Page 19 of Dearly & Lovesick Lorraine (Dearly and The Departed #6)

Chapter Eighteen

Dash

“ Quinn! Fish! Simp! Georgia! ” I stood in the open bay that had been mine when I owned the shop. Quinn had finally changed the name from Clegg’s Cycles to Legacy Cycles, which I loved.

A new neon sign hung in the front window. It had a Norse helmet hanging from the handlebar of a Harley Knucklehead like the one that had been my father’s and now belonged to Fish. The sign was really fucking cool. I knew in my heart that Viking would approve.

They all came running down from Quinn’s apartment, along with Lily, Quinn’s new wife. They’d flown to Vegas and gotten married at the end of April while I was still recuperating from my accident. I’d stopped by the shop with Gracie to welcome them home from their honeymoon in the South Pacific.

Grace, who had recently turned six months old, was strapped into a kangaroo carrier on my chest once I finally got her out of the car seat. My girl liked being on the move, and riding in a car seat wasn’t her favorite thing to do unless it was close to naptime.

“What the fu—oh! You brought the baby. Hello, pumpkin!” Quinn, the first to appear in the shop, walked over to us and pulled Grace out of the carrier.

He kissed her forehead as she grabbed his beard and didn’t let go. I’d gotten used to it, but I kept my beard trimmed close to keep her from snatching it too often.

Keir had been working for Darren Meyer for a month, and I stayed home with Grace since I’d regained more strength in my arms. There were still blank spots in my memory, but I didn’t stew on them. Life was going along too well for me to give a fuck about things I couldn’t remember.

I unbuckled and slid off the nylon baby carrier to follow my friend into the garage. Immediately, everyone turned to goo at the sight of our beautiful little girl. I did the same every morning when she woke up.

I enjoyed seeing them make fools of themselves as they baby-talked to our little bundle of sunshine. I planned to razz the shit out of them for forgetting how to speak like adults.

When things finally settled, Georgia was dancing behind my chair with Grace in her arms while I had a beer with the guys. “Uh, what do you and Keir want Grace to call you?” Georgia’s nose was wrinkled.

Was she trying to imagine our pet names for each other? That was pretty odd, wasn’t it?

“Is the idea of Keir and me having cute pet names for each other that gross to you?” The guys laughed with me. I’d missed hanging out with everyone.

“No, jack-a-s-s. She needs her diaper changed, and I was going to ask you where the diaper bag is. Like, ‘Daddy, Grace needs a new diaper.’”

“Ah. I see. Well, I’m Papa, and Keir is Daddy if you must know. I’ll change her. Thanks.” I reached for the baby, but Georgia turned to her side to keep me away.

“Give me the diaper bag, Papa. I haven’t changed a diaper in a long time. It makes me sad that my boys are damn near grown, but that just means I’ll be having grandbabies sooner than you.” Georgia laughed at my screwed-up scowl.

My mind then began to wander to how well Keir did suck. I’d missed having his mouth on me and mine on him. Between my rehab and the baby, we’d been burning the candle at both ends and not lighting each other’s candles like we used to. That behavior needed to be corrected very soon.

I picked up the diaper bag and followed Georgia into her office. I pulled out the changing pad and placed it on Georgia’s empty desk as I retrieved the wipes and a clean diaper. Georgia put Grace on the pad before pulling down her little denim shorts and opening her Harley onesie.

“ Whew ! Little girl, what are they feeding you?” Georgia made quick work of the dirty diaper and cleaned Grace’s bottom like a seasoned pro.

“We just started with green vegetables. This was strained spinach that I mixed with a little bit of pear, and she ate it like it was the best thing she’d ever tasted.”

“Look at you, Dashiell Clegg. You’ve got this father thing down to a science.” She redressed Grace and picked her up, letting Grace stand on her plump feet as Georgia made faces at her. Meanwhile, I tried to screw up my courage to ask Georgia for a favor.

