Ice (Thor Book 2), page 15
“Fuck, no,” Ice grunted but had to push back a chuckle. “Please don’t go there.” Then he gave Downer a pat on the shoulder. “Thanks. The asshat is coming later today, don’t plan for him to stay above five minutes.”
“I’ll help you unload whatever he brings,” Downer said with a nod.
“Appreciate it.” Ice said and got up. “Gotta go and take a look at Reena’s car, I’ll give you a call when he’s here.”
“What’s wrong with her car?”
“Don’t know. Reena says she filled it up a couple of days ago and haven’t used it much since then, but it’s suddenly out of gas.”
“It’s a piece of shit, so it could be leaking.”
“Yeah,” Ice agreed but frowned as he walked off to find his brother.
The car was ugly as fuck and not new, but it wasn’t that old either, and Reena said she’d taken it to her regular mechanic in Boise right before everything went down with Toby. Then it had been something about the oil, but she didn’t know what exactly and had assumed it came from ending up in a ditch in the snow.
Black had grumbled about that because he’d taken a look at it after her accident, and there hadn’t been anything significant to sort out that he could find. Ice didn’t like that it suddenly was leaking gas, so they’d look at it, and then he’d have a talk to her about upgrading her vehicle.
***
Reena
I shouldn’t feel that inappropriate urge to giggle, but I did because Harry looked like he’d faint. It seemed almost as if his fake tan had drained off him, and his Adam’s apple was bobbing furiously.
“Hello, Harry,” I said, and he jolted.
“Hello,” he echoed but turned his eyes back to Ice, who was flanked by Black and Downer.
There were also four other members of Thor MC standing behind them, and they were all in their vests. I thought they looked pretty cool, but I could see why Harry had paled when they lined up in front of him because they also looked like a bunch of very rough badasses who ate polished salesmen for Sunday brunch.
“Let’s get her things,” Ice said but didn’t move.
Downer walked toward the car and gave Harry a grin that was suddenly weirdly friendly. If I didn’t know better, I would even have called it salacious.
“I’ll help you unload,” he said.
“Yuh,” Harry wheezed, turned jerkily, and opened the trunk.
“Alrighty,” I quipped when no one else moved, gave Ice a good glare, and marched over to help them pull out the skis, bags, and boxes I’d left in Harry’s garage.
“Nice car,” Downer said and moved a little closer.
“Thanks,” Harry said and move a little further away.
“New?”
“No.”
They did that weird step close and step away dance a few more times, but Downer suddenly grinned and focused on my bags, and Harry seemed to regain some of his composure while we hauled my things over to the cabin.
Then Gee joined us.
“Well, hello,” she said in a voice that was grandmotherly and friendly. “I’m Gee Hagen.”
“Hello,” Harry said with a grin I knew he practiced in front of the mirror. “I’m –”
“Oh, I know who you are,” Gee said happily. “You are the sick asshole who married a fifteen-year-old girl.”
I blinked furiously, partly because I hadn’t known she knew about my history, but mostly since I hadn’t expected anyone to throw it in Harry’s face.
“Sixteen,” Harry rasped out.
“And a month,” I added weakly.
“Okay,” Gee said, still in that eerily friendly voice. “Still makes you a sick fucktard who needs to leave before I kick you in the nuts so hard you can taste them.”
Her sweet smile faded away, and her eyes were suddenly hard and cold as ice. No one said a word, and Harry swallowed furiously again.
“Gee,” Downer said placatingly. “No need to mess with the man.”
He moved to place himself closer to Harry and winked at him.
It was suddenly ridiculously clear to me what Downer was doing, and also who would have asked him to do it, but I didn’t know if I should scream at Ice or laugh myself silly.
“I’ll just,” Harry started and moved toward the car. Then he pulled out another box and a suitcase and put them on the ground behind the trunk. “Leave this here,” he concluded. “Goodbye.”
