it first and that was okay; I would wait. And tempt him further.
As far as I was concerned, he and I were now in a committed relationship. Delusional much? I knew in my soul that this was right.
He just hadn’t accepted it yet and no one knew about it but me.
And Gianna, sort of. Sort of Chase, too. And Jenna and Pippa had their suspicions. I knew that those girls would help me calm two of my brothers down when the time came. Ella and Deacon might be a bit tougher. Deacon seemed a little suspicious already and so was Dad, but maybe it wasn’t all that bad of a thing because it meant they were at the beginning stages of processing it. Very preliminary stages but it had to start somewhere.
People knew or suspected and when it happened, when he stopped fighting it, we wouldn’t have to hide it.
I woke up at seven o’clock in the morning and on my way to the bathroom, he was coming out of his room in basketball shorts and a t-shirt and my little white kitty followed him out of his room, looked up at me and did a long stretch with her bum up in the air, and yawned big.
My mouth dropped open and I looked up at him with accusation.
His eyes traveled the length of me, and he looked pissy. Maybe because I was just wearing skimpy sleeping shorts and a tank top without a bra.
“You steal my kitty?” I accused, putting my hands to my waist and arching my back to intentionally draw his eyes to my boobs.
Mission accomplished. One corner of his mouth went up.
Yeah. Double meaning. He did. He stole my kitty.
I winked. “Feel free to take my kitty to your bed any time.”
I looked down at her. She rubbed her body along the wall between us on her way to wind around my leg once and then stop at my door, wanting in.
“Lucky bitch,” I told her.
She meowed and then sat down and blinked at me. His lips twitched and his shoulders shook just a little, as if he fought off laughter.
Ella stepped into the hallway from Deacon’s room at that moment, looking like she’d been through a tornado. She had a killer hangover, obviously.
“Mornin’,” she said.
Christian walked toward the men’s room. He ruffled her hair affectionately as he passed her. “Lezzybelle.”
She groaned and looked up at him. “Why do I do this to myself?”
“Why do any of us?” he muttered.
She trudged behind him to the ladies’ room.
Pippa emerged from the bathroom fresh as a daisy at the same time as I closed my door behind Marshmallow and walked down the hall toward the bathroom.
“Mornin’,” Pippa said as we passed one another. “We should talk.”
“About?” I paused mid-step.
“I think you know. I’m here for you. And I approve.” She smiled big and wandered away.
“You’re my favorite future sister-in-law today,” I called out.
She giggled all the way back into Spency’s room.
***
I spent the next hour in the kitchen, helping the staff with breakfast before Delia came in, at which point I went out to sit and have a cup of coffee with her. We refused to let her into the kitchen because that’s, of course, where she tried to go, so she could make sure everything went off without a hitch or that said hitches could be promptly handled.
“Dad’s paying the team overtime to be here to do this, so you don’t have to. We have a restaurant and restaurant staff to handle it,” I reasoned.
“Yet you were in there with them,” Pippa pointed out. “Future Delia of the Aberdeen Chapter, right?”
I shrugged and smiled.
“Every clubhouse needs one of me,” Delia mused. “Though maybe it’ll be her. What do you girls think of her?” She gestured toward Laura.
“She’s great,” I said. “She’s perfect for Dad.”
“Glad you think so. I agree,” Delia told me. “She shoulda been your momma. Your dad tried to name you after her, but Shell caught wind and lost her shit and changed the birth registration before it got mailed.”
“I didn’t know that.”
“Yup. Tried to call you Laurel, so it’d be close but not exact.”
Mind blown.
“That tatt below his peck?” she said.
“Which tatt? The leafy one?” I inquired.
“Laurel.”
My mouth dropped and then I shook it off with a sigh. “He got her back. He’s getting his happily ever after.”
“So’s she. That girl was smitten with him back in the day. Well and truly.”
“So awesome,” me and Pippa said in unison.
***
A massive breakfast buffet had been