Ride Steady (Chaos, #3)(68)

Minutes passed before he asked softly, “You goin’ to sleep, Butterfly?”

“Do you mind?”

“Fuck no.”

He liked me there.

I liked that because I liked me there too. Right there. Doing nothing with Joker.

“One dollar and five cents,” I muttered, blinked, blinked again, felt something shaking, but it felt good.

So I fell asleep and missed that something being Joker’s long, hard, warm, strong biker body…

Laughing.





Chapter Eleven




What You Need





Carissa

I WAS JOSTLED gently before I settled, but I settled blinking.

I didn’t know where I was, though when my eyes finally opened it all came to me.

I sleepily pushed up on my forearms in the cushions and lifted my head to see a pair of jeans clad hips rounding the arm of my couch.

I looked up and over the back and saw a messy-haired, drowsy-eyed, phenomenal biker.

“Sweetie?” I called, and he looked down at me.

The second he did I became a puddle of goo on the couch.

“Hear him fussin’,” he said softly.

I stared.

Joker disappeared.

I pushed up to sitting and was on my feet when Joker walked in, carrying Travis, who was rubbing his face on Joker’s black T-shirt at the same time clenching it in his little fist.

I stared again as I became a new puddle of goo, but this time standing.

I pulled my goo together, walked to Joker, and grinned at him before I got close, put a hand on my son’s back and whispered, “Mornin’, baby.”

Travis rubbed his face again, lifted his head in a wobbly way then gave up and planted his cheek on Joker’s chest.

Total goo.

My boy loved his mommy, and he loved getting morning snuggles from me.

But he definitely liked Joker too. I knew this because he was happy where he was and not reaching out to me.

I found I liked this. All of it. I liked that Travis liked it, and I liked that Joker liked giving it.

I leaned in and kissed Travis’s head.

“Want ’im or want first turn in the bathroom?” Joker asked.

My gaze lifted to his. “What do you want?”

“I’m easy.”

He was.

I just didn’t know how he could be. He’d had a crappy life and now he belonged to a club of bikers.

But he was definitely easy.

“I’ll take him,” I offered, moving my other hand to Travis. “You go first.”

We did the baby transfer. Then we took our turns doing morning stuff in the bathroom. While Joker did his, with practiced ease balancing my baby, I made coffee.

We had our mugs and Joker was behind the bar, I was on a stool as Travis shook away sleep in my arms, when Joker asked, “What’s on for your day?”

“Gotta get my car,” I murmured as Travis made movements I read so I slid off the stool and bent to put him on his tush on the floor.

I went and fetched a variety of things from a basket in the living room area. I brought him his selection of toys and Travis stared at them, still shaking off sleep but also deciding.

“Get you that,” Joker said and I looked to him. “After we get your car, you need to do laundry? We can take it to the Compound.”

He’d said we.

I liked that but I shook my head. “I do that kind of thing when I don’t have Travis so I can be with Travis and not with him in a Laundromat.”

“Groceries?” Joker went on.

“Same,” I told him. “We’re good.”

He nodded and looked over the bar as Travis leaned forward, pressing his baby hands into buttons, making noise on the toy keyboard. He enjoyed the sound. I knew that from experience, but it was confirmed when he tipped back his head and giggled.

I grinned at my son as I thought about it, decided what I wanted, so I went for it.

I looked to Joker. “Are you, uh… busy today?”

His gaze went from Travis to me. “Nope.”

“Wanna, maybe… spend the day with Travis and me?”

His lips curved up. “Yep.”

And again I was goo.

“Travis needs breakfast and bath. I need a shower. And then—” I began.

“Got the first two covered, you take care a’ you.”

The idea of a shower that wasn’t necessarily quick for the purpose of getting clean and getting out so I could rescue my child from his secure place in a jumper seat or because I had a million things to do when my son wasn’t with me was a promise of heaven.

“His baby tub is in—” I started.

“Get me what I need, Carrie, then I got it.”

I tipped my head. “You sure?”

“Been a few years, but you’re not gonna be on the moon. I run into problems, I know where to find you.”

In the shower.

I felt goose bumps spread on my skin.

Then I nodded.

After that, I got him what he needed and gave instructions on how to make Travis’s cereal and do his bath. Then I laid out a new diaper and my boy’s clothes for the day, got my own stuff, and hit the shower.

I didn’t luxuriate in it. I didn’t hurry.