Page 6 of Riding Free

Clare dips her chin in a nod. “I also didn’t want them to upset you by asking questions,” she whispers. “It was a two-way concern.”

My lips curve up into a smile. “No concern on my part. If anyone asks questions, I’ll either answer or I won’t,” I say with a simple shrug. It’s basically the way I’ve been conversing with people since I found out about Thea.

And I’ve had a lot of questions.

Who is her father? Does he know? Is he involved? Does he want to be involved?

And then, when I answer all of those with a no, I get the… aweeee with a head tilt. Followed by a bottom lip poking out, followed by a bunch of other questions about my future.

It’s Clare’s turn to smile. “Okay, so I’m stressing about nothing.”

Reaching out, I curl my fingers around her hand and give it a squeeze. “Absolutely nothing. But I appreciate the concern.”

She nods once, then clears her throat. “Okay, let’s close up so you can get home to Thea.”

And that’s exactly what we do. I finish cleaning and disinfecting the coffee and food areas, Clare sweeps, and then we walk out to the parking lot together and climb into our cars. I try not to think about this party coming up while also trying to figure out just why Clare was so upset about it.

It can’t be as simple as she thinks Briar being married and making the announcement at a party about her pregnancy would send me into a tailspin or hurt my feelings. It doesn’t make sense. I’m not an irrational person… at least I don’t think I am. Maybe I don’t know myself as well as I thought I did. Maybe Clare sees something I don’t.

CHAPTER

FOUR

HOUND

“What the fuck?” I ask, staring at the open delivery box.

I have no fucking clue what I’ve just bought. And honest to fuck, I’m afraid to touch it. I looked at prices on the registry thing, not at actual items, when I bought the baby gift for Chassis.

Hippie snorts behind me. I turn my head to look behind me. I cringe. I’m not sure what the fuck I’m going to do. I don’t have enough time to order something else, and I’ll be damned if I walk into a store carrying this thing to return.

“I think I fucked up this gift.”

Hippie chuckles. “It can’t be that bad,” he says, pushing off the doorjamb.

He moves toward me, then stops to stand beside me and peers down into the open box before he lets out a bark of laughter. No doubt finding this goddamn hilarious, because I would if the tables were turned, even though it’s something that I do not feel right now.

“What the fuck did you buy?” he asks.

“A breast pump,” I mutter.

“The fuck?” he asks.

I turn my head to look over at him. He is staring at the contents of the box, and it doesn’t surprise me, because also, the fuck? I didn’t even think about it. I set a budget of two hundred bucks and just chose the first thing I saw on the list in that price range.

“I just picked something that was the amount I wanted to spend. I didn’t look at what I was buying.”

“Well, Dare is going to kick your ass over that shit,” he states.

He’s right. I know he is. Because I would probably do the same if one of the brothers bought something for my woman’s boobs. Not that I have a woman, but still. Dare is going to lose his shit, completely fucking lose it.

I scrub my hand down my face. “You’re fucked,” Hippie chuckles.

I am fucked.

I reach for the gift bag and open it, take the breast pump box out, drop it into the bag, then crumple up some tissue paper and write on the little label attached to the handle of the bag.

TO: Chassis