Page 30

CHAPTER 30

Billie

I tugged at the hem of my sundress. I hadn’t worn a dress since high school. It still fit, though it was a bit shorter than I remembered.

A deep groan of appreciation made me look over my shoulder and smile at Toxic. His eyes were glued to my ass. We’d spent the last four days doing chores and having sex, and I had to admit, I hadn’t felt this good in a long time.

I was nervous today though. He insisted I come with him to Priest and Jenny’s wedding reception. It didn’t matter that I’d met the women a couple times, or that I adored them. This was for family.

“Are you sure?” I asked again in a low voice as he fell into step beside me while we walked.

He gave me an amused look. “You’re my old lady, Billie. You are family.”

“We’ve been dating for four days,” I pointed out.

He shook his head. “That doesn’t matter. Besides, they’ve been waiting pretty much since I first met you for me to make you my old lady.”

I stopped in my tracks and looked at him. “You told them you wanted to ask me that long ago?”

“Not exactly,” he muttered.

“What does that mean?” I asked. But we’d stopped just at the edge of the buildings and someone caught sight of us, so I didn’t get my answer before the group of men and women started calling out to us.

“Shit!” Toxic said with a chuckle as a carbon copy of him, only older, came up to him. “Pops! What the fuck? You didn’t tell me you were coming down for this.” Toxic left my side and embraced his father.

His father. My eyes widened.

“Crazy right?” Dani asked with a grin as she walked up.

“I already had to check Toxic’s driver’s license to make sure you weren’t messing with me about his age,” I admitted to the women. Toxic’s dad looked like he could be an older brother. I handed over the present I was carrying to Jenny, then hugged her. “Congratulations.”

“Oh thank you,” she said with a grin, then she shook the box.

“You’re as bad as your girls about that,” Kit said with a laugh as she rescued the wrapped pasta maker from Jenny’s clutches.

Jenny just shrugged with a laugh. “Where do you think they learned it? I couldn’t let Butcher and Toxic teach my girls all their bad habits.”

The laughter died down as Toxic and his dad turned toward us. I gave them a shaky smile. He hadn’t warned me I’d be meeting his dad today. Obviously because he didn’t know either, but still… I smoothed my dress down again. Even though there was a warm smile on his father’s face, the nerves were still clamoring inside my stomach.

“This is your girl?” the older version of Toxic said, looking over at his son. “She’s too pretty for you.” That made me laugh. He raised a brow at me, looking too much like his son for comfort, then said, “I wasn’t joking, Darlin’. I’m Daryl.”

“Hi, I’m Billie. Oh-” I broke off as he wrapped me up in a hug. After a brief pause, I put my arms around him and sank into the embrace. He wasn’t my father, but there was no doubt that this was a dad hug, the type that made you feel loved and protected. And apparently it could come from dads who weren’t your own. Who knew?

Not me. But one thing I did know was that I was going to love Daryl. I smiled up at him when we finally pulled away. “Thank you.” My cheeks heated, because I had no idea why I was thanking him. For being so welcoming to me? For the hug itself? For giving me six point five seconds of a feeling I hadn’t had since my own father was still alive? I had Gramps, but that was a grandfather’s love. It was just a little different.

He tucked me up under his arm—another thing that reminded me of his son—and grinned. “My pleasure. I’ve been waiting a long time for this asshole to bring home a girl.”

“You remember she’s my girl, right Pops?” Toxic grumbled.

But Daryl didn’t let me go. And I didn’t mind a bit. I just waved at Toxic as he led me along, following the women as they chatted.

Toxic caught up and walked along my other side. Everyone was here, plus some people I hadn’t met yet, but they were all dressed fairly casual and between the girls chatting with me and Daryl keeping me close I wasn’t feeling as nervous anymore.

I watched with a confused smile as Toxic walked across the lawn and as he went, he reached into his jean pockets and tossed out money. The dollar bills and coins landed in the grass. “What’s he doing?”

