Dead souls mc complete s.., p.39
Dead Souls MC (Complete Series #1-5), page 39
That old man was living proof that second-chance lives did happen for everyone.
I parked my bike in the driveway as the garage door began to open. There were two men hauling furniture into the house and a little girl, no more than five, running underneath their legs. She was carrying sparkling bags filled with toys and rolling small suitcases behind her. She seemed like a little spitfire ready to conquer the world.
Then, there was her mother. And no one would be able to deny how they were related. The two of them looked exactly alike. So much so that it kind of freaked me out a bit.
I watched her struggle with a few heavier boxes as the moving guys kept walking past her. Part of me wanted to dent their heads in by not helping, but a part of me was amused. She looked over at me with those piercing blue eyes and that determined stare, but it looked like she was studying me.
Watching me. Trying to get a feel of what I was all about.
I grinned as I watched her struggle with that box. Part of me wanted to go over and help her, but part of me couldn’t get over how damn cute she was when she was frustrated. Sweat was dripping down her neck and beginning to stain her shirt, and each time she came outside the fabric of her clothes clung a little tighter to her body.
I needed to get inside before I got myself into trouble.
I padded my way into the garage and closed the door behind me. I made my way into my house, shrugging my leather vest off. I tossed my sunglasses onto the kitchen table and made my way to the refrigerator, then pulled out a bottle of beer to chug down. It had been a long day with the guys trying to sort through all this rat bullshit, but for some reason Diesel was still bucking against the damn idea.
I didn’t like it, but I started getting ideas of going to the guys behind his back to talk this shit through.
I threw back my beer, feeling as the burning alcohol dribbled all the way to my stomach. It was easy to drain a bottle like that on a hot day like the one we were having. I loved riding my bike, but on hot days underneath some jeans and my leather vest? It was fucking miserable. I set the beer bottle on the kitchen counter and made my way to my front door.
I was feeling a little front porch sitting time.
I watched from the corner of my house. The only place that provided shade on my damn porch. The men kept coming and going with things like metal bed frames and mattresses. A couch and some chairs. A rickety kitchen table with chairs that looked more suited for firewood than for sitting.
Then, there was that woman.
Her and her little girl.
The more frustrated she grew, the more her nose scrunched up. The woman’s hair would fall in her face and she would pucker her lips to try and get it out of the way. I chuckled to myself as I watched her. She kept telling her little girl to not get underneath anyone’s feet. She disappeared into the truck as her mother ran after her, and she came out sitting on one of the chairs the men were hauling into the house.
Fuck. That woman had her hands full with that one.
I smiled at the scene as she wrestled her daughter off the chair. The movers seemed to be enjoying the spectacle as well. The woman unlocked her car and started stacking toys in her daughter’s hands, then she took off, dropping dolls and shit behind her as the woman sighed. She lobbed her head back and groaned so loud I could hear her from my porch and I shook my head.
Something told me that little girl took after her mother with all that spunk.
Every time my new neighbor came out of her house, I studied her. Raked my eyes along her languid body and took in the valleys of her body. The tits that bounced against her chest and the hips that swayed with every step she took. Her sweat was disappearing beyond the hem of her shirt, probably rolling down those perfect mounds and finding their death along her nipples. Those fucking nipples I’d love to wrap my lips around if I could ever get close enough.
She was a beautiful woman. With her dark red hair and her illuminating blue eyes and her soft features.
I bet her face lit up when she smiled.
I watched her tip the movers before they got into their van and left. My eyes followed my neighbor back into her house, but there was a box still on the porch. I sat there, waiting for her to come back out one last time. Waiting patiently to get another glimpse of the sexy woman who had moved in next door with her little miniature edition.
But she never came back out.
I sat there for about twenty minutes before I pushed from my chair. I walked on over to her front door and gave it a knock, waiting for her to answer. She had probably forgotten it was sitting out there, and I didn’t want anyone to come by and snatch it off her porch.
I could hear the giggles from her daughter wafting around the house as the doorknob turned.
The door flew open and there she stood. With beads of sweat still dripping down her neck and her round aquamarine eyes staring up at me. She was even more beautiful in person. Her skin was smooth and smelled of salt. The dip in her waist was accentuated by the clinging of her shirt to her body. It called to my hands like magnets to a refrigerator door. I had to curl my toes into the concrete of her small porch to keep from lunging at her. To keep from backing her into her new home and destroying it with memories of my cock between her thighs.
I gave her a playful grin as I nodded towards the cardboard on her porch.
“This box yours?” I asked.
She stuck her head out beyond the doorway as her eyes widened at the lone box.
“Yes. Yikes. Thank you,” she said.
She went to step out of the house to grab it, but I reached out for her body. My hand landed on her shoulder before I could catch myself and electricity shot up my skin. Her head whipped up to mine and I removed my hand, knowing I wouldn’t be able to stop from pulling her into me if I didn’t disconnect myself from her.
