It Happens (Bear Bottom Guardians MC 6)

My dad was still laughing. Jubilee’s face now resembled a cherry from the roots of her black hair to the base of her neck where her t-shirt broke up the smooth line of her skin.

Then there was Pete, who was watching us with a look that I couldn’t quite distinguish.

I sighed.

Pete’s eyes came to me, and he blinked once, finally revealing what he was thinking.

He was happy.

There was no disgust there that I’d start something with his other daughter after previously having a relationship with one of his other children. There wasn’t condemnation that I’d done something I shouldn’t have done.

What was there was excitement. Happiness. Relief.

“We should probably get breakfast ordered so y’all can get on the road,” Pete said.

I flagged the waitress down, letting her know with a flick of my fingers that we were ready to order, and she shimmied over.

My eyes went down to the menu that was sitting in front of me.

“Everyone want their usual?” the waitress asked.

I had no clue what her name was, which was likely pretty shitty seeing as she knew everybody’s regular order. But oh well.

“Yeah, Karm.” My father sat back and clapped his hands together. “I’m having my usual.”

“Me, too,” Pete said.

“I want a large water to go, two over easy eggs, and a stack of bacon,” I said when she looked at me.

I usually ordered them scrambled, but I was feeling off balance today, so why not shake up my usual order?

“I’d like the waffle with berries,” Jubilee said softly. “And if you have it, I’d like some turkey sausage. But I didn’t get a chance to look at the menu.”

“We don’t do turkey sausage,” Karm said. “We do have…”

I tuned her out as I got a message on my phone.

Pulling it out of my pocket, I glanced at the screen and winced.

I hit ignore on the phone and tossed it a little hard to the table.

Jubilee’s eyes snuck up and met mine.

“What?” she asked.

She was still flushed red, so I didn’t bother to tease her seeing as she was still flustered.

Jubilee wasn’t normally a blusher. It took a lot to get her embarrassed, so the fact that she was still showing the signs meant that she was really embarrassed.

The only question was, was she embarrassed by what we’d done, or me? Or was she embarrassed because her father realized she’d lost her virginity to me? Something that I hadn’t quite come to terms with myself.

On one hand, I was glad that I didn’t remember that part of our night together. Because if I’d been aware, I might’ve told her no. And at this point in time, I kind of liked the memory—or what I could remember—of us being together.

On the other hand, I was pissed off that she would allow that to happen with me. With someone that treated her like shit around every turn.

Granted, she did much the same thing to me, and missed no chance to bust my balls if the opportunity arose, but still.

Needless to say, since I was so unsure about how to feel about the matter that I’d learned the day before, I decided to just ignore the problem.

At least, that was yesterday.

Now I wanted to talk to her. To know what was going through her head. To know if I’d hurt her.

But not right now, with both of our fathers sitting across from us watching our every move.

“My ex-wife, Raine,” I muttered darkly.

“What does she want?” Jubilee frowned.

“She wants to know if she can have the dog this weekend,” I answered.

My ex-wife and I had been married for a little over a year. I’d gone into the military to help pay for our lives together. Only, in doing that, I’d left her behind.

Or so she said.

Really it was to help pay for the baby seeing as I had zero job prospects at the time. It’d been a way that I was going to provide for my faster-than-I-wanted-it-to-grow family.

Raine and I hadn’t set out to get pregnant. Married, yes. Kids? No.

We were supposed to wait at least four years until we could afford to live past one meal to the next.

I’d been in college, walking on at Northwestern. She’d had a college scholarship to the community college right outside of town. We were both going to graduate, her with her nursing degree and me with my Bachelor of Science so I could be a coach at the school.

But none of that had happened.

Her getting a positive pregnancy test had happened two days shy of her turning twenty and a week shy of me turning twenty-one. From then on, life had turned rough.

In an act of desperation, I’d gone into a recruiter’s office in hopes that I could get insurance for her and the baby. Sure, my dad would’ve helped, and so would her parents, but I’d been stubborn at twenty-one.