“Fingers crossed,” Itchy says on a little sigh of happiness.
“We’re next,” Jinx snaps before slapping me on the back so hard that I nearly drop my damn beer. “Right, man?”
For a man who was freaked out a week ago about the prospect of having a baby, he sure as fuck has come around to the idea quickly. And how weird is it that he’s making it sound like we’re going to co-parent together with Simone, regardless of the outcome? It makes me feel like a total dick for praying each night before bed that the baby is mine.
“And how long before you know who the father is?” Grinch asks.
Jinx and I stare at him, both of us genuinely offended that he’d ask such an honest question.
“Two more weeks,” Jinx answers before taking a step away from me.
My eyes go back to Simone behind the bar. I wonder if everyone else around can tell just how utterly unhappy she is. She smiles but the joy never reaches her eyes. Even her laugh is stilted. More than once I’ve caught the wince of pain on her pretty face when she moves too quickly or picks up a case of beer that ends up being too heavy for her still healing body to handle.
She insisted on coming back, knowing she wasn’t ready for the strain the job entailed. Jinx and I argued about it to the point we almost got physical, but in the end he was right. She needs to be able to live her life how she sees fit. Regardless of what we want for her, she spent too many years being controlled and told what she was allowed to do and what was forbidden.
It doesn’t keep me from hating the pain I know she’s in or how uncomfortable she seems when weeks ago her world was happy and her smile was reflected in her eyes.
I jump to my feet when I see her frown at a man and jerk her hand back from the bar.
“Wait,” Jinx says, his hand back on my shoulder in an attempt to keep me from crossing the bar and knocking the fucker out. “She can handle it, and if she can’t, we’ll both drag him out of here and pummel his ass until he’s pissing blood.”
“I hated it when Em worked here,” Kincaid mutters, and it makes me realize every one of the guys at the table is focused on the bar, ready and willing to handle business if things get out of hand.
Pride in my team, the men I consider family, warms my chest.
“Want me to go break his arm?” Rivet asks as she cracks her knuckles.
I know it isn’t just a show of force from our only female member. She’s very willing to go show that man just how strong women are. Plus, Rivet likes to put assholes in their place. I attribute it to the years she spent proving herself in the Marine Corps which is notorious for being male dominated.
“Down, tiger,” Cannon whispers before running his nose down the length of her neck. “Put your claws away. Simone can handle that asshole.”
I grin when cold chills form on her arm, but she shows just how much of a warrior she is when her eyes never leave Simone.
Kincaid doesn’t clear his throat in warning like he once did. A general rule is cussing in front of women is a sign of disrespect and it’s not normally tolerated with the men of Cerberus, but one day Kincaid came out to the garage at the exact moment Rivet hit her hand while changing the tire on her bike and let loose with a string of expletives that would make the devil blush, and the rule stopped applying around her. Although, I have heard her chastised more than once for speaking that way in front of some of the other wives and girlfriends.
“Is he drunk or just stupid?” Jinx mutters beside me when the guy reaches for her again.
“Stupid,” I hiss, already on my feet and crossing the crowded bar when the guy grabs her wrist again.
Like a well-oiled machine, I grab the back of the guy’s shirt while Jinx kicks his stool out from under him.
His face drops, inches from catching the edge of the bar. Losing a couple of teeth due to the impact wouldn’t have been so bad, but before I can hit him in the face, Grinch and Kincaid are reaching for the asshole.