Page 42 of Wait For Me

“It’s okay, I thought this was my brother’s place. I’ll just go and see if I can…”

“It is your brother’s place – our place,” Ashlynn confirmed before turning and leaving the door open so that I could follow her while digesting the “our place” comment.

What the fuck was going on? Truthfully, I didn’t know how to wrap my head around that as I followed her inside and shut the door behind me. The last time I saw Ashlynn was at graduation, two weeks after she had betrayed both me and my brother by fucking Bagger out in the open at the clubhouse. Sure, I’d been gone for four years, but I didn’t see Kip forgiving and forgetting that happened, especially since he seemed hell bent on hating me for going off to live my own life.

I scanned the living room that I stepped into and was immediately put on alert because there was something off about the place. That probably had something to do with all the baby paraphernalia scattered around the room. My brother and I might have been on the outs, but there was no way the rest of my family would let me go without knowing that my brother had a kid, right? It would be my niece or nephew, after all. My anger started to tick up again, because then my gaze followed Ashlynn, and I wondered if the secret keeping had been her doing. Why the hell should she hate me? I hadn’t been the one to betray our friendship. So, then why in the hell would no one tell me that Kip had a kid or that he was living with Ash.

“You might as well take a seat. We have four years to catch up on.”

“Four years, hell! Is that my brother’s kid?” I asked, trying to be quiet so as not to startle the baby, even while I was shrieking those words on the inside.

“Yes. This is our son, Knoxville Cross Martin,” she said while beaming at the little boy who was suckling away at his mom’s breast.

“How old is he?”

“Six months now.”

“Why didn’t anyone tell me?”

“Your brother asked them not to tell you his business. He said that you could learn it all for yourself the minute you actually picked up the phone to call him again.”

“Well, that’s just typical Kip bullshit! He’s the one that screamed at me Sturgis and pushed me away, but I’m supposed to be the first one to call?”

“That’s not how he sees it,” Ash snapped back.

“Well, that’s too damn bad. And I take it, since that’s your tit in the kid’s mouth that you’re the mom?” I asked, anger getting the better of me.

“Of course, I’m his mom.”

“So, that’s how you trapped my brother after what you did to him, to us?”

Ash gasped in shock, then stood and held her left hand up to show me the ring that sat on her all-important finger. “We are married, and I’m not going to take your bullshit. Get out of my house, and don’t come back until you can apologize.”

“Oh yeah? Like you apologized to me?”

“I didn’t have to apologize to you because you deluded yourself into thinking you could have someone who didn’t want you. That was your problem, not mine. Bagger wasn’t tied down to anyone when I did what I did.”

“You knew how I felt.”

“So what, Star?” She yelled at me. “Was every woman in the world just supposed to bow down to your claim, just because you were the princess? He didn’t want you. He had no problem fucking me though.”

“Ashlynn!” My brother yelled from a door on the far side of the living room. I assumed it probably led out to the garage based on the placement.

“I’m sorry,” she sniffed as her attention moved to my brother. She insinuated that I trapped you with the baby and I got mad.”

“I don’t see why you would. That’s exactly what happened,” Kip shot back at her.

“Oh my God! I can’t believe you just said that to me.” She carefully fled the room down a hallway that was to my back.

“Ash!” Kip called out, but his only answer was the slamming of a door. “Fuck,” he hissed then his eyes tracked over to me again. “Wherever you go, this fucking drama follows.”

“Yeah, Kip. It was my fault that she and Bagger humiliated us. It was my fault that all those women kept coming into the diner where I worked and harassing me. It was totally my fault that you yelled and basically told me I was a selfish little burden on the club when I was just trying to live my damn life on my own terms for once. All of that drama was all planned out, didn’t you know? I live to be miserable and bring everyone down with me.” I set the pan of banana bread down on the counter and turned to leave as the last of my sarcasm sat there thick in the air.

“You know what? I always made sure that Dad, Uncle Mack, and Aunt Vivian had permission to update you about my life. I told them they could give you my new phone number. You never called me. You are the one who kept your whole life a secret from me. My big brother got married to the girl who was supposed to be my best friend and chose to humiliate and betray me instead because she was being selfish. Yet, I’m the one who was left in the dark. That’s my nephew in there!” I yelled at my brother. “He’s six freaking months old and all this time, not a soul told me he even existed!” I swiped angrily at the tears that tracked down my face.

“I’m not the bad person here because I wanted to live my life away from all of this bullshit for a while. So, get off your high horse and recognize that maybe you were in the wrong for once. You were supposed to be my big brother, my protector. Instead, you did everything you could to make sure I didn’t want to come back home.” I glanced back at the hallway where Ash had disappeared with the nephew I would probably never know. “I see why now. It’s easier to marry your sister’s enemy if you keep her out of the picture, right?”

16

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