A Biker’s Tiny Present (Rebel Vipers MC Christmas Standalone)

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

TINY

It’s Monday morning and I should be getting ready for a busy day at Rebel Repairs, the club owned auto and motorcycle repair shop where I work, but I have more pressing things to do with my time. More important things like attempting to drag my Vixen away from my adorable son and up to our room to talk.

Our weekend was pretty chaotic and we need some time to get on the same page before the even crazier stuff starts happening next week. We’re T-minus nine days out from the most important shindig this club has ever had, and I want all of my ducks to be a perfectly straight line before then.

Last night when I got back from taking care of the trash, I asked Sunshine if she could watch Nicky for me for a couple hours today and she said she’d love to. I just happened to ask within earshot of a handful of other women who live here too, and they all barged into our conversation and included themselves in my morning plans. And that’s how I ended up in the clubhouse kitchen, wrestling Nicky away from Riley.

“But I don’t want to leave him all alone,” Riley pouts as I successfully extract him from her arms.

“He won’t be alone.” I blow raspberry kisses on his chubby cheeks, making him giggle like I’m the funniest person in the world, then plop his little butt back into the highchair right beside his new best friend, Krew. “He’s right next to his best bud.”

Krew, Duchess and Whiskey’s son, is four months old, two months younger than Nicky, but I can already tell they’re going to be thicker than thieves as they grow up together. Whiskey and I are going to have to watch them like hawks.

Duchess has Krew in the bouncy seat thing up on the island because he can’t sit up on his own yet for long periods of time. Nicky’s neck muscles are a bit more developed in his senior age compared to his friend, so that’s why he’s graduated to the big boy highchair. He’s also recently started eating cereal and mashed fruits and veggies, so he needs to be sitting up.

Who am I and what has my life become? If you would’ve asked me three days ago if I would be reading blogs with articles on the feeding schedules and stimulation exercises for infants from the ages of zero to one year, I would have called you an idiot and laughed in your face. My life has done a complete one-eighty in the last forty-eight hours, and it’s all because to this woman. As Riley slept last night, I had the internet browser on my phone searching things I never pictured I’d ever have to worry about.

Not letting go of her hand in fear that she’ll bolt back down to the kitchen, I lead Riley up the stairs and straight into our room. I tried to have this conversation with her when we woke up, but a hungry baby delayed my plans until now. I was barely able to claw her away but now I have her right where I want her.

Plopping my ass on the couch, and pulling Riley down sideways on my lap, I prepare myself for this conversation to go any of a dozen different ways. I think I know what she wants, and she should know what I want because I’ve told her over and over since we met two days ago, but I need to be sure.

Folding her hands in her lap, not meeting my eyes, Riley starts talking before I can even open my mouth to say a word.

“What do you think about making a set schedule for us to share custody of Nicky?” As her words meet my ears, I’m thrown into a downward spiral of panic. She keeps speaking. “We’ll have to switch some things around, like I can move to the overnight shift because your shifts are only days. I can have him during the day while you’re at the shop, then you come to the house after and take over so I can leave. We can alternate weekends and work around your schedule for the club.”

“No,” I bark out before she goes any further, making me dizzier with her crazy and unnecessary plans. “Neither of us is gonna switch shifts to swap days or any of the bullshit. I don’t know where you’re getting these crazy ideas from, but you and I will raise Nicky together.”

“What?”

“These last couple of days haven’t been nothin’ for me, Vixen. How can you not see that yet? Our times together weren’t a passing by thing. Fuck, before I slid inside of you the first time, when I told you that you were mine, I meant it. I want you forever. I want you. I want Nicky. I want us to be a family.” Fuckin’-A! When did I start sounding like those cheesy ass messages inside of a greeting card? I just waxed her a poetic that would rival even the best Valentine’s, Sweetest Day, and Anniversary cards combined . . . and I just pulled it out of my ass.

“I want you too, Tiny, but I was afraid that things were moving so fast that you’d wake up today or tomorrow or next week and realize raising a baby would be too much. That I would be too much.”

