10. Chapter 10

10

Chapter 10

Remy

“Mom! Dad! It’s Christmas Eve!”

It’s also really early in the morning, but it doesn’t stop Mags beaming at me, his eyes still closed.

For a long time Jovie called us Retta and Mags, which are the nicknames we have for each other, but recently, in the past month or so, we’ve been Mom and Dad and I can’t help the warm gooey feeling I get when I hear our daughter call us that. Even if it is the crack of dawn.

Jovie bounces up onto the bed, careful not to knee or kick us, and then wiggles under the covers, moving around until she’s squished between me and Mags, her silk bonneted head resting in the slight gap between our pillows.

“Christmas is coming tomorrow!” She squeals and kicks her feet under the covers.

“Sure is kiddo. I’m super excited because I’ve never had a DRMC Christmas,” I say, booping her nose.

“Me either, AND Mama Debs and Uncle Marx said that Santa will be able to find me this year so I will have presents to open!” Her little hands come up to cover her mouth and she squeals into them, happiness vibrating through her.

I grin at my man as he grins back to me. Jovie isn’t going to believe her eyes tomorrow morning. Even though we, Blanche and Tav have told all the brothers that the kids don’t need much, I’m sure they’ll have a mountain of gifts to open and this year I’m OK with that. It’ll make up for all the Christmases that Jovie missed out on. I’m sure that her mom tried really hard to give her the world, just as I’m sure her dad would have frittered it all away.

Tuning back into what my daughter is saying, she lists off all the things she has to do today to get ready for tomorrow. “I have to wait for Cove and Elio to get here cos we’re going to be baking cookies for Santa. Santa wrote us a special letter that says that he will need lots of cookies to fuel up, and he said that he’s lacnose inlorent so he can only have beer.”

“Really? Santa told you this?” Mags asks, his brow raised.

“Yup. He wrote a letter and asked Uncle Rider to deliver it to us,” she nods, in all seriousness. “So we’re gonna make cookies and then we’re gonna ask Takoda for some beer. Oh maybe he has a special beer for Santa!”

“I’m sure he does baby girl,” Mags nods, rolling his lips between his teeth so as not to laugh at how exuberant she is.

“And then me and Cove have a special surprise that we’re working on. And then Cove’s uncles are coming and maybe they’ll have some gators for us to pet and then we’re going to visit with the babies and then we’re having a sleepover so we’ll have to go to bed early so Santa can come.”

“Phew, what a busy day baby! No wonder you’re up super early,” I say, pressing a kiss to her forehead.

“Yup, that’s why I need Dad up now so he can do my hair and help me get ready for the day.”

Mags lets out a tired sigh before rolling out of bed and lifting a giggling Jovie up onto his broad shoulder. “Come on Princess Jovie, lets go do this mop you call hair and get you ready for your busy day,”

“Bye Mom! I’ll see you later, love you!” She giggles (their way?) out of the room.

I wave and call out my “I love yous” and lie back, smiling to myself. Last Christmas I was a single woman, in a not so happy MC. This year I’m with the love of my life and I’m a mom to the most amazing little girl in the world. Maybe Lovely is on to something with her Christmas miracle talk after all.

My mind drifts off and I must have been mulling things over longer than I thought because Mags comes in and snuggles in behind me.

“I can’t wait to see baby girl’s face tomorrow morning,” he smiles.

“Me neither. She deserves everything and more.” He nods in agreement with me. “And you’re all set for her big present tomorrow?”

“Yup, it’s all cleared with Marx and it turns out that Sniper has experience with training so we’re all set.”

I flop around until I’ve rolled over and I’m face to face with my handsome Ol Man. “She’s going to shit, as Pops says.”

Wire chuckles, his large body vibrating the bed “She sure fucking is. Anything else on her Christmas list that we’ve missed?”

I shake my head at him, and he smooths my bangs out of my eyes. “Nope. She only asked for three things. And we’ve got them all, so we’re good to go.”

“Good. What about you, you haven’t given me your list, and it’s Christmas Eve. It’s like you want me out there fighting feral last minute shoppers.”

I press my lips to his in a soft, sweet kiss. “Everything I want for Christmas is right here in this building.”

“Love you Retta.”

“Love you too Mags.”

