Talkin' Trash
Page 6

I looked down at the seat that Linc had installed on his bike specifically for me and felt something inside of me warm.
It wasn’t likely that my ass had been the only one to use that seat, but I still felt all warm and fuzzy on the inside that he’d installed it specifically for me so many years ago.
“What?” Linc asked, turning his head to look at me.
I swallowed, winding my arms around his tight abdomen and smiled when it felt like I’d come home again.
“Nothing,” I said. “Just remembering.”
Linc’s grin said it all.
He was remembering right along with me and liked the feelings those memories inspired.
Chapter 4
I want you to know that someone cares. Not me, but someone.
-Conleigh to Linc
Conleigh
The next day at work, I couldn’t stop thinking about my date with Linc.
“What has that smile on your face?” my coworker asked.
I looked over at the woman who was about the same age as me. We’d gotten hired at the same time and went through hospital orientation together. Now we were good friends.
“Hey, Pru,” I said softly, carefully sidestepping her question. “How’s your sister doing?”
Pru pursed her lips. “Which one?”
I giggled. “The one currently in the military and deployed. Your twin. I know that your other sister, Phoebe, is just fine since I saw her this morning looking bored next to the nurse she was following around today.”
“That was her advisor. She was less than thrilled. Apparently, she had some patient grope her during her clinical last night, and her advisor thought that maybe she should make sure she was okay.” We both paused as we tried not to laugh. “I know, right? Phoebe is so much like my dad it hurts.”
“What did she do to him?” I wondered worriedly.
“I punched him in the throat when his hand went up my scrub top,” came Phoebe’s reply.
I jumped at hearing her explanation directly behind me and whirled. “Holy shit, you scared me.”
Phoebe’s eyes lit up with laughter.
“Why are y’all always talking about me?” she asked.
“Why are you always so paranoid?” Pru countered. “And we started talking about Piper, but we somehow got sidetracked and started talking about how you had someone following you around today, and you look less than thrilled about it.”
“I’m not thrilled,” she grumbled. “I’m a fourth-semester nursing student. I shouldn’t need to be followed around like I’m a first-semester nursing student anymore. They’re treating me like glass because of who Mom is.”
Her mom was now the director of nursing for the entire hospital, and I could see how that would be worrisome for the school since the director of nursing could potentially make it a pain in the ass for the school if she really wanted to.
Not to mention her mom also taught classes at the school that both had graduated from but hadn’t done so in three years since her daughters were there and she had backed away from the teaching aspect of her life until they were all the way through.
“Ladies.”
I inwardly cringed. Outwardly, I smiled congenially at Tyson Threadgill, an emergency room doctor, AKA the man that made me want to wash my hands multiple times when he looked at me weird.
Like he was doing right now.
“Are you feeling better?” Tyson asked, his eyes only for me.
I smiled weirdly at him, which worked in my favor. “No, my stomach is still pretty fragile. I had a really bad weekend.”
It was only bad for those twenty minutes I spent with you.
“Oh.” Tyson backed up a few steps.
Inwardly, I smiled.
Phoebe and Pru looked on with avid fascination.
In fact, we were in the middle of the damn nurses’ station, so everyone that was in a five-foot vicinity was probably listening and watching.
“You weren’t feeling bad yesterday,” Pru said teasingly. “You seemed just fine when we went and did laundry together.”
Pru and I didn’t have washers or dryers, so every Sunday we went with each other to do our laundry. Yesterday, she’d gotten the low down on the date the day before, as well as how much that twenty minutes with Tyson had wigged me out.
“It’s a come and go thing,” I lied quickly when Tyson took a step in my direction once again.
“She thinks she might be pregnant,” Phoebe chimed in.
I closed my eyes as horror washed over me.
“You…you’re pregnant?” Tyson asked, sounding alarmed. “Who’s the father? Was it that big biker guy that looks like Linc James?”
“That big biker guy was Linc James,” Phoebe continued to say, a wide smile on her face. “Conleigh’s known him for forever. They used to date when they were younger, but they had a falling out. They’ve just recently reconnected. If you catch my drift.”
Phoebe lifted her eyebrows suggestively, and if we hadn’t been at work, I would’ve smacked the fakeness out of them.
“You got pregnant by Linc James? He’s never going to stay with you. Not only is he a professional football player, but he’s a biker. They’re never faithful,” Tyson blasted me.
I would’ve answered, but I knew that the grenade’s pin had just been pulled, and the two women standing beside me were likely seconds away from losing their shit.
Their entire family was full of bikers, including their father.
Yeah, they weren’t going to let that comment slide. They were about to blow up, and things were about to get dirty. There might even be hair pulling.
Especially by the youngest Mackenzie.
I eyed Phoebe worriedly.
“Are you feeling queasy again?” Tyson asked with a curl to his lip.
I bit my lip to keep the laughter inside.
One positive thing had come out of it all…Tyson wasn’t sure what to think about it. I’d confounded him. Did he keep asking me out because he wanted to date me, knowing that I was pregnant? Did he back away? Did he act like nothing was wrong?
He hadn’t asked any of those questions, yet I could practically see them flashing through his mind one by one. He was a very expressive thinker. Every single thought was written all over his face.
“Um, no.” I grinned. “I feel fine right now.”
“Do you want to go get some lunch in the cafeteria and talk about it?” Tyson asked, obviously deciding that my newly pregnant status didn’t deter him any.
Dammit!
“Uh, no,” I said. “I don’t have lunch for another hour, and I have patients to see to. Thanks, though.”
With that I turned away, glaring at the two smiling sisters at my sides. “Go fuck yourselves.”
Pru’s grin went wider. Phoebe’s broke into a small smile.
I left before anything else could be said about the matter…which was a mistake.
Because had I stayed, I would’ve been able to stop the shit storm that was taking place in the hospital all around me.
Chapter 5
Sometimes you run into people that change your life for the better. Those people are called bartenders.
-Linc to Joe
Linc
I was halfway through my morning run when my phone rang for the third time. Seeing this one was my father, I finally stopped running and answered, waiting impatiently for it to connect.
“Yeah?” I said through a few panting breaths once I’d heard the call go through.
“You got Conleigh pregnant? Are you fucking insane?” my father growled.
I pulled back and stared at the phone with mild surprise before pressing it back to my ear. “Come again?”
“This is not the time to be cute with me, you little shithead,” my father continued. “It’s all over the goddamn papers. I told you to stay away from her!”
I felt something in my gut tighten at that reminder.
My father, as well as Steel, had been telling me to stay away from her for eight years now, and I was so goddamn pissed about it that it wasn’t funny any longer.
At first, I’d given in because she was young—barely sixteen when I first met her. Then I’d continued to concede when all that shit had gone down with the Bear Bottom Guardians MC.