I moved to pick up the box in my hands, trying to put some much-needed distance between her and I.
“Where do you want it?” I asked.
“You don’t have to do that. I promise I can-”
“Where does it go?” I asked.
I held her gaze with mine as I cradled the box in my arms.
“This way,” she said. “Up the stairs.”
I followed her to the second floor of her home before we turned down the hallway. She led me into a large bedroom. A bedroom that I figured was hers. There was a bed frame that still needed to be put together and furniture haphazardly pressed against walls. A mattress and box spring were laying against the closet doors with suitcases full of clothes pouring from the bathroom in the corner.
“Sorry. It’s a bit of a wreck,” she said.
“Moving always is,” I said as I stood there. “Where do you want it?”
“Anywhere is fine. You can drop it right where you are.”
“Suit yourself.”
I dropped the box at my feet as my eyes drifted around the room. It was a decent size. About the size of mine. That was what people got when living in cookie-cutter homes. Once you’ve seen one, you’ve seen all of them.
“Need any help?” I asked.
“Nope. I think I got it. The movers brought the last of my things.”
“Didn’t mean with moving.”
“Then what did you mean?” she asked.
I pointed over to the bed frame lying in pieces on the floor.
“Oh, that’s fine. I can get it tomorrow.”
“What are you sleeping on tonight?” I asked.
“The couch,” she said plainly.
Like she was fucking used to it.
I walked over to the metal frame and lowered to my knees. I could hear her protesting behind me, but I paid her no mind. No woman who ran after a child should be sleeping on a damn couch. I didn’t know her backstory or where she had come from, but I knew one thing was for certain.
She wasn’t the type to ask for help.
“You got a name?” I asked.
“I do. Do you?”
I grinned as my hands worked to piece the metal frame together.
“My friends call me Brewer,” I said.
“That a last name?”
“A nickname,” I said. “You got one?”
“No nickname. Just Makenna.”
“Pretty name, Makenna.”
“Thanks,” she said.
“I see you have a daughter.”
“I do. Her name’s Ana.”
“And I’m five.”
I turned my head around and saw the little girl standing in the doorway.
“That’s a big milestone, being five. You like it?” I asked.
“Yep. I started big girl school,” Ana said.
“Do you like big girl school?” I asked.
“I do. At least, I did. I hope I’ll like this one here.”
“I think you will. I went to school around here. The teachers are really nice. What's your favorite subject?”
I could feel Makenna’s eyes on me as I reached for the last piece of the metal bed frame.
“Coloring. That’s my favorite,” Ana said.
“Mine was nap time,” I said with a grin.
“We don’t do nap time,” she said with a giggle.
“No naptime? Oh, my heart.”
I clenched my heart and faked like I was passing out, which made Ana laugh. Her giggles filled the room as I crashed to my back. I sat up and connected the last piece of the frame before I slid the middle part in place, then I stood up and looked over at Makenna.
Her eyes were studying me and her brow was furrowed tight.
“Where do you want it?” I asked.
“Want what?”
“The bed frame. I’m going to put the box spring and mattress on it next, but I want to know where you want it first.”
“You really don’t have to do that, Brewer.”
“Do you always fight like this?” I asked.
“Will you do mine next?” Ana asked.
“Ana, that’s not appropriate,” Makenna said.
“Yes, I will. And since Mommy doesn’t know where she wants her bed, you can tell me where to put it.”
“By the bathroom. Mommy pees a lot.”
“She does, does she?” I asked with a grin.
Makenna’s head lobbed back in exasperation as a smile bloomed across my cheeks.
“Hope you ran to the store and got toilet paper then,” I said.
“I’ve known you for ten minutes and I already hate you,” she said.
“I’ll change that soon.”
Our eyes connected and I could’ve sworn I saw her grin. She shook her head and bit down onto her tongue as her hands found her hips. Oh, she was feisty. Fighting between bucking up against me and listening. I enjoyed women who put up a good fight. Who were independent and capable of doing things on their own.
It made it all the sweeter when they begged me to fuck them harder.
“Against the far wall is fine,” Makenna said.
“Perfect. I’ll get the mattress and box spring on it, then I’ll get to work on Ana’s bed,” I said.
I stuck around and ended up helping her put together the rest of her house. I started in Ana’s bedroom with her plastic princess bed frame, complete with a canopy I needed to screw into the ceiling. Then I put together the bed frame for the guest bedroom and got that mattress and box spring onto it. We made our way downstairs and I rearranged her living room a few times before she settled on a design she enjoyed, then I hooked up their television and DVD player so they could have some sort of entertainment for the evening.
I wiped the sweat off my brow as Makenna came up to stand beside me.
“I can’t thank you enough for your help,” she said.
“Not a problem. Moving’s hard, even if it’s right up the road,” I said.
“Well, we definitely weren’t right up the road.”
“Where’d you guys come from?”
“Texas.”
“And you decided Redding, California was a better trade-off?” I asked.
