just to see him smile. Calling this cleaning lady that he loved, that gave him cookies and told him stories just to see him smile, was the easiest thing in the world for me to do.

“I can’t,” she sounded stricken. “I have a big cleaning job that I’ve had scheduled for a month at a department store downtown.”

I felt my stomach drop.

Shit.

“It’s okay,” I immediately assured her. “I know that you’re busy. He knows that you’re busy. It was just an idea.”

She breathed out a sigh of relief. “I’m sorry.”

I smiled, letting my fingers trail along the line of Matias’ jaw. “I promise it’s okay.”

She groaned in frustration. “If I can get it moved, I will…but it probably won’t happen. Tell Matias hi for me, though, okay?”

After we hung up, I looked down at Matias, who looked resigned. “Izzy’s a busy woman. Did you know that she works three jobs?”

I blinked. “She does?”

He nodded. “She works for her parents doing cleaning and owns her own cleaning business, too. And she also works at her grandma’s bakery three times a week, too. With her watching me, that’ll make four jobs!”

Now I felt like shit for even asking her.

Goddammit.

“Hmmm,” I murmured. “Well, we’ll have to make it worth her while, now won’t we?”

Matias’ eyes lit up. “Can we order something off of Amazon?”

I grinned. “Of course,” I agreed easily. “But I think it’ll mean more to her if you make her something.”

Other than the fat paycheck I’d be giving her, I really did want her to know what it meant to me that she was doing this, even though it was more than obvious that she did what she wanted to do when she wanted to do it.

Hell, it’d probably take an act of God for her to accept anything we bought for her…but I knew a little boy who was damn good at getting anyone to do anything.Chapter 4Do twins ever think about the fact that one of them was unplanned?

-Rome’s secret thoughts

Rome

I opened the door to find Izzy standing there looking frazzled.

“Hey.” I paused, feeling a sense of excitement pour through me at knowing that she’d gotten here. “I thought you were working?”

She shrugged and pushed inside. “I was…but I finished early.”

I frowned. “How did you accomplish that?”

I heard her answer as she pushed through me and then started walking into my house like she owned the place.

“I got up at three and did it, making me available to get here now.” She looked at me over her shoulder. “Where’s Matias at?”

I gestured in the direction of the living room with a jut of my chin. “Couch. Watching his favorite show again with Reagan.”

Izzy stepped through the door, pulling out a bag of cookies as she moved, and I found myself smiling despite feeling like I wanted to cry.

“You ready to go, man?” Tyler asked.

I looked over at my best friend.

It was still a start to see him anywhere in the vicinity of me without him wearing a “go fuck yourself” expression aimed toward me. Honestly, our reconciliation couldn’t have come at a better time than now.

I knew without a doubt that I’d need him after this meeting that we were about to walk into.

Thirty minutes later, we arrived at Matias’ doctor’s office where there was no wait.

Instead, we were ushered straight back to his office and showed inside.

It wasn’t the sad looks from the office staff that gave away what we were walking into, nor was it the expression on the doctor’s face. They were all trained professionals, and they gave nothing away.

Thankfully, the doctor didn’t beat around the bush when we entered his office. He made no attempts at small talk nor did he ask how I was doing.

He got right to the point—that is, after he asked where Tara was.