Honey Whiskey (A Bastards MC Novel) (29 page)

“
I’m gonna miss you.”

He opened his eyes, looking up at me sleepily.
“When?”

“
Tomorrow’s Friday. I’m headed
home.”

“Shit!” He sat
up abruptly and turned, looking at me. “I forgot.” He swallowed and
started chewing the inside of his lip. “It’s vacation week.” I
nodded, confused. A shit-eating grin transformed his face, and he
turned and laid back down.

“
Matty?” I’d missed
something.

He smirked. “You don’t have to go
home. We’ll go up tomorrow, get the kids, and bring all three of
‘em back for the week. Ten days with my girl and our littles? I
can’t think of anything better.”

“
All three?” My voice drifted off.
“Do you have Sam next week?”

He shook his head. “No. But Bex
will let me have him.” He opened his eyes, looking into mine. “Come
on, babe. It’ll be a blast! We have the room, plus it’ll show us
what our future will be like. And, that way, I don’t have to worry
about how I’ll sleep without you.”

I smiled back, his enthusiasm
catching. “Ok. I’ll tell the kids tonight.”

*****

My kids were ecstatic. There was a
Jack and Annie light show going on at the planetarium that Ben
‘just had to see,’ and Lily asked if we could visit the aquarium so
she could see her beloved Rockhopper penguins. Even Will seemed
happy about it, but that might have been because he knew he had the
next two weeks ‘off’ and had something planned with his
girlfriend.

Unlike most divorced couples, I
didn’t have to have his approval to bring the kids down here. Part
of our parental rights and responsibilities agreement specified
that since neither of us had full custody, during the two weeks
that we had the kids we did not have to ask the other parent
permission to take the children over state lines. Our PR&R was
pretty in depth, but we felt it was to protect us from having to go
back to court and argue over the kids. We’d fought enough over the
last few years and were done. At least until he found out that I
was marrying Matty.

I promised the kids I’d be at the
house when they got home from school the next afternoon, told them
I loved them, and hung up. Glancing up, I found Matty leaning in
the doorway, watching me. He smiled and sauntered across the room,
and then climbed onto the bed next to me and pulled me
close.

“We’ll pick Sam up on the way back
here, and I promised Becky I’d have him home by seven next Sunday.
For the next week, we get to be a real family. I can’t wait to tell
them we’re getting married!” I don’t think I’d ever seen Matt that
happy. Hopefully this time we could make us last.

Chapter
27

Jo

“No! Not happening!” I seethed
again.

Matty simply crossed his arms over
his chest and tipped his head back slightly. “Get in the fucking
car, Joes.”

“
No.”

“Look,” he leaned in close,
growling, “you promised the kids you’d be there when they got off
the bus. If you don’t get in the car this fucking instant, we’re
gonna hit Friday traffic and be late.”

I took a deep breath, torn between
not being home when I promised and standing my ground. I glared at
the man I loved. “I’ll call T and have her go up. Tell them I got
stuck in traffic. Get him out of the car, and I’ll get
in.”

Matty shook his head. “He’s coming,
too.”

Dean opened his door and gave us
both an annoyed look. Then he turned his icy gaze on me. “I don’t
want to be here either, Jo. But, my President gave me an order to
stay with you, and I have no choice. The quickah you accept that,
the fastah we can get on the damn road. You wanna take the train up
instead? Fine, I’ll get my shit and take the damn train, too. Just
make up your fuckin’ mind already!” He slammed his door as if to
accentuate the last word.

I raised an eyebrow at Matty, who looked like
he was going to laugh. Then he shrugged. “You heard
him.”

I groaned, rolled my eyes, and then stomped to
the passenger seat. We were taking Rocker’s Expedition because it
could fit all three kids, their gear, the two of us, and apparently
Dean. I slammed my door, mimicking Dean’s behavior, and closed my
eyes as I leaned back into the seat. This fun family trip had just
turned into a nightmare.

