Page 54 of Tusk's Fury

Our favorite waitress is a middle-aged woman with her hair tied back and a frilly pink apron. She’s almost grandmotherly. Sure enough, the kids get excited when she comes out with our favorite drinks and snacks. Marla’s face lights up when she sees we have new people with us. “Oh my, I noticed the boys were on their best behavior today, and now I know why. You have womenfolk in tow.”

The boys all take turns telling her about their new little sister. “Well now, that’s great news for your little family, Wade.” She takes a few minutes to make nice with Brittany and then takes our order.

When she walks away, Brittany tells us, “Marla is amazing. If the food is as good as she is, this will be my new favorite restaurant.”

At one point, before our food is ready, the baby gets hungry again, and Brittany does her thing. It must be hard feeding a baby every two to three hours around the clock. She’s super discreet, and the boys are too excited about burgers to care what she’s doing. They beg for money for the jukebox and elbow each other out of the way to pick songs. I call out, “You each only get one song, so quit fightin’.”

They come racing back to the table with big smiles on their faces, and I realize they’ve chosen a rock ballad for their first song. Brittany gets emotional at their kindhearted gesture. Oh man, I get the feeling my boys are gonna be great big brothers.

Jack explains, “We weren’t fighting with each other over hogging songs. We were fighting about which songs were for babies. This was the only one, so we all chose it.”

Robbin holds up four fingers. “Same song four times. It’s gonna be great.”

Before I can tell them how proud I am, some old man comes in and ruins the mood.

We hear him complaining under his breath. “Womenfolk have no shame. They need to feed their young’uns somewhere private.”

Brittany actually cringes, her face turning red with embarrassment at being spoken to like that by a stranger. My boys don’t like that at all.

Jack shouts, “Leave her alone. She just being a mom.”

I try to calm them down. “Come on, leave the old geezer alone. He’s entitled to have an opinion even if we don’t agree with it. Freedom of speech and all that.” Meanwhile, I’m giving him a death glare.

Marla comes out of the back with a to-go bag in her hand, taking in the scene for a second before stating casually, “You out here making friends and influencing people again, Arnie?”

She hands him his food, and he snatches the bag from her hand. “Women with their breasts out in public, it should be against the damn law. Back in my day they’d do that kind of thing behind closed doors.”

Jack sneers at the old man, “When was that, in the stone age?”

I bite my lip to try to keep from laughing. I know I should chastise him for being rude, but that asshole deserves it.

The old man whirls around to complain, but when I rise up from my chair, he rushes out the front door instead. I tell Marla, “Sorry if my boys made a scene.”

She just grins. “Are you kidding me? Witnessing this was the highlight of my day. That old buzzard has needed a good telling off for a while now. I like how your boys are speaking their minds. Most of the adults here tend to look over his deplorable behavior.”

I sit back down in my seat and say brightly, “That’s my boys. They go where angels fear to tread.”

Chapter 20

Brittany

It’s been a long day, so I don’t even complain when Tusk asks me to come back to his place. I’m exhausted, and he has a big king-size bed with a perfect medium-soft mattress. When we picked out the bedding together back in the day, I bought the softest and coziest bedding I could find. Nothing feels more relaxing than curling up in Tusk’s bed. I’m also looking forward to doing more than just getting comfortable and having a good night’s sleep. After we slept together the other day, I find that I’m craving his touch. In the long months without him I’d almost forgotten how good he was in bed, the way our bodies fit together, it’s like we were made for one another.

I must be quiet on the way to his place because his hand lands on my knee. When I look up at him, he asks, “You sure you want to come to my place?”

I nod. “Of course I do. Why do you ask?”

Jack speaks up from the back seat. “Cos we’re there, and everybody says we’re a handful.”

Tusk shoots him a stern glance over his shoulder. “It’s not that. You look tired and a bit overwhelmed. The last time that happened, you wanted to be alone.”

“I just need a nap, and I’ll be right as rain,” I promise him.

Robbin says, “Only babies take naps.” He gives the youngest of the clan the side eye when he says it. His four-year-old brother, Charlie, is too busy looking out the window to care. But Tusk’s voice takes on a stern edge. “Sleepy people take naps, not just babies.”

“Yes, sir.” His son’s voice is respectful. He looks down, twisting his fingers in his lap.

I feel like Tusk is good at walking the line between being an appropriate authority figure without being too stern. It’s tough being a parent. It’s something he has a lot of experience with, while I have none. I’m paying attention and taking mental notes, though.

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