“Should have thought of that before you fucked a pumpkin last night,” Cage snickered.
“I did not fuck a pumpkin! I swear, there was a woman. She’s…blonde. I think. And her eyes! They’re beautiful. Like caramels and?—”
The others’ laughter cut Vodka off. “Hey, man, we’re not kink shaming. Get dressed and come on inside. We got a lot to clean up after last night, and I need some fucking coffee.” Bear headed towards the clubhouse’s backdoor just as Bulldog had done. “Oh, and Pumpkin, be warned, we don’t discriminate around here, but I doubt Steel’s going to allow you sleepovers with your new girl.”
Vodka finally let the pumpkin fall. It smashed into the concrete at his feet. “It’s not my girlfriend!”
Cage, Demo, and Grumpy winced at the mess now at Vodka’s feet. “Harsh, dude,” Demo mock scolded. “Way to ‘break up’ with her!”
Scowling, Vodka stormed over to where his pile of clothing lay strewn about. Just his luck, his brothers werenotgoing to let this go anytime soon. But he could be just as stubborn. He’d show them. He’d find his mystery woman.
No fucking way was he changing his road name.
CHAPTER 1
PRESENT DAY
Fucking hell, Pumpkin was tired. Every muscle and bone in his body was sore and all he wanted to do was lay back down and sleep for a week. But no way in hell was he missing this.
And there was no fucking way he wasn’t walking out of here. After two months in a hospital and three months in rehab, Pumpkin was finally going home.
His departure, though, was bittersweet. All he’d wanted since the moment he’d woken up from a medically induced coma was to go home to his son. He was missing so much of his son’s life. At the time of his accident, his son was only five months old. Now? He was almost eleven months! Despite the daily visits, which Pumpkin absolutely adored and appreciated, it was beyond frustrating thathewasn’t the one taking care of his son’s wants and needs.
Frankie Archer had been hired a year ago to be the club’s resident nanny. She was an employee of the club to help care for the growing number of club kids, and entirely off limits to all members and prospects. After SJ had been born, and the circumstances of his birth precarious at best, Pumpkin had been thrown into fatherhood. To sayhe had no idea what he was doing was a complete understatement. Getting help from the club’s ol’ ladies, Yelizaveta, the club’s housekeeper, and even some of his brothers was nothing compared to the help Frankie offered him.
The young college grad had become a huge part of Pumpkin’s life, and an unlikely friendship had formed. In truth, Pumpkin couldn’t ever remember having a friend who was a beautiful, single, young woman before and yet felt entirely platonic. Talking with Frankie was easy. She was shy, but Pumpkin thought he saw a side of her that she didn’t show often, except around children. He’d contemplated something growing between them in the beginning. He’d tried to look at her as he had other women, but in all honesty, it was like fantasizing about a sister or one of the ol’ ladies.
Just…yuck!
Pumpkin figured, why push it? Frankie was beautiful and funny, and it wasn’t a bad thing that he didn’t have any romantic intentions towards her, especially because Steel would string him up by his balls if he even suspected Pumpkin was looking at Frankie in a sexual way. It was more or less unexpected. But also good. Really, really good.
Frankie had turned into the friend Pumpkin hadn’t realized he needed, and she was fantastic with SJ. With all the club kids, really. And the number of babies in recent months had exploded to the point where the club had been looking into hiring Frankie assistants when Pumpkin’s motorcycle accident had happened. Pumpkin, though, was exceedingly grateful that theyhadn’thired Frankie help yet, because who knew what could have happened that would have changed the outcome of that evening on that bridge.
When Pumpkin’s motorcycle had been hit, Frankie had been in the SUV behind him with SJ. Frankie had not only called in the club, an action that had ultimately saved Pumpkin’s life, but also gotten SJ away from the gunmen shooting at Pirate’s cage before they could start shooting at them too. If it had been anyone else, if she’d acted differently or someone else had been driving SJ… The outcome was unthinkable. Pumpkin would have gladly given up his life to protect his son, but he’d never even been given that opportunity or option. It had beenFrankiewho had acted, and for that, Pumpkin would forever be in her debt.
