Page 68 of Claim Me

The only guys in my usual crew to enjoy the club sluts’ interest are Sync and Golden. The rest of us play pool and drink too much.

“I wish I could have killed Parker,” Tack announces after making his pool shot. “But I couldn’t risk getting caught and leaving Hunter to raise Lotus alone.”

“With him dead,” Bear replies, “I hope life settles down in Banta City. I’m sick of drama.”

Tack and I share a grin at how Bear yawns. He notices us smiling at his fatigue and shrugs. “I like feeding Olívie at night. She’s started responding to our faces. I don’t want her to like the nanny the best.”

“No worries, man,” Pork Chop says, patting his back as he moves around the pool table. “When my kids were babies, they acted like the womenfolk were the only cool ones. Hudson would even cry when I held him. Made me feel like an asshole. But that’s just baby stuff. When they get older, oh, boy, that’s when I got to shine.”

The men chuckle while the rest of the club parties nearby. Noble makes the rounds, keeping an eye on everyone. Golden takes a virgin into a back bedroom. Sync charms a redhead. The place feels electric as the pressure eases off the club.

As much as I like being here, I’m anxious to get home to Siobhan. Earlier today, we had another sonogram. For the first time, the blob on the screen looked like a person. The technician also thought the baby was a boy.

“What do you think of the name Lorcan for my son?” I ask the guys when we start another pool game. “It’s a name Siobhan likes.”

“Is that Irish?” Pork Chop asks. “Like the twins’ names?”

“Yeah. Siobhan says it means fierce.” I explain, keeping to myself how the name is also meant to honor Lorrie. “Do you think kids will make fun of the name?”

“Fuck ‘em,” Pork Chop insists. “When Carys wanted the name Hicks for our first boy, I felt like you. My head instantly went to how kids would tease him. But Carys insisted asshole kids would make fun of someone even if they had the most normal name. It was better to teach our boy confidence than to teach him to fear standing out.”

Bear sidles up next to me and suggests, “If he doesn’t like his name, you can give him a nickname like Caveman did with those blond kids always at your place.”

“Siobhan changed their names. She calls the boy Glen and the girl Nora.”

“Isn’t the boy’s name already Glen?”

“Glenjamin.”

“Why?” Bear asks as if I named the kid. “What was the girl’s name?”

“Norleen,” I explain, imagining the kids sitting around the kitchen table this morning. The dogs rested nearby, watching birds through the glass door. “Nora is an Irish name, so she matches the twins.”

“Do the kids care about getting another set of names?”

“No. They’re crazy about Siobhan. She could call them Bert and Ernie, and they’d eat it up.”

Bear studies me. “I like your kid’s name.”

Nodding, I grin. “Any name I’d pick would be boring.”

Nearby, a bell rings signifying a virgin has lost her cherry.

Tack joins us as Pork Chop wins another game. “You get in your way. Siobhan can be too impulsive. I think the two of you will smooth out each other’s flaws.”

“What are we doing over here?” Golden asks as he leaves his latest deflowered woman and joins us.

“Talking about kids,” Bear says.

“Enough with the kids,” he mutters and rolls his eyes. “They’re just tiny adults. Not interesting.”

“What do you want to talk about?”

“How about the video of that asshole’s face flying off his skull?” Golden asks.

As we share a hearty laugh at the dead asshole’s expense, I again fight the urge to head out early. If I was at home, Siobhan and I could watch “Survivor.” She gets so riled up about the people she doesn’t like. I enjoy listening to her bitch more than I care about the show.

My thoughts wander as the men continue playing pool. The noise level drops around us as guys either end up in the back bedrooms to fuck or sleep off the booze. I count fewer Hills members visible in the crowd of bodies. Caveman would tell me goodbye if he had left, so I assume he’s getting rowdy in a bedroom.

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