Page 24 of The MC's Little Brother

“He lost. She’s asleep.”

She chuckled, taking a sip of her water bottle. “I told him he would. But I appreciate him trying anyway. Hopefully, we’ll get past the regression before Ryder starts on his.” She rubbed his back gently.

I gestured to the baby and raised an eyebrow. “May I?”

She waved me on, passing him to me carefully. He didn’t even fuss, used to being passed around the crew since the day he was born. He had a thick head of hair like his daddy, but Skylar’s eyes. I did the nurse thing first, checking him over because it always made Skylar feel better knowing I was watching over him before just enjoying the cuddles. I was breathing him in when I noticed her shifting uncomfortably.

“You need to be doing yoga.”

She scoffed, shooting me an incredulous look. “Sorry, what now?”

I chuckled. “You just had a baby and your body is readjusting. Yoga will loosen things up without overdoing it, like with heavy exercise. Just a little a day will help.”

She let out a heavy sigh, dropping her head back. “Of course.” Her voice cracked, and I knew the tears were coming, so I handed off the baby to Butch and moved to stand behind her, rubbing her shoulders. I couldn’t imagine having four kids, one of them only three months old, another in a sleep regression, and still getting the kind of sleep she needed.

“Relax, Mama Bear. I’ll be around to help. And it’ll be hilarious to watch Butch attempt to do those moves with you.”

Butch shot me an incredulous look, and I gave him a smug grin in reply. “Good partners do these things together. She needs support.”

He softened instantly and gave Skylar a mushy look before scowling at me and pointing the spatula in my direction. “I don’t like you.”

“Yeah, you do,” I teased. “Who got you first-class treatment in the birthing room?”

I didn’t use my position in the hospital for special treatment often, but when I did, I went all out for my friends.

Skylar put one hand on top of mine, looking up at me with tear-filled eyes. “I’m not going crazy, right?”

Smacking a kiss on her forehead, I nodded sharply. “Nope. Sleep deprivation and being a human milk machine will do that to you. You’re a tough mama, handling two under two and four in total. I’m in awe of you. Seriously, Skylar. You’re amazing. Don’t forget that.”

15

Xander

Iwasn’t actually listening to music. Having the headphones in got people to leave me alone. I just needed a minute. I wasn’t used to being around big groups outside of school. And they all looked dangerous. Not one person in the group was what I’d consider short or soft. They were all tall and muscly and some of them, like the one in front of the stove, looked like he ate horses for breakfast. Seriously, how did someone get that big?

Mel was a good distraction. I listened to her talk to her friends, her teasing light and easy. When she noticed the woman getting upset, she was quick to make it better. I liked her. I wished more adults in my life were like her. I knew she was only friends with Wraith and not like his girlfriend or anything, but she kept showing up and I liked her coming around. Hopefully, it wasn’t a pity thing, though, because that’d ruin it.

I was just starting to relax when a blonde-haired boy came running into the room. “Dad! Vegas is cheating at cards again!”

The huge guy behind the stove sighed heavily. “I told ‘im to knock it off. Why do I gotta do everything around here?”

He handed off the spatula to the Asian woman next to him and stompedout of the kitchen, stopping only long enough to kiss the woman sitting at the table and hand off the baby again before he disappeared. The boy didn’t immediately follow him, instead locking eyes with me. He was younger than me, but I wasn’t sure by how much. He cocked his head at me.

“Who’s that?”

“That’s Xander,” Mel answered. “He’s Wraith’s little brother.”

It still felt weird that people kept referring to me like that. I didn't even know I had a brother until just after school started this year. I was avoiding Jorge by hiding in the attic and found a box with a name I’d never heard on it. It was mostly a bunch of random stuff, but there was a stack of pictures of a toddler and a woman I wasn’t familiar with. On the back of one was their names. Carmen and Mattias. I had to wait until the next time Jorge was in the happy drunk stage to ask him about them. It set him off, and he went on a rant, cursing them both, but between the ramblings, I got the gist. I had a brother I never knew about somewhere out there. The unyielding hope I felt in that moment wasn’t even diminished when Jorge’s rant switched to me and how worthless I was, too. I just ignored him and during lunch at school the next day, I tried looking up my brother’s name. There were too many matches for me to narrow it down, but when I snuck back up to the attic, I found some old mail with the address Jorge used to live at.

Silver City, New Mexico.

It felt like a sign and I spent a few weeks trying to find more information about Mattias. I wasn’t going to ask for anything. I just wanted to know if there was some family out there besides Jorge. But when Jorge finally kicked me out, and I realized I was going to end up somewhere worse than in his house, I figured I’d come out here and see if Mattias would be willing to help me.

I never thought I’d wind up in a biker clubhouse.

“What happened to him?” the little boy asked.

“He fell,” was Mel’s quick reply. I wasn’t paying attention, and I snorted automatically, which drew the boy’s focus. And Mel’s. She grinned, but didn’t get pissed that I was pretending to listen to music and eavesdropping.

---