Since the accident, Frankie had taken it upon herself to be SJ’s full-time caretaker. Per Steel, she hadn’t even given him an option. The soft-spoken woman haddemandedit of the club’s President. SJ was her responsibility until Pumpkin was recovered enough to take care of him again. That action, which Steel hadn’t argued, had pushed the club to move up their plans of hiring additional childcare help.
Pumpkin hadn’t met either of the new hires yet, but he’d been told that the first was a male college student named Terry and an older woman named Pamela had been hired on before the summer started. Both seemed to be nice additions, per Frankie. Pumpkin knew Steel and the club members who were fathers would never allow hires that they didn’t trust or hadn’t passed Keys’ background checks.
Having Terry and Pamela also gave Frankie the freedom to bring SJ to see Pumpkin daily. Rain or shine, one of the club members drove Frankie and SJ to see him, which was better motivation than any doctor could provide. It pushed Pumpkin to try harder, to do better. Paige, Demo’s ol’ lady, also visited weekly to assist him further with acupuncture and some eastern remedies, that even Pumpkin had to admit worked wonders.
He wasreadyto go home.
But there were a lot of unknowns in finally returning home. Pumpkin wanted to see his apartment in the clubhouse. He wanted to be amongst the chaos of his club and the feeling of family that had been missing in his life since his mom died. Hell, he fucking missed his sled, even though he knew it was a pile of rubble and he was in no condition to drive yet. He was ready to take on the role of SJ’s father again. And while no one blamed him for being unable to care for his son these past few months,Pumpkinblamed himself.
He didn’t remember the accident. He had the occasional flash, but nothing definitive. Last thing he remembered was pulling out of the gate that surrounded the club’s property, then nothing until he woke up weeks later in the hospital. Per the doctors and therapists, his lackof memory was for the best and his brain’s way of protecting itself from the pain and trauma of the crash.
Pumpkin hated the word ‘accident’. It wasn’t an ‘accident’ that had landed him in the hospital and rehab for over five months with both legs and arms broken, three broken ribs, a nearly collapsed lung, a broken clavicle, burst bladder, and all the teeth on the left side of his mouth shattered. He’d had massive internal bleeding and his heart had actually stopped beating at one point on the ride to the hospital. He now had more metal in his body than Victor Stone. When Pumpkin had finally been cognizant enough to write messages to his club brothers, he mentioned so in hopes that they would change his road name to ‘Cyborg’ but when the club had decorated his hospital room with pumpkin, well,everythinghe knew he wasn’t going to get his wish.
Not all his injuries were healed either. He was healed enough to gohome, but he still had a long road of recovery ahead of him. His casts were removed, but he’d lost a lot of muscle and strength. It was humbling when he had to relearn basic tasks that most took for granted. Pumpkin would have never guessed he’d have to re-learn how to pee standing up in his mid-thirties.
That was part of the problem, though. As far as he’d come and as well as he was doing—so well in fact that the doctors were discharging him from rehab weeks ahead of their original schedule—he still couldn’t do basic tasks. He couldn’t drive, which also meant he couldn’t work. He was going to need to support himself and SJ. He’d tried to talk to Steel and Demo about finances numerous times over the past several months, but both kept putting him off. Saying that it was ‘handled’. Pumpkin didn’t have much, but he knew hospital bills were not cheap. Neither was a full-time rehab center. He needed to work to start paying back some of these bills, but Steel continued to push him to concentrate on healing and to not worry about money. Pumpkin knew the club was doing well. He thought maybe they were planning on covering his expenses, which also left a bittersweet taste in his mouth. He should be able to pay for his own bills.
And who was covering SJ’s expenses? His son was growing like a weed, and diapers weren’t cheap.
Pumpkin still had months of physical and occupational therapy ahead of him. He could walk with a walker or a cane, and he still used a wheelchair more often than he cared to admit. SJ loved riding on the wheelchair with Pumpkin, much to Pumpkin’s joy and frustration. He hated that he was even bringing the damn thing home with him.
But Bree, Angel’s paraplegic teenage daughter, had assured him that wheelchair life wasn’t ‘that bad’, and she’d even shown him some tricks. As sweet as his club niece was, Pumpkin still had every intention of no longer needing to use the wheelchair as soon as possible.
