Page 5 of Ugly Duckling (Content Advisory #6)

Two

Fill me up, Daddy.

—Coffee cup

GUNNER

“No way.” My fellow club member, Cutter, shook his head, raising his beer in the air. “There’s no fuckin’ way that you can just go run a marathon.”

“Bet,” I said as I took a swallow of my fourth beer. “And I can do it pushing Lottie’s stroller.”

The whole room burst into laughter.

“There’s no fuckin’ way, man,” Cutter said. “I’ve watched my wife run those. She has to train her ass off to get one done.”

I shrugged. “Trust me when I say, I can do it.”

“Prove it,” Copper goaded me. “If you can actually run one, prove it. Milena, when’s the next marathon close to us?”

Milena looked up with a frown, her margarita halfway to her mouth. “Why would I know?”

“Because you’re the runner in the family.” Copper chuckled. “Do you have a way to look it up?”

“Sure,” she said. “Give me a minute.”

“Why are you so confident that you can run it?” Cakes, another club member, asked.

“Because running is fairly easy for me. I may not actually know the distance I run, but athletics has always just come easy. I run until I feel like stopping.”

“You run until you feel like stopping.” Cakes shook his head. “I run, and I can get like two miles before I’m dying.”

“Usually, I can get about an hour in until I really need a drink. Then I stop,” I explained.

“There’s one tomorrow,” Milena offered up. “It’s Halloween themed, and in Los Colinas.”

“Sounds perfect, sign Gunner up,” Cutter declared. “If he runs it without dying, then he can choose what we have for dinner at the next barbeque.”

I snorted. “That sounds more like a punishment than a reward.”

Choosing anything sucked.

Because there was no doubt in my mind, no matter what I chose, someone would have something to complain about.

“What do you want?” Cutter asked.

“If I win…” I tapped my chin. “You have to run a marathon.”

“Deal.” Cutter rolled his eyes. “Bro, you’re on your fourth or fifth beer. The race starts at seven thirty in the morning, and it’s supposed to rain all day tomorrow. You’re going to fuckin’ quit halfway through.”

“No, I won’t.” I scoffed. “Running is easy. I know that we’ve discussed this already, but you need to listen. I may not be able to podium, but I will be far from last when I finish it.”

“We’ll see.” He sounded so confident that I almost felt sorry for him.

“You ready to go run, baby girl?” I asked my daughter.

Six months ago, I had no clue that she was mine.

I was just a man denying himself literally everything in life.

No relationships, and certainly no kids on my agenda.

Six months ago, I’d thought I’d been done with children.

Then Audric, one of my club brothers, had literally whacked me upside the head with the news that I’d somehow slept with his wife.

Though, he hadn’t been mad that I’d done so.

Truthfully, I hadn’t realized I’d even done it because I’d been drunk off my ass at a club party.

From what I knew, so had she.

Though, she’d been able to recuperate a whole lot faster the next morning and leave before I’d even known that I’d slept with her.

She’d wound up pregnant, and she hadn’t shared a thing with anyone but her best friend. Her best friend had left that secret at Laney’s grave, and hadn’t told a single soul until she’d fought her own demons off long enough to share the news with Audric.

Audric had already suspected the father of his “daughter” was someone from the club. He’d just never suspected me.

Hell, I wouldn’t have suspected me, either.

I was usually religious about condoms and always provided my own no matter what. This time, though…I didn’t know what happened.

Would never know, because Laney had passed away several years ago now in a car accident that had also taken another club member’s son along with her.

They’d been able to save Lottie, thank God, but Apollo’s son, Tavi, and Laney had died.

Lottie had officially been living with me for six months now, and we had a good routine going.

I hadn’t thought it was possible to fall in love with another living soul until she’d walked into my life.

Now, I couldn’t imagine life without her.

Which was why I hadn’t considered not running this race with her.

I just hoped that she cooperated long enough for me to run it.

“Race! Yes!” She pumped her little fist.

Since the race was literally a mile and a half down from my subdivision, I decided to walk there.

Good thing, because when I hit the end of our subdivision’s street, the entire thing was blocked off to through traffic.

“Whoa,” Lottie and I said at the same time.

I couldn’t help the damn smile that lit my face.

In the six months that I’d known about her, I’d had a lot of self-reflection to do, and I was happy to say that, though it was still very hard, I was actually happy about being a father again.