Until fifteen minutes ago, I
thought Matty and I were going alone. Matty had gone to get the
car, leaving me to pack us a lunch and some snacks, and I had been
singing along to the radio as I looked forward to a great day with
my favorite people. Then, Dean had walked into the kitchen with a
duffle bag and had given me the evil eye. Rob, as it turned out,
had decided that with the three new additions, we needed another
Bastard to keep a watch out. And out of all of the Bastards, he’d
picked Dean. Awesome.

“Come on, babe,” Matty had crooned
as Dean settled into the SUV. “He really isn’t that bad. He’s great
with kids and he’s one of my best friends. It’ll be
fine.”

I heard Matty get in and start the
car, then we were moving. His hand moved to my thigh, and I reached
out, clutching it. I wasn’t angry with him, just the situation.
But, that didn’t mean I was going to sit up and make small talk
with someone that hated me. I was asleep before we made it out of
the city.

I woke up a few hours later to the two of them
laughing uncontrollably. I listened for a few minutes instead of
sitting up. The conversation was about fishing and how afraid of
the fish Sammy had been. Dean surprised me when he sobered and
said, “Can’t wait to see him, man. It’s been what? Three or four
months? I miss that kid.”

The way he talked about Sammy
surprised me, but then again, Sam was an amazing kid. Even so,
hearing a total douche nozzle talk about a little boy that I adored
as if that little boy was the coolest thing in the world wasn’t
something I expected. Dean gave off a certain vibe, and it wasn’t
one you’d expect from someone that liked women or children. If I
was going to be stuck with him, I might as well make the most of
it.

*****

“
Mom! Mom! Mom!” Lily screamed as
she ran off the bus and straight into my arms. “You’re
here!”

I laughed, hugging her little frame tight.
“I’m here, Lily-Belle.” I leaned down and kissed her curly blonde
head. “You ready for a week in Boston?”

She nodded vigorously, tipping her head back
to see me. The smile she’d had faded. “What happened to your rock
star hair?”

I laughed, running a hand through my curls.
“Yeah. Mommy needed a change.”

“Hmm.” She
crossed tiny arms over her chest. “I liked it. I didn’t think it
made you look like you were trying to recapture your youth like
Nana said. I agreed with Daddy—it was fun and you need fun.”

I raised my eyebrows as she
talked, trying not to laugh as she parroted a conversation she’d
obviously overheard. Pushing my sunglasses to the top of my head, I
contemplated her words. I wasn’t sure how to respond to that, and
wondered which nana had commented on my hair—my mom or Will’s?
Thankfully, I was saved when the last of the neighborhood kids
filed off the school bus.

“Mom!” I looked up as Ben jumped
off the bottom step and shuffled away from his friends. “Did you
get a new car?” he asked as he got closer to me, eyeing the Ford
parked in front of our house.

“That’s the
first thing you wanna say to me after two weeks away?” My mini-me
shook his head and threw his arms around me. “It’s not mine. It
belongs to a friend of Uncle Matty’s. We’ve got it for the week in
Boston. Nice, right?” I hugged him back, tight. Hugs from him were
few and far between now, and I never got one in public. “Geez, did
you grow another two feet while I was gone?” He might look just
like me, but he got his height from Will. At eleven, he was only an
inch shorter than me.

“I did actually.” He giggled, a
rare sound that reminded me of his toddler years. He pulled back
and his laughter died instantly. The look he gave me was another
thing he’d obviously gotten from his dad. It was one of horror
mixed with rage, and though I hadn’t seen it in a few months, I
almost took a step back. “What happened to your face?” His voice
had gone ice cold.

Out of my peripheral, I saw Lily
squinting up at me to see what he was talking about. Instead of
letting him go, I tucked him under one arm, pulled Lily under the
other, and turned them towards the house. Ben hesitated, obviously
irritated that I hadn’t answered him.

