Page 7 of Crewe
“McClure and I took turns making sure you didn’t choke on your own vomit. And we wiped your tears when you cried about Ryanne,” Gaines muttered.
Crewe stared at his brother, wondering if he was lying. Surely, he hadn’t cried about her, had he?
“Yeah, relax. You didn’t cry, but you whined enough you might as well have. Dad’s taking them to get doughnuts. Ryanne’s parents brought them over while they went to pick up Ryanne on the side of the road. She had two tires go flat.”
Crewe turned toward Gaines, “Is she okay?”
“Yeah, she said she expected it. She accidentally ran over some nails when she was getting some pictures on the side of the road. Yo, get a move on. Those kids want you with them, and you stink,” Gaines said, leaving the bathroom.
Crewe hurried and soaped up, getting the sweat and stench of alcohol off him, then hurried todress. He walked out of his room to find Wyatt and Freya patiently waiting on the couch.
“If it took you that long to poop, Mom would say you need more fruit. Were you constipated?” Freya asked.
“I didn’t poop. I had to shower. Let’s go find Papa Burt and go get doughnuts,” Crewe said, shepherding the kids down the stairs and out to the parking lot.
He helped the kids into his dad’s truck and into the booster seats. Ezra, Whiskey and Vivi’s son, was already in one.
“What took so long?” Ezra asked.
“Crewe had to poop,” Freya said.
“No, he said he showered,” Wyatt said.
“Can we get doughnuts now?” Freya asked.
Burt chuckled. “Yep, let’s get doughnuts, and then how about we go fishing.”
Crewe scowled at his dad. The gleeful look on his dad’s face told Crewe his dad knew good and well that Crewe felt like crap and didn’t want to sit in the hot sun fishing. Crewe might be in his forties, but he felt like he was being punishedlike when he was younger. He, his brothers, and cousins were a little wild growing up. Add in their friends from the Bluff Creek Brotherhood MC, and they’d all sown some wild oats.
When they’d all gotten drunk out at the lake in high school, instead of getting to sleep it off on Sunday, his dad and uncles had made them all clean the bar top to bottom, including the bathrooms, mopping floors and dusting every chair and booth. After that, they made sure not to get caught if they did any drinking.
They decided to go in the doughnut shop, and he helped Freya and Wyatt out of the truck with both of them grabbing a hand. As he walked into the shop holding their hands, he wished they were his. He’d fallen in love with the kids just as much as with their mother. He’d spent hours with all of them, taking them different places and helping Ryanne when they all had the flu. Although getting drunk last night hadn’t helped the situation, it had let him forget his troubles for a while.
Each day he didn’t get to claim them all tore a little piece off his heart. He really did need to talkwith Whiskey and Hennessy, especially Hennessy, on what he should do next. His current plan of winning Ry wasn’t working because she didn’t seem to even know he wanted more.
Yep, he was going to ask them for help.
Chapter Seven
He loved his brothers and cousins. He loved his brothers and cousins. Maybe if Crewe repeated it to himself enough, he wouldn’t smack them all in the face. He’d asked Hennessy and Whiskey for help. For some reason, they’d decided Crewe needed more help than just them.
All the kids, including Whiskey and Vivi’s, were being watched at Burt’s house by Morgan and Elijah, Ellie and Hennessy’s sons. Because all his brothers, cousins, his dad, and his uncles, alongwith Ellie and Vivi, wanted to be in on helping him.
Seriously, right now he felt like he was the little kid at the adult table, and everyone knew what was going on but him.
“Well, let’s get this started,” Whiskey said, grinning.
“I agree. Dumbass, I mean Crewe, has finally decided he needs some help in winning Ryanne. It’s only taken how many months?” Hennessy asked.
“Now, Hennessy, cut Crewe some slack. He did ask for help,” Gaines said.
“True. Big brother has always been a little slow, and I mean that in the very best way, Crewe. You’re a planner,” McClure said.
Crewe was regretting ever asking for help because it seemed like it was roast Crewe instead of helping him.
“Boys, at least Crewe is going after a woman. I want grandkids before I’m too old to enjoy them. Do you have any prospects, McClure? Gaines?” Burt asked.
Crewe grinned at the stunned looks on his brothers’ faces at being called out by their dad. Maybe this wouldn’t be as bad as he thought.