Jovie

“I never thought you were gonna get here!” I yell to my friend. I’ve been waiting for aaaaages. I’ve already eaten breakfast and read to Bumpy my dinosaur and played on my tablet AND filmed a Tiktok with my uncles.

“Sorry, I had to wait for Sage to get out of the bathroom before Mom would bring me. She takes ages to put on her makeup.” My friend rolls her eyes at me and it makes me giggle.

“Hi Elio,” I wave at Elio and he waves back. He doesn’t talk much but I like him because he’s clever and has good ideas.

Looking around the big room all the adults are talking to each other. Mama Debs and my mom and Cove’s mom are talking to Aunt Nat and the baby. They said they’re going to tell us the baby name today when Ana and her baby get here. Then we can say hi to all the babies at the same time. I think that’s a good plan.

“Let’s go to my tent and we can work on our surprise,” I wave Cove and Elio to my room and we crawl into my Rug Rats tent. It’s so cool. I love it because my mom had one when she was little too. “Don’t forget we have to use our quiet voices,” I tell Cove, cos she talks loud, like Uncle Switch.

“We need a plan,” Cove says using her best whisper voice.

“Yup. So first we need to ask a grown up to take us to the shops,” I reply.

“It has to be a bell shop,” Elio says in his soft voice.

“Can it be a shop that sells bells? Cos I dont think there is a bell shop.” My face screws up.

“Lets Google it,” Cove says to me.

I wake up my tablet and go straight to Google. I’m seven and I’m getting pretty good at spelling so I put in “Bell Shop” and then look at what it says. Some of the words are too big so I switch it to read to me, like my dad showed me.

“OK. It says we can get them at the motorbike shop. That’s easy. We just need someone to take us.”

Cove looks at Elio and he nods his head. “We could ask one of the prospects? They take people places. Or we could ask Niko. Then him and a prospect could take us and we can buy the stuff when they’re looking at bikes. Niko is always looking at bikes.” She rolls her eyes. Cove always rolls her eyes.

“That sounds like a good plan. You ask Niko. I’ll ask Takoda. Elio, do you have the swear jar?”

He nods and pushes it over to me.

“How much money is in there?”

“$877,” Elio says. I’m real glad he’s good at math because I don’t think me and Cove could have added that all up.

“I think that will be enough. Let’s go.”

We crawl out of my tent and head to the common room. That’s where all the grown ups are. Even Uncle Gus and Aunt Ana are there with the new baby, I think his name is Junior. We all go that way so we can peek at him. He’s way bigger than Aunt Nat’s baby, and he’s real hairy too. We all say hi to both the tiny little babies and then when all the moms are busy talking about baby stuff Cove finds Niko and me and Elio go to the bar where Takoda is.

“Hi Takoda.”

“Hey Jovie and Elio. What are you two up to?” Takoda smiles at us.

“We were wondering if you could please take us to the motorbike shop. We want to buy some presents for everyone.”

“Oh, well I’m not sure. I’ll have to ask your moms first,” he says.

“No, they said it’s OK. Niko is coming with us.” I point to Niko who’s walking toward us with Cove. Cove gives us the thumbs up which means he’s going to come with us and our moms won’t shit when they find out we’ve gone.

“The Littles said that you’re OK to take them shopping as long as I come along.”

“I’m good if you’re good,” Takoda says. It’s some man talk thing I think.

“Yeah I’m fine with it. They only want to go to one shop.” Niko says, making his eyebrows go up at us. We nod back and he shrugs.

“Alright then, grab your coats kids and meet me outside.”

We all fist pump and dance around, even Elio does, pumping the swear jar in the air. Now we just gotta find the right bells for all my uncles and then help each other wrap them and put them under the tree. I can’t wait for them to see our presents!

Debs

I’m exhausted after a long day of baking and preparing tomorrow’s menu. Not that I’m on my own with it, no way. Marx had given me the prospects and anyone else that had any cooking prowess, or at the very least could follow instructions. We’ve gotten everything prepped, anything that could be premade is sitting in the fridge and now we’re all sitting in the common room, enjoying some eggnog. We’re waiting for Savage and Nat to make their baby name announcement before we gather up all the kids, set out Santa’s treat, get them all ready for bed, and then settle ourselves in for the evening. Phew!

