Page 22 of Other Woman Drama (Content Advisory #4)

Nineteen

When I say I wanna go out, I mean go eat.

— Webber to Silver

WEBBER

I deserve to be happy.

She was right.

She did deserve to be happy.

If some man had treated Eedie like the way I’d treated Silver over the last year, I would’ve gotten rid of the problem.

It sucked that Silver didn’t have the same kind of fatherly protection, but I wouldn’t give her a reason to need that protection ever again.

I was all in.

And being all in meant that I had to deal with the woman that was now at my door, fuming mad, baby in her arms, ready to light me on fire.

She pushed inside, uncaring that I was in my boxer briefs and that it was four thirty in the morning.

“You and Chevy are definitely on my shit list,” she snapped. “When he gets here, you can hand him this.”

‘This’ was her kid, which she handed to me with a fresh bottle and said, “He needs fed.”

She dropped the diaper bag that felt like it weighed two tons on my left foot and then marched into the bedroom.

She closed the door in front of me, and I decided to let her have her moment with her sister.

Who was, in fact, awake.

She’d been awake before the pounding had started.

“Daddy?”

Eedie.

“Yeah, baby?” I asked.

“You might want to put some pants on before you head to the front porch. Or the HOA president will fine you again,” she pointed out.

I rolled my eyes. “I’m wearing just as much as a bathing suit would cover.”

Normally I don’t walk around in my underwear with my kid around, but today couldn’t be helped.

“Do me a favor and bring me a pair of shorts out of the dryer,” I said. “I’ll be in the Adirondack chair on the porch waiting for Chevy.”

“I’ll make coffee and bring the clothes,” she murmured. “I have to be at work in forty-five minutes anyway.”

Which reminded me…

“You’ll have one of the club members following you around today,” I said. “The lady that did that to Silver hasn’t been found yet, and she made a threat on your life to Silver yesterday.”

Eedie sighed. “Just don’t make it that new prospect. I don’t like him.”

I grinned. “You won’t ever have to worry about him ever again.”

She shivered. “He gave me the creeps. And he always looked at me like he wanted to defile me.”

Just another reason that motherfucker deserved to die.

“It’ll probably be Jasper, Gunner, or Cakes,” I said.

Her eyes gleamed. “Maybe Cakes will make me something.”

I snorted. “If he’s watching you, how will he make you something?”

She shrugged. “Daddy, don’t bust my bubble, okay?”

I chuckled and walked outside, unsurprised to find the neighbor across the street peeking through her window.

Bitch probably clocked the moment Aella had entered our street and parked haphazardly along the curb.

I’d have to get Chevy to move it when he got here.

In the meantime, I got to work feeding the baby and thinking about how nice it would be to have another one of my own, one with Silver’s eyes and black hair.

The bottle was halfway gone when Eedie made it out with a cup of coffee for me and my shorts.

I thanked her, shamelessly utilizing her barista coffee-making skills, and let her continue to get ready for work.

I’d called last night and informed Cakes, Jasper, and Gunner that I would need help today. All three had said they’d be splitting up the guard duty between themselves.

Trusting them with my life, even with what I saw in Jasper’s glove box yesterday, I didn’t bother to call them.

They’d be there and ready.

Oh, and a talk with Jasper would be imminent once everything else was settled down with Silver and the club.

Chevy arrived shortly after and took over bottle duty, allowing me to put some pants on.

Which was right in the nick of time because the old lady across the street that liked to report me to the HOA that I wasn’t a part of turned her porch light on and started to storm out of the house.

I watched her wobble down the road toward the HOA president’s house and rolled my eyes just as Chevy scrounged up the courage to speak.

“On a scale of one to DEFCON 1, how pissed is she?” Chevy asked, placing a kiss on his son’s sleeping head.

My heart panged.

I missed that stage with Eedie.

I loved my girl now, more than life, but sometimes life was a whole lot simpler when she was tiny and had no clue what kind of terrors there were in the world.

“Gonna kick your ass the moment she sees you,” I offered.

Chevy was about to say something else but Eedie came out of the house at the same time that her best friend showed up.

“She still not dating that boy?” Chevy asked.

