Cocky Biker: A Stand Alone MC Romance Novel (Cocker Brothers of Atlanta Book 2) (19 page)

M
y wife
and I are in the backyard with Thai pads. I’m holding ‘em at different degrees of angles so she can practice her kicks.

Her eye is a nasty shade of black and blue, and she’s covered in sweat, wearing shorts and a tank top, her breasts held down with a sports bra and her hair back in a ponytail.

“Fuck!” she grunts as I hold ‘em higher.

She kicks hard and then doubles over, grabbing onto her knees.

“I can’t,” she pants. “I have to stop a second.”

“No! I’m not going to see your face all bruised up like that again.”

“He surprised me,” she says, side-eyeballing me while she catches her breath.

“Sunshine, listen up. I can’t stand you gettin’ hurt. You come out with us only if you stay safe.”

“It’s never really safe out there, with what we do. You know that.”

Melodi calls out from the house, “Hungry yet?”

“Fuck no,” Sunshine pants, shaking her head, eyes on the grass. “I don’t feel good.”

“Come on. Don’t pussy out on me,” I snap at her. To Melodi I call out, “Be there when we’re through. Not a second earlier, so stop fuckin’ askin’!”

Mel shouts, “Slave driver!” then goes inside, the old screen door clanking loudly behind her.

“Again!” I hit the Thai pads together. “Get up.”

“I feel sick, Jett,” Luna whispers.

“No no no. Come on. Get up.”

“No…I really…” She steps away and turns her back on me, then vomits right there on the ground, mumbling, “Shit. Ugh.”

I drop the pads and go to lay my hand on her back, my tone changing to worry. “What’s goin’ on? You okay?”

“No, I feel really sick, babe.”

“MELODI!”

Within seconds, she’s running down the steps, eyes on the puke. “Jesus, Jett! What’d you do to the poor woman?”

“I feel sick, Mel,” Luna moans.

“No shit, darlin.’ People don’t lose their breakfast when they’re at the top of their game.” Guiding my girl upstairs, she throws me a scathing look. “This is your fault!”

I follow with my tail between my legs. Inside, Scythe and Honey Badger are watchin’ NASCAR on T.V. They look over and see the women. “What happened?”

“Jett’s an asshole, that’s what happened,” Melodi calls over. “Taylor, go get Luna some ginger-ale, honey.

“Okay, Mommy!” His spindly, growing legs take off for the kitchen.

“Where do you think you’re goin’?” Melodi asks me as I follow them up the stairs. “Oh no. You stay down there. No woman needs her man to see her like this.”

“She was a lot worse when she was in a fuckin’ coma, Mel. I handled it pretty good then!”

“Just let me clean her up, Jett!”

“It’s okay, Jett,” Sunshine whispers, looking pale. “Just give me a second.”

Clomping back downstairs I run into Scratch. “Luna’s sick.”

His salt and pepper eyebrows cock up. “She pregnant?”

I blink at him, then run back upstairs and bang on the bathroom door.

“JETT COCKER!” Melodi yells.

“LUNA! ARE YOU PREGNANT?!!”

There’s silence on the other side. Melodi swings the door open and runs to her room.

Luna is sitting on the side of the bathtub, eyes big with fear of hoping it might be true. “Oh my God…” she whispers.

Melodi races back in, waving a pregnancy test.

I hear a door open behind me and Carmen and Tonk appear, half-dressed. “Did we just hear Luna might be pregnant?” Carmen asks, tucking in her shirt.

We just got back from a mission. Everyone is in the house and suddenly the second floor is full of Ciphers and their families.

We wait as Melodi stays by Luna while she takes that fuckin’ test on the other side of the door.

Everyone is silent.

Honey Badger walks over and stands by me. I glance to him and he nods that he knows how much I want this.

One of Hannah’s kids starts to say something and gets hushed.

I watch the doorknob turn.

Holy Fuck.

This is big.

What’s she gonna say?

Melodi opens the door and her face is solemn. My heart sinks as Luna stands and walks to me, crying openly.

Never seen her cry in front of anyone but me before.

“Jett…I’m pregnant.” Weeping, she falls into my arms and I start to cry, too, but mine is through laughter.

The whole place goes up in cheers.

Luna looks up at me, so overwhelmed she’s almost devastated. “She was wrong. The gypsy was wrong.”

“She sure fuckin’ was, baby. She sure fuckin’ was.” We kiss and everyone just loses it. Shouting and whooping loudly. Banging on walls. Kids stamping their feet, even though little Celia doesn’t know why she’s doing it.

“Hey, Mel,” I call over. “When you said it was my fault she puked…you were right. I take full blame.” Melodi just makes a face, but she’s grinnin’ under it.

Luna burrows into my body, weeping quietly. I can barely make it out when she whispers in my ear, “I get to be a mother!”

“You’re gonna be the biggest badass mom who ever lived, Sunshine. And I can’t wait to see it happen.”

