Page 18 of Alpha & Omega (Alpha's Rejects #4)

The next morning, Harley made us coffee while I picked up our clothes off the kitchen floor, even though we slept in until ten thirty. Since I had nothing else to wear, I tossed them on and cleaned up the chocolate mess I’d made last night. We picked up just in time because the front door slammed, and his son called out.

“I’m home!”

“I wasn’t expecting Hudson home so early,” Harley said quietly, shrugging. “I guess you get to meet him now.”

“Is that okay? I can go run and hide,” I said only half-jokingly, but I was eager to meet Hudson finally.

He grabbed my hand and threaded our fingers together. “Don’t you dare. Yeah, it’s perfectly okay. I want you to meet him.”

A teen boy, nearly as tall as his dad, with the same long dark hair and eyes but clean-shaven, walked into the kitchen and stopped in his tracks. He was the mirror image of his father, but half his age.

“Oh, sorry. I guess I should’ve called to let you know that Oliver and his family had to run.”

We pulled our hands apart, but Harley slung an arm over my shoulders, and I wrapped my arm behind his back.

“I guess it’s time you two finally met,” Harley said. “Hudson, this is Kingston McLaren, my…”

“Boyfriend,” I finished and reached for his son to shake his hand. “I hope that’s okay with you.”

“Hey, Kingston. Totally. I’m glad to meet you finally.” He shook my hand and smiled back and forth between us. “He’s cute, Dad.”

Harley’s face pinked, and he went about pouring us some coffee.

Once we had our coffees, the three of us sat at the kitchen table to get to know one another. I took a sip of my drink and set my mug down. “Tell me about yourself, Hudson. Do you play sports? Art? Theater?”

He smirked and rolled his eyes. “Thanks for not making it all about sports. Everyone always asks the guys only about sports.”

“I like to assume people have other interests than that.”

Harley draped an arm over the back of my chair, leaning close to me. “Hudson is not only talented at art, but he also writes.”

“I don’t know about talented. I mean, I like those things, but I prefer science.”

“What type of science?” I asked.

“The plan is to get a B.S. in Environmental Science or a B.A. in Environmental Planning, where I can work on energy consultations, carbon offset… you know, things that will help with the environment. If I go the business route, it’ll be more money, but probably less rewarding.” He shrugged .

“Wow, and brains, too. That’s impressive, Hudson.” My laugh was self-deprecating. “I barely graduated high school, though I started out making good grades.”

“Dad said you were in foster care?”

“I was.”

“Do you know the success rate of foster care kids?”

I nodded. “It’s very low.”

“Yet, you did graduate, and you own a business. I think that’s pretty cool and successful.”

“Well, when you put it like that… thanks.”

We talked a bit more about his interests until Harley asked about how his best friend Oliver was. “Have you two… talked yet?”

Hudson’s palms were face down on the wood surface of the table, sliding them around, unable to look at his dad. “Not yet. It’s… hard.”

“Well, take your time.”

Harley’s son looked at me, smiling shyly. “I have a thing for my best friend.”

“Oh, yes, I’m familiar with that scenario. Two of my crew—I guess you could call them my brothers—were in foster care together and ended up on the streets until they stumbled onto me. But they both crushed on each other for years and never told each other.”

Hudson’s dark brown eyes grew wide. “W-what happened? Did they get together? Did they stop being friends?”

“Oh, they would never stop being friends, even if one didn’t feel the same. I truly believe they would’ve stuck it out with each other, no matter what. So, if you’re worried about that, and if Oliver is your best friend, I’m sure that won’t change. But yes, they admitted their feelings, and they’ve been in love and together ever since. It turned out they both felt the same way, but the two dipshits never told each other.” I chuckled and shook my head fondly. “They’re amazing young men.”

“So… how’d they finally tell each other?”

“Honestly, I don’t know the full story. They never told me, and I didn’t ask. The only thing I witnessed was one day earlier this spring, Pippin just went up to Nacho and kissed him in front of all of us, which, honestly, isn’t like Pippin at all. But we were all skating when it happened, and that was that. ”

Harley smiled at me and pulled me close. “See, I think you should tell him. I bet you’d be surprised.”

