Wild Like the Wind (Page 97)

Who could argue that? Especially when it was delivered by a hot guy in a silky, deep voice who had a way with talking about wedding cake that didn’t make him sound like a pansy.

Beverly, staring at him all goo-goo eyed and hanging on his arm while he spoke, clearly couldn’t argue it.

“And you’d have to bring a present,” Elvira hissed at Tabby.

“Well . . . yeah,” Tabby said quietly, giving big eyes to the girls around her.

“Do you think, Elvira, my beautiful friend, that the women standing in front of you do not have enough love for you, just for you, that doesn’t even include how much we adore Malik, to give you all the attention you deserve on your big day?” Tyra asked.

“You better,” Elvira snapped.

“I’m beside myself with happiness for you,” Tyra whispered, and the feel of the room instantly changed.

Because the feel they were getting from Elvira instantly changed.

Tyra wasn’t done.

“After a lot of waiting and confusion and a rocky start with Tack, life has been beautiful and not a small part of that beauty is that during that time, I found you, and since that time, I’ve had you.”

“I’ve waited for this all my life,” Elvira whispered, and the feel of the room changed again.

“I know, honey,” Tyra whispered back.

“I thought he’d never come. I thought I’d never find him,” Elvira kept whispering.

“I know,” Tyra replied.

“And he’s perfect,” she kept going.

Oh man.

Cool!

I couldn’t wait to meet Malik.

“Yeah, he is,” Tabby said.

“He loves me, like . . . crazy loves me,” Elvira carried on.

Oh yeah.

I couldn’t wait to meet Malik.

“We know,” Lanie said.

“Sometimes I wonder, when I wake up next to him, if I’m dreaming,” Elvira shared.

“I understand that,” Millie said.

“Me too,” Carissa added.

“Me as well,” Lanie put in.

“Absolutely,” Rosalie declared.

“For sure,” Tabby stated.

“Yeah,” I whispered.

“Totally,” Tyra said.

“Wait until you have his baby,” Tabby told Elvira. “I don’t know what’s bigger than dreaming a dream, getting it, and that getting better. But whatever that is, a baby is that.”

Now I couldn’t wait to get knocked up with Hound’s kid.

After Tab was done, Elvira looked to Carissa.

“Come here, girl,” she ordered.

Carissa went there and Elvira gave her a big hug.

“Butterflies will be perfect,” we heard her say in Carissa’s ear.

We also watched Carissa’s head nod as she held on.

As if on cue, the door to the garage opened and Tack strolled through holding a baby tucked in one of his arms.

His gaze swept through all the women and stopped on Elvira and Carissa, who were breaking away from each other.

“Christ,” he muttered and looked to his woman. “Drama?”

“Nope,” Tyra answered.

Tack stopped in front of her desk.

“My grandson needs changing,” he told his wife.

She tipped her head to the side. “The diaper bag’s right there on the couch.”

He completely ignored this and turned his attention to Tabby. “Your son needs changing.”

“The diaper bag hasn’t moved, Dad,” Tabby replied.

“I do cuddles,” he rumbled. “I don’t do diapers.”

“You changed both our boys, Kane,” Tyra said, again gaining Tack’s attention.

“Yeah, and I had a direct hand in makin’ those two. This one,” he lifted the bundle cradled in his arm, “it was indirect. My job is done. Diapers and shit like that are behind me. With this one,” he lifted the bundle again, “I just get the good stuff.”

“Oh for God’s sake, give me that child,” Elvira said impatiently, walked on her high-heeled sandals to Tack and divested him of his grandchild.

“Bring ’im back to me when you’re done,” he ordered.

Elvira stared at him.

Tack just turned on his motorcycle boot and moseyed his fine ass right back out the door, closing it firmly behind him.

“You know, if that man didn’t make such good pancakes, I’d divorce his ass,” Tyra grumbled.

“I bet he makes good pancakes,” Millie said under breath through a smile.

“Please don’t make a euphemism out of Dad’s pancakes,” Tabby begged. “I love Dad’s pancakes and if you make a euphemism out of them, I’ll never be able to eat them again.”

“Okay, honey,” Tyra agreed on a grin. “We’ll stop talking about your dad’s pancakes.”

“Uh, Keely,” Carissa called. “When did you say your first appointment was for a viewing?”

I looked at the time on Tyra’s computer then cried, “Shit! I gotta go get Hound!” I rushed to Carissa, gave her a tight hug and said, “So happy for you, times two. Butterflies are awesome.”

I let her go, dashed around her and grabbed my bag from the couch where Elvira was digging through a diaper bag at the same time juggling Playboy. I snatched up my bag, bent in to steal a quick kiss from the wet lips of Playboy and getting his flirtatious gurgle after I did before I hurried to the door and stopped at it.

“Later, chicks,” I called.

“Later, babe,” Tyra called back. “Hope you see something you love.”

I got more of that kind of farewell, and on a wave, I ran out the door.

As fast as my cowboy boots would take me, I rushed down the steps and across the forecourt toward the Compound, but found myself skidding to a halt while I was dashing between Hound and Jagger’s bikes parked beside each other outside the Compound.

The skidding halt was because I’d glanced at Jagger’s bike.

And after I skidded to that halt, I stood there and stared at the tank on my son’s bike.

Then I stood there and deep breathed as I stared at the tank on Jag’s bike.

I’d seen it often, since he rode it all the time, but I hadn’t really looked at it, not since he took possession of it.

But right then, I reached out a hand and slid a finger along the top of the tank.

High-gloss clear coat.

Somehow my boy had managed to seal my lipstick on his father’s bike.

Jagger’s bike.

He rode free taking his mother and father with him everywhere he went.

God, but God . . . I loved my son.

I smiled, hustled into the Compound and nearly slammed into Hound the second I entered it.

“Babe,” he said, his hands settling on my hips as the door whooshed closed behind me.

“Cowboy,” I replied, my hands coming to a rest on his chest. “Carissa is pregnant.”

His eyebrows shot up.

That was, his eyebrows under his hair that was yanked back at the top and held in a little pony at the back of his head went up.

Seeing his hotness, I was having second thoughts about spending the afternoon looking at houses.

I was thinking the bed in his room at the Compound was all we needed.

“She let that news loose?” he asked, taking me out of my ponderings of dragging him through the Compound and jumping him.

“Just now,” I answered. “You knew?”

He nodded. “Yup. Joker scored himself a box of Cubans and handed them out the day after Carissa told him, which was three months ago.” He tipped his head to the side. “Was Vira in hearing distance when she shared?”