Page 20 of Freedom Ride

“Even better,” I laughed. “You chose me. You didn’t have a choice when it came to Remy.”

“Jesus,” Meg muttered.

“I am the chosen one.”

Meg slapped my arm but smiled. “I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t have given me any other choice than to choose you. I was your Mama Meg from the day you were born. Thankfully, your mom was more than cool with you calling me that.”

I finished the rest of my coffee. “That’s because my mom and dad were cool as shit.”

Meg laughed and nodded her head. “They most definitely were, Jonas. They were cool and loved you more than anything.”

“Which is why they wanted you to choose me as your baby because they knew you would love me as much as they would have.”

“Jonas,” Meg cried. “How did you get so smart?” She reached out and squeezed my hand. “You were so angry when you were younger. I’ve always worried that you resented Lo and me.”

“I had a few years to sit around and figure shit out.” For so many years growing up, I had been so mad at, well, everything. I couldn’t figure out why my parents were taken from me while other kids got to keep theirs. Hell, kids with shitty parents got to keep them, while my parents were amazing, and they were gone in an instant. There had even been a time when I hated Meg and King because I didn’t want them to be my parents, I wanted my real mom and dad.

Looking back, I knew it was horrible my parents had died, but I had been the luckiest kid in the world to be given a second chance with Meg and King. They easily could have refused to take care of me, and I would have landed in foster care.

Foster care was never even an option because I became Meg’s baby before the courts could even sign the papers to make it legal.

And I still was. After all of these years, I knew Meg loved me as much as Remy. Hell, maybe even a little bit more since I had chosen to stay in Rockton while Remy was off building racecars.

“What is that smirk on your lips for?” Meg asked.

I shrugged and grabbed her empty coffee cup. “Just thinking about Remy’s dumbass. You talk to the knucklehead lately?”

“I talk to Harlyn more than I do him, but I know he's doing good.”

I set our cups on the counter and refilled them. “You still like a little coffee with your creamer?” I asked.

“Yes,” Meg laughed. “Though I have switched to sugar-free creamer. My hips were getting a little too wide.”

“Right,” I drawled. “I think I’ll leave it up to King to convince you that you’re full of shit.”

“Who’s full of shit?” King called. He walked into the common room, stretching his arms over his head and grimacing. “I can’t remember the last time we slept at the clubhouse,” he grumbled. “I think we need to get a new mattress, babe.”

Meg rolled her eyes. “Yeah, sure. I’ll get right on that. I love to buy things we are only going to use once or twice a year.”

King pointed to the front door. “You wanna talk about that fucking RV sitting behind the shop?” he growled. “We’ve used the damn thing four times in the past seven years. Pretty sure you were the one who said we needed it.”

Meg flitted her hand at King. “We’re going to use it more once the grandkids get older.”

“Remy’s kids are close to graduating high school, Meg. I think they are old enough to go camping or whatever the hell you want to do in that RV.” King ambled into the kitchen area and grabbed a coffee cup. “Maybe you should call Remy and tell him we need to see him more than four times a year.”

“Quarterly visits,” I laughed.

“He can’t help it that he is busy working, Lo,” Meg grumbled.

“Pretty sure race season is not year-round, babe.”

I filled King’s cup and set the coffee pot down. “You into that sugar-free creamer shit?”

King curled his lip. “Hell no. Some things have changed in six years, but my coffee has not. Black.”

I chuckled and shook my head. “Same. Though it probably wouldn’t have changed in prison because black coffee is what you get, it’s pretty shitty.” I grabbed my cup and held it up. “This is one million times better than prison.”

I walked back over to Meg and set her cup in front of her. “Jonas,” she whispered.

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