“That’ll never happen. This is it for me.” I swear to her like my life depends on it, because it really does. “I’ve never felt like this about anyone before.”

Riley flips our hands and threads our fingers together so our palms are touching. “Me neither.”

“Any you never will again. Only me.” I lean in for a kiss.

“Only you, Henry,” she whispers against my lips.

“I love you, Vixen.”

My declaration has her jolting back a hair, shock and happiness glowing from her face. “Isn’t it too soon for that?”

“Fuck no. When you know, you know.” Wanting to get more comfortable, I turn us sideways and lay back along the length of the couch. Pulling Vixen with me, she wiggles a bit as I settle in, laying flat out on top of me. I hold her in place with my hands on her hips. She props her head up, chin resting on the back of her hands, so we can still see each other’s face. “When I think about how close I came to never knowin’ about Nicky, to never meetin’ you, it blows my fuckin’ mind. I can’t even imagine not makin’ you both mine now. I hate that it took Taylor keepin’ such shitty secrets to get us here, but we’ll raise Nicky together. I don’t remember much about her, but you do. You can tell Nicky everything good about her. She will always be a part of our story, and Nicky’s.”

“I love you, too.”

Tugging her up, we battle for who will control the kiss, but as always, I win. When I finally let her up for air, I flip Vixen around and lay her back against my front. Her head rests on my shoulder.

“So, I hate to be the buzzkill, but where are we going to live? We can’t raise a child in this room,” Vixen laughs as she waves an arm in a circle above us.

“I have an apartment, but I’m hardly ever there.” It probably haven’t been there in a month, so I might as well get rid of it.

“How big is it?”

“One bedroom.”

“Oh my god, Tiny.” Her laugh shakes both of us. “That’s not enough room for the three people.”

“I have an idea.” I move us again and flip over so I’m on top of her. The temptation is too much and I can’t help but kiss her again. This is definitely a part of being in a relationship that I’m not going to ever turn down. She gets squirmy and wraps her legs around my waist. “Why don’t I just live with you?”

“Really? You’d move in with me?”

“Yea. Well, you and Nicky.” I lean back so we can finish this conversation in order to get back to the more important stuff. “You’re settled, I wouldn’t ask you to undo all that just to start over in another house. While I’d like to puff up my male pride and say I want you livin’ in a house I paid for, even my inner caveman knows your home is the only place Nicky knows. I just want to be a part of that. It’s been a long time since I’ve had a real home.”

“I want to make it our home though,” Vixen and her sass are back. “I’ve been wanting to spruce a few things up a bit, so maybe you could help me with that. Do you think you have a good eye for light fixtures?”

And this is why I call her Vixen. She’s spunky and all mine.

“I make no promises about my taste in home décor, but I am known to be a little handy and can swap out whatever light fixture you want me to.”

“Deal.”

I feel her hands sliding down my chest, when one is suddenly cupping the front of my jeans. While I don’t want to stop her journey toward playing with my dick, I do have to press pause for one more minute.

“One more thing before we start that. And this is serious. I’ve never done this before, and never thought I would, so I’ll probably fuck it up somehow, but I gotta ask.”

Her hands are back in the safe zone, pressed to my cheeks, fingernails combing through my beard. “Ask away.”

“You wanna be my Old Lady?”

Silence.

Blank stare.

Her hands are out of my beard and pressing on my shoulders, pushing me back at arm’s length until we’re sitting up, side by side. “Are you sure this is what you want? If you need to back out, now’s the time. No harm, no foul, we’ll do the co-parent thing.”

“Riley Grace Wilkenson, you are one damn stubborn woman,” I roll over into her, leading her to lay on her back again, bracketing her entire body to the couch with mine. “From the moment I saw you, you were my woman. You became my everything the second you kissed me. I made you my Vixen when you stepped foot inside this clubhouse. There is no goin’ back now, my love. You’re mine ‘til the world stops spinnin’.”

A slow infectious smile grows until it fills her whole face and I know I probably look like a goofy fool. “Tiny, my Henry, I want nothing more.”

“Love you, Vixen.”

“Love you more.”

“So . . . when can I move in?”