Junkyard Dog (23 page)

T
his first time Dreamy visits Hayes’s house, she
ends up under the couch with Nightmare trying to smoke her out. The kids attempt
to coax the dog to play outside, but he’s too busy watching the cat. Whining
frequently, he pushes the couch with his nose. Everywhere the couch scoots, the
cat goes too.

“He wants to eat her,” Hayes tells the kids.

“Not cool,” Cricket mutters, crawling to the couch
and talking to the pets.

They’re unimpressed with her pep talk. We finally
drag Nightmare away long enough to grab the cat and stick her in the carrier.
These two don't appear capable of becoming friends.

By the time we officially move into Hayes’s house
just before Christmas, Dreamy uses Nightmare as a pillow. The kids get
accustomed to Hayes’s house too and soon use one spare room for their beds and
the second one as a playroom. We finish unpacking stuff from the rental house
one week before the wedding.

The weather gives us a break, allowing the sun to
break through the clouds on our winter wedding day. I wear a simple white gown,
short enough that I don’t need heels. Chipper and Cricket walk me down a white
tarp in our backyard to where a pastor and Hayes wait. We have white chairs set
out for our few guests. Grandpa and Grandma Eddison sit in the front row with
Balthazar and Lizzy Anne. Moot wears his fanciest jeans for his role as best
man. Honey is decked out in a summer dress and a winter jacket as my maid of
honor.

Hayes wears black slacks and shirt, looking like
the devil to my angel white. In fact, we’re somewhere in between on the evil to
holy scale.

I’m not the only blushing belle on my wedding day. Reunited
with her old beau, Honey goes goo-goo over Moot, who stares hypnotized by her.
An hour after the ceremony, I wonder if either of them remembers she’s married.
Even with four loud kids running circles around them, Honey and Moot can only
see each other.

Hayes watches the flirting couple and shakes his
head disapprovingly. “Why can’t people make sense the way we do?”

“We’re special, boss.”

Hayes gives me a knowing smile. After all, he’s the
feared Junkyard Dog, and I’m his not-so-sweet Candy Girl.

C
ontrary to the rumors around town, marriage and
kids don’t turn me soft. More than once, I am forced to remind everyone I
control White Horse. Moot acts as my muscle while I play family man. He also puts
together a team of trusted men to help him do my dirty work. Moot might not be
as scary as I am, but everyone knows he's backed by my money and power.

Candy gets pregnant six months after we marry.
Every day, I tell her she looks beautiful even when she gets bigger with my one
boy than she did with twins.

“I’m giving birth to Sasquatch,” she complains
while rubbing cocoa butter on her stretch marks. “He better be gorgeous.”

Our baby is born in the afternoon on a stormy
Saturday. I stare at him in absolute awe. I mean I know what babies look like,
but this is my kid, so he’s fucking special. Candy keeps playing with his
thick, dark brown hair.

“I don’t want to be mean,” Cricket says, staring at
her little brother, “but he’s not cute.”

“Did he fall out of you and land on his face?”
Chipper asks.

“I will cry,” Candy warns in a quiet, sing-songy
voice to keep the newborn from waking. “I will cry a lot, and there will be
snot, and I will use you two as giant napkins for all my boogers. Do you
understand how much snot I can produce as a new mother? Gallons and gallons.
Now let’s try this again. What do you think of Casper?”

The kids look at each other and then their brother.
“He’s beautiful,” Chipper and Cricket say in unison, playing up the creepy twin
angle.

“Better.”

“Why Casper?” Balthazar asks the next day when he
visits the hospital.

“I wanted to honor you,” Candy says, grimacing from
her C-section as she tries to get comfortable in bed.

“Why me?

“I figured you were trying to make a kickass
statement by naming your son Anus but then chickened out and added the ‘g’ at
the last minute.”

Balthazar frowns at me, but I can only roll my
eyes. Candy’s reasoning for the name is bizarre, but she gave birth to my
fourteen-pound son, so I’m not arguing with her.

“Get it? Anus and Ass-per?”

“You’re a strange woman,” Balthazar says and then
smiles at Casper. “But you make beautiful babies.”

Candy grins until she moves again. “I forgot how
much C-sections suck on the second day.”

“I’m sorry,” I say, feeling rather useless standing
there.

“For giving me everything a woman could want?” she
asks, smiling brightly.

Just like that, I feel like a fucking king.

On our first anniversary, I give her something
she’s too afraid to ask for. Candy opens the gift box and finds a newspaper
clipping of a woman’s grisly death. She frowns for a long time, and I wonder if
I was wrong about her wanting Peat’s murderer dead.

“And I only bought you a sex toy,” she finally
says.

Candy always has a way with words. She never says
anything else about the dead woman, but I notice less anger in her eyes
whenever she mentions her brother. After everything Candy’s given me, I’m
relieved my gift brought her an ounce of peace.

