Page 35 of The MC's Surprise
“I, uh…”
She came right up to him, grabbing his arm and tugging a little. “Come on, Justin. I need you,” she pouted.
My stomach soured and I edged past the couple, heading for the laundry room. I paused in the hallway and pulled up a shared document on my phone that Skylar and I made notes on when we had free time to work on the club stuff at work. I didn’t want to watch Vegas fawning over Charlotte, and I masked my expression when he agreed to join her.
I needed to keep my head on straight. Vegas and I weren’t a couple, and going on a date wasn’t going to change that. This was a fling for him; at least while Charlotte wasn’t giving him the time of day. I was still his second choice. I needed to remember that. When she called, he’d come running, and I didn't want to be left heartbroken when he did. Just a fling, nothing serious. I could handle that. Maybe.
My self esteem may be shot after my LA debacle, but I wasn’t ever going to be someone’s second choice. I wasn’t that desperate.
20
Vegas
With my time split between work and the club shit, I could admit I never gave the local park much thought. It wasn’t like I had much time to go and enjoy it. So when we showed up for our clean up event, I was caught off guard with just how bad off it was. It hardly looked like a park. It looked more like a junkyard, with trash piled up, the playground all rusted, and overgrown grass and weeds, making it almost impossible to walk through it. Sierra stood next to me and nodded at my gaping shock.
“I know. It's really bad. I’ve got a dumpster being delivered so we don’t have to make trips, and the parks department is giving us full access to their lawn care stuff, but they didn’t have the manpower or the time to handle a project this bad.”
“What about the playground? There’s no way kids can use that,” Skylar commented. She stood beside Sierra, a heartbroken look on her face as she studied the park.
Sierra shook her head. “I couldn’t do anything about that. It was too expensive to replace, and I promised these eventswouldn’t cost us anything. I figured it was better for it to be clean and empty than nothing at all.”
While that was good in theory, it didn’t do much about the bigger issue. This park was supposed to be a fun place for kids and families. An empty field wasn’t going to draw them in. And while, yes, Sierra had promised the events would be free, I couldn’t just stand by and leave it as it was.
Prez must have been thinking the same thing. He waved me over to where he was standing across the parking lot, his frown deep as he stared at the dilapidated park.
“What’s up, Prez?”
“How much do we have in the charity account?”
I winced. “Not enough. I looked into it when Sierra mentioned the clean up.”
“How much would it cost to fix it?”
I didn’t have the answer to that, so I looked it up on my phone. “For the good stuff, we’re looking at fifty grand at minimum, and that’s for the toddler set up. For the bigger kids, it's a lot more expensive.”
The charity account was well funded, but not that well funded. Each of the guys put a portion of their earnings into the coffers for things like helping a brother in need, or covering the costs to care for the clubhouse, including paying for the water damage when me and Rooster made that indoor slip ‘n slide. I paid a good portion of that because I felt bad, but it wasn’t all on me. If we could afford it, we gave more for the charity account. But most of the guys were blue-collar workers and couldn’t afford to funnel as much as Prez and I did into that account. We weren’t rolling in the dough, and we couldn’t pull off a huge donation without help.
“You guys choose a charity for that event the girls were talkin’ about?” Rooster queried. “This might be what you’re savin’ for.”
I considered it with a frown. We hadn’t actually chosen a charity. I figured we’d choose a major organization like we normally did, but putting the money towards park equipment wasn’t a bad idea.
Cupping my hand around my mouth, I called out to Sierra. “Hey, Sierra! Have you made plans for the charity rally?”
She glanced over her shoulder, her brow furrowing. My eyes automatically strayed to her belly as she came to join us. She was starting to waddle a little, and I could admit it was sexy “Like how it's going to work, or–”
“No. We were discussing making the charity event be to buy park equipment. Get the community involved in making this place better.”
Her eyes lit up, and she beamed at me, the force of that smile nearly knocking me on my ass. The more time I spent with Sierra, the more I noticed how perfect she was. She was selfless and hardworking, and when it came to my crew, she was determined to make things easier on us. There were absolutely no regrets for the accidental pregnancy. I had no idea how we’d fix things without her beautiful brain coming up with all the good ideas.
“That’s a great idea! It’d be super easy to get the local businesses on board with a charity for their own community. And it’ll warm up the parents of the town toward the crew by a lot. Let me write this down. I’m going to need to get a quote from a company that sets that kind of thing up and call the parks department on the requirements. We’re going to have to make the rally huge to be able to pull it off, but–” She was rambling, only half focused as she made notes in her phone, so when sirens cut through the quiet, she wasn’t expecting it and jumped, dropping her phone on the ground.
The tension in the air shot up exponentially and we all waited for the worst to happen. I picked up her phone for her to spareher trying to bend over, handing it to her while we all searched for the source of the sound. I put my hand on Sierra’s back, keeping her close as we waited for the inevitable. But it wasn’t the cops coming to hassle us. Instead, a fire truck with full lights and sirens pulled into the parking lot and a team of volunteer firefighters hopped out, including a familiar face.
“Dad?” Prez called out.
“Hey, boys. Thought you could use a hand.”
My gaze was caught between the truck and Tank, who was supposed to be retired and relaxing at home. When I lifted my eyebrows and gestured at the truck significantly, he chuckled.
