“What’s that about?” I asked curiously.
“He’s been on the phone all day with the cable provider. Apparently, they’re charging him for porn that he’s not using and is asking for his money back,” Sam muttered.
I snickered. “Which kid ordered it, do you think?”
“It could have been any of them,” Jack muttered, coming up to us so silently that I jumped when he appeared at my side. “I’m not paying for that shit, though.”
“Did you cancel like you were threatening?” Dad asked.
“No,” he paused. “I got free HBO for six months, though. Apparently, they don’t like it when you threaten to cancel it. And I got us all thirty dollars knocked off our bills. They don’t like it when twelve high-paying accounts get knocked off at once.”
No, I doubted they would.
“So what were y’all whispering about over here?” Jack asked, pulling a beer out of his back pocket and popping the top.
I stared at it. “You do know that it’s only eight in the morning, right?”
He shrugged. “I’ve been up since four, so technically this is lunch time for me. I also noticed that you side-stepped the question.”
All these men in my life were crazy perceptive. What the hell?
Dad snorted. “She’s talking to me about the boy she’s seeing.”
“I’m not sure a thirty-two-year-old man is considered a boy,” I felt it prudent to point out.
“When he’s twenty years younger than us, he’s considered a boy,” Dad informed me. “Now, what else can we help you with?”
I shook my head in exasperation. Then, because I knew it’d annoy him, I deliberately started to tease him.
“So my car started to make this knocking sound last week, but it’s not doing it anymore…”
My dad sent a glare in my direction. “It better not have.”
I threw my head back and laughed.
Jack tugged on my ponytail. “Don’t tease your old man. You know how he gets about your car.”
That was true. He loved my car almost as much as he loved me.
My phone vibrated in my pocket and I pulled it out without giving it much thought to Jack standing beside me.
The moment I pulled the phone out and saw the text from Hoax, I smiled.
Hoax: Want to go for a ride?
Me: Of course. I’m at my dad’s. Do you want me to meet you at your house?
Hoax: No. I’ll come there. Now good?
Me: Yes.
Hoax: See you in twenty. I’m bringing donuts.
Me: You’ll win my dad over forever.
Hoax: That was my goal. See you, sweet girl.
Me: Be safe.
Hoax: I’ll give it a try.
Me: You’ll give it a try? Try, you’ll do it.
Hoax: Yes, ma’am.
Me: <3
After replying, I shoved the phone back into my back pocket.
“If he makes you smile like that, I’ll put up with him,” Jack informed me.
My eyes flicked over to his, and I felt a shiver roll through me. Getting the approval of all these men that I called my uncles was important. And Hoax was slowly winning them over one by one.
“I’m going to leave my car here and catch a ride with Hoax. I’ll be back for it tomorrow,” I told my dad.
He looked up and said, “Maybe that’s for the best. I want to make sure you weren’t actually telling the truth before ol’ lover boy called and put that goofy smile on your face.”
I rolled my eyes. “Dad, I would never let a knock go. I’d call you immediately and get a tow truck.”
He grunted and reached for his coffee once again, and I decided to wait on telling Dad that the donuts were on the way.
Jack wrapped his large arm around my shoulder, and then slowly started to talk about what he found on the ‘kid’ aka Hoax’s background report.
A whole lot of nothing except for what my Dad already told me. Jack had to dig pretty hard to get the sealed court documentation of Hoax’s record, but according to Jack and my dad, what he’d been busted on wasn’t anything that any other teenager hadn’t tried. Apparently, Hoax was just exceptionally bad at hiding any wrongdoing that he’d done.
We’d moved our topic of discussion to the party that was happening in a few weeks—one of Jack’s kids’ twenty-first birthdays—when Hoax pulled up with a box of donuts strapped to the back of his bike where my ass had been occupying lately.
He pulled up next to my car and shut the bike off, pulling his helmet off his head and giving it a little shake before climbing off the motorcycle himself.
His eyes moved and instantly found mine, his smile breathtaking.
I felt my heart turn over in my chest at the devastation the man caused to my soul and returned his smile with every bit of as much enthusiasm, if not more.
Once he was standing beside his bike, he turned to place the helmet on the seat before reaching for the strap that held the donuts to his bike.
That was when I saw the shiny new helmet that was hooked to his bike next to his knee.
I gasped. “Look at that pretty helmet!”
Dad grunted. “You’re such a girl.”
I was. I was excited over a sparkly black helmet with pink glitter. So sue me.
Who wouldn’t be excited over a pretty helmet like that?
And I knew that it was mine. He’d picked it out especially for me.
I’d relayed to him my discomfort that wearing Brielle’s helmet caused, and he’d gone out and gotten me another one.
That sort of melted my heart.
