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JACQUELINE

I don’t know what comes over me or why I don’t just turn around and go home, but I don’t. Instead, I follow Wolf into his house. I step into the house just in time to see him pick up a small baby. He holds him to his chest while taking something from the woman standing close to him.

It takes me a minute to recognize it’s one of those thermometers you run along a forehead.

“I’m gonna call the doctor on-call,” Wolf grunts and tosses the thermometer to the coffee table and looks at the woman and man. “Thanks for watchin’ him tonight. Y’all go ahead and head home. I’ll let you know how it goes.”

“We’ll stay if you need us to,” the woman says, glancing in my direction.

“I’ve got it,” Wolf tells her and digs out his phone, turning away from us.

Both the guy and the woman look in my direction. The man steps forward. I notice him wearing a vest-type thing with patches on it. I remember reading about this in one of my books.

I love reading MC romances when I have time, and I think they’re called cuts.

“I’m Kevlar, and this is my ol’ lady, Rosemary,” Kevlar greets, stretching a hand in my direction.

Taking it, I give him mine. “Nice to meet you both. I’m Jacqueline. I live right next door.”

Rosemary doesn’t say anything, but she does watch me closely. Finally, she steps forward and gives me a cautious smile. “Nice to meet you as well.”

I glance over at Wolf to see him talking on the phone. His body turned slightly in our direction, eyes on me.

I don’t know what he’s thinking, but his eyes were clearly assessing.

Kevlar and Rosemary leave before he gets off the phone, leaving me alone with the man I swore was about to kiss me outside in the driveway.

I still can’t believe I’d been brazen enough to march across the way between us and demand to know the answers to what had been on my mind since I saw him standing next to my chair at dinner.

Finding out he was in an MC didn’t scare me, though I wasn’t sure exactly if I shouldn’t be leery of him. I’d heard the stories about MCs doing good, but I also heard of them doing horrible things.

I didn’t know if I could trust that he’s not going to bring trouble to my door one day.

No, that wouldn’t happen. Staring at the man himself now holding his son, worrying for him, I know he’d never intentionally bring trouble to my life if he could help it.

The way he’s holding his son close speaks way more volumes than anything he could ever say.

“Is he okay?” I managed to ask him without my voice sounding off.

“Doctor’s coming to check on him. She’s a friend of the club’s.”

She?

I didn’t know doctors made house calls.

“She’s also my brother Mace’s mom,” he says before I can say anything.

“Oh, okay.” I nod and lick my bottom lip nervously, glancing around the room again before deciding it’s best to go. “Well, I’ll leave you to it. Let me know if there’s anything I can do to help,” I tell him, meeting his gaze once again.

Wolf doesn’t respond with words. Instead, he nods, watching me closely.

Slowly, I turn and head for the door. I stop, just in the doorway, and look back in his direction. I give him a brief smile and walk out the door. I don’t bother looking behind me as I make my way across the yards to my front door. I can feel him watching me as I go.

At my door, I unlock it by pressing in the code.

I find I like having a keycode for a lock rather than having to unlock it with a key at all times.

I think it’s the only code I know by heart.

Though, it was from all the times I’ve had to put the code in.

I still have it in my phone, where I can access it if need be.

I step over the threshold and reach for the light switch. When the light doesn’t come on, I frown and look in the direction of the switch.

Why won’t it come on?

Setting my clutch down on the little entrance table, I slip off my heels and step farther into the house. Maybe a fuse tripped or something.

I make it a few steps farther before stopping.

Something about this doesn’t sit right with me.

Moving graciously back to the door, I open it as quietly as I can and quickly step back outside.

I don’t bother closing the door behind me.

Instead, I run on my heels back across the way to Wolf’s and knock on his door.

He jerks the door open, a crying Kale in his arms, eyes assessing me. “What’s wrong?”

“The power, it was out in my house. I was going to go check the fuse box, but . . .”

Wolf pulls me into the house, hands Kale to me, reaches into the drawer in the table by the door, pulls out a gun, and steps past me. “Stay here with him. I’ll be right back,” he says and closes the door behind him.

I blink at the door for a moment before it dawns on me. I’m holding his baby, and he’s crying.

Tilting my head down, I cradle the little guy and start patting his back gently. “It’s okay, little guy.”

I didn’t have a lot of experience with children, especially babies, but in my spare time in high school, I’d taken a class on first aid and CPR. I also took a course in early childhood development. It means I at least understood how to do it, just nothing else about it.

I try to do my best to calm the baby, and soon the little guy stops fussing and stares up at me. Immediately, I can see Wolf in him. He has his dad’s eyes. They’re intense and beautiful.

I step farther into the house, carrying the little guy to the recliner, sitting with him, rocking him. The whole time, he just stares up at me while I do the same with him. I was still staring at him when Wolf stepped back into the house. I glance over my back to look at him in question.

He doesn’t answer my silent question, though, and his eyes go to his son as a beautiful older woman steps in past him. Behind her, another older man steps in, along with a man who had to be about Wolf’s age.

“Let me take a look at the little one,” the woman says, coming around and taking him from my arms.

The minute she takes him, I immediately feel the loss of the little guy.

I get to my feet and step toward Wolf as he moves farther inside.

“If everything at my place is okay, I’ll just head back home and leave you to take care of your son,” I tell him.

“You’re not going anywhere right now,” Wolf grumbles, glancing down at me briefly before looking back to where his son was being checked over by the woman.

I don’t bother saying anything else. I figure once his son is taken care of, he’ll be able to tell me what he means by me not going anywhere.