Dani laughed and nudged Jenny. “Ugh,” Jenny said. “They’ve taught those girls to pickpocket so well that most of us have given up and just dump our pockets the second they come near us.”

I watched, trying to smother my laugh with my hand, as Gabby snatched up a five-dollar bill, while Taylor and Cassie argued over a ten, and Caitlyn went around collecting the coins. “I love them,” I told Jenny, giving her a wide smile.

Her face softened. “Me too. They’re seriously the best.”

Seek sniffed a little. “They’re all growing up too fast.”

Jordan let out a little groan, making us all look over at her. “Sorry. Sorry, I was just imagining all these kids as teenagers…”

Everyone had a look of horror on their face.

“As a man who raised two shit-raising little boys,” Daryl said, cutting into the conversation, “I can tell you the teenage years are hard. But then they grow into adults.”

“And it gets better?” Sloane asked, looking hopeful.

Daryl’s deep laugh vibrated my entire body. “Hell no. In my case, it got worse.” He jerked a thumb over to where Toxic was standing, talking with the other MC members. “But by that point you get to be friends with ‘em at least. Don’t get me wrong,” he said, squeezing me a bit closer to his side, “you’ll always be their parent. But you’ve taught them right from wrong and now anything they do is on their own ass, so you get to relax a bit and build a new relationship with them.”

“Somehow,” Jenny said, “that actually makes me feel better.”

“Dex!” Susie let out a bellow that made me jump a bit. She had the mom-voice down perfectly. “Put that down right now !”

Looking past Daryl, I saw the boy tilt his head back, toward the sky, and I just knew he was giving a groan of frustration. Gwen’s son, Sean, nudged him, then they ran off to get into more mischief. I’d already noticed that Jenny’s girls were so over the top they got caught a lot of the time, but Dex and Sean were smart enough to fly under the radar. It didn’t mean they didn’t get into trouble all on their own. I’d caught them out at my ranch chasing down the baby pigs.

I’d made it into a game for all the kids after that. The piglets were used to me grabbing them, but still loved to squeal like they were being murdered each time, so it wasn’t harmful to them, and it was a blast for the kids.

“Sean! Don’t you get your clothes dirty!” Gwen called out to her son as he and Dex ran off. She rolled her eyes when she faced us again. “It’s impossible. He was dirty two minutes after I put those clothes on him. It’s like his super power.”

Seek looked over at where her son was sitting on Hush’s lap while they ate off a plate of food. “Where did they-” She sighed. “I’m so sorry, Jenny. I must have forgot to tell Hush not to eat until it was time.”

“They’re used to being able to just show up to a barbecue and eat as soon as the food is laid out,” Kit said with a shrug.

“Trust me, it’s way better that way,” Eva told the group. “Fancy dinners are so…stuffy.”

“It’s okay!” Jenny insisted. “That’s exactly what we wanted. This isn’t anything formal.” She looked around, tears filling her eyes. “I just wanted to spend the day with my family.”

Seek coughed, then groaned. “You’re going to make me cry. You’re pregnant. You have an excuse. What’s mine?”

“You’re sweet?” Sloane offered.

“Maybe you’re pregnant again,” Dani pointed out.

“Jesus, don’t say that!” Seek gasped and lightly smacked her in the shoulder. Smokehouse had their little girl, but Seek was still gentle about it.

“You don’t want more kids?” Daisha asked.

“You make really cute kids,” Tori added.

They were all starting to walk, as a group, toward the tables where the food was.

Pressure held me back and I looked up at Daryl. He finally let me go and crossed his arms over his chest. He was still smiling or I’d have been worried. I understood now where Toxic had gotten so many of his mannerisms.

“Let’s talk for a few minutes, Darlin’.”

And his charm.

“Okay,” I said with a nervous smile.

“Don’t worry. I don’t bite.” We walked over to an empty picnic table and I sat down. Daryl remained standing.