“Okay… I’ll try. But he’s straight…”

“Do you know that for sure? Has he had a girlfriend?” I asked.

“He dated a girl once, but no, now that you mention it, he doesn’t really talk about girls all that much.”

“I think your dad is right. You might be surprised.”

I finished my coffee and stood. “Look, I better run. But why don’t you two stop by the skatepark on Sunday at around eleven or so? We’re usually out there skating. If it’s raining, we’ll be at the Old Town Mall. I’ll text you if we change venues. We can teach you both to skate, but only if you want.”

“Yeah, that’d be cool. Can we go, Dad?”

“I don’t see why not.”

I shook Hudson’s hand again. “I’m happy to have met you finally,” I said.

“Yeah, me, too.”

Harley stood and walked me to the door. “Thanks for that,” he said.

“For what? He’s a great kid.”

“He’s the best. But… it means so much that you two like each other.”

I grabbed the loops of his shorts and pulled him to me. “He’s easy to like. And he’s got a dad I kinda really like, too.”

“Just kinda?”

I smirked, hovering my lips over his. “More than kinda. A lot more.”

My stomach strangely fluttered when I saw Harley and Hudson walking toward us. This was when they officially met my family. I hoped everyone liked him and his son. We had a rocky middle there, and my crew was protective of me.

Hudson was decked out in a brand-new helmet and carried knee and elbow pads, along with a brand-new board. I inwardly chuckled at Harley being such a dad. We rarely wore protective gear, used to falling all the time. The only time we wore them was when we were working on more difficult tricks that risked serious injury .

I quickly stubbed out my cigarette when they reached us. Harley and I gave each other a small hug and kiss. Then I shook Hudson’s hand.

“Looking good, Hudson.”

“Thanks! Dad got me the gear yesterday. I’m pumped to learn to skate.”

I led them to where my family was sitting on blankets in the sun, all waiting to finally meet my boyfriend.

“Everyone, I know you all have been curious about Harley. He’s the chef at that restaurant next door, and this is his son Hudson.”

They all waved and said hi, being polite, thank fuck.

“Okay, we’ll start with Ajax. He’s the big one there, with Aiden sitting between his legs—the one covered in tattoos. The redhead and curly-headed ones are Pippin and Nacho. The bleached-blond guy with the dark and broody one are Stix and Stone. Then there are the twins, Blondie and Jazz, who’s the only girl in the group, but she never seems to mind.”

She scoffed, making me smirk.

“And the bald and quiet one there is Cueball. That’s it. They’re my Rejects.”

Hudson gave a small and shy wave, looking suddenly out of place and unsure, but my family wouldn’t let him escape, especially when Stix and Nacho stood and dragged him over to them.

Stix looked back at me and Harley. “You go do your thing. We’ve got Hudson. We’ll teach him all the safety rules and some tricks.”

I raised a brow, doubting they cared much about safety rules, but I trusted them.

“We’ll need to come up with a good nickname for him, too,” Nacho said.

Stix snapped his fingers. “I got it! Hawk! You know, from that movie Hudson Hawk with that dude, Bruce… Willis!”

“Uh…” Hudson said.

Nacho beamed. “Perfect! Though, I don’t know the movie.”

Hudson looked back at us for permission to go skate, and his dad nodded.

“I can’t thank you enough for including Hudson. He can be a bit shy sometimes. He’s outgoing in a small group and smart as hell, but he doesn’t have tons of friends. ”

“Trust me, they’ll completely dote on him. I mean, they just gave him a nickname. That’s big shit around here. Some of them may look scary, but they’re all good kids… Adults. I keep forgetting that, knowing them when they were younger.”

Harley wrapped his arms around me and held me close. “And when are you done being young? When’s your thirtieth?”

I feigned a sneer, holding him back. “ Rude . Wouldn’t you like to know?”

“I would like to know. You do realize that birthdays with me include amazing dinners and a delicious cake.”

“Bribing me again, I see.”

“Is it working?”

“Is sex involved?”

He grinned wider. “When is it not?”

