Page 1 of Bolo's Curveball
CHAPTER 1
Bolo
My fucking hands were shaking. Balling them up into fists, I squeezed, then shook them out as I got off my motorcycle. This was the last news I’d expected to get. It had me all over the fucking place. First I’d been so shocked all I could do was stare blankly at my phone. Having OD and Kilo catch me reading Devyn’s text hadn’t turned out as badly as I would’ve expected. OD had been almost helpful.
After my head had cleared a bit I rode my motorcycle over here at Mach Jesus speed. I was lucky I hadn’t run into any cops.
I’d been trying to get Devyn to call me back for months. It’d taken me a while to get her to even give me the time of day at the beginning. She’d laughed and called me a playboy when I’d asked her out for dinner the first time. She hadn’t been wrong exactly.
Though all that changed when I met her. Not that she believed me—and for good reason, since before her I was a serialdater. She still thought I was out fucking around. I wasn’t. Some part of her must have believed me, or hoped to believe me, since she finally agreed to go to dinner with me. That was well over two months ago.
Getting a text from her that she was pregnant, and that the baby was mine, had hit me like a sledgehammer. Despite my shock, I didn’t let that stop me from heading straight to her. I stepped into the firehouse and jerked my chin in acknowledgment at one of the men standing near the fire engine.
“Can I help you?” he asked, coming over to me.
“Devyn Bell in?”
“Yeah. She’s in her office in the back. Third door on the right.” He jerked a thumb over his shoulder.
I eyed the hallway. “Thanks.” I ignored the curiosity on his face. I was sure it wasn’t every day a biker in a cut walked into a fire station.
We could make a lot of money with the ladies doing Bikers versus Firefighters calendars.
She was going to be pissed that I was here. I walked down the hall and knocked on the door that had her name on it. I hadn’t let her know I was stopping by.
“Come in!”
Opening the door, I waited until she looked up. Gray eyes scanned the document in front of her and, at my silence, finally rose and met mine.
Her eyes widened and flicked to the door, seeing if anyone was behind me. The firefighter hadn’t followed me back. We were alone. “What are youdoinghere?” She shoved to her feet, came over and pulled me fully inside the office, then poked her head out into the hallway. She shut the door and glared at me.
My brows shot up. “You seriously thought you could send me a text like that and I wouldn’t show up?” I asked, amazed.
Did she think so little of me? Did I deserve to be thought of that way? Maybe.
“I thought you’d text me back and we could make a plan to meet later. You know…notat my work.” She huffed out a breath. “Jesus, Bolo.”
“Sorry, but if you’re pregnant with my-” I paused when her eyes narrowed and her scowl deepened. Clearing my throat, I started over. “You’re pregnant with my kid,” I corrected.Geez, I didn’t mean it could be someone else’s. I’m really not good at this part.“I’m not waiting around to meet at some ambiguous time later on, Dev.”
She shook her head. “I should’ve waited to tell you. I knew better.”
I crossed my arms over my chest, a grim look settling on my face. “I haven’t seen you for two and a half months, Dev. I’d say you did wait to tell me.”
She made a face at me. It was an expression filled with annoyance. “I only just found out, jerk. And it took me a bit to…digest it.”
“How long is a bit?”
“A week after I figured out I was pregnant, okay? I just…needed to breathe…and I can’tdo thatwhen you’re around.”
I had to fight to keep the grin off my face. She liked to pretend she was completely unaffected by me. Which was why it took a full month of chasing her to even get her to agree to our one date. Then we’d slept together and afterward she’d ghosted me. I hadn’t been able to figure out what’d happened. It’d been a massive blow to my ego, so when she’d asked for space, after I’d finally gotten her to answer her damn phone, I’d given it to her. That had clearly been a mistake.
We hardly knew each other. Met at a bar. I’d gotten her number and then she’d found out I was in a motorcycle club and tried to cut ties before we’d even started anything. I’d beengetting a beer after helping my dad out with a job, so I hadn’t been in my cut at the time.
I watched her run her hands through her brown hair. It was loose and hanging down her back. There were worry lines etched into her forehead as she sighed. “I swear I wasn’t trying to keep anything from you. I just… I wasn’t expecting this. I didn’t even realize what was going on at first.”
“I didn’t expect it either,” I admitted. Her eyes rose and searched my gaze. She was trying to judge by my answer how I was feeling. She wasn’t going to figure it out by trying to read my expression. My time in the military had taught me to shut down emotions and how to effectively keep any that slipped through from showing on my face. “Are you okay?”
“I’m pregnant, Bolo,” she said with a humorless smile. “What do you think?”
