Havoc
“Dante! Dante!” Mia waves enthusiastically with Mr. Bear as he comes running up the front walk. Izzy trails behind, a little too mature to dash like her brother, but also not wanting to get left behind.
They are the first to arrive, and Mia can barely contain herself. We figured her birthday would be a good time to have everyone over to see the new place, but now I’m wondering if she’ll explode into a cloud of pink glitter before we make it through the night.
I catch her as she barrels past. “Pace yourself, small fry. You’ve got all night.”
“Okay!”
Yeah, that’s gonna go great.
Alessa with two-year-old Matteo clinging to her like a koala to a tree, Bear, Snark, Hawk, and Viking follow at a slightly more sedate pace. The last time any of the brothers saw the place was when they were helping rip out some of the old shit. Fuck, the months have flown by.
“Not too early, are we?” Viking asks, smiling as he looks around.
“Nah, come on in. Shel said Emily called not long ago so they’re on their way. Come on in. Beer?”
All four guys give an appreciative nod. It’s late August, but you’d think it was mid-July with the fucking heat wave we’ve got going.
“White wine?” Alessa asks. “With a little ice?”
“Sounds fancy, but pretty sure I can handle that,” I say with a laugh.
By the time we’re in the kitchen, Mia is there with Dante and Izzy, chatting as fast as her mouth will keep up with her hyperactive brain. I’m already dreading the damn sugar high after the cake and ice cream come out, but today’s her day. Maybe it’s time to look into a trampoline.
Mia pulls open one of the kitchen drawers. “That’s my silverware. It’s from Disney. The knife looks sharp but it doesn’t hurt. My pony cups are down here, and there’s my cereal bowls. I broke one, but—”
I’d tell her that maybe her guests don’t need every little thing described, but Dante is following her intently and Izzy humors her, half interested in spite of herself so I let them do their thing. I grab some beers out of the cooler and toss them to the guys, then get a bottle of white that’s been chilling in the fridge to pour some for Alessa.
“Floors came up nice,” Bear comments.
“Thank fucking God. Would’ve sucked if we went through all those layers for nothing.”
Izzy comes over. “Can I have a,” she looks over at the smaller kids. “S-O-D-A?”
Alessa laughs. “Thank you for asking nicely, but let’s wait until we eat, okay?”
Damn, I remember when Viking, Bear, Snark and Hawk brought Alessa and their baby back to the club. Has it really been long enough for that baby to be spelling shit out?
By this time next year, Mia is going to be starting school. Shit, she’s already smart as a fucking tack. I don’t think I’m fucking ready. Course, maybe by then we can be working on adding a new baby to the mix. Mia is and always will be ours, no question about that, but now that we have Shel, I’m starting to think about the years we missed and wanting to see our woman growing our child.
“And this chair is mine. It’s too small for boys. Mommy sat in it, but her butt stuck out from the—”
Phoenix, sipping a beer of his own and chatting with Snark and Hawk while we wait for everyone, makes a sharp hissing noise. “Mia, how about we leave the butt stories for another time?”
Safe to say all three of us thoroughly enjoy Shel’s ass, but our now five-year-old probably shouldn’t be running around talking about it. “Yeah, kid. That’s a private story, got it?”
She sighs. “Got it.” And then it seems that showing her friends around in a room full of adults isn’t nearly as interesting anymore. “Come, I’ll show you my room!”
All three of them zoom off, their feet thudding on the wood floor like a herd of fucking elephants coming through. I close my eyes for a second, grateful we tacked down the rugs or I’d be worried about one of them cracking their skull on the floor.
“Hey! Thanks for coming.” Shel comes in with Sledge, and I pour her a glass like Alessa’s before she gets a chance to do it herself. The look she gives me is the exact same as the one I get from Mia when I do something for her that she could easily have done herself, but I like taking care of my girls. I guess Mia learned that look somewhere.
Shel slips her arm around my waist and presses herself against my side, so I can’t be doing all bad.
“So what do you think, now that you’re settled in?” Alessa asks Shel.
“You mean the house? Or the guys?” Shel smiles mischievously.
“Oh, the house. You can tell me about the guys during the next club meeting.” Alessa’s grin is just as mischievous.
Sledge looks at Phoenix, then at me, then back to Shel. “You know, I never gave a shit that you ladies started being social, but now I’m not sure it’s a good idea.” Then he grabs her and throws her over her shoulder, and heads for the stairs.
