“Thank you,” she said, beaming as though he’d informed her she won the lottery.
“So nummy,” Emmie chimed in from her booster seat on the other side of Mak.
“Mak, it’s your turn to go first today,” the little girl sitting across from him said. She glanced up, big blue eyes fixated on her sister. Thunder knew next to nothing about kids, but he’d spent enough time with Beth over the last year to guess this one was about the same age. Which would put her around five. And she was damned adorable with curly dark brown pigtails, a line of sauce across her cheek, and the buttons on her shirt out of sequence. Mak had said her name was Kelly…no Kira? Kim?
“Oh, I think we’ll skip that tonight, Kara,” Mak said before taking a small bite of her food.
Kara, right.
Her nose scrunched as she pursed her little lips. “But you always say it’s very important.” This kid was just adorable and acted like a serious little adult.
“Yeah, Mak,” Lee said with a smirk. “You always tell us we can’t skip it when it’s our week to go first. So get to it.”
Poor Makenna’s face was so red, she might have been in danger of having a stroke. The color did nothing to detract from how cute she looked in her oversized-T-shirt and joggers with her hair in a lopsided ponytail.
“Okay.” She cleared her throat as she gave him a half-smile. “We, uh, have this tradition of going around the table and saying one thing we are grateful for that happened during the week. It’s silly,” she said, shaking her head, “but I’m trying to instill a sense of gratitude in them for the life we have now…uh, I mean the life we have.”
Well, shit. Not only was she a hardworking, responsible adult, she was a damn good parent. The only life lessons he’d learned from his mother was to wrap it up and how to lie to the cops. This was just…sweet and made an odd warmth fill his belly alongside the food.
He watched her as she faced her siblings and said, “Okay, let’s see…I’m grateful Toni gave me the day off today because I was able to take Kara and Emmie to the park and play with them all day long.” As she ended the sentence, she bopped Emmie on the nose setting off another round of those cute as fuck giggles the toddler gave out so freely. By now, her little face was splattered with sauce and her hands looked like she’d stuck them in red paint.
Makenna wasn’t like anyone he’d ever met before. Admittedly his family was more of a shitshow than most, but many of the guys were drawn to club life because of shitty family situations, so he certainly wasn’t alone. This set up here was something out of a movie, and he’d have thought they were living a fairytale life if it wasn’t for the fact Makenna seemed to be raising all of these children alone. Somewhere along the way, this family endured hard times, maybe even tragedy, and Makenna had stepped up and into the role of parent.
She was pretty damned impressive.
He zoned out as the rest of her siblings said what they were grateful for, until Kara’s turn. The seven-year-old smiled with a white milk mustache as she said, “I’m thankful Makenna had an extra job on Saturday night. Now I don’t have to wear those shoes with the holes in them anymore.” Once done with her announcement, she went back to eating as though she hadn’t just shot a harpoon straight through Thunder’s heart.
Christ, he hadn’t even considered the money it must take to keep all these bodies clothed and mouths fed. No one seemed to think anything of Kara’s comment, but he felt rocked to his core.
“I’m thankful for the new Justin Bieber song,” Amy said with a wistful sigh.
Thunder couldn’t help but laugh at that while Lee snorted.
“What?” Amy asked, glaring at her brother. Then she focused her narrowed eyes on Thunder. “Okay, Mr. Newbie, it’s your turn.”
Next to him, waves of discomfort rolled off Makenna. “No, Amy, he does not have to participate in our family ritual.” She turned to him. “Seriously, you do not have to do this.”
“Uh, if we have to, he does too, Mak. You’re the one who always says, ‘If you’re alive and at this table to eat, you have at least one thing to be thankful for.’”
“Kill me now,” Mak muttered.
Though he’d rather scalp himself then delve into his feelings in front of a horde of children, poor Mak needed to be put out of her misery. “Okay, I got this.” He frowned. When was the last time he’d thought about or expressed gratitude for something? Been a damn long while. “Um, I’m thankful for my brothers—in the motorcycle club.”