It’s a full house tonight with all the Tombses staying in the spare rooms. Wire’s mom is staying the night so she can enjoy Jovie’s first DRMC Christmas. The Landry brothers are also here, wanting to celebrate with their sisters and nieces and nephews. They’re staying outside in their RV because their gator Gretchen gave birth recently and they’re looking after one of the babies. Marx has already put his foot down and Chewy isn’t allowed to go anywhere near it. She already has Chomper, who the Landrys thought was hilarious as he sat quietly in the front pack that seems to go from Chewy to Rhodie and then back again depending on who is doing what.

“You need to move your boy away from my girl,” Savage growls out, for not the first time this evening either.

“I’m not moving anywhere! Tell your daughter to stop making eyes at my son!” Gus hisses back as both their women roll their eyes.

“You know babies can barely see further than their hands, right? They physically cannot see each other. Even if they have exceptional baby eyesight, all they’d see is a blob in a blanket,” Chewy pipes up, both new mothers scowling at her. She doesn’t care, she’s busy stroking Chomper’s rough skin.

“Savage, you said you had an announcement?” Marx asks, getting everyone back on track.

“Yes.” He stands, his baby girl nestled against his chest, his tattooed hand rubbing her back gently. “We know that many of you have asked what we named our little girl, and I wanted you all to be here when we told you.” He looks down at Nat who smiles up at him lovingly. “We thought we knew MC life, we’d lived it long enough. We had a family, albeit a dysfunctional one, but one we loved nonetheless. Then we came here and saw how family works when it functions properly and well, we wanted in on that.” He chuckles, Flack and Dex whistling at him. “You’re all not only family to us, but you’re family to our daughter, and it seemed fitting to name her after the MC that changed our lives for the better.”

“Even if we do still unalive people from time to time?” Marx asks with a smirk.

“Warts and all, brother,” Savage grins back. “We named our daughter after the Devil’s Rose MC. Everyone, meet Rosie Clarke.”

Everyone whoops and hollers and the two babies just snooze as if nothing too exciting is going on.

“Thank fuck, I thought he was gonna say they called her Devil Rose,” Sid’s gruff voice whispers in my ear, his warm breath sending a thrill skittering through me.

I turn and smile up at him. “It feels like I haven’t seen you in an age, Sid.”

He pulls me in for a cuddle and makes a grumbling noise. “I know babe, this Christmas shit is for the birds. I’ve been busier than I’ve ever been before. “

“Well, tomorrow you can relax and enjoy watching the kids open presents and eat all the food me and the prospects have been preparing.”

“As long as you promise me that you’ll be relaxing next to me. Let the prospects do the rest of the work.”

“I don’t know if they’re ready to run the ship alone.”

“Fuck ‘em. You need to take care of yourself babe. If you won’t take care of yourself, then let me.”

I gaze up at him, his whiskey colored eyes, so much like his grandchildren’s twinkling down at me.

“You’re so sweet,” I cup his rough cheek, stroking it with my thumb.

“Only to you because I want you around for as long as I can have you,” he quietly replies.

My head tips back as I stare at him. “Whatever happened to ‘You need to find someone young who won’t up and die on you’,” I ask, mimicking his deep voice.

“Oh, I still believe you need to find someone younger. You’ve already lost one love, I don’t want you to lose another.”

My eyes narrow at him. “What makes you think I love you?” I’m working overtime to keep the smile off my face.

“How could you not? I’m a fucking catch!” he says in the outlandish way only Sidney Tombs can, making me burst into laughter. “Come on you. Everything in here is sorted and clean, the kids have put out that huge plate of cookies and beer and their parents are getting them ready for bed. The new families have already gone to their rooms for the night and everyone and everything is under control.”

I gaze around the sparkling kitchen, everything put away for the night. I know full well that everything is prepped and ready to go for tomorrow. Looking through the hatch into the common room there’s only Fox, Nitro and Jules out there, probably getting ready to head to town to find a little company for the night, everyone else having turned in.

“OK then Sidney Tombs, you convinced me.” I take off my ever present apron and hang it on the hook.

Taking Sid’s outstretched hand we walk down the hall and straight to bed, ready for tomorrow’s chaos.