“I just need to tell you somethin’ about my son.”

Looking over, I spotted Toxic. He was the one holding Dani’s baby now and I all but melted seeing the ease with which he was holding the little girl. “He’s wonderful,” I said before Daryl could say anything.

Some of the tension bled out of Daryl’s shoulders. “I’m glad you can see that.”

“Who can’t?” I asked, really wondering who would think badly of that man.

“He’s a bit of a…”

I had to hold myself back from saying fuckboy in response. It was one of Keely’s favorite descriptions of men who slept around. She’d gotten me used to saying it. But this was Toxic’s dad. I wasn’t going to say that to him. “I know.”

“That doesn’t mean he’s not loyal,” he said, moving past giving his son a description. “He just likes to have a good time. Always has. Brad was the serious one. My older son,” he explained. “Tried to keep Boone out of trouble. Most of the time he just got dragged into it though.” Daryl was grinning. “Pretty soon they just teamed up from the beginning on whatever mission they were on. Once that happened… Well. It only cemented Boone’s trouble-making streak.”

I smiled and shook my head. “Kids are supposed to get into trouble and cross boundaries. Especially when they grow up on a ranch.”

Daryl chuckled. “I remember one time, Ellie coming to find me. She was frantic. Couldn’t find Boone. She’d gone to lay Brad down for a nap and he was just gone. Always was a busy kid, even at two years old,” he explained. “Had to keep an eye on him. Anyway, searched for hours. I finally found him, in the barn, in the stall of our ornery stallion. Sleeping between his feet. Fuck if that horse wasn’t watching over him.” He shook his head, taking off his cowboy hat, he ran a hand through his hair. “Animals love him.”

“So do the ladies,” I said with a laugh.

He chuckled. “Right. That’s what we were talking about. Don’t let his wild ways make you think he won’t be loyal to you. Once that boy sets his mind on something, nothing can change it. And he’s got his mind set on you. I can tell.”

I blushed and looked down at the toes of my cowboy boots. “I have…some trust issues,” I admitted. “Trusted someone I shouldn’t have.”

Daryl grunted in acknowledgment. “Too many men think their dicks are God’s gift to women and try to give it to as many as they can. They’ll get theirs one day though,” he said in a companionable tone while my mouth hung open. I couldn’t believe I was talking about dicks with my boyfriend’s father. “It’ll either end up rotting off or get hacked off by some angry husband.”

I stifled a laugh. “You’re just as ruthless as they are.”

He gave me a nod. “For my family? You bet your pretty ass I am. There isn’t anything a Sutton man won’t do for his family.” He gave me an intense look. “You remember that, Billie Girl.”

My eyes widened and I swallowed hard as tears popped into my eyes.

He frowned. “Uh oh. What’d I do?”

“Pops,” the name was more of a warning that came from behind him. We both looked over as Toxic walked up. “Why is she looking like she’s gonna cry?” He narrowed his eyes, looking between us.

“I didn’t do anything,” Daryl said, looking at me for back up.

Shaking my head, I laughed. “No. He didn’t. Sorry,” I told him. “It’s just… My dad used to call me that. My gramps still does, but hearing you say it just…” I waved a hand in front of my face, desperately trying to get my tears to dry up by any means necessary. I refused to cry in front of these two strong men. Not to mention the rest of the people here.

“It’s hard to lose a parent,” Daryl said, and I knew those words weren’t only for me. “And no one can ever replace your pops, but I’m sure looking forward to being your father-in-law.”

He pulled me up off the bench and wrapped me in a hug again and this time I sank into it immediately. I wasn’t sure if it was just him, or the fact that he reminded me so much of Toxic, but I trusted him. And appreciated that he’d pulled me aside to talk to me. That he was being so incredibly kind to me. I was going to be the luckiest girl alive if I did get to have him for a father-in-law. Doubly so, because that would mean Toxic was my husband.

And even though we hadn’t known each other that long, I really wanted that.