Page 12 of Kaya's King
The women cover their mouths with their palms when he snarkingly parrots, “Put a ring on it. My ass. It’ll never happen.” He shakes his head at the ridiculousness of her insinuation.
I can’t help myself; I start laughing because he looks like he wants to pull out his non-existent hair right now. My other brothers, finally cluing into what’s going on, join me, except for Poseidon, who’s apparently sympathizing with Trident since he’s got a daughter as well. “Why is everyone laughing?” Kaya whispers, leaning toward me so no one else can hear her.
“Because Collette is extremely picky about who she lets hold her. All of the old ladies, Mary, Chelsea, Tessie, Riah, and Patsy’s mom, Momma M, are on her approved list. Plus, Shamus, who has a way with the little ones, her father, and Poseidon. The rest of us? She’ll let us play with her at a distance, but she won’t let us hold her. So, her choosing Noah like that has Trident somewhere in the future when she’s old enough forboys,” I reply.
“Good grief, she’s what, two?” Kaya inquires, looking at her son and the tiny pixie who he’s apparently captivated with if his expression is any indication.
“Babe, you don’t really know much about bikers, do you? We tend to be overprotective as fuck, and when we have little girls, wedefinitelydon’t want to think about the time when they’re oldenough to consider dating or boys. Trident’s mentally there right now and he’s freaking the fuck out, which is fucking hysterical.”
I watch in sheer fascination as she processes what I’ve just said, the emotions flitting across her face as she looks at the two kids currently under discussion. “He’s never done anything like this, though,” she murmurs. “I mean, he’s a good kid, but where we lived before the only other kids he saw were at school, you know? There were kids at the apartment complex, but they were older.”
“It’s all good, sweetheart. Gia will keep him in line, I promise.” And she will. If anyone has the capability at leasing him, it’s her.
She giggles while leaning toward me, bumping my shoulder with hers. “As long as he’s not gunning for my boy, we’re good. Otherwise, he’s gonna see the momma bear in me come out.”
“Oh shit!” Patsy exclaims, interrupting everything. The panic in her voice has all of our heads turning in her direction. “Atlas, I think we need to head to the hospital. Now.”
Immediately, the room explodes in chaotic activity, with Atlas and Momma M rushing over to where Patsy is leaning over, her hands clenched around her distended belly. “I’ll go grab her bag, you get her out to your truck,” CeeCee hollers out, standing and heading up to the rooms. While they’ve got a house on the property, Patsy packed two hospital bags and left one in their room here at the clubhouse in case it was needed so they wouldn’t waste time making a pit stop by going to their house instead of heading straight to the hospital if she went into labor while they were here.
“It’s too early,” Atlas states, practically carrying Patsy to the door.
“I’ll be fine, honey,” she softly replies, patting his cheek in an attempt to soothe him. Koba, his service dog, is glued to the couple’s side as everyone else stands.
“Looks like a mass exodus,” I murmur to Kaya.
“It’s okay, I’ll clean up so they can go,” she replies.
Knowing how tired she is, I reply, “It’ll probably only be the brothers and their old ladies who go so there’ll be plenty of folks around to get it done, babe.”
“We’ve got this,” Mary declares to the room at large. “I know the lot of you want to head to the hospital so go on and get gone. We’ll stay with the babies until you’re back,” she tells Lilli, Gia, and Hayley. “There’s enough of us to team up and tend to them, we’ll be fine. Go on now and be sure to take plenty of pictures when the little one arrives.”
I watch in amusement as the rest of them rush to follow Atlas and Patsy to the hospital, leaving a handful of us with cleaning up the disaster that was dinner. “If you guys will carry the stuff into the kitchen, we’ll start putting the leftovers away then get the dishes washed,” Tessie offers, standing from her seat then beginning to stack the empty plates on top of one another before taking them toward the kitchen.
Kaya’s granny stands and looks at Mary. “Let’s get the little ones bathed and ready for bed for them, what do you think?” Of course, they'd pick the lesser of two evils. I hate doing household chores. I’d rather roll in a pigsty with pigs than dust, sweep, vacuum, and do dishes.
“Ah, yes, let’s take care of that part and leave the cleaning to the younger generation. We’ve earned that, right?” Mary replies. “Shamus, love, you want to corral Micah?”
“I’ve got him.” The older man goes over and scoops up Micah, causing him to start giggling.
“I’m going to give the ladies a hand. Are you okay with Noah?” Kaya asks me. “I mean, I don’t want to impose or anything, so if you don’t want to, I’ll just take him in with me.”
“Babe, Noah and I can go play some Mario Kart or something,” I tell her. I realize there’s so much I need to tell her, but I need to get my thoughts in order first. However, Noah’s a good kid and reminds me a lot of myself and Tommy when we were his age.
Her beaming smile has me feeling like a million bucks as she stands and starts clearing the table we were sitting at, stacking the plates like I’ve seen done at countless diners over the years. I briefly wonder if she ever waitressed as she lifts everything like it weighs nothing then heads to the kitchen.
Standing up, I walk over to Noah and grin because he’s just sitting there watching the activity around him, his little arm around Collette like that of a big brother as she drools on his shirt in her sleep. Deciding to egg on my brother, I pull out my phone and snap a copious amount of pictures then immediately text a few of them to Trident attaching some heart emojis. In my wisdom, I leave out the eggplant even though the comedic side of me wanted to do so to make him squirm. The response I get back has me bursting into laughter.
“Hi, Mr. Specks,” Noah quietly says, smiling at me. “I don’t even know her name.”
“It’s Collette. She’s Trident and Gia’s little girl,” I reply. “Let me see if your granny will take her so she can get her ready for bed.”
“What about me? I see Mommy is helping clean up.”
“We’re going to go play a game. Have you ever played Mario Kart?” I ask.
“No, is it fun?” he questions, looking around the room for his granny.
“It’s a lot of fun.” Motioning to his grandmother, she quickly heads in our direction, smiling when she sees the little girl all curled around her great-grandson.