When Jake called to tell me he and Drew had a baby girl just a couple months ago, I knew it was comin.’ The jealousy.

Hell, I knew from seven months before when he’d called and told me she was two months in.

That phone call about baby Emma really fucked me up for a couple days.

Never knew ‘til I met my Sunshine I wanted to be a father, too.

I wanted it bad.

No protection and we fucked all the time, but it just wasn’t gonna happen for us. We both began to believe it.

Luna and I rode our bikes out to Atlanta to see the baby. Dad and I were stiff with each other — he still hates my lifestyle — but everyone else was the same as always, happy to see me and thrilled Luna and I were still together.

They don’t know we’re never gonna be apart, that we eloped…got married in Vegas six months after Jake’s wedding.

Someday I’ll tell ‘em.

No one was there except for Honey Badger and Jaxson, one to represent each family.

The Ciphers sure didn’t like not being there, but I explained to their growling objections when we announced the news, that Luna and I aren’t the big-wedding types. We didn’t want the fluff. Hell, Elvis conducted our fuckin’ ceremony just because it made us laugh.

After the wedding, when I said goodbye to Jaxson, he told me again he was happy to be there, but the brothers wouldn’t understand. I nodded that I understood, and we hugged each other really hard.

When I called to say Luna and I were comin’ to see the baby, I asked Jax to tell everyone not to ask Luna when she was gonna get pregnant.

People ask things before they think sometimes.

Not everyone can have babies, and that question can really stab you in the gut when you don’t see it comin.’

He warned the family. People kept their mouths shut. But I saw Mom watching me starin’ at my younger brother’s new daughter. Her smile was sad, and it cut me in two.

After we got back, I had to let it go.

I told myself I had a love I never knew could happen to a loner like me.

I had a woman who rode a fuckin’ motorcycle next to me, who kicked the shit out of sorry fucks who needed a wake-up call.

I had a teammate.

A best friend.

A lover.

All in one.

So I let it go, deciding, ‘Shit man, don’t be greedy. She’s enough.’

But damn if this isn’t a bonus.

* * *

W
hile Luna showers
off the sweat of her training, and the tears of her surprise, I walk out back to make a phone call.

My older brother picks up after two rings. “Hey Jett.”

“Jax, guess what?”

“What?”

“I get to be a father!”

“No shit!?!!” he yells, happy as hell.

Staring at the waning sun slipping behind the tops of our oak trees, I tell him the story. Afterward we catch up on what’s been going on in his life, with his woman.

He’s always pretty tight-lipped, but he tells me some things that make me smile, and say, “I’m happy for you, Jax.”

“If it’s a boy, you’re naming it after me, right?”

“Fuck no,” I laugh as the screen door bangs behind me.

My wife smiles as she catches my happy gaze. “That Jaxson?” she asks, knowing he’d be the first one I’d call.

“Yep. Selfish prick wants the baby named after him.”

Luna laughs and mutters, “Of course he does.” Leaning into the phone, she tells him, “No way. Your head is big enough.”

“I resent that,” he shouts. “Congratulations!!”

Grinning, I say, “I’ll call you later, Jax.”

We hang up and I pull my wife into my arms and grin at her. Tears spring to her eyes as she stares up at me. “Dammit!” she whispers. “I can’t stop crying. I just wept the whole time I was in the shower.”

Emotion pulls at me as I nod and kiss her deeply.

“I hope it’s a girl, Jett.”

“Oh yeah? Why’s that?”

“So I can name her after my mom.” As Luna breaks down, I enclose her in the biggest hug I can, wanting to take all of her pain away forever for not having her mom, and all those years she thought she’d never conceive, all the times she watched the children here and wished one was hers.

Seven months later, her wish will finally come true.
Sofia Sol Cocker
is born, and rocks our whole world.

We gave her that middle name because Sol is the Spanish word for Sun, which is what our tiny, grey-eyed beauty is.

A
uthor Note
& Invite:
There is a
Pinterest Board
dedicated to this series where you can see photos from it. The plantation in Louisiana. Jaxson’s barnyard home. Fun things mentioned in the books. Two wonderful readers — Carmen A. & Sandra D. — are helping me pin, and we’re having a lot of fun.

Also, I wrote two extra scenes for Jett and Luna,
after I finished this book. They take place years after the story, because I often read a novel and
wish
I knew what happened to the characters later on in their lives. This answers that call.
There will be extra scenes for the entire Cocker Brothers Series.
Join my exclusive mailing list for this bonus content.
You’ll receive notices of my New Release $.99 Sales (my loyalty program) and also be able to download three free short stories. One steamy. One sweet. One dirty hot she-wolf.

If you’re already on my list, I email the link to these extra scenes with the New Release Notice when it’s live. Check that email, or hit reply to any of my newsletters and ask me for it, if you can’t find it. P.S. I answer all of my own emails. Please say hi, even if you’re shy.

* * *

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