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“Tomorrow is his birthday,” Mack leaned over the bar to whisper in my ear. My eyes immediately darted to the side to catch a glimpse of Tripp as he walked out of the clubhouse. We hadn’t talked much since the day I came to work here. He avoided me and I let him.
“So?” I questioned my brother. There was no telling what kind of shit he was trying to stir now, but I wasn’t falling for it. He might have had more faith in his best friend than I did, but I still wasn’t sure why. I had an appointment with the doctor the following week, and Tripp hadn’t once asked me when the next one was. Maybe I was supposed to volunteer that information, but it felt like he should also be concerned enough to ask. The fact that he hadn’t, made me believe that he just didn’t care yet. Maybe once the baby was actually here he would.
I was prepared for the alternative, though. It was possible that Tripp would never care about the baby we had made together. I turned to hand my brother a beer. “Was there anything else?”
“You could get him something as a peace offering,” Mack suggested.
I scoffed at that idea outright. “Why in the hell should I be the one to offer peace to him? I haven’t done anything wrong besides not stopping him from making the stupid decision to stick his dick in me. And let me be clear here, I thought he had at least put on a condom before doing that. The fact that he went bare was his fault.”
“The girl has a point,” Grady butted in from where he sat at the edge of the bar.
“Thank you,” I returned and grinned as he tipped his beer bottle to me.
“Okay, well you’re both too fucking stubborn, and nothing is going to change if one of you doesn’t bend first.”
“I’m here, almost every day. I’ve already bent by stepping up to get a better job. I’m always available if he has questions, like, I don’t know,‘When’s your next doctor’s appointment, so I can go?’or there’s‘How much will your next appointment run, so I can help pay for it?’” I answered my brother smugly.
“He still hasn’t checked in with you about that shit?”
“Nope,” I said as I moved to the other end of the bar to hand Crank his favorite bottle of Miller Lite. The poor old coot thought he could stave off that beer belly simply because the bottle had ‘lite’ in the title.
“Be right back,” Mack called out before leaving the clubhouse.
“Gonna cause a rift between them,” Grady informed me.
“Not tryin’ to,” I sassed back.
“Still, it’s gonna happen.”
“Mack needs to stop butting in and let us handle it. It’s his butting in and orchestrating things that led to this mess to begin with.”
Grady laughed at me. “Sweetheart, I have news for you, it’s fucking hormones that got you into that mess,” the bastard said as he pointed at my mid-section. Granted, my belly had finally started to pooch out, but you still couldn’t really tell it was from pregnancy. I could have just eaten a really big lunch.
I sighed at the bratty man who was none for causing trouble around the club. Usually it was the fun, harmless kind so he got away with it.
“Take the bull by the horns, go tell that boy about your appointment, and then see what happens from there. If he’s not interested after you force the facts down his throat, then so be it. You know what you’re really working with. Men are a clueless lot though, honey. He’s never had a baby before. That boy probably doesn’t even realize you need to see the doctor until the baby pops out.” He laughed at his own wisdom.
“Speaking from experience?” I asked.
“As a matter of fact, your father was that moron once upon a time. Didn’t even realize your mom had to go to the doctor every month until she was six months along.”
I rolled my eyes for what felt like the fiftieth time that day. “That figures.” I swiped at the clean countertop one more time before I tossed the bar rag down and turned to Grady. “You mind holding down the fort for a few minutes?”
“Go on, sweetheart, we got you covered.”
I don’t know what I expected to see when I got outside, but it wasn’t my brother and baby’s father seemingly flirting with two rich bitches in a BMW. I did a double take to make sure it wasn’t June.
Still, if it wasn’t painfully obvious before that I wasn’t wanted, Tripp was sure making it obvious. He started to walk away, and I heard one of the women call out, “What about you? There’s two of us, are you going to leave your friend to have all the fun.”
“You’re not my type of fun,” he called back to her and kept walking.
“Poor sap knocked up my sister and he can’t have fun anymore,” Mack explained.
“Poor sap, huh?” I yelled to him catching not only my brother’s attention, but the two girls and Tripp, as well.
“Ah, shit!” Mack hissed before he hopped in the back of their convertible. “Step on it, ladies.” And they did. Tripp had to put himself in between me and the car as that bitch flung loose gravel up at me.
“What the fuck, Mack?” He bellowed at my brother.