“Want me and Phoenix to come help… make sure the door’s properly locked?”
Alessa laughs. “No way. You guys aren’t getting out of hosting that easily.”
Sledge stops at the door. “Fine, suppose we can wait.” He doesn’t put Shel down, though.
“You big… oaf!” She hammers on his back with her fists and kicks her feet. He gives her ass a quick spank, then finally returns her to her feet. She glowers up at him, barely keeping a straight face. “You’ll pay for that later.”
“I bet.” He doesn’t sound particularly worried. The doorbell rings and he goes to let Emily, King, Hero and Wild Child in. King’s got Chloe napping on his shoulder, but Liam’s looking around curiously, probably wondering where the other kids are.
“The others are upstairs, Liam. I’ll show you.” I wave for him to follow.
From the noise of it, they either never made it to Mia’s room, or they got bored quickly, because they’re currently using our huge main bed as trampoline-slash-play mat. Dante and Mia are bouncing together on one side and laughing maniacally, while Izzy’s practicing somersaults on the other side. Cute as it is, some things are off limits, even here.
“Hey!” I bark. “Front and center, all three of you!”
All of two microseconds later, they’re lined up in front of me. Liam, wisely, keeps his distance behind me to not be in the line of fire.
“What have I said about jumping on our bed?”
“It’s fun but don’t get caught?” Mia whispers.
Shit… “And what just happened?”
“I got caught…”
“Exactly, go trash your own room, baby.”
The doorbell rings downstairs, and I hear Summer’s voice, followed by the women going crazy for the triplets.
This place is turning into a fucking zoo, but in a good way. Not that we’re gonna settle down and live quiet, content lives, putting away our pieces and getting real jobs—there’s too much fucking life left in us for that, and that life never appealed to me anyway—but I guess things are changing, and it’s a good thing.
Now we’ve got a reason to come home and someone to fight for, and there’s little that makes me feel more like a man than that.
An hour later, everyone’s here and I’m amazed Mia and the other kids haven’t smashed their way through the floor at this point. It’s fucking amazing how much noise four five-to-eight-year-olds can make, but Natalie just put out the cake on the dining room table, so I call up the stairs, “Mia! Get down here this moment!”
It becomes dead quiet up there. Then the quietest footsteps I’ve heard all day as they shuffle to the top of the stairs. Did I sound that angry? I meant to startle them a little, but it’s her birthday after all.
“It’s okay, baby girl. You’re not in trouble. Come on down.”
The steps get a bit more confident and hurried.
And then when she comes down and sees the cake, she activates the turbo and zooms by me. Phoenix has to hold her back so she doesn’t blow out the candles before all the phones are out and the photographers are ready. “Okay, baby girl. Go for it.”
Phoenix suggested the candles that reignite, but we decided that was too much of a dick more for a five-year-old. Maybe next year.
Then we sing the most raucous happy birthday this neighborhood’s probably ever heard and start dishing cake. Kaylee comes out with bowls of ice cream for those who want. She eyes all the kids with big smiles. From Shel, I know that Kaylee and her guys have at least decided to stop worrying about it and let nature take its course, so I’m sure she’s gonna have her turn soon.
At this rate, there’s gonna be more kids than members in the Screaming Eagles. It’s good though. A new generation of badasses, right?
After we’ve eaten, Mia comes crawling up into my lap so she can give me a big hug and a kiss on the cheek.
I squeeze her tight. “Hey, baby girl. Having a good time?”
She nods as she settles her head on my shoulder.
“You gonna sleep already?”
She shakes her head, but I’m not so fucking sure. She’s turning into a little bit of deadweight. “Hey, happy birthday, baby. I love you.”
“Love you too, Daddy Havoc,” she mumbles.
I blink. Did she just fucking…
Shel looks at me with big eyes, having overheard. She looks like she’s about to fucking cry.
“Did you tell her to…”
She shakes her head. “Nope, that’s all her.”
I bite my lip, because I’m definitely not gonna fucking cry, because I’d never hear the fucking end of it. But I can’t stop fucking grinning like an idiot.
How the fuck did I get lucky enough to end up here? I wake up every day convinced that if there’s a god, he must’ve been looking the other way when Shel and Mia came into my life again, because she should be married to a fucking prince or something. Not the three of us assholes, but we fucking know it, so we have no intention of letting her out of our sight. We’ll just have to make sure she never regrets giving us this chance.
(c) Stephanie Brother 2024
