I'm Only Here for the Beard (The Dixie Wardens Rejects MC #4)(46)

I ignored him.

Instead, I walked up behind Naomi, squeezed in between her friend and the man, and wrapped my arms around her belly.

"Everything feel okay?" I whispered into her ear, running my hand over her belly in worry.

I'd forgotten in my haste to have her that she was still sore, but she hadn't once complained about my rough treatment last night. And now, with the light of day and my sanity returning, I suddenly felt awful about how I'd taken her so hard the night before.

She shivered.

"Perfect," she promised. "Have a seat and I'll bring you your food."

I placed a kiss to her forehead and retreated to the seat Drew had indicated with a tilt of his head a few moments ago.

The moment my ass hit the chair, I turned my attention to Naomi's mother.

"Sean," I held out my hand.

She grinned widely, the move so much like her daughter that it was eerie. "Masha."

"Masha," I shook the delicate hand she placed in mine. "It's nice to finally meet you. Naomi is always talking about you. She forgot to mention how much y'all look alike, though. You look like her older sister."

And she did.

She didn't look like a mother to an almost thirty-year-old.

Masha's cheeks pinked at the compliment. "I had my son when I was young. Sixteen. Naomi came two and a half years later. We don't look like mother and child, that's for sure."

My eyes widened.

Masha's eyes were lit with laughter.

"I graduated high school at seventeen, and married Danny and Naomi's father a week after that. Naomi was actually planned. He was in the military. Was killed while he was overseas."

My heart sank.

"She never got to meet her father, but she reminds me of him every time she opens her mouth." Masha's words were soft, only for me to hear. 

"What branch was he in?" I asked hesitantly.

"The Army," she answered. "He was a Ranger."

I nodded.

One of the best.

"I'm sorry for your loss," I murmured. "I've lost a lot of friends during my time in the military," I told her. "It was never easy."

Her smile was soft.

"You know my daughter tells me almost everything, but you she kept close to her heart," she murmured. "I heard about you very rarely, but every time she did deign to speak of you, I could tell you were beginning to mean a lot to her."

The kitchen chair was pushed aside, and I looked up just as Naomi placed a plate with my breakfast down in front of me.

"Thanks, baby," I murmured, picking up the fork she'd placed down next to the plate.

She followed up by bringing me a cup of coffee and a glass of orange juice.

After squeezing her thigh, I dug in.

It wasn't until I was pushing my plate away that I realized I was the first one served.

"Shit," I said, looking around at the people looking at me. "Was I supposed to wait?"

Naomi's friend, Aspen, started to snicker.

"No," she remarked. "It's just not every day that Naomi doesn't feed herself first. She's selfish like that."

My brows rose. "That's not selfish. She's got that rockin' body that has to be nurtured to continue to look as delicious as it does. How else do you expect her to keep it?"

Aspen stared at me for a few long seconds, then threw her head back and laughed.

Drew touched his hand to the top of Aspen's head and took a seat on her opposite side. "You taking a seat, PD, or are you just going to stand there all day?"

PD, the man that'd voiced nothing since I'd entered the room, looked at Drew for a few long moments, and then came to take a seat on the other side of Drew.

The table that was in the middle of Masha's bright yellow kitchen, decorated in sunflowers, wasn't small, but the moment it had three very large men surrounding it, it looked tiny.

I finished off the last of my eggs, then placed my fork down on the plate and looked at the man who'd broken Naomi's heart.

"So, you're PD," I drawled. "How's the wife?"

PD's face turned from stone to humor in three seconds. "My wife just found out she's pregnant with our second child. She's currently cursing me and every man with a penis between his legs."

I snorted.

"She have morning sickness again?" Naomi asked as she started to set down plates.

"Yeah," PD said, backing away so she could place his in front of him. "Bad. Worse than last time, according to her."

The sad thing was that PD hadn't been around for the last pregnancy, so all he had to go on was what she told him.

Naomi's answering smile wasn't one of sadness, but of happiness.

And when she sat on my lap to eat her own breakfast, I realized that she was just as over PD as I was over Ellen.

We'd healed each other.





Chapter 15