Page 16 of Jackass

“Hi there, little one. You must be Charlie,” Blade said before he took a seat and kissed Beck. Charlie just stared at Blade. “I’m your Uncle Blade, and you know what I heard?” he whispered.

“What?” she whispered back, or tried to anyway, only it wasn’t quiet.

“Well, Auntie Beck here told me that an uncle’s job is to take his niece for ice cream.” Charlie’s eyes got wide, and her little mouth turned up in a grin. “And the best part is, uncles don’t need to ask Mommy and Daddy.” He winked at her. “What do you say? Wanna go on an uncle date with me?”

“Blade, I don’t think—” Sammy started, but Charlie’s excited voice cut her off.

“YES!”

She scrambled from her chair and rushed around the table, grabbing Blade’s hand. She tried to pull him from the chair, but he was too big. She made a valiant effort, though. Blade and Beck stood up, and Blade held his hand out to Sammy.

“Keys, Sam.” He dared her to say no.

“Blade, you can’t—”

“Sammy, let them go. Blade won’t let anything happen to our girl.”

She looked up at me and sighed. Shoving her hand into her pocket, she produced her keys and handed them to him.

Leaving Blade and Beck with Charlie, I escorted her to my room so we could talk.

I needed to know why she never told me about my daughter.I’d wanted this woman since we met five years ago. Two years ago, when she came back into my life, I decided I wanted her as my old lady. I’d been trying to wear her down with not much success.

I didn’t know she’d been lying to me, keeping my daughter from me. I knew I needed to hear her out. I just hoped whatever her reasons were, they were good enough to forgive her for the time I’d lost with my daughter.

Chapter Three

Samantha

I followed Jack toward his room upstairs. In the past two years since I’d lived in Nebraska, I’d only been to the clubhouse a handful of times. In all those times, I had never been upstairs to a room.

Not for the lack of trying on Jack’s part.

It wasn’t that I didn’t want to take Jack up on his many invitations, I just couldn’t let myself give in. I couldn’t let him find out about Charlie.

Now that he’d learned about Charlie, there would be no reason for me to continue turning him down. Only, now he’d never ask me again. That was the very definition of a catch-22.

We entered his room, and Jack closed the door behind us. It was sparse. There was a queen-sized bed, a nightstand on either side, and a dresser with a TV on it. There were two doors close together. One I was sure was a closet, the other I assumed was a bathroom. I stood in the middle of the room and waited for Jack to say something.

Anything.

Lord knew I didn’t know what to say. I told him I would explain, but I did not know where to start. I turned to look at him. He leaned against the back of the door with his arms crossed over his chest. God, he was so sexy.

And so angry.

“Well?” he asked.

“Jack, I’m so sorry.”

“Sorry for what? Lying to me about being on birth control?”

Oh my God, how does he know?

“I didn’t know for sure until just now.”

I looked up at him.

“Yea, you said that out loud.”

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