Fuck her parents for abandoning her because she was fucking amazing.
Ryan’s parents had passed away in a car crash when he was an infant, and it was a miracle he’d survived it. He had been in the system for years, no one wanting to adopt him because of his autism. But the moment he’d smiled at me and Reina, we’d known he was the one we wanted. To hell with being different. The kid was bright and an amazing little boy.
Houston had been thrown into the system after her school reported seeing bruises on her skin. Her parents were supposed to go through rehab and get clean, but instead, they signed away their rights to her. Being high was more important than loving and taking care of their kid.
Houston remembered them well, but she also never wanted to go back. The question of whether or not we would adopt her had never come up. It had always been a yes from the moment she’d looked up at us with those large, blue, trusting eyes.
“Daddy, is Momma gonna make us late again?” Houston asked me as she climbed into the backseat of the SUV.
I snorted. “Probably, baby.” Reina was late for everything, but I never rushed her. As far as I was concerned, my wife could take as much time as she wanted. “Buckle up. You got your lunch?”
She nodded, pointing to her book bag. Reina rushed out of the house, her hair in a messy bun on the top of her head, a cup of to-go coffee in her hands, her purse hanging off the same arm. She was in a pair of black sweats and a crop top, shades covering her eyes.
To anyone else, she looked a mess. To me, she looked like a million fucking dollars.
Her belly ring glinted in the sun as she stepped down the porch, a pair of strappy silver sandals on her feet. I grinned at her. She was an oddball for sure, but she was all mine. “Morning, gorgeous,” I greeted her as she slid into the truck.
She waved me off. “I look like shit. Don’t pretend to like it.”
I barked out a laugh. “Baby, you look amazing no matter what the fuck you wear, especially with my stamp on full display.”
That brought a fucking gorgeous smile to her lips, just like it always did. I leaned over and kissed her. Houston and Ryan both groaned. “Gross. Can you not?” Ryan muttered, glaring out the window.
I snickered and put the truck in reverse, backing up so I could turn around and drive down the long drive. Reina looked over at me. “I need to stop by the club for a few minutes before we come back home.”
“What for?” I asked her. I’d been planning to bring her fine ass home and bend her over the dining room table. Seeing that club emblem on her back with my name proudly displayed at the bottom always made the more primal urges in me rise up.
She sighed, looking down at her phone. “Adelaide wants my opinion on a couple of things.”
“Ah.” I left it at that. She and Adelaide handled all of the day-to-day shit of the club like food, drinks, and other shit like that. They also organized all the fundraisers the club got involved in as well as family days, which happened at least once a month. Family day was a day for the entire club to come together—no club business allowed.
After dropping the kids at school, I drove Reina to the clubhouse. River was in the chapel, and he waved me over while Reina went to go find Adelaide.
“I feel old as fuck,” I muttered when I sat down.
River snorted. “Welcome to the club, brother. Try being my age and keeping up with three kids. Then you can bitch and moan.”
I cut him a dark look. River was in his early forties and barely looked a day over thirty. “You act like your wife doesn’t like the gray at your temples and in your beard.”
He grinned, raising his cup of coffee to his lips. “My wife can’t keep her hands off of me half the time. Damn miracle my vasectomy hasn’t managed to come undone and make her ass pregnant again.” After Adelaide had their little girl, River had agreed to get a vasectomy so Adelaide wouldn’t have to go on any kind of birth control. Shit was damaging for women, as I’d come to find out. I’d never understood how it was FDA-approved.
I snorted at him. He leaned back in his chair. “Got a new guy wanting to prospect. He’ll be out here later today.”
I grinned. “Ain’t had one of them in a fucking minute.”
River grunted. “No fucking kidding.” He ran his fingers through his hair. “Also got a shipment of guns coming in from Alejandro. Two days. Need you there at the drop.”
I nodded. “Where at?”
“Just our warehouse,” he told me. “You’ll be back with your woman before evening even hits.”
Reina poked her head into the chapel. She smiled at River before looking at me. “Ready?” she asked.
River snorted at her. “What the fuck are you wearing, Reina?” he teased.
Reina just rolled her eyes at him. “Not all of us roll out of bed and look like a million bucks like your wife.” River snorted his coffee all over the table. I barked out a laugh.
I stood and clapped a hand to River’s shoulder in parting as I walked over to my wife. She grabbed my hand in hers. “I’ve got a can of whipped cream at home,” she told me once we were on the way to the house.