Hoax walked up moments after my dad’s declaration, hearing the words from where he’d been.
“She’s a girl,” Hoax agreed. “But then again, I kind of like that she’s a girl.”
I grinned and reached for the box.
“Did you get any good ones?” I asked.
“Glazed cake, right?” he asked, helping me open the box.
I beamed at him. “You remembered!”
He nodded once. “The kind of donut one’s girl likes is kind of important. I think it’s a requirement to know these types of things, right?”
That was when I saw him staring at my dad with his hand out.
Dad took it and shook it once before letting it go. He did agree with Hoax, however.
“Cheyenne would likely disown me if I forgot her favorite things,” Dad answered.
Witnessing my father’s devotion to my mother was breathtaking sometimes.
“When Winter was pregnant with our second, I forgot that she no longer liked chocolate donuts and made the mistake of buying her one as an ‘I love you’ gift on the way home from a run. When I gave it to her, she started crying and accused me of not loving her anymore.” Jack offered his hand to Hoax, who’d stuck his hand out immediately after shaking hands with my dad. “Jack. You must be Hoax.”
Hoax nodded. “I didn’t buy any chocolate. Pru told me she was partial to all things glazed, and that her dad’s favorite was the blueberry cake. If I’d known you were here, I would’ve bought more. Sorry, man. You want one of the glazed?”
Jack took the plain glazed and took a bite out of it.
Dad took the blueberry cake that Hoax had bought for him—another thing he’d remembered—and took a bite.
His groan of euphoria made everyone laugh.
“Shut up,” Dad grumbled. “I’m having a moment.”
Hoax set the box down on the toolbox and reached for a plain glazed donut, too. Then he ate half of it in one bite.
I rolled my eyes and took a bite of my donut, nearly moaning myself at the taste.
“I need…” I said after my first bite.
“Chocolate milk?” Hoax asked, holding out a small jug of it to me. “They only had the one kind, not the two percent you said you like better. But I remember you saying that as long as it was Borden brand, you could drink it. I got you a straw, too.”
Once I took the milk, he fished out a straw that was likely in the same place the milk had once been.
After taking it from him, I offered him another smile. “Thanks.”
“I didn’t learn that Cheyenne didn’t like chocolate milk until a year after I continued to buy it for her on my Sunday morning donut runs with the girls. We laugh about it now, but I’m just impressed that you know she likes a particular brand only.” Dad shook his head.
“He’s been on the phone all day with the cable provider. Apparently, they’re charging him for porn that he’s not using and is asking for his money back,” Sam muttered.
I snickered. “Which kid ordered it, do you think?”
“It could have been any of them,” Jack muttered, coming up to us so silently that I jumped when he appeared at my side. “I’m not paying for that shit, though.”
“Did you cancel like you were threatening?” Dad asked.
“No,” he paused. “I got free HBO for six months, though. Apparently, they don’t like it when you threaten to cancel it. And I got us all thirty dollars knocked off our bills. They don’t like it when twelve high-paying accounts get knocked off at once.”
No, I doubted they would.
“So what were y’all whispering about over here?” Jack asked, pulling a beer out of his back pocket and popping the top.
I stared at it. “You do know that it’s only eight in the morning, right?”
He shrugged. “I’ve been up since four, so technically this is lunch time for me. I also noticed that you side-stepped the question.”
All these men in my life were crazy perceptive. What the hell?
Dad snorted. “She’s talking to me about the boy she’s seeing.”
“I’m not sure a thirty-two-year-old man is considered a boy,” I felt it prudent to point out.
“When he’s twenty years younger than us, he’s considered a boy,” Dad informed me. “Now, what else can we help you with?”
I shook my head in exasperation. Then, because I knew it’d annoy him, I deliberately started to tease him.
“So my car started to make this knocking sound last week, but it’s not doing it anymore…”
My dad sent a glare in my direction. “It better not have.”
I threw my head back and laughed.
Jack tugged on my ponytail. “Don’t tease your old man. You know how he gets about your car.”
That was true. He loved my car almost as much as he loved me.
My phone vibrated in my pocket and I pulled it out without giving it much thought to Jack standing beside me.
The moment I pulled the phone out and saw the text from Hoax, I smiled.
Hoax: Want to go for a ride?
Me: Of course. I’m at my dad’s. Do you want me to meet you at your house?
Hoax: No. I’ll come there. Now good?
Me: Yes.
Hoax: See you in twenty. I’m bringing donuts.
Me: You’ll win my dad over forever.
Hoax: That was my goal. See you, sweet girl.
Me: Be safe.
Hoax: I’ll give it a try.
Me: You’ll give it a try? Try, you’ll do it.
Hoax: Yes, ma’am.
Me: <3
After replying, I shoved the phone back into my back pocket.
