Page 14 of Biker's Baby

SIX

Iris

I gently laidmy son onto the futon in the spare bedroom. He was exhausted, and it hadn’t taken him long to fall asleep in my arms sitting out in the living room.

Abe had told me that I could use the spare bedroom, and the futon was already put into the bed position. That made it far easier for me to simply lay Tris down and let him find his own comfortable position while I stood with my hand on his back and watched him sleep.

I let myself sink to my knees as I watched him sleep.

I was every bit as exhausted as he was, but I was also the parent. I was the only person in the world who could take care of him properly, and he depended on me for it. So, I would wait here with him and make sure he was entirely asleep before I headed back out to the living room.

I dreaded talking about Tristan with Abe.

I had a sneaking suspicion Abe would ask about him, and it was likely going to be sooner rather than later. Even while we were talking in the living room about what I was doing in town, I saw the looks he kept giving Tristan. I knew he had to be wondering who the father was, and why I showed up alone.

I would be happy to answer some of his questions. In fact, I had a feeling there was more information I’d have to give him before he would leave me alone in the house. But I also needed to take the moment to gather my thoughts before I headed back to the living room to talk to him.

When I finally had the gumption in me to face my old lover, I rose and walked back to the couch. He was still seated in the chair where he had been when I left, and I all but collapsed back to where I had been sitting, too.

“I can’t thank you enough for letting us stay here while I get this figured out,” I told him. “Really. You know what I was dealing with before, so I guess you could say that I never really got the hang of picking good men. It’s pretty much the same situation all over again, but with different faces and names.”

He nodded as I spoke, and I was glad he didn’t bring up the fact there had been that definite spark between us. I still felt like I was a real idiot for leaving the way that I did. But that was a long time ago, and I had done the best that I could at the time.

There was no going back now, and I didn’t know how he would react if he found out that I’d just shown up on his doorstep with a child that was now two years old and belonged to him.

All the while never reaching out to tell him that I was pregnant with his kid in the first place. It sounded like an argument I didn’t really want to have, so I chose to keep it all to myself. I had to if I was going to keep Tristan’s real identity to myself and so we could get through this without getting too caught up in this lifestyle all over again.

It was far too dangerous for me to want to stay too long. I could admit that, even if there was something about the way Abe looked at me that made my heart flutter, or that his smile was still enough to make my knees melt. He would always be able to turn my heart to butter with nothing more than a glance, and I knew staying here was going to bring a lot of that old stuff back to the surface.

There was also a chance it would bring back some of the things that I really didn’t want to come back, too. And if that was the case, I would really stick to what I’d asked him and only stay for a few days. It would be the only way I could really justify being here at all.

The MC life wasn’t the life I wanted for my son, and to bring him right into the thick of it would be downright irresponsible, if not outright abusive.

“Alright,” I said after gathering myself for a few moments. “You can ask me anything you’d like. I might not give you a full answer, or I might not give you a straight answer, but I’ll do my best to work with you.”

“I’ll keep it vague then,” he said. “Just tell me who this guy is I’m looking for.”

“I’m not asking you to go on the prowl for anyone,” I told him. “But if he happens to be in town, he goes by the name of Joel Osbourne, and I’ve got a picture here so you know what to look for.”

I pulled out my phone and showed him one of the older photos I had of Joel. It was a photo that I’d taken shortly after we’d started dating. I used to really like the pic. But now the sight of it made me taste bile. I couldn’t stand anything about the man, and I wanted to reach into the phone and slap him right across the face.

“I don’t know if he would be smart enough to shave or grow facial hair to try to stay undercover,” I said. “But for the most part he likes to keep that shadow on his chin. I don’t think he’s going to try to hide, though. He’s too arrogant for that.”

“I’ll keep an eye out for him,” Abe said. “I’ll tell a few of my buddies to do the same. You can hang out here as long as you need to get back on your feet. Hopefully, when he realizes that you left town, he’ll be smart enough not to come looking for you.”

“I hope the same thing,” I told him. “But like I said, he’s been after me since I broke up with him, and he shows up at my home and my work. I doubt it’s going to take him long to try to find where I went – and he’ll probably come after me when he finds out, too.”

“Did you leave a trail?” Abe asked.

“I did my best not to,” I told him. “I didn’t tell anyone where I was heading, and I left as soon as I could. He was told to leave the apartment, and I was gone less than two hours later, so unless he was stalking the place, he wouldn’t have seen me leave.”

“That’s not to say that he wasn’t, but if he didn’t have any idea that you were planning on skipping town, I doubt that he would have waited around to see what your next move was,” he said.

“Exactly,” I nodded. “I’m guessing that he’s going to be slowed down at least while he does his homework to try to find me. Not that there’s much to go on, but still. He’s come up with sketchy things in the past. I’m not saying that he couldn’t do it again.”

“Don’t stress about it right now,” Abe told me. “You’re safe enough while you’re here, and like I said, I’m going to put out some feelers to see what we can come up with on this guy. For now, why don’t you get some rest? You look exhausted.”

“I am,” I said with a nod. “Thank you.”

---