“I, uh, I wondered if maybe you might be interested in spending an afternoon with Grace. We need to go furniture shopping, and I thought if maybe Auntie Georgia and Auntie Rena wanted to have a girls’ day—”

Georgia’s sarcastic laugh interrupted the rest of my pitch. “Don’t BS me, Dash. If you wanna have some time with Keir, just say it. Rena and I have nothing going on tomorrow, so you tell me how long you two can be away from her. We’d love to spend time with Grace.”

She had me there. “Tomorrow works. Why don’t you come over at noon? She’ll be ready for her afternoon nap, and everything she needs is right there. How does that sound?”

Georgia kissed my cheek as she handed over Gracie and took the dirty diaper. "Wait, I'll take that with me. We have a pail thingy that keeps the smell contained.”

She laughed. “I owe this to Simp for a trick he played on me earlier in the week. Keep his attention in here.”

I took Gracie and the diaper bag into the garage as I watched Georgia head out the front door and over to Simp’s truck. She opened the driver’s side door and tossed the diaper under the bench seat before closing it quietly and going for a walk around the block. With the sun shining in through the front windshield and the truck windows closed, nobody could pay me enough money to climb into that vehicle at the end of the day.

“When are you guys coming over to see the new house?” I had all of them staring at me while Georgia went to exact her revenge. I’d have to ask Georgia what Simp did to her that brought on the stink bomb she’d planted.

“Dude, invite us over. We won’t come unless you invite us,” Fish said, giving me a hard look.

“I will, I swear. We gotta get some furniture. Our shit burned up, remember?”

I wasn’t trying to make him feel guilty, but he seemed upset with me. I wasn’t standing for it when I’d done nothing wrong—that I could remember.

Simp grabbed Fish by the back of his coveralls as he started to step to me, but I wasn’t taking his accusatory attitude. I handed Grace to Quinn, who was standing next to me, and I got in Fish’s face. “Fisher Worth, what the f-u-c-k is your problem?”

Simp and Quinn both cracked up, which pissed me off. I turned to them. “We don’t curse in front of her.”

Fish ignored me, his scowl saying he didn’t find my explanation the least bit humorous. “You left us, Dash. You didn’t come around very much after you and Keir got married, and then you just disappeared after you went on your honeymoon and sold the shop to Quinn. Now, you hardly show up, and when you do, you only stay for a hot minute before you’re gone again.”

The longer he spoke, the more enraged he became, which wasn’t my intention. I cared about my guys and Georgia very much. I never wanted them to think I’d leave them behind. Was there shit I didn’t remember?

Fish stared into my eyes. “Truth, man. Are we not good enough to be your family anymore? Or were we not good enough after you got all that money when Danny died?” I could see he was upset, and I was swamped with guilt.

Yes, after my parents were killed, I’d been a huge mess. I’d distanced myself from my old family—everyone at the garage—because I was completely lost and trying to find my way after giving the state of California five years of my life because of a stupid mistake.

Then Daniel had been murdered, and I’d found out everything I thought I knew about my brother had been a bald-faced lie. Adjusting to that reality had been hard, but when I walked into Dearly & Son and met my future husband, it had all faded away. Keir pulled me back from the edge and helped me get my shit together.

In more ways than I could have imagined, Keir had been the one to save me from wallowing in self-pity after Danny’s death. Having Keir as my husband…my soul mate…the fire in my life…meant everything to me. He was a blessing, and I didn’t believe in those often, but when I stared into Keir’s and Grace’s eyes, I knew beyond a doubt I was exactly where I was meant to be.

“I’m sorry. Life just gets busy. It was nothing you did, Fish. I was an asshole back then, and I’m sorry. Lately, it’s been recovering from my accident, moving, and the two of us deciding what to do about the old lot and Keir’s business. I’ll do my best to come by often, and once we get furniture, we’ll have everyone over, I promise.” We hugged, and I told Georgia I’d see her in the morning.

When I got home a couple of hours later, Keir was at the stove transferring leftover pizza to a pan to heat it up for dinner for the two of us. “Hello, love. How was everyone at the shop?”

