Page 20 of Biker's Baby

NINE

Abe

I wasn’t usedto having anyone in the house, and the adjustment hit me harder than I expected.

I had been a loner my entire adult life. Sure, I’d grown up in a family with a lot of brothers so the house was always full, but once I became an adult, I’d lived entirely on my own.

There had been that one stint of time with Iris the last time she’d come to me for protection, but that had been brief. She’d only stayed with me for two weeks. It had been a wild two weeks, that’s for sure, but at the end of the day, it was still just two weeks.

As soon as she’d gone, I was back to living on my own. I did everything on my own, and I was okay with that.

Not to say that I hated having Iris and her son here now.

But it was a massive adjustment having to chase Tristan around just to make sure he didn’t get into anything he shouldn’t. My house wasn’t set up for a toddler, let alone a young toddler.

Iris did her part in keeping an eye on her son, but I still felt that I had a level of responsibility to the child to keep him safe. After all, they had come to my house to make sure they were safe, and if he were to get hurt here, there would be no way I could forgive myself.

On the other hand, I didn’t mind the idea of Iris moving out soon with her boy.

I was happy to have her in my life again, but it was stressful stepping around toddler toys and keeping the noise down when he was having his nap. I knew my late-night work turning into coming home bright and early in the morning had to be stressful for her, even if she didn’t outright say that it was.

So, if there was a way I could keep her kid occupied while she looked over what she needed to online to find a job and get her own place, I didn’t mind watching her kid run around the place. At least I knew what was in every cupboard and drawer, so it wasn’t as though he could get into anything that surprised me.

My favorite times of the day wound up being when Tristan was taking his nap. I didn’t even feel bad saying so to his mother, either.

“That would be one of my favorite times, too.” She laughed. “But time goes too fast. I know he’s not going to be in this stage forever, and I’m going to be so sad when he grows out of it.”

I wasn’t so sure about that. Not that I would be in the picture when it happened.

I was starting to look forward to going to work at night. Not because of the fact I wanted the house to be quiet, but for my own sake. It was the only way I could get some of my own peace and quiet away from what was going on there.

I felt it would be pretty easy to keep things under the radar with Iris at home, but it didn’t take long before Glenn started asking questions. I didn’t even realize I was acting any differently at work than usual, but he knew me better than most, and he evidently was keeping his eye on me.

“You doing okay?” he asked one night at the start of the shift. “You seem like you’re distracted these days or something. I don’t know how to put it, but I can tell there’s something on your mind.”

“Me?” I asked. “Yeah, I’m totally fine.”

Glenn gave me a hard look, and I could instantly tell he didn’t believe me.

“Totally fine?” he asked. “Come on, I know you better than that.”

“Lay off, will you?” I asked with a small laugh. “You’re worse than my mother!”

I was able to get him off the subject for the moment, but it didn’t last long. By the time our lunch break rolled around, he was once more watching me like a hawk.

I hadn’t even thought about what I’d packed for lunch. Normally, I would grab something easy to eat from the gas station or a deli on my way to work. Or, if I was bringing something from home, it was a couple slices of cold pizza or something.

Iris had made a delicious pasta salad the day before, and I was more than happy to take some of the leftovers for lunch. Not to mention adding in a few of the cookies she’d also baked to round out the meal. It wasn’t much, but it was far more elaborate than anything I would bring on a normal day, and Glenn was all over it.

“Wow,” he said.

“What?”

“Just didn’t know when you decided to go to culinary school or whatever it is when you learn how to cook fancy,” he replied.

“Who says that this is anything fancy?” I asked.

“Just that I’ve never seen you bring anything even close to like that from home before. I would think that you had gone to the store to get something, but you’re using dishes from your place, so that means that you must have brought that with you out of your own fridge,” Glenn continued.

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