Harry was in the car and speeding off as if chased by a pack of rabid dogs before anyone could wish him a safe drive home, or whatever wishes the biker men usually extended to each other before embarking on journeys.
I turned toward the group of ridiculous morons behind me.
“You guys,” I said with a sigh. “Really?”
“I know,” Gee said, and the hardness had disappeared from her eyes. “Silly boys, peeing on their turf.”
“What a fucker. Don’t think he’ll be back anytime soon,” Black said with a hard grin.
“Don’t know what he is, but it isn’t gay,” Downer muttered. “Wouldn’t have done him even if he were. Those white circles he gets around his eyes from the spray tanning are really off-putting. Probably has another circle around his –”
“Okidoki,” I chirped, not at all interested in discussing Harry’s genitals. “Ice, can you please help me get the things inside?”
“Yeah,” he said and picked up both the box and the bag. When he’d put them on the porch, he turned and muttered, “Didn’t even ask about Toby. What a fucker.”
“Who didn’t ask about me?” Toby asked from his door, and I smiled.
He was walking again.
It hurt him some, and he could only walk short distances at a slow pace, but he rarely had to use the chair. I didn’t know what Gibson had said to Toby, but whatever it was, it had an astonishing impact. The next day, Toby had been at the barn doing his exercises when I got there, and his condition had started to improve almost immediately.
Gib had left with Sissy and Joke, and that was probably a good thing because if he’d been around, I would have kissed him again, and it would have been both a lot and not on his cheek.
“Harry was here with the last of my things,” I said and indicated the pile of stuff next to me.
“What a fucker,” Toby said succinctly, which made both his father and uncle bark out laughter.
Before anyone had time to insult my ex-husband further, a car sped into the compound and stopped abruptly in the middle of the yard. A stunning woman stepped out and turned to survey her surroundings.
She was tall and curvy, and her thick, black hair flowed down her back almost to her waist. I blinked in surprise a few times and heard more than one of the men around puff out hoarse breaths of air.
“Holy shit,” Roddy murmured. “Looks like a goddamned queen.”
She did. I could see that she had some Native American in her, but there was more and whatever it was had given her high cheekbones with a smattering of freckles, large, amber colored eyes, and an almost regal bearing.
Her eyes locked on Toby, and she marched toward him in angry strides.
“A phone call from Beanie?” she snapped.
Toby opened his mouth to say something, but she raised a hand and growled angrily, so he wisely shut it again.
“Hello?” Ice interrupted, likely recognizing a shit-fit in the making, and trying to protect his son. “Who are –”
This was summarily ignored.
“Swear to God, Tobias, you’d better have a good explanation,” the girl hissed.
“Mike…” Toby said, and I had to convert a burst of laughter into a small cough.
This was Mike? The one I had thought my son had feelings for, and as a consequence, had wondered if he was gay?
“Use that stupid nickname one more time, and you will not like where I put my knee.”
“Michaela, you can’t do that. I broke my back,” Toby informed her.
“I know,” she snapped back. “And I know because I got a phone call from,” she raised a hand and put a finger right in Toby’s face, “Beanie.”
“Mi –”
“Not from you,” she clarified, and I winced.
If this was someone Toby was involved with, and it certainly seemed that it was, then it would have been totally appropriate to call her once he’d stepped back from the brink of death.
“Yeah. Well, I wasn’t gonna do that until I knew,” Toby growled.
“Knew what?”
This was a relevant question, and everyone turned their eyes to Toby, who didn’t seem to notice their audience.
“I wasn’t gonna call you until I knew my dick worked,” he snarled. “Wasn’t gonna saddle you with –”
“Your dick?”
“Mi –”
“Your dick,” she repeated slowly. “Well, I like your dick very much, but if you don’t know that you are a little more to me than that, then there’s nothing else for me to say.”
She promptly turned and started walking back toward the car.
***
Ice
This was not good.
Not good at all.