“She’s decided
to learn how to box.” The voice from the doorway had them both
glancing up. When they realized that their favorite uncle was
standing there watching us, they forgot all about me and ran to
him. I couldn’t decide who I enjoyed watching more—the kids or the
love of my life. He greeted them the same way he always
had—kneeling down, pulling Lily into his arms, and picking her up,
ruffling Ben’s hair and then pulling him in for a hug while
dropping a kiss on the top of his head. The scene would have made a
beautiful portrait, one that reflected the love a father gave his
children. There was no doubt in my mind that they would never feel
unloved or unwanted by their stepfather.

“
As in Mohamed Ali?” Ben asked,
awed.

I laughed as we ushered them
inside, trying to answer all of the questions they kept throwing at
us while redirecting them to get their school bags to their rooms
and grab anything else they might want. Within ten minutes, we’d
loaded them in the car, locked the house, and were on our way to
get Sammy and Dean.

The ride took a little longer than
the normal half hour, but with the two chatterboxes in the back
seat, it passed quickly. Ben talked about his upcoming science fair
and how he still wasn’t sure what he was going to do for a
presentation, while Lily kept interrupting to tell us all about her
drama club and how they were going to be performing Charlie and the
Chocolate Factory. Matty jumped right into the conversation, never
missing a beat, and corrected the kids when they were being mean to
each other. I sat back and watched the three of them. Life with
Will had never been this laid back or exciting. I was one lucky
girl.

Once we pulled into Becky’s, the
kids jumped out and ran around back, Matty hot on their heels as
soon as the car was in park. Before I’d had a chance to make it to
the front door, laughter and shrieks of enjoyment filled the air. I
fought the urge to join them. There would be plenty of time to play
over the next few days.

Becky was in the kitchen piling
snacks on a tray. The idea of this woman doing anything domestic,
like baking, amused me. But then again, she’d always been a
conundrum. Just like the rest of the women Matt slept with, Bex was
built like a supermodel, with pale golden hair, legs that went on
forever, and dimples that could convince anyone to do anything.
That’s where the similarities between her and the others ended,
though. Becky’s long hair was in dreads, her arms colored with
tattoos of her favorite poems and song lyrics, and she had more
piercings than I wanted to know about. Even the way she dressed set
her apart. It was only mid-April, but she was wearing corduroys, a
tiny tank that showed off her ink, and was barefoot.

I smiled at her eccentricities.
She stopped and came around the corner to greet me with a giant
hug. We’d been friends before the divorce, but I’d been Matt’s
friend first, and he kept me when they split. Over the past couple
of months, though, she and I had spent some time together and were
finally starting to get close again. As she pulled back from the
embrace, she grabbed my hand.

“
I hear
congratulations are in order.” She beamed. “It’s about freaking
time, don’t you think?”
 

“
Thank you.” I
couldn’t keep the smile off my face. The fact that she was happy
about my engagement meant the world to me. I took off my glasses
and set them on the table. “What can I do to help?”

Bex raised an eyebrow, reaching out and
grabbing my chin in a way only another mother could. “Those bruises
the reason Dean’s sitting on my deck?”

I shook my head, pulling back
slightly, not understanding the connection she was trying to make.
She turned, grabbing a pitcher out of the cupboard, and started
making iced tea. My curiosity got the better of me. “Why would
Dean’s being here have anything to do with my bruises?”

She turned back to me, brown eyes
so intent I was frozen in place. “Please! You don’t have to pretend
around me. I’ve been living this life a long time, Joey, and I can
handle the truth. I know that when Dean shows up here something
serious is going on. Maybe you can’t tell me what, but don’t insult
me by acting like nothing is happening. Especially when you look
like you’ve been beat to a pulp. Matty better kill whoever touched
you!”

I tried not to gape at her but my
mouth wouldn’t close. Her eyes searched mine, and I could tell she
was angry with me, but I had no idea why. “I think I’ve missed a
step.”

Her face went blank but she
couldn’t mask the surprise in her voice. “You don’t know. You
really don’t know.”

It wasn’t a question, but I shook
my head. “What does Dean have to do with anything? Why would he
come here?”