“When you consider the circumstances we were running from, yes.”
My brow twitched with confusion as Makenna stared at the blank television screen. Her eyes grew unfocused, like the past was trying to pull her back in. I reached over and wrapped my hand around her wrist, trying to ground her into the present. I knew what it was like to slip back there. To slip back to a time I didn’t want to remember.
She had a kid to take care of, and I didn’t want Ana seeing her mother like that.
Her eyes whipped down to my hand before she jerked away. She wrapped her hand mindlessly around our connection point and began to rub. Like she thought I was going to hurt her. My blood boiled at the sight as I bit down on the inside of my cheek.
I’d kill the man if he ever came after them. No woman should run for her and her child’s life the way I sensed these two had.
“Wanna play outside?”
I peered beyond Makenna’s body at the small girl standing in what was now her playroom.
“Honey, I’m sure Mr. Brewer has other-”
“I’d love to,” I said with a grin, surprising myself. “If that’s all right with your mother, of course.”
I never really got along with kids. Sure, I would watch the kids play in our neighborhood, but that was mainly to just make sure that they were safe. But for some reason, I thought Ana was hilarious. I was happy to go play with her outside.
I gazed down into Mackenna’s startled eyes and saw shock roll behind them. Was this not something she was used to? People wanting to get to know her and her kid? She didn’t shake her head ‘no’, so I brushed past her and headed for her daughter. Ana slipped her hand within mine and lead me out back where she had many different toys. A tee ball set and a slide. A small trampoline and what looked to be a portable garden. There was porch furniture out back that hadn’t been set up yet and a playground that still had to be assembled.
“You got other tools besides a screwdriver?” I asked.
I turned around and saw Makenna standing in the doorway, her luscious body leaning against the frame.
“Somewhere, yeah.”
“When you find it, bring it out to me. I’ll get this thing put together,” I said.
Then Makenna kicked a ball at my feet and we began to run around the yard, with her mother gawking after both of us.
4
Makenna
What the hell had just happened?
This man had brought a box into my home, wiggled his way into piecing together my entire home, and was now playing with my daughter out back. Offering to put together her swing set I promised her if she was good on the trip out to our new home. I watched them kick a ball together as Ana’s hair fluttered in the wind as the sun began to hang low in the sky. I watched this man… this man who was our new neighbor… running around with my daughter and smiling as he kicked the ball to her. Teaching her how to get it before it passed her by and showing her different styles of kicks.
Where had this man come from?
I had never seen someone get along with Ana so easily.
I walked out onto the porch and began to rearrange the furniture. I placed the table and the chairs off to the side and stuck the massive umbrella into the hole in the table. I walked back inside and grabbed all of us some drinks. A juice box for Ana, and sodas for myself and Brewer.
Hopefully he liked soda, because I didn’t have much else.
I had wanted to avoid this man. Avoid looking at him. Because I knew the more I looked at him the more I wanted him. The more I wanted to know more about him. I sat in one of my porch chairs and cracked open my soda, then watched as this strange man ran around with my daughter.
Like he’d known us for years.
He looked up at me with those amber-colored eyes that accented the tanned skin his body was wrapped in. The longer he spent running around with my daughter in the sweltering heat, the more his shirt clung to his body. Painted the outline of his abs and the swell of his chest. I could see the pads of muscle disappearing beyond his jeans, the lines beckoning to my fingertips to trace them down to his groin.
I closed my eyes and drew in a deep breath as my daughter’s giggles filled the air.
“One of these for me?”
I jerked, startled at the sound of his panting voice as he pointed to the unopened soda.
“Take it. Yeah. Of course,” I said.
He cracked it open and tossed his head back, and I watched as his throat bobbed with his chugs. Sweat was dripping down his skin. Down his throbbing arms and tracing the veins bulging from his skin. His ass was accented in the jeans he was wearing and his shoulders were broad. Strong and cloaked in muscles as he guzzled down his soda.
I closed my eyes and took a sip of my drink, forcing my gaze to disconnect from his body.
I couldn’t stop staring at the man, and I couldn’t afford to dream about something that would never happen. I had a life to live and a heart to mend and a daughter to plant into a new life. I couldn't think about such selfish things.
“Thanks,” he said.
“No. Thank you,” I said. “Ana seems to have taken a liking to you.”
“Watch out!” Ana exclaimed.
A ball came whizzing by our heads as a smile crossed Brewer’s cheeks.
His face lit up when he smiled.
“I’m gonna get you!” he said.
Ana screamed and giggled as she took off, and I watched Brewer run after her in the grass.
I was stunned with how well this rough-looking man was doing with my five-year old daughter. He had a trimmed beard that encompassed his face and hair that was drenched in sweat. He had faint scars all along his arms and I’m sure there were some on his legs to match. Between his looks and that bike he had sitting in his garage, I knew he was a rough character. His voice was steeped in it and his body language boasted of a rough past.