Ice decided that something needed to be done, and since everyone seemed to be stuck in a frozen stupor, it appeared that it was up to him to sort shit out. He’d handled his mother and sister all his life, and they could be enormously difficult, so he should be able to do something about the situation.
“Hey,” he said and jogged up to the woman. “Hey, wait a second. We didn’t get introduced. I’m –”
“The man whose semen created Toby,” the woman snapped, whirled around to glare at him, and added, “And since he’s a moron, that probably makes you pretty moronic too.”
The man whose semen had created Tobias?
That was pretty funny actually, so he couldn’t hold back a grin, and the woman’s eyes widened.
“Now, sweetheart,” he said placatingly. “Don’t run off like this. We’re not moronic all the time, so if you stay just a little while, I’m sure we can figure things out.”
“Huh,” she huffed.
“Exactly,” he said. “Driving all the way up here from...” He smiled at her, and it wasn’t fake in any way. She was so desperately trying to hold on to her anger, but he also saw how she glanced over his shoulder. “Where did you say you’re from?”
“I didn’t say,” she snapped.
“If you stay, we could talk about it,” he countered. “Is that a Colorado accent I hear?”
“Northern New Mexico,” she said with a sigh. “Okay. Give me one good reason to stay.”
She still sounded angry, but her eyes had softened slightly.
“I’m sure you’re hungry.” She blinked, and Ice chuckled. “See,” he said. “A highly sensible and completely unmoronic thing to say. I could talk about all the good qualities my son has, and how he’s probably inherited them from me, but you know about those already.” Then he put a hand gently on her shoulder and turned her back toward the others. “So, Michaela. Instead, I’m suggesting food and perhaps a calm and rational conversation with Toby?”
“Huh,” she huffed out again, but her back had relaxed.
“Michaela,” Toby said. “We should –”
“Tobias,” Reena interrupted, and her hard voice made everyone stare at her.
“What?”
“Is there perhaps something you should have told me?”
“What?” Toby repeated.
Ice almost laughed because he suddenly sounded like all young men likely had done since the beginning of time. It was the voice of a son who was uncomfortably aware that his mother knew something but wasn’t entirely sure which of many stupidities she’d found out about.
“Did I not talk to you about condoms, the pill, safe periods, and pulling out?”
“What?” Toby wheezed out for the third time and turned to stare at Michaela.
Ice turned too and saw what Reena had seen, which they all would have noticed if they hadn’t been so busy enjoying the drama unfolding in front of them.
It was barely visible, but there was a gentle swell under her soft sweater, and her jacket was open, but Ice realized that it wasn’t because she was warm. It wasn’t wide enough to fit around her.
“Michaela,” Toby said quietly.
He moved impatiently, and Ice knew that it would hurt him to try walking down the steps, but so did Roddy.
“Here, boy,” the old man murmured. “Hand on my shoulder, and we’ll get you down to her.”
“Thanks,” Toby said in a voice that was strained with pain as he slowly took the first step.
“This is a good thing,” Roddy said jovially as if they were strolling around leisurely for no reason at all. “She’s gorgeous. Likes your dick. And also...” They reached Ice and Michaela. “Expanding the gene-pool.”
Toby stopped moving abruptly and stared at his grandfather.
“Exp –”
He stopped speaking, clearly at a loss for words, which Ice was too.
“Sure,” Roddy said with a grin. “We don’t want to become some inbred pack of fools, do we? A little bit of sweet –”
“Grandpa,” Toby snapped.
“Dad,” Ice barked.
“Roddy,” Cas squealed, and Black started laughing.
“Am I wrong?” Roddy asked with his brows high on his forehead.
“Yes,” a chorus of voices echoed.
Michaela's mouth had fallen open, and she pushed out a short, weak laugh.
“Baby,” Toby said, wisely ignoring his grandfather as he put a hand on her cheek. “I’m so sorry. I should have called you. It wasn’t just about my dick. I was just...”
