Chapter Four

Delphi Mae

I ’ve been working for Jacob for over a month now and have yet to leave this house. I have personal days on Mondays and Tuesday evenings but even then I haven’t so much as taken a walk.

“I think we’re going to walk you to school today, Elijah,” I tell my pancake-gobbling teenager.

“No way, Ma.”

“What? Are you embarrassed for people to see me?”

I’m only teasing, but he doesn’t seem to know that.

“Fuck no, Ma. You’re the best mother a dude like me could ask for. I’d scream for the entire school to look at you if I knew it wouldn’t embarrass you.” He finishes his unnaturally large stack of pancakes and then proceeds to grab one off of my plate. “I don’t want you two walking home by yourselves, is all.”

“I’ll walk with you guys,” Jacob says from his spot at the table. He, too, stuffing his face with a large stack of flapjacks. “We can stop by Taylor and Knox’s on the way back. I need to grab my bike from their garage, and Knoxy has been hounding me about bringing your Ma over to meet him.”

Elijah and Jacob share some sort of macho, no-speaking, eye-contact conversation before Elijah nods his head.

“Sounds like a plan,” Jacob says, stealing a pancake from my plate. “I’ll get the baby ready while you get dressed. It’s chilly, so wear a light jacket.”

I look down at my plate with my three bites of food and sigh.

“Well, I’m glad I have both of your permissions.”

They both eye my plate hungrily, so I grab the last three bites with my fingers and shove them in my mouth, much to Jacob’s amusement and Elijah’s disappointment.

“They’re going to starve me, Jessica,” I say as I take my plate to the dishwasher.

“You know good and well that you were finished five minutes ago,” Jacob laughs.

“Skin and bones,” I say as I pass them by. “You’re going to turn my big butt to skin and bones.”

“Now, that would be a shame,” Jacob says.

“Dude, really? My mother? Your employee? My freaking mother? Right in front of me?”

Jacob and Elijah have found common ground lately and have grown closer. I worry that this will hurt Elijah when it comes time for us to move on.

“What? Technically speaking, she’s Jessica’s employee. We all work for that girl.”

“He’s not wrong about that, huh, Butterfly? You’re the boss of this whole house.”

I’m standing near the stairs, just watching these two men interact in the kitchen, when Jacob looks back at me with a softness that causes my heart to race.

For a moment, just a single second, I pretend Jacob isn’t my boss. I pretend that a father is joking around with his son while the mother watches from a distance with love and contentment in her heart.

I pretend this is my family. Not just Eli, but Jacob and Jessica as well.

I give myself this moment, and then I let it go. Because that can never happen. Jacob flirts jokingly with me all the time, but that’s all it is.

This isn’t my family. Jacob and Jessica aren’t mine.

“You alright, sweetheart?” Jacob asks.

“Yeah,” I say, turning to hide the tears threatening to fall. “I’ll be ready in just a few. You two make sure no syrup is on the table. We don’t want ants.”

Ants. Yep, that’s an excellent emotional block.

I wish he would stop calling me sweetheart.

I can’t keep doing this to myself. If I feel this way about a man I’ve only known for a month, there’s no telling what leaving after a year will do.

I have to leave. Jacob paid me enough in one month that Elijah and I could rent a motel for a few weeks and still be able to get some groceries.

Instead of getting dressed, I grab my phone and start searching for live-in nannies for hire. I won’t leave Jacob without someone to take my place. I’ll make sure I find the best nanny, and then in two months when school is over for Summer break, Elijah and I are out of here.

***Reynolds***

“What’s wrong, brother? You’ve been distracted for weeks.” Taylor nudges me as we stand at the entrance to The Cage.

“I thought you were on rotation at Oasis tonight?” I ask.

“Switched with Hayes,” he says. “Knox wants to go to the Playroom tomorrow, so I figured I would just take him to play while I worked.”

“Don’t want to play with him?” I tease.

Taylor and Knox have a Daddy/Little boy relationship. I’ve dabbled in the lifestyle with both males and females, but it never really clicked. But I absolutely love watching Knoxy when he regresses. He’s just so sweet.

“Nah, he wants to play with Baby Ollie.”

Oasis is a BDSM club owned by Blaze and Steel. The playroom is the location in the back corner of the building where the Littles and Babies go to play. Ollie lost his daddy a couple of years back, and he’s just now getting to the point where he wants to see if he gets lucky enough to find another one. It’s tough for him, and I can’t help but wrap his little body in my arms whenever I see him. Being a full-time adult baby isn’t easy when you don’t have someone to care for you.

“Has he been dating?” I ask.

“Why? You interested? I think you’d make him a great Daddy.”

I nod, not bothering to deny that I’ve thought of it in the past. But that was before a new freckled face beauty entered my life and turned everything on its head.

“We wouldn’t fit,” I admit. “I don’t think I could be Daddy all the time, and that’s something Ollie needs. Besides, there’s no one I want more than my new nanny.”

Taylor tosses his head back and laughs.

“Yeah, I’ve noticed,” he says when he finally calms down. “You’ve been a real sour puss lately. I bet it’s hard having her under your roof but not under your body.”

More than I’ll ever admit.

“Fuck you,” I grump. “Go run the floor.”

“Nope, Pres wants the two of us on door duty tonight,” he says, checking an ID and ushering the young lady inside.

“Something up?”

“I think so,” he says. “He’s calling a meeting tomorrow. He seemed stressed when I checked in.”

“I wanted to talk to him about having a cookout tomorrow so that everyone can meet Freckles and Elijah.”

“Freckles?”

“You’ll understand when you see her,” I smile.

“I bet I will,” he chuckles. “I bet Pops wouldn’t complain about grilling some steak. That old man will grill a steak for any occasion.”

“Can I go in or not?”

“Nope,” I say, handing his card back. “Don’t come back until you’re eighteen.”

“What the fuck, man? I am eighteen.”

“At the most, you’re sixteen,” I say, raising my brows. “If you’re going to pay someone to make you a fake ID, at least find someone who knows what the fuck they’re doing.”

“Damnit, Mike,” the kid mutters as he stomps away with the equally young teen behind him. “I told you it wasn’t going to work.”

“Anyway,” Taylor continues. “Since Maddy got pregnant, King isn’t allowing her to do anything, so we’ll most likely end up doing the cookout and meeting at their place. Think Freckles and her kid would want to come?”

“I’ll talk to her in the morning,” I say before punching my best friend in the arm. “And don’t call her Freckles.”

“I don’t know, brother,” he laughs. “If she’s as freckly as I think she is, there’s no chance in hell the other brothers won’t adopt the nickname for her themselves. You’re going to have to find a new one for yourself.”

“Fucker,” I grumble.

“Quit talking to your girlfriend, and let me the hell in. I need to go smack some worker’s asses.”

Nodding, Taylor lets the man through before pulling out his phone to most likely call Emily, his sister who works behind the bar.

“Hey Em, that fucker that just walked through the door, do you see him?” he asks her. “Water his shit down tonight and charge him double, then put the extra in the tip jar. Why? Because he pissed me the fuck off. See ya.”

Laughing, I nod at the next few people to go ahead inside.

It’s going to be a long night.