“It was good. Everybody’s great. Georgia is going to watch Gracie tomorrow so we can furniture shop. I told everyone that after we got furniture, we’d have them over. Maybe we can host a poker night.”

Keir nodded. “I stopped on my way home to buy some beer, a bottle of wine, and four wine glasses. I also picked up this pizza pan. We really need to outfit the kitchen, so we’re not living like hobos. I started a list today before the funeral for Mrs. Gerard.”

“Well, we can go to a store and get the stuff we need. Gracie’s a pretty good traveling partner, so you give us a list, and I’ll take care of it.”

I glanced down at our little girl in my arms, her eyes shut tight. She was definitely a sleeping angel.

Keir stepped closer to take the baby from me, quietly chuckling when she didn’t flinch. “Wow! They must have worn her out. I’ll bathe her in the morning. I think she’ll be fine to sleep without one tonight. I’ll go put her down if you’ll heat our pizza.” He glanced at the clock and smirked, so I checked it too. Six o’clock. Hell, yeah!

I put the pizza in the oven of the massive stove that came with the house and went to the fridge to get a bottle of beer and pull out a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc for Keir. Thankfully, it had a screw cap because I didn’t think we had a wine opener.

I quickly washed one of the four wine glasses on the counter and poured him a glass of wine as I set paper plates on the patio table we had in the kitchen. Tomorrow couldn’t come fast enough for us to get new furniture—but we had tonight, and I was making big plans.

Keir came downstairs with the baby monitor in his hand as I held out the glass of wine for him.

“Thank you, love. How was your day?”

“Just peachy. I got my ass chewed out by Fish because I don’t come by the shop as often as I used to. He thinks I left them behind after I got the money from Danny’s estate. I tried to explain that we’ve been busy, but I need to make more of an effort, I guess. Anyway, how was your day?”

Keir flipped the oven off but didn’t open it. He shot back his wine, put the glass on the counter, and took my hand. “Come on. We don’t have long before she wakes up for dinner. Let’s work up an appetite.”

“Fuck yeah!”

Clothes flew through the air as we crept up the stairs, trying hard not to wake Gracie, and once I got him on the mattress, I licked, sucked, and nibbled every inch of his slender body, making sure not to leave marks where they could be seen in case he had a service.

I inhaled his musky fragrance as I ran my tongue over the crease between his leg and his pelvis, noticing two little scars. “How the hell did you get a scar here? Man, you almost lost your sack.”

Keir laughed hard. “I can’t remember, but kiss it anyway.”

I did as he asked, running my tongue down the crease before I sucked his nut into my mouth and moved over, giving the other side the same treatment. He smelled mouth-watering.

I opened his sexy ass with my tongue and fingers, silently reminding myself that my man deserved everything I had to give. “Come sit on my lap, Dearly.”

Keir tossed me the bottle of lube before he climbed into my lap.

Staring into his eyes was like seeing the past, present, and future simultaneously. With Keir straddling me, I couldn’t imagine ever being without him.

“I love you.” My voice was breathless, but as he slid down my shaft, I sucked in a huge breath to keep from ending things too quickly.

“I love you, too.” His beautiful brown eyes peered into my soul.

I took hold of his hips and slowed him a bit so we could savor the ride. “Baby, slow down a little. We don’t get this time very often.”

Keir wrapped his arms around my shoulders, avoiding my neck, and looked into my eyes. “I was so afraid I’d lost you, love. Please, don’t take those chances again.”

How could I deny him anything? “Never, I promise. I’m here to take care of you and Gracie. I need you both. The two of you are my life, Dearly.”

I stroked his hard cock as he rode me, and when I couldn’t hold back any longer, I kissed his soft lips. “I’m gonna disappoint you, but I can’t stop.”

Keir stopped moving. “You will never, ever disappoint me. You have given me more than I ever believed I deserved. You’re my forever.”

I exploded inside him as his cum cascaded down my fist and covered us both. It was amazing. Our love making confirmed we were meant to be together forever.