Page 20 of The MC’s Surprise (Bikers and Babies #4)

Vegas

W ith my time split between work and the club shit, I could admit I never gave the local park much thought.

It wasn’t like I had much time to go and enjoy it.

So when we showed up for our clean up event, I was caught off guard with just how bad off it was.

It hardly looked like a park. It looked more like a junkyard, with trash piled up, the playground all rusted, and overgrown grass and weeds, making it almost impossible to walk through it.

Sierra stood next to me and nodded at my gaping shock.

“I know. It's really bad. I’ve got a dumpster being delivered so we don’t have to make trips, and the parks department is giving us full access to their lawn care stuff, but they didn’t have the manpower or the time to handle a project this bad.”

“What about the playground? There’s no way kids can use that,” Skylar commented. She stood beside Sierra, a heartbroken look on her face as she studied the park.

Sierra shook her head. “I couldn’t do anything about that. It was too expensive to replace, and I promised these events wouldn’t cost us anything. I figured it was better for it to be clean and empty than nothing at all.”

While that was good in theory, it didn’t do much about the bigger issue. This park was supposed to be a fun place for kids and families. An empty field wasn’t going to draw them in. And while, yes, Sierra had promised the events would be free, I couldn’t just stand by and leave it as it was.

Prez must have been thinking the same thing. He waved me over to where he was standing across the parking lot, his frown deep as he stared at the dilapidated park.

“What’s up, Prez?”

“How much do we have in the charity account?”

I winced. “Not enough. I looked into it when Sierra mentioned the clean up.”

“How much would it cost to fix it?”

I didn’t have the answer to that, so I looked it up on my phone. “For the good stuff, we’re looking at fifty grand at minimum, and that’s for the toddler set up. For the bigger kids, it's a lot more expensive.”

The charity account was well funded, but not that well funded.

Each of the guys put a portion of their earnings into the coffers for things like helping a brother in need, or covering the costs to care for the clubhouse, including paying for the water damage when me and Rooster made that indoor slip ‘n slide. I paid a good portion of that because I felt bad, but it wasn’t all on me.

If we could afford it, we gave more for the charity account.

But most of the guys were blue-collar workers and couldn’t afford to funnel as much as Prez and I did into that account.

We weren’t rolling in the dough, and we couldn’t pull off a huge donation without help.

“You guys choose a charity for that event the girls were talkin’ about?” Rooster queried. “This might be what you’re savin’ for.”

I considered it with a frown. We hadn’t actually chosen a charity. I figured we’d choose a major organization like we normally did, but putting the money towards park equipment wasn’t a bad idea.

Cupping my hand around my mouth, I called out to Sierra. “Hey, Sierra! Have you made plans for the charity rally?”

She glanced over her shoulder, her brow furrowing. My eyes automatically strayed to her belly as she came to join us. She was starting to waddle a little, and I could admit it was sexy “Like how it's going to work, or–”

“No. We were discussing making the charity event be to buy park equipment. Get the community involved in making this place better.”

Her eyes lit up, and she beamed at me, the force of that smile nearly knocking me on my ass.

The more time I spent with Sierra, the more I noticed how perfect she was.

She was selfless and hardworking, and when it came to my crew, she was determined to make things easier on us.

There were absolutely no regrets for the accidental pregnancy.

I had no idea how we’d fix things without her beautiful brain coming up with all the good ideas.

“That’s a great idea! It’d be super easy to get the local businesses on board with a charity for their own community.

And it’ll warm up the parents of the town toward the crew by a lot.

Let me write this down. I’m going to need to get a quote from a company that sets that kind of thing up and call the parks department on the requirements.

We’re going to have to make the rally huge to be able to pull it off, but–” She was rambling, only half focused as she made notes in her phone, so when sirens cut through the quiet, she wasn’t expecting it and jumped, dropping her phone on the ground.

The tension in the air shot up exponentially and we all waited for the worst to happen.

I picked up her phone for her to spare her trying to bend over, handing it to her while we all searched for the source of the sound.

I put my hand on Sierra’s back, keeping her close as we waited for the inevitable.

But it wasn’t the cops coming to hassle us.

Instead, a fire truck with full lights and sirens pulled into the parking lot and a team of volunteer firefighters hopped out, including a familiar face.

“Dad?” Prez called out.

“Hey, boys. Thought you could use a hand.”

My gaze was caught between the truck and Tank, who was supposed to be retired and relaxing at home. When I lifted my eyebrows and gestured at the truck significantly, he chuckled.

“Relax. I just volunteer. I’m not qualified to run into burnin’ buildings. I do the front desk work.”

Relief flooded through all of us, and I heard a collection of relived sighs pass through the group.

I leaned a little more into Sierra, trying to banish the picture of Tank running into a burning building out of my brain.

That would scare the shit out of me. She looked amused, shaking her head at Tank.

“And you couldn’t drive on your own to come here? You knew what they’d all think.”

“That’s what makes it so fun,” he replied with a wink.

