just needin’ to know what to brace for today,” he replied.
“I hardly need to clean your room every day, Joker,” I retorted.
“Least there’s that,” he muttered.
“I’m actually here to meet Big Petey,” I shared. “Tyra phoned and said he looks after her sons and might be willing to take on Travis at a reduced rate to what my daycare center charges.”
“Reduced,” Rush muttered and my eyes went to him.
“Yes,” I confirmed. “It’d help out a lot. Daycare is very expensive.”
“Big Petey loves kids,” Tabby told me. “Ty-Ty is my stepmom, and Ride and Cut are my baby bros. Pete looks after them all the time. He loves it. They love him.”
I had to admit, that was a huge relief. I needed a break on the daycare center fees and therefore was there to explore that option, but I had to admit to some trepidation about what biker childcare would entail.
Though her little brothers’ names surprised me. They shouldn’t have, considering the ones I’d heard before, Joker, High, Shy, Rush, etc., but they did.
“Just so you’re prepared, Butterfly, reduced means free,” Joker said.
I looked to him. “Sorry?”
“Reduced would be free,” Shy reiterated. “You can offer, but Pete won’t take your money.”
Not this again.
“But—” I started.
“Don’t fight it,” Tabby said in a soft voice that had a tone in it that got my total attention. “He’s old enough to be a grandfather, but his daughter died before she could give him grandbabies. He loves kids. Loved his daughter. It messed him up losing her, as it would. But it wasn’t helped that when he lost her, any chance of his legacy died with her. He’s a woman’s man, and I mean that in the sense you would guess I mean, but also in the sense that he’s a man with one child, that child was a girl, he loved her to pieces, and she’s gone. He’ll like you. He’ll wanna help out like he’d wanna help his daughter if she needed it. And if he offers it, you can give him lip for a while, but accept it. You’re doin’ more for him than he is for you. Seriously.”
My voice was also soft when I replied, “That’s very sad. And I thank you for sharing it. But he really would be doing more for me than I would for him.”
“Not to be blunt, babe, but you a have a live son, he has a dead daughter. Do you think that’s true?” Tabby asked.
I looked into her eyes a moment, feeling my heart twist at her words, before I whispered, “Point taken.”
She grinned. “Good.”
“How’s the car runnin’?” Shy asked.
I turned to him and smiled brightly. “Good. Thank you for that. It was really—”
“Don’t mention it,” he cut me off, firm but gentle.
I shut up.
“When you get your kid back?” Rush asked.
“Monday,” I answered.
“We’re havin’ a thing here, Compound, Saturday night. You’re welcome,” he told me and my world lit.
A thing, I was guessing, meant a party.
A party that Joker would likely attend. And no one could be surly at a party.
“Really?” I asked excitedly.
I would have sworn I heard Joker make a noise like a swallowed grunt but I ignored him.
“Yeah,” Rush answered over Joker’s noise.
“That’d be so cool, you could come,” Tabby said. “It gets rowdy but it’s a great time. And we girls need to let our hair down, you hear me?”
I heard her, she was right in front of me.
But after I heard her, it hit me and my world went dark.
“I work the afternoon shift. I don’t get off until late.”
She grinned again. “Babe, this is a biker party. It’ll go until everyone is hooked up or passed out. Come whenever.”
I had a feeling their rowdy would be well beyond my rowdy since I’d never really done rowdy. But I also hoped Joker would be there, and in a party mood, so I was going to have an open mind and I was most definitely going to show.
“Do you work every day?”
I turned my head to Joker since he asked the question.
“Yes,” I replied.
“Every day?” he pushed.
“Yes,” I repeated. Then explained, “Mostly. See, my manager, Sharon, is super nice. She tries to schedule me for as many days on as she can when Aaron has Travis, so I can have my days off when I have him so I can save on daycare and I want to spend my time with him. And in return, I take afternoon and evening shifts when Travis is with his dad because people