“Fuck, this flight is going to blow,” I said when I got a look at all the fuckin’ kids. Including the ones that were with the men and women of our party. “Are you sure I have to go?”
My sister looked at me with a grin on her face.
“It gets better,” she whispered conspiratorially. “I bought us matching shirts!”
I blinked.
Then blinked again.
“You’re shitting me,” I said. “I’m not wearing matching fuckin’ shirts.”
“Is that the same attitude you have when it comes to wearing the same cut as us?” Linc, one of the men I knew the least, asked.
I looked over at him, and then at Conleigh who slapped his arm with the back of her hand, before returning my gaze to him. “You got a problem?”
He eyed my bare back.
“Just noticing that you’re a part of this MC and you never show at any functions. You never bring anything to the table. You also don’t make an effort to get to know us or wear your cut delineating you as one of the MC.” Linc shrugged.
I stared at the man and said what was on my mind.
“I haven’t noticed you coming to Rome’s house,” I said. “But, in answer to why I never come to anything, I’m busy helping my grandmother at her bakery. When I’m not doing that, I’m working for Harleigh’s dad doing some private investigating. And when I’m not doing that, I’m enjoying not having to answer to anyone. Not having someone watch me take a shit. So, when you say ‘I don’t come to anything’ I mean it when I say ‘you can go fuck yourself.’”
Linc blinked.
Rome started to laugh.
Bayou sighed. “I told you to leave it alone, Linc.”
Linc grumbled something under his breath.
“I invited him to my kid’s birthday party last weekend, and he didn’t come. You invited him to a club party. He was asked to come to church. A club ride. I’m just not sure why you made him a member of the MC if he didn’t want to be in it.” Linc shrugged. “A man’s allowed to want to be his own man. It would’ve just been nice to see him before now. You know, when he’s getting a free vacation.”
Izzy growled.
“We had to force him to come,” Izzy snapped. “He didn’t come because he was getting a free vacation. He came because he loves me and he knew that it meant a lot to me that he be there. We’ve never been to Disney World before.”
I pulled my sister over to me and curved my arm around her shoulder.
“I’ll come to the next club party,” I said. “I’m sorry I missed your kid’s birthday. No, I don’t really want to be here, but I did bring a friend to help make the fact that I have to endure listening to y’all’s kids bearable.”
Harleigh snorted.
“Their kids aren’t bad,” she teased, holding Astrid close.
Astrid, who had Mickey Mouse ears on her head, turned quickly and smacked Harleigh in the face with one of the ears.
“You were saying?” I teased.
That was when the girl in my arms started to snuffle her displeasure.
“Your kid’s waking up,” I informed my sister.
Izzy promptly pulled a bottle out of the diaper bag she was still holding and handed it to me.
“This isn’t your boob milk, is it?” I asked.
She rolled her eyes. “Yes, it’s boob milk.”
“Then you feed her,” I refused to take the bottle.
“Oh my God. You’re being ridiculous.” She snickered. “It’s only milk. It’s a normal bodily fluid.”
“But I don’t like being around any of your bodily fluids,” I said as I unzipped the jacket, exposing the baby I’d been concealing.
“Awww,” Conleigh said. “Look how small she looks in his arms. And I thought she looked tiny in Rome’s hands.”
I looked down at little Izzy Junior, better known as Allya, and grinned.
She did look mighty adorable.
She was dressed in a black sleeper with red polka dots. On the feet were tiny Minnie Mouses and bows.
It really was cute as hell, I had to admit.
The tutu that was around her waist was the best part, though.
“I was thinking the same thing,” Pru said as she held one of her sleeping twins in her arms. I couldn’t tell them apart and didn’t really care to try. Maybe when they got older and developed personalities that caused them to be different, then I’d consider trying, but for now, I was just going to go with ‘Hoax’ s kids’ and leave it at that. “Though when he held Dean last week when I came to the bakery, he looked tiny in his arms.”
“That’s what happens when you’re six foot ginormous,” Izzy said, forcing the bottle into my hands. “Take this. Astrid is doing the potty dance.”
I sighed and took the bottle, taking a seat next to Harleigh and popping the nipple into the now grunting baby’s mouth.