“If he makes you smile like that, I’ll put up with him,” Jack informed me.
My eyes flicked over to his, and I felt a shiver roll through me. Getting the approval of all these men that I called my uncles was important. And Hoax was slowly winning them over one by one.
“I’m going to leave my car here and catch a ride with Hoax. I’ll be back for it tomorrow,” I told my dad.
He looked up and said, “Maybe that’s for the best. I want to make sure you weren’t actually telling the truth before ol’ lover boy called and put that goofy smile on your face.”
I rolled my eyes. “Dad, I would never let a knock go. I’d call you immediately and get a tow truck.”
He grunted and reached for his coffee once again, and I decided to wait on telling Dad that the donuts were on the way.
Jack wrapped his large arm around my shoulder, and then slowly started to talk about what he found on the ‘kid’ aka Hoax’s background report.
A whole lot of nothing except for what my Dad already told me. Jack had to dig pretty hard to get the sealed court documentation of Hoax’s record, but according to Jack and my dad, what he’d been busted on wasn’t anything that any other teenager hadn’t tried. Apparently, Hoax was just exceptionally bad at hiding any wrongdoing that he’d done.
We’d moved our topic of discussion to the party that was happening in a few weeks—one of Jack’s kids’ twenty-first birthdays—when Hoax pulled up with a box of donuts strapped to the back of his bike where my ass had been occupying lately.
He pulled up next to my car and shut the bike off, pulling his helmet off his head and giving it a little shake before climbing off the motorcycle himself.
His eyes moved and instantly found mine, his smile breathtaking.
I felt my heart turn over in my chest at the devastation the man caused to my soul and returned his smile with every bit of as much enthusiasm, if not more.
Once he was standing beside his bike, he turned to place the helmet on the seat before reaching for the strap that held the donuts to his bike.
That was when I saw the shiny new helmet that was hooked to his bike next to his knee.
I gasped. “Look at that pretty helmet!”
Dad grunted. “You’re such a girl.”
I was. I was excited over a sparkly black helmet with pink glitter. So sue me.
Who wouldn’t be excited over a pretty helmet like that?
And I knew that it was mine. He’d picked it out especially for me.
I’d relayed to him my discomfort that wearing Brielle’s helmet caused, and he’d gone out and gotten me another one.
That sort of melted my heart.
Hoax walked up moments after my dad’s declaration, hearing the words from where he’d been.
“She’s a girl,” Hoax agreed. “But then again, I kind of like that she’s a girl.”
I grinned and reached for the box.
“Did you get any good ones?” I asked.
“Glazed cake, right?” he asked, helping me open the box.
I beamed at him. “You remembered!”
He nodded once. “The kind of donut one’s girl likes is kind of important. I think it’s a requirement to know these types of things, right?”
That was when I saw him staring at my dad with his hand out.
Dad took it and shook it once before letting it go. He did agree with Hoax, however.
“Cheyenne would likely disown me if I forgot her favorite things,” Dad answered.
Witnessing my father’s devotion to my mother was breathtaking sometimes.
“When Winter was pregnant with our second, I forgot that she no longer liked chocolate donuts and made the mistake of buying her one as an ‘I love you’ gift on the way home from a run. When I gave it to her, she started crying and accused me of not loving her anymore.” Jack offered his hand to Hoax, who’d stuck his hand out immediately after shaking hands with my dad. “Jack. You must be Hoax.”
Hoax nodded. “I didn’t buy any chocolate. Pru told me she was partial to all things glazed, and that her dad’s favorite was the blueberry cake. If I’d known you were here, I would’ve bought more. Sorry, man. You want one of the glazed?”
Jack took the plain glazed and took a bite out of it.
Dad took the blueberry cake that Hoax had bought for him—another thing he’d remembered—and took a bite.
His groan of euphoria made everyone laugh.
“Shut up,” Dad grumbled. “I’m having a moment.”
Hoax set the box down on the toolbox and reached for a plain glazed donut, too. Then he ate half of it in one bite.
I rolled my eyes and took a bite of my donut, nearly moaning myself at the taste.
“I need…” I said after my first bite.
“Chocolate milk?” Hoax asked, holding out a small jug of it to me. “They only had the one kind, not the two percent you said you like better. But I remember you saying that as long as it was Borden brand, you could drink it. I got you a straw, too.”
Once I took the milk, he fished out a straw that was likely in the same place the milk had once been.
After taking it from him, I offered him another smile. “Thanks.”
“I didn’t learn that Cheyenne didn’t like chocolate milk until a year after I continued to buy it for her on my Sunday morning donut runs with the girls. We laugh about it now, but I’m just impressed that you know she likes a particular brand only.” Dad shook his head.