A lot of that had to do with the come to Jesus talk that Audric’s new wife, Creole, and Apollo, our resident computer genius, had with me.

Creole and Apollo, too, had lost a child.

All of them had died way too young.

Creole’s son, Damon, had died at the age of three and a half.

Apollo’s son, Tavi, had died at the age of nine.

Creole’s talk with me had been a hell of a lot gentler than Apollo’s.

She’d told me that I shouldn’t waste the gift I’d been given.

Apollo had told me in no uncertain terms that he would literally kill to have it, and if I didn’t take the opportunity that I was given, he’d beat the absolute shit out of me.

The thing with Apollo was he meant it.

He would literally whip me into shape with his fists if he had to.

I had been understandably freaking out.

I’d lost two years with Lottie.

Well, not two years exactly. I’d had a lot of time to spend with her since she’d been born.

All of the club members had.

At the time of Lottie’s mom’s death, Audric had been in a really dark place. He’d struggled with fatherhood, and at the time, we’d all rallied around him. We’d spend nights over at his place. We’d take care of Lottie during the workday. Ultimately, she was raised by the club.

At the time, we’d thought that Lottie was just too much for Audric to handle after the loss of his wife.

When in reality, what was going on was that Audric was trying to give all of us time with the little girl so that she could get to know all of us because he knew that she was one of the club’s members.

A cheer rose, pulling me out of my morose thoughts, and I looked up to find damn near every female that belonged to the club standing near the start line. One of them, Baker, Copper’s wife, was holding a sign that read: Want us to call you an Uber?

Searcy, Doc’s wife, held one that said: Run if you think I’m hot.

Eedie, Webber’s daughter, held one that said: Smile if you peed a little.

Aella, Chevy’s wife, held one that read: Who hurt you?

Then there was Silver, Webber’s wife, who held one that read: We’ve been trying to reach you about your car’s extended warranty.

It was Creole’s that had me really cracking up: Simon says keep running.

I walked up to them and gave them all a hug.

“The only reason you were able to give us that is because our men are too hungover to get here.” Aella chortled.

I grinned. “You don’t think I would’ve done that regardless?”

Aella’s eyes twinkled as she dropped down to her haunches in front of Lottie and said, “I brought you some donuts, baby. You’ll be good for Daddy while he runs, won’t you? You’ll be in that stroller for a while.”

Lottie nodded her head enthusiastically. “Oh, yeah!”

I snorted out a laugh. “Want donuts?”

“Yep!” She paused, remembering that we were working on manners. “Peas!”

I nodded, happy with her quick correction.

Not that she was a rude kid, but she was given everything in the world. At least she could be appreciative about it.

“Tanks!” Lottie said when Aella dropped a bag of donut holes onto her lap. “Love you!”

That I didn’t teach her. She taught herself to love all these people I called family.

It also made my heart happy to hear.

“I love you, too.” Aella picked up Lottie’s hand and kissed it. “Have a good run, my girl.”

“Yes!” She pumped her tiny little fist.

The announcer called out that the anthem was about to start, and for runners to find their starting spots.

I moved to the pacer that was holding the 4:00 sign.

I probably wouldn’t stay with her the whole time, but I’d at least start there.

The anthem started to play, a young man in his teens singing it for the group, and I took my hat off and placed it over my heart.

My eyes started to tear up, too, because the kid looked a lot like my Jett would’ve looked, and around the same age, too.

He had the same dimples my boy had, too.

“Fuck,” I breathed as I rubbed my heart where it ached.

“Of the free!” Lottie sung.

Unlike the young man, Lottie couldn’t hold a tune, but that didn’t matter. She sang with her whole heart, really belting it out.

The racers around me started to join in, because who could resist singing with a three-year-old?

By the time it was finished, damn near all of the racers around me were singing off tune.

“Racers, are you ready?” the announcer called out.

“Yes!” everyone called around me.

I didn’t.

I didn’t necessarily want to be running.

Like the others, I was slightly hungover.

But, being an athlete all of my life, and a damn good one at that, I didn’t turn down a workout challenge.

“What is the pace you need to run to qualify for Boston?” I heard someone ask.

A husky female voice replied with, “For a woman, you generally need to get about a three hour and thirty minutes. Men need to be about three hours.”

I looked over to the woman talking.

She was around five foot five or so with black hair that was up high in a ponytail on the top of her head. The length of her hair was braided down her back, and it was so long that my fingers all but itched to grab it.

Her body was fucking banging.