Turning over his shoulder, he saw Ghost heading up the stairs too. “Yeah, I’m good.”
Ghost got to a step below him and paused, as if waiting on Pumpkin.
Pumpkin stared back at him. “What?”
Ghost shrugged. “Was just going to walk with you.”
Pumpkin raised a doubtful eyebrow. Ghost was going to walk ‘with him’ up the ten more stairs and to the conference room the club had refurbished into their Chapel eight years ago? It seemed so absurd that his hackles rose. “I’m not going to fall. I was just stopping to answer a message.”
Ghost nodded. “Didn’t think you were going to. You’re looking steadier every day. Not that I see you much. You’re always going off somewhere, and it’s never to my bar.”
“Life of a single parent doesn’t leave much drinking time.” Also the idea of going to the bar like he used to made him shudder. There was only one woman who would ever touch his dick again, and she was currently giving him the worst case of blue balls he’d ever had in his life.
Ghost snorted. “Really? You’re not going to tell me who she is?”
Pumpkin’s back stiffened. “Who who is?”
“Whatever girl you keep sneaking off to see,” Ghost prompted. “There’s a bet going around that she’s one of the nurses from yourrehab center. Some of us even tried to bribe Darrin into telling us, but I gotta hand it to the prospect. He didn’t crack under pressure.”
Really? Pumpkin was going to have to thank Darrin somehow. He’d underestimated the prospect. “There’s no girl,” Pumpkin lied with a straight face. “Just been really busy getting reacclimated to being home.”
Ghost didn’t look like he believed him, and frankly, Pumpkin didn’t give a shit. He loved spending time with Dosia, just them and their kids. As soon as he introduced her to the club, the other ol’ ladies were going to pull her attention. Not to mention the club kids. As much as Pumpkin wanted JJ and Dosia to move in with him, he was also very content having them all to himself a little bit longer.
“If you say so, man.” Ghost was still waiting next to him.
“I will hit you with my cane if you don’t move your ass,” Pumpkin snarled. He lifted it in his left hand for good measure.
Ghost chuckled, completely unperturbed. “Whatever you say, Grandpa.” Ghost went up a couple more steps and then stopped. He turned around, crossed his arms over his chest, and waited. Out of Pumpkin’s striking range.
“Fuck you,” Pumpkin snapped. He took hold of the railing again with his right hand, balanced his cane with his left, and then continued up the stairs.
Ghost watched him carefully, moving backwards up a step each time Pumpkin advanced.
“I’m fine,” Pumpkin growled at his club brother.
“If you think I’m standing here because I think you’re lying, you’re mistaken.”
Pumpkin’s eyes narrowed. “Then why are you here?” Pumpkin had specifically come early to the Church meeting so his brothers wouldn’t see his progress up the stairs. After last week’s meeting when he’d finally convinced Steel to take it upstairs and Pumpkin hadslowlyascended while everyone was waiting up top for him, he had left his house almost an hour before the meeting started so that experience was never repeated.
He should have waited to answer Dosia’s message, but fuck him,because his brain was like a teenage boy’s and he got too fucking excited whenever she messaged him to wait to reply.
“I’m heading up to Church,” Ghost said simply. “Same as you.”
Pumpkin finally made it to the landing. Maybe it was the bachelor auction coming up the next day or the fact that he had to move his PT appointment to that afternoon, which cut into Dosia’s and his alone time before JJ got out of school, but the fact that Ghost hadn’t just walked past him after making some snide comment about Pumpkin being a “slow poke” had finally pushed Pumpkin over the edge.
He got right up into Ghost’s face. “I have had it! All of you treat me like glass, like I’m about to fall on my ass or break something else! I’malive! I survived! I am working my ass off every single fucking day to get stronger but none of you are seeing that. Treating me like I lost my fucking mind in that accident.”
Ghost didn’t back down, didn’t even seem pissed at Pumpkin’s shouting. “We are not.”
“I ordered a fucking George Clooney manscaping kit andnone of yousaid a damn thing! I’ll admit, it was fun at first, fucking with you guys. And whoever picked out that god-awful color that is now on my house needs to remove it. Preferably sooner than later.”
“That’s the color you said you wanted,” Ghost told him, a note of confusion in his voice.
“I was fucking with you!” Pumpkin repeated, his voice rising. “Did you guys honestly think I wasthatinterested in emus and whatever else I fucking signed up for?”
Ghost stared at him for a moment. “We were trying to give you time?—”
Pumpkin let out a groan. “I don’t need time. What I need is to know what it is going to take to get you guys to treat me like normal again! None of you act like you have any confidence in me anymore. Tiptoeing around me like you think I’m going to burst into tears any second. I’m not some pussy that’s going to crack at the first sign of hardship.” He pounded on his chest. “I’m a fucking Marine!”
