Page 56 of Alpha & Omega

“Thanks! Dad got me the gear yesterday. I’m pumped to learn to skate.”

I led them to where my family was sitting on blankets in the sun, all waiting to finally meet my boyfriend.

“Everyone, I know you all have been curious about Harley. He’s the chef at that restaurant next door, and this is his son Hudson.”

They all waved and said hi, being polite, thank fuck.

“Okay, we’ll start with Ajax. He’s the big one there, with Aiden sitting between his legs—the one covered in tattoos. The redhead and curly-headed ones are Pippin and Nacho. The bleached-blond guy with the dark and broody one are Stix and Stone. Then there are the twins, Blondie and Jazz, who’s the only girl in the group, but she never seems to mind.”

She scoffed, making me smirk.

“And the bald and quiet one there is Cueball. That’s it. They’re my Rejects.”

Hudson gave a small and shy wave, looking suddenly out of place and unsure, but my family wouldn’t let him escape, especially when Stix and Nacho stood and dragged him over to them.

Stix looked back at me and Harley. “You go do your thing. We’ve got Hudson. We’ll teach him all the safety rules and some tricks.”

I raised a brow, doubting they cared much about safety rules, but I trusted them.

“We’ll need to come up with a good nickname for him, too,” Nacho said.

Stix snapped his fingers. “I got it! Hawk! You know, from that movie Hudson Hawk with that dude, Bruce… Willis!”

“Uh…” Hudson said.

Nacho beamed. “Perfect! Though, I don’t know the movie.”

Hudson looked back at us for permission to go skate, and his dad nodded.

“I can’t thank you enough for including Hudson. He can be a bit shy sometimes. He’s outgoing in a small group and smart as hell, but he doesn’t have tons of friends.”

“Trust me, they’ll completely dote on him. I mean, they just gave him a nickname. That’s big shit around here. Some of them may look scary, but they’re all good kids… Adults. I keep forgetting that, knowing them when they were younger.”

Harley wrapped his arms around me and held me close. “And when are you done being young? When’s your thirtieth?”

I feigned a sneer, holding him back. “Rude. Wouldn’t you like to know?”

“I would like to know. You do realize that birthdays with me include amazing dinners and a delicious cake.”

“Bribing me again, I see.”

“Is it working?”

“Is sex involved?”

He grinned wider. “When is it not?”

“Fine, you’ve twisted my arm. How can I say no to food and sex? My birthday… unfortunately, it’s coming up too soon. October twelfth.”

“How about you? When are you going to be the big forty?”

“You suck. I’ll have you know that I still have six years to go, thank you very much.”

“One foot in the grave,” I chuckled.

He rolled his eyes and huffed, pretending to be mad.

“By the way, not buying a board for yourself doesn’t get you out of learning how to skate. Now come on, Chef. Let’s teach you some skateboarding. You can use my board.”

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