“Fine, you’ve twisted my arm. How can I say no to food and sex? My birthday… unfortunately, it’s coming up too soon. October twelfth.”

“How about you? When are you going to be the big forty?”

“You suck. I’ll have you know that I still have six years to go, thank you very much.”

“One foot in the grave,” I chuckled.

He rolled his eyes and huffed, pretending to be mad.

“By the way, not buying a board for yourself doesn’t get you out of learning how to skate. Now come on, Chef. Let’s teach you some skateboarding. You can use my board.”

He raised a brow and watched me dubiously as I spun my board upright. “If I get hurt, you get to take care of me.”

I smiled broadly and cupped his face with my free hand. “I always will.”

His face softened, and his eyes turned into what? It looked almost like adoration, not that I had vast amounts of experience in that department.

Our eyes shuttered closed as we kissed, but didn’t deepen it.

“Let’s get started,” I said when we pulled away. “You should’ve gotten yourself some gear, too.”

“Don’t you have any?”

“I’m experienced and know how to fall. ”

I walked over to our blankets, where several sets of gear were piled, and grabbed some of them for him. After I got him protected, I grabbed my board, and we walked over to the least crowded spot to learn the basics.

“So first, we’ll learn the simple stuff, like balancing, walking the board, and pushing off.”

“I feel like I’m too old for this,” he chuckled nervously.

“You know, Tony Hawk is fifty-six and still skating.” There were several other famous skateboarders who were older, but even non-skateboarders knew of Tony.

“Fair enough. Okay, let’s do this.”

“The first step is easy. You’re simply going to walk the board. Put your right foot on top straight, then walk like you normally would.”

I demonstrated for him before he easily took over.

“Awesome. Next, you’re going to do the same thing, but then you’re going to put your left leg at the back of the board, and after that, you’ll adjust your right leg horizontally. Once your board is moving, you can wiggle the board back and forth to change directions. Just make sure you keep your knees slightly bent.”

Soon, I had him stepping off the board with the other leg, walking it, hopping on, rolling, and turning, alternating between legs. Next, we practiced stopping.

“This is only to give you a solid base before moving on to more complex moves,” I explained. “Now we can learn a back kick and a turn.”

“You think I’m ready?” he asked, looking uncertain.

I shrugged. “You’re padded. Seriously, you’re pretty steady, so I’m not concerned. You’ve got good balance, probably from all that darting and maneuvering in the kitchen while working.”

I demonstrated how to kick back with my board, which involved lifting the front by pushing on the back. “Turning is fairly easy. To do that, you first need to move your head in the direction you want to go, hold your arms out for balance, twist your shoulders and arms with your head, and then kick back and turn the board.”

Harley practiced that several more times, getting it down until he got cocky and tried for a bigger turn. The board slipped out from under him, but I was right there to catch him—or my body was. I fell onto my back on the concrete, and he fell on top of me.

“Oof, you’re heavier when I’m flattened on the ground,” I wheezed.

Harley scrambled up and reached for me. “Sorry, sorry.”

When I grabbed his hand, he hefted me up and dusted off my back and ass, making me laugh. “I’m okay, Chef. I fall a lot. Anyway, I think that’s good for one day. You did pretty good, actually.”

“I had a good teacher.”

Before we could reach each other to kiss, Hudson came running up to us excitedly with Stix, Nacho, and Pippin behind him.

“Dad! Watch! I learned how to do an ollie.”

He dropped his new board on the ground and pushed off. As he rolled steadily, he kicked and flipped his back, launching the board into the air. He then jumped and landed back on the board.

We all clapped. “Nice work, Hud,” I said. “That was spot on and steady. You’re a natural.”

“He really is. Teaching him has been a breeze,” Nacho said.

Pippin looked at Harley shyly. “He’s really sweet.”

Stix hooked an arm around Hudson’s elbow. “We’re keeping him,” he said, making Hudson laugh and blush.

I swear my chef just beamed.

It had been an amazing day, and I was filled with hope and pride that my family was continuing to grow. That night, we both had to work, but we promised to meet during the day on Tuesday to cook.