“Afraid,” she said quietly.
“Yeah,” Toby agreed with a sigh. Then he smiled crookedly. “Pregnant?”
“Pretty much, yeah,” she said. “I wasn’t sure what to say at first, so I stalled, and then I didn’t want to tell you on the phone, so I decided to wait until you got back from A-basin.”
“Okay. Are we happy?” he asked slowly.
“I am. Not sure about you.”
“Babe,” Toby muttered. “It’s a bit sooner than expected, but you know I want kids. You know I want them with you. Of course, I'm happy.”
Her eyes filled with tears, and Toby leaned forward, but Michaela stepped back and turned toward his mother, who was standing a few steps away.
“Can I talk to you?” she asked.
“Of course,” Reena replied without hesitating and indicated her cabin. “Let’s...”
The women walked away, and the door was closed with a soft thud.
“Well, shit,” Toby muttered.
“You are a lucky man,” Gee said softly. “Beautiful, but also wise.”
“Wise?” Ice asked.
“It’ll never be enough that Tobias loves her,” Gee said. “Not if his mother isn’t okay with –” She raised a hand when Toby growled something unintelligible. “Oh, I know Reena would try hard to not cause any problems. But if you choose someone who doesn’t understand how close you are with your mother, then you’d start out uncomfortably polite, and it could so easily go downhill from there. And then your life would always have a tiny edge of awkward.”
“She’s right,” Black said. “My ex didn’t like Mom to start with, and hated her guts at the end of our marriage.”
“A feeling that was entirely mutual, I assure you,” Gee declared.
“Yeah,” Black muttered. “Nothing tiny about that edge of awkward, I can tell you that.”
“I didn’t kill her, be grateful for that,” Gee said calmly. “You did better the second time, son.”
“Thank you,” Cas said primly.
“Was that why you didn’t introduce them, Toby?” Gee asked softly. “Because she matters, and what if they didn’t get along?”
“Yeah,” Toby muttered. “Was planning for so long to bring Michaela to dinner with Mom, but... yeah. What if they hated each other? Who would I choose?”
Tobias watched Reena’s cabin, and his mouth tightened.
“Don’t worry,” Ice said. “They’ll work things out. Reena will make sure they do.”
“I hope so. And thanks, Dad, you helped too,” Toby said and turned to walk slowly toward his own cabin. “Guess I’d better clean up the kitchen and get some clothes off the floor.”
“I’ll help,” Gee said, and calmly took Toby’s hand to put it on her shoulder when they reached the porch. “Here we go, one step at the time.”
Ice stood there and watched them, trying to breathe slowly through his nose to stop himself from bursting out in an unmanly, uncontrollable bawl.
Dad.
For the first time, it felt real.
He was a father.
And apparently a grandfather-to-be too.
Jesus.
“A pack of inbred fools?” Black said quietly. “Really, Dad? When our mother comes from fucking Norway?”
Ice exhaled when he felt his brother’s hand on his shoulder, giving it a quick but reassuring squeeze.
“Yeah,” he said, cleared his throat, and added, “And if you were about to call the mother of your first great-grandchild brown sugar, then please don’t ever do that.”
“Gorgeous woman. Loves Tobias. I couldn’t let her slip away, and was just trying to put her at ease,” Roddy said with a grin. “She was laughing, so I think I did okay.”
“You did, Roddy,” Cas said, wrapped an arm around his waist, and tilted her head back to look at him with a giggle. “She was laughing at you and not with you, but you did okay.”
Chapter Thirteen
Molly
Reena
Since Toby was getting better, and even more, I suspected, because of Michela’s arrival in Rogan, my presence in the barn wasn’t needed as much as it had been. I was happy for Toby, though, and it felt good to see them together. It also wasn’t as if they ignored me. I had time with Toby, and there were dinners and lunches with the two of them. On most occasions, Ice was there too, and I saw him and Toby sitting together on a bench outside the barn every now and then.