“I’m going to hurt you,” Prez growled. “You almost gave me a heart attack thinking about my sixty-five-year-old dad running into burning buildings.”

True. Yes, it was rare to have a fire in a town as small as this one, but that didn’t mean they didn’t happen. And Tank was way too old to be playing firefighter.

“Don’t be a baby, Wyatt. I can’t spend all day watchin’ tv. I’ll die of boredom. I volunteer at the hospital too. Gotta keep myself active, ya know?”

That probably shouldn’t have surprised me. Tank was a pretty active guy up until his retirement. He founded and ran the MC, raised two kids on his own, and worked full time. He was always talking about it with the older guys. Going from that to nothing must’ve been tough.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Prez demanded

“You got your own shit to handle, boy. Don’t you be worryin’ about me.

I know how to keep busy.” He gave his attention to Sierra, effectively dismissing him.

“So, you’re the one in charge of all this, right?

” He tipped his head toward the park, where the crew was guiding the dumpster into a suitable spot and Kennedy was setting up her camera in the shade of a tree. We’d need to get started soon.

Sierra smiled brightly, bobbing her head. “Yep. I used to be an event planner, so setting up this kind of thing is what I’m good at. ”

“Well, I’m glad you’re here. I put this crew together and I always hated hearing what people thought about us. You’re an angel, sweetheart.”

“It’s a team effort,” Sierra argued, waving her hands. “We are all part of it. I–”

“She’s being modest,” Skylar interrupted as she came to join us. “Most of the planning is done by her and the park clean up was her idea.”

While it was all praise being directed in her direction, I felt Sierra stiffen and her face twitched like she was fighting back a grimace.

I wasn’t sure why she was so against taking credit, but I didn’t have time to ask.

Someone from the fire station approached us, clapping my dad on the shoulder as he stepped up beside him, his attention on Prez.

He was wearing the fire station polo, his smile friendly and not judgmental about a bunch of bikers hanging around.

“Are you Wyatt?”

Offering him a hand, Prez replied, “Wyatt Lawson. Thanks for coming out.”

“No problem. I’m Aaron Masters. Tank told us what you guys were doing today, and we had some free time. We’ll have to run if we get a call, but it's not that common around here and this place needs all hands on deck.”

“We appreciate it. I’m sure Kennedy wants us to talk to her first, but after that we can get started, so we don’t take up too much of your time.”

His brow furrowed in confusion until Sierra pointed out the reporter nearby. Then his eyebrows shot up almost into his hairline. “You’ve got a reporter on this? Damn, I’m jealous. Our outreach events never catch this much attention.”

That caught Sierra’s attention and diverted her away from her conversation with Tank. “What kind of outreach events?”

While she and Aaron talked about the community outreach the fire station did, Tank followed me and Prez to where Kennedy was waiting. He dropped his voice, leaning in to whisper to me.

“You got a hellion on your side, son. Don’t do somethin’ stupid and run her off.”

Giving him a mock salute, I grinned at him. “Aye aye, Captain.”

He rolled his eyes at me but there was no venom to it. He knew how his old crew acted. He was the one who took me on as a prospect, even though I was a troublemaker and he said I was one of the reasons he had white hair. We all loved Tank.

After watching Prez do a quick interview with Kennedy on the goals of the project and making a quick mention of the charity event we’d be doing in the future to earn money for new park equipment, we got the ball rolling on clean up.

Skylar and Sierra handed out gloves, so no one touched shit they wouldn’t want to, and the dumpster was quickly filling up with all the big items we pulled out of the knee high grass.

We were about halfway done when I took a break.

Sierra was in the thick of it, getting her hands dirty, but no one wanted her doing any heavy lifting, so after a while, she was moved to being in charge of the water station.

She wasn’t happy about it, said she could handle the clean up, but with some pouting on my part, she finally backed down with a laugh.

“You’re too old to be making faces like that,” she complained, a smile pulling at her lips.

I shrugged innocently. “Zoey taught me. That girl can make even Prez melt. I took the lessons to heart.”

She pointed a finger at me, trying to look stern. “No more pouting to get what you want. Or I’ll use that look on you.”

Putting my hand to my chest, I fake reeled. “No… My own powers… used against me… I’ll never survive.”

She laughed and shoved me away playfully before allowing me to tug her over to the water station. She handed out cold bottles and ordered food to be delivered for the hard work we were doing. I was just taking another break and heading her way when a familiar voice caught me off guard.

“Justin!”

Spinning around, I felt my jaw drop. “Charlotte? What are you doing here?”

She sauntered over to me, a bright smile on her face.

Even with the time I spent with Sierra, I still got butterflies when she smiled at me like that.

Those butterflies were tempered, not as intense as before, with a heavy layer of confusion and guilt.

She latched onto my arm like a barnacle, and a familiar warmth burned wherever she touched me.

“I heard about what you were doing on the news and thought I’d stop by after work. I don’t like it when you aren’t around all day. I missed you.”