Hai and Eedie had been best friends since before I could remember.

They’d withstood a lot over the years, remaining best friends despite both of their mothers disapproving of their best friend relationship.

Hai’s mother, a Japanese immigrant, wanted her son to be the best of the best. To accomplish great things, and become a world dominator. That meant not hanging out with a motorcycle club president’s daughter.

Meanwhile, Elizabeth had hated Hai because Hai had gobbled up all of Eedie’s attention.

Eedie and Hai were meant for each other, but their personal relationship wouldn’t be going any further if it was left up to the two of them.

And all of a sudden, I just couldn’t keep it to myself. I had to say something.

Life was too short, as I’d discovered last night.

“Hai,” I said when he got to the front porch. “What do you want out of life?”

I immediately saw him flick his eyes to Eedie, as if he knew exactly what he wanted out of life, just couldn’t have it.

“What do you mean, sir?” he asked, hesitating.

I raised a brow at him. “I mean, you need to make a move.”

“Dad, what are you talking about?” Eedie asked.

I looked from Hai to Eedie and back and then said, “You can’t make decisions based on what your mothers think.”

Both teens stayed stubbornly silent.

“I hesitated, and the woman that I love was nearly killed last night.”

Both teens looked at me like I’d just stunned them.

“Your parents aren’t going to live forever,” I said.

“Your parents won’t give you kids. Your parents won’t be able to make your life worth living.

You have to find someone you love, that you want to spend the rest of your life with.

Y’all’ve been together, best friends, for the last fifteen years.

It’s time that you admit to yourselves that what you have is worth taking a risk on.

I’m not saying that you’ll make it all the way.

There’s no guarantee in life. But you’ll regret it for the rest of your life if you don’t at least try. ”

Hai cleared his throat. “You…we…”

“Dad.” She looked at Hai, then at me, then back to Hai. “We made that decision about a year ago. We’ve been dating seriously for a while.”

My lips twitched. “Keep doing what you’re doing then.”

Her cheeks flushed. “You’re not going to get mad at us for lying?”

I shrugged. “Y’all did what you thought you had to do. But just know now that you’re living with me, Eedie, you don’t have to hide it. I’m more than okay with you dating…”

Hai’s swift inhale had me looking at him.

Seeing his eyes locked behind me, I turned to find Silver standing there in my t-shirt and nothing else.

“Piers?” she said, unaware of the audience.

“Yeah, baby?” I asked, moving toward her.

“I’m hungry, and I can’t find the kitchen. Aella is asleep on your bed, and I don’t want to wake her.”

Chevy growled, but it had nothing to do with his wife being asleep in another man’s bed.

It had everything to do with how awful Silver looked.

I didn’t think it was possible, but she looked worse today than she did yesterday.

Her eyes were even more swollen shut, and she had so many bruises that you couldn’t tell where one began and another one ended.

“You said it was bad,” I heard Hai say to Eedie. “But I had no clue how bad.”

I caught Silver’s hand and led her into the kitchen.

“How’s your backside feel?” I asked curiously.

“Not good,” she admitted.

Chevy followed us into the kitchen, but turned around and left, coming back moments later with a pillow from the couch.

He placed it on the seat at the kitchen table and said, “Got you a pillow.”

Silver jerked, unaware that Chevy was here.

“Sorry,” Chevy caught her startle. “Thought you knew I was here.”

“You walk like a ninja,” she said. “And I can’t see.”

Chevy moved closer, being sure to shuffle his feet so he could be heard approaching, and said, “What’d the doctors say?”

“No broken bones,” she said.

“Miracle,” Chevy murmured. “What meds do they have you on?”

I didn’t think it was possible for her to look cute while so bruised up but she managed it when she said, “Um, well, about that. I didn’t stay.”

“You didn’t stay where?” Chevy frowned.

“At the hospital,” she explained. “I didn’t stay long enough to get any medications.”

Chevy sighed. “I’ll call you something in.”

His eyes met mine over the top of her head, and we had a moment.

Both of us had promises in our eyes. Ones that spoke of total annihilation of the one that did this to her.

Moran wouldn’t make it to see her next birthday.

The Truth Tellers would make sure of it.