Until her, I never knew I was lonely. Until her, I
never figured I’d have the patience to be a father. Until her, I hated change.
Until her, I never truly knew how it felt to be a man.

S
omething magical happens at our wedding. Honey’s
independence, with an assist from her libido, awakens. I knew she dated Moot
years ago, but Hayes made their relationship sound one-sided. Apparently, my
sister still holds a flame for the bad boy.

While I enjoyed my honeymoon at Disney World, Honey
kicked Douche to the curb. By the time I’m pregnant with Casper, Andrew is past
tense and Moot is her current beau. Both free after too long locked up, Honey and
Moot go wild for a few months. I constantly tell Hayes how I don’t approve of
their partying ways. I never say anything to Honey though. I love seeing her
smile.

Eventually, Honey and Moot settle down and become a
family. By then, I’m knee-deep in giant baby madness. Casper, or Cap as I get
to calling him, loves his mama. For the first year of his life, I can’t leave
the room without him losing his shit. The twins view Cap as their enemy. He
isn’t fond of them either. He only wants me.
All the time.

“I can’t believe I’m jealous of a baby,” Hayes says
one night while we sleep with Cap between us.

“He’s a baby. He’s barely crawling. The world is a
big place, and he needs security.”

Hayes grins slightly in the dark room. “I’d want to
climb all over you if I could.”

“Right back at you, big guy.”

Cap is a perfect form of birth control until he
turns one and learns to walk. Suddenly, he’s Mister Independent. He chases his
siblings. He chases Nightmare and Dreamy. Best of all, he chases after his
daddy. Cap runs himself into exhaustion and begins crashing early each night.

“We’re free!” I cry the first night Cap sleeps
without hours of cuddling.

Hayes yanks off his shirt and shivers. “What’s
fucking like? I have vague memories of liking it.”

I nearly injure myself in the rush to the bed.
Hayes isn’t much more coordinated. Too long without sex has left us rusty. I
don’t know what to do with my hands. He nearly dislocates my hip, trying to
find his way inside me. We’ve become clumsy virgins. By the next night, we’re aces
again.
Practice makes perfect after all.

Cap has my big mouth and Hayes’s trust issues. He never
wants to play with anyone outside his family. He’s wary of his cousins and
watches them the same way Hayes watches twitchy people in his territory.

“Anti-social runs in the family,” Hayes says,
gesturing toward Cricket and Chipper who always keep their distance from
outsiders.

The twins warm up to Cap when he begins smiling at
them. That’s all it takes. They crave applause, and he finds them hilarious.
Once he’s mobile, the twins become triplets. Everywhere they go, he wants to go
too. Cricket teaches him to throw a fit on command. Chipper teaches him to do
the pouty face that turns Hayes to mush.

My man has no resistance to the children’s
trickery. All he can do is force me to play the bad guy. I throw the blame on
the po-po when I can, but most days I’m cool with being the scary parent. There’s
no denying Hayes makes a very sexy softie.

Disney World becomes a bi-yearly event for the
family. As the kids get older, the trips become more relaxed. Balthazar and
Lizzy Anne join us on each trip. Occasionally, Honey, Moot, and their brood come
along too. My favorite moments are when Hayes, the kids, and I watch fireworks.
No matter how big the kids get, they ooh and ahh like when they were little.
Hayes also never fails to laugh at how no matter how old I get I always ooh and
ahh too.

While Casper might be the official heir to the Hayes
organization, he’s as laidback as his brother. By the time she’s a teenager, Cricket
causes fear in White Horse. Her favorite hobby is showing up unannounced at
work sites to scare the lazier employees.

None of the kids show any interest in going to
college. They take a few business and accounting classes at the community
college. Otherwise, they learn everything they need to know from Hayes. He
expands his main office to give each kid their own space. Doling out more and
more work to them, he’s officially retired by the time Cap turns eighteen. Even
as his kids become the public face of the Hayes organization, my sexy man will
always be the Junkyard Dog calling the shots behind the curtain.

L
iving in
Indiana with my three sweet sons, three wacky cats, one super mom (and her ugly
dog), I love writing, cats, Denny's, 1970's rock, Beanie Boos, and sitcoms
cancelled before their time.

Website:
http://www.BijouHunterBooks.com

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/AuthorBijouHunter

Twitter:
https//twitter.com/BijouBooks

Email:
[email protected]

Sign up for my mailing list to receive exclusive
info on release dates, cover reveals, and more:

http://www.bijouhunterbooks.com/mailing-list

Bijou Hunter Books

Ramsey Security Series

Thunderstruck * Live Wire * High Voltage

Damaged Series

Damaged and the Beast * Damaged and the Knight

Damaged and the Cobra * Damaged and the Outlaw

Damaged and the Dragon * Damaged and the Bulldog

Damaged and the Saint * In the Wind * Sunday
Morning

Little Memphis MC Series

Little Memphis * Broken Memphis

Standalones

Gator * Used * Rebound Biker