Ford lets out a breath. “I had to give T’s old man a peace offering since we couldn’t deliver the body. We’re going to combine forces and give Apex what he needs the most. A dirt nap, six feet under.”
Chapter33
Shelby
Standing in the new diner, I look around at all the customers mingling along with King’s club. The smell of burgers and fries along with homemade apple pie, fills my nose, making my stomach growl. I’ve been helping with orders, so I haven’t had time to eat. Everyone is enjoying the delicious food. I watch as my grandma makes her way to every person to brag on how great this place is, but not in a rude way since everyone is bragging on it along with her. A lot of people showed up for the grand reopening, including half the city, patient enough to wait outside for hours to get a table. The line started two hours before the doors were even opened. I’d say they missed her food and presence.
All the staff that worked at the previous diner showed up to help her prepare food, knowing today would go off without a hitch. She revamped to menu to only have to sell her favorites and could change it on a whim. The club made sure if there were bills going into this diner, they were paid for so all she had to do was come to work and fill the bellies of hungry patrons. That’s the only goal in my grandmother’s life now since I’m happy and cared for.
My grandma grouses over the move regularly, but I know she loves it. This place is state of the art, making everything so much easier on her. It took the club buying the building and gifting it to her before she relented and sold the older diner. She used the money from the sale to make this one exactly as she wanted it, furnishing it in a country chic style none of us expected in homey colors with tables that looked like they belonged in a dining room. It all came together so well I would’ve though she had a decorator come in to help but turns out she had the idea long before she needed to make it real.
The biggest surprise was the attached house on the back that has everything my grandma could need or want, including a small back yard with a little red swing hanging from the old oak tree. She keeps telling me the only reason she took the massive gift was because King and I are buying a house just up the street from her and she wanted to be able to walk over when she wanted. I surprisingly didn’t argue with her about it. Since we put in the offer, I only heard twice that she might be ready to be a GIGI and push a toddler on the swing.
Part of me worried it would be too soon, but loving him the way I do, I knew that time, whether short or long, didn’t matter. He had showed me he loved me every step of the way even as I fought him on everything, not believing he could love me or that I deserved it. Turns out it was easier to start believing you’re worth something when someone genuinely shows you that you are.
I balked when my grandma mentioned babies as that might just be pushing our fast timeline. In time if it happens it happened. Instead of using the savings I put away to leave Virginia, I used it to put a down payment on the house to help King out or at least I thought I did.
King later told me that he took that money and opened a saving account for future children to attend college if that’s what they wanted to to. I should’ve known that he wasn’t going to let me help with the house, but I appreciate him putting away from something equally as important.
I watch my grandma smile and laugh with customers, while watching all the tables fill with happy people eating good food. I hold my chest as I try to keep the tears at bay.
King sidles up to me, pulling me to him. “Hey, are you crying?”
I want to deny it, but I already have a few stray tears streaking down my cheeks.
“Yeah, but these are happy tears. All happy tears,” I tell him as I try to wave them away. My heart is just so full.
“Are you sure I made you happy, beautiful?” King asks, wiping my tears away as he looks into my eyes. I can’t believe he even thinks there’s a way he hasn’t.
“Happier than I could ever have imagined, King,” I tell him as I snake my arms around his back, holding him tightly to me. “And then some.”
King pulls me in for a toe-curling kiss as we ignore the mc brother’s cheering us on. His lips push against mine as I try to show him just how much he means to me. They all continue to whoop and cheer, at least they do until my grandma gives them the what for.
Chapter34
King
Ifinally sit down to talk to my brother. I hate that he had to find out about me being related to him because of all the drama going on with the club. I know why Ford rushed into telling him and to be fair he warned me that he would if I didn’t, but I really wanted to have the time to really talk to him. Once everything settled down, there was no more avoiding him. I’m a ball of nerves when I walk into the room to where T is waiting for me.
“T, I don’t want you to take this personally, but I hate your father. I get that you know him as one guy while I know him as another, but I do genuinely hate him,” I confess, trying to keep my anger out of my words. I don’t want this shit to come between us. Even after our little tiff because of the undercover job, we’re fucking close, but this is something that could irreparably mess it up.
“W-why though, King?” T says, shaking his head as he pushes me away. Not hard like we are about to go rounds, but in a way that he’s not understanding what I mean. I knew this talk would lead to heavy shit I don’t like to dredge up, but if it means clearing the air, so be it.
“Dragon loved his kids enough to be there for them, for you, but couldn’t be bothered to fool with the child he fathered with a club whore. He walked away from me like I was nothing, like I didn’t matter and that’s not something you just get over,” I tell him.
It’s one thing to accept that your father just isn’t cut out to be a father for one reason or another, but this is on a whole different level. Dragon is cut out to be a father. He was a great father to his other kids and to T, which made it all that more bitter of a pill for me to swallow.
My mom swore she told him about me and that he told her pack up. He wanted her to take me with her. She kept to that my whole damn life. Hell, I didn’t even know I had brothers until she spilled the beans about being the other woman and getting pregnant, close to the same time that Dragon’s old lady was. I didn’t take that news well.What kind of man can kick a pregnant woman out knowing he fathered that baby?Not a man I need to claim as my father.
I don’t tell T all this. It’s not his business to hash out and not his burden to carry. All he has to know is that instead of being just a friend or my brother because of the club, he’s my brother through blood too. It doesn’t change anything, but it’s there and why I was able to save his life when he was in the hospital. It was just something we needed to put out there so we could put this talk behind us.
T sits there for a long time thinking it over. I’m waiting for him to tell me to fuck off or something, but when he finally talks, I’m caught off guard.
“S-so, you are?” T asks, his eyebrows raising. “For r-r-real? D-Don’t fuck with me, King.”
“I’m not, man. I’m really the bastard big brother you never wanted,” I tell him, clapping him on the back as I laugh at my own joke.
“Y-y-you’re wrong. You’re the brother I-I-I never knew of, but definitely want,” T says, pausing. He looks thoughtful for a moment. “I-I-I don’t know what h-h-happened in the past, but I know my d-d-dad- our dad enough to-to be able to say he’d want y-y-you too.”