Page 8 of A Biker's Tiny Present

“Do you have any family you can call to see if she’s with them?” I ask.

“No. Our parents aren’t around anymore. It’s just me, Taylor, and the baby.” She sits up straight and pulls her phone from her purse. She wakes up the screen but must not see anything useful because she clicks the button on the side again and it goes black. “I called our neighbor Sophie, she babysits Nicholas sometimes when mine and Taylor’s shifts overlap, and she rushed right over. She hadn’t seen or heard from Taylor, and I just got done working a twelve-hour shift and obviously hadn’t either, so I didn’t know what else to do. I don’t have many of her friend’s phone numbers, but I called and talked to the few who actually answered. No one had heard from her in a couple days.”

“Where does she work?” Raven questions. “Maybe call and ask see when the last time she was in.”

“We did that. She works at a strip club called the Velvet Room. She clocked out at three-thirty this morning and isn’t on the schedule until Tuesday. They have no idea where she is, and from the sound of how short the guy was with Sophie when she called, they really don’t care.”

Riley interlocks her fingers, twists her palms facing forward, and stretches her arms. She cracks her neck side to side, then rolls her head around. I can tell she carries a lot of tension in her shoulders, I know how that feels, and wish I could help her relieve it, but this isn’t the time or place . . . yet. I’m still not giving up the hope of seeing how far I can push her buttons.

I got to see a smidgen of her temper, when she realized I had blocked her only exit, but I know there’s so much more inside her. That’s where I want to be . . . inside her.

“The Velvet Room?” I’m dragged out of my fantasy by Raven’s voice. “I’ve never heard of it. Is it nearby?”

“About thirty minutes north,” Riley answers as she stands up. With her hands on her hips, she twists in each direction, causing small pops to come from her back. There’s that tension again. “Look you guys, I appreciate you both for looking out for Nicholas and all, but I really need to get him home and bed. Maybe Taylor will be there when we get back.”

“I’m comin’ with you.” I’m up on my feet in a flash. “We need to talk some more.”

I watch as Riley rolls her eyes but tries to hide them by looking down at Nicky who is still sleeping away in his seat. “About what?”

“About him.” I point at the baby. “Nicky is my son. I wasn’t kidding before when I said you couldn’t take him away from me. So for the foreseeable future, wherever he goes, I go too.”

“Why?” Riley looks at me like I said I was forcing her to move to the moon.

“Because I damn said so, that’s why.” I can hear my voice creep close to the almost too loud for a sleeping baby level, so I drop it back a few decibels. “I’m comin’ home with you whether you like it or not. I’m not leavin’ until we have a civilized conversation. I’ll sleep on the couch for a few nights if I have to. I just found out about my boy and you’re not pushin’ me away, so deal with it.”

CHAPTER FIVE

RILEY

When Tiny said wherever Nicky goes, he goes, he really wasn’t kidding. When we left The Lodge, Tiny insisted that we take his truck and he would drive us home. When I asked what would happen to my car, Raven swooped in and said she’d drive it to my house for us. Then when I asked how she would get home herself, she flashed me a picture on her cell phone of herself smushed between two very different looking, but very handsome men. One with long dark hair and a scruffy beard, the other a buzz cut and stubble are her Old Men.

The smile on her face was infectious as she proudly said they were already on their way to pick her up. I’m not exactly surehow a relationship of three people works, but to each their own. I’m not one to pop anyone’s kink bubble.

I gave Tiny my address and he navigates his way into Tellison, then into my neighborhood without any need for directions. When he pulls in the driveway with still no assistance, I question him. “How did you know how to get here?”

“Eighteen years in the Marines gave me a good sense of direction,” he says with a smirk, “but I’ve lived in this town for my entire life. My parents, mom and stepdad, live in the nursing home by the park. My Gran and Gramps are buried in the cemetery at the edge of town. I was born and raised a Tellison kid. Growing up, I rode my bike all over town and know these streets like the back of my hand.”

“I grew up and lived in Henderson until I was twenty-four. That’s when I bought this house.”

“That’s awesome.” Tiny opens his door and gets out of the truck. He turns to look at me still sitting in the passenger seat. “You gonna get out so we can go inside? Or are we gonna turn into popsicles in the driveway?” His sass and sarcasm gets my butt moving.

Raven pulls up just as I shut the door and a giant four-door black lifted truck follows, stopping at the end of the driveway. “Love your car.” She tosses me my keys, then jogs down to the truck which now has the front door open. She crawls up inside, over the lap of the long haired guy in the passenger seat, and sits between her two men. Just as quick as they appeared, the truck is gone and I’m left in the relative silence of my street at nine o’clock on a Saturday night.

“Based on the smell comin’ from the little man, I think someone needs to be changed.” The expression on Tiny’s face is priceless as he looks down at Nicholas in his car seat, which he managed to get out of the truck on his own and is looking at like it’s a bomb. “And I call not it.”

“Oh no Mister—I’m a dad and won’t let my son out of my sight.” I laugh as I lead us up onto the porch and in the front door. Once we’re locked inside, I point him toward the couch and he sets the seat down. “We have a rule in this house. Whoever smells it first, changes it.”

His look of ‘eww, that’s stinky’ turns to absolute horror. Eyes bugged wide, mouth flopping open and closed like a fish, and hands raised as he backs away, Tiny is retreating. “I’ve lived with hundreds of men, in some of the worst places, not bein’ able to shower for weeks at a time, and I don’t think any of us smelled as bad as what is comin’ from that diaper.”

I can’t help but roll my eyes at him again. Tiny sure loves to exaggerate. Everything is to the extreme with him. It’s either his way or his other way, there are no other options. If he wasn’t so damn hot and super loving toward Nicholas, other than not wanting to change his diaper, I’d kick him back out onto the porch.

“If you want to do this dad thing, you need to suck it up.” Before I unbuckle the somehow still sleeping Nicky from his car seat to carry him into his room, I walk over to the Christmas tree in the front of the picture window facing the street and step on the handy foot clicker button on the floor. The entire living room begins to glow.

“Whoa,” Tiny’s eyes go all around the room, taking in all my decorations. In addition to the eight foot Douglas fir wrapped in white lights and red garland, the built in bookshelves along the short wall are filled with not only books, but also light up village houses. I’ve been growing my collection a few pieces at a time, and I’m quite proud of how it all comes together. It may seem like a lot of work to put up and take down each year, but it’s also part of the fun.

The fireplace kicks on when I flip the switch. It’s gas, and the faux logs look as real as fake logs can, but I don’t complain.A fireplace that gives off heat is a great thing when you live somewhere where the temperatures drop below freezing every night for months on end.

I have a stocking hanging on the mantle for Nicholas’s first Christmas, as well as a special ornament on the tree. Spoiling him rotten is going to be my lifelong goal, but within reason. I won’t let him grow up to be ungrateful, but I just can’t help but want to give him a great childhood.

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