The Scars That Make Us (Second Generation Book 3)

Chapter 8

JACE

I was dying today. I got about three hours of sleep, maybe. I couldn’t stop thinking about Catarina and the night we spent together. It wasn’t just the sex, although that was fucking amazing, it was everything. I felt so connected to her that I was almost ready to kidnap her and bring her back into my bed because I really didn’t want the night to end.

She’s nothing like the women I’ve dated. Since I’ve never been one for serious, long-term relationships, that’s probably a positive that she isn’t like them. I know that she’s leaving at the end of the week and I know she lives like six fucking hours away or some bullshit like that, but I’m sure as hell going to squeeze every bit out of her that I can while she’s here.

I took a small break in Granger’s office to refill my coffee cup again. I was only going to make it through the rest of the day if I chugged coffee until I was more coffee than blood.

“Hey there, slow it down, bucko.” Lyle came in, followed closely by Deacon. They were both rubbing their hands together, trying to regain feeling after spending time out in the cold mid-morning.

“I need at least a gallon more of this.”

“Maybe if you came home at a reasonable time…..” Deacon lifted his eyebrows up at me and that got Lyle’s attention as well. He pulled up a chair while we waited for fresh coffee to brew.

“What’s he mean by that? Didn’t you escort the guests into town? Were they out late?”

“They weren’t out that late,” Deacon answered for me, “But for some reason about a half-hour after we got back he left again and didn’t come home for a few more hours.”

“You’ve got a big fucking mouth, ya know?”

“It’s a little brother thing.” I pick up one of the coffee stirrers and toss it his direction.

“So what were you doing?”

I turn back to Lyle, “I was out with a girl.” I tried to contain my happiness by taking another drink of coffee, but I could tell there was a huge smile spreading.

“Uh-huh, keep going.”

“Why should I tell either of you? It isn’t like you talk to me about what’s going on in your love lives.”

“Well, my love life is amazing because I’ve got a beautiful wife who is glowing at six months pregnant. You know I can feel the baby move now, fuck it’s pretty amazing.”

“You two still deciding to keep it a surprise?”

“Yeah, at first we both were all on board in finding out, but then when Clemmy decided that she wanted to wait, Harlow wanted to support her so it didn’t seem like anybody was more excited about our pregnancy.”

The three of us kind of paused for a moment. Clemmy was about a month ahead of Harlow in her pregnancy, which was great because she had a huge support system and somebody to ride things out with, but at the same time, the reaction to the two pregnancies was really different. When Clemmy told the family she was pregnant it was a serious family meeting. Everybody was kind of left shocked and we were all looking at Mitch trying to read his reaction.

The very next day, Harlow quietly sent out a text message to tell everybody that she was expecting as well. She didn’t add Clemmy onto the message and Lyle and she made it clear that nobody was allowed to treat their pregnancy differently than they treated hers. I figured that it had more to do with the little alliance that had formed between Harlow, Ember, Stef, and Clemmy, but I think most of us really respected that Lyle and Harlow were trying to do. It was also great to see three “outsiders” protect Clemmy in the way that they did.