Page 98 of Creed

Creed chuckled. “No, I don’t punch boys in the face just for the fun of it.”

She tilted her head. “Why not? It’s fun when they cry.”

I looked at Creed. He looked from Addie to me, then Addie again, and smiled when he looked at me. “She is absolutely perfect.”

“Umm…Creed, it’s a problem.”

He tilted his head. “How so?”

Unbelievable. I just stared at him and tried to figure out what the hell was going through that head of his. I opened my mouth, looked at Addie who looked way too angelic, then shut my mouth and looked at Creed again. He was waiting for an answer, but I shook my head and took a bite of my Linguine instead.

Addie ate all of her grilled cheese and macaroni, and we were all stuffed by the time we made it to the bowling alley. I helped her into her rental shoes while Creed had the bumpers added to our lane. Then he took her to find a ball, but then I heard Addie’s name.

“Addie!” I noticed Grangers little girl run over and hug my little girl. Stephanie approached and I looked at her for answers.

She laughed as the two girls hugged each other. “I don’t know why I didn’t put two and two together. Addie istheAddie from Mrs. Stenger’s Kindergarten class. I had Addie in my group when we went on their field trip to Prairie Connor.”

“Chloe is Addie’s friend?”

She nodded. “Yeah, and Chloe asked several times for a play date, but I could never reach Addie’s parents.”

I looked back over at the girls, and they looked like two miniature teenagers. They were squealing and jumping up and down as they hugged. Creed stood back with his hands up like he was witnessing something that horrified him.

I laughed. “Look at Creed.”

Stephanie threw her head back and laughed at him. “He looks like someone just shit in his cheerios.”

He might have been horrified by their premature teenage behavior, but I was horrified when I witnessed Addie turn, point at her eyes with two fingers then point at someone behind us. I turned to see Dillon, who was Chloe’s Irish twin, point at himself then look around him as if searching for the person Addie was really pointing at, but there was nobody.

I looked back and saw Creed with his hands on his hips, nodding his approval of her behavior. I pointed at my eyes then pointed at Creed. He pointed at himself then turned to see who I was pointing at, but there was nobody else.

“I don’t know why she doesn’t like boys, but I think we have a problem.”

Stephanie tilted her head then looked at the kids then something must have come to her memory. “I think I might be able to shed some light on this, lets sit and I will explain.” She guided me over to sit at our lane and I saw Creed talking to Granger. Creed shrugged his shoulders and so did Granger as Creed explained. They were both clueless.

“At the beginning of the school year, Chloe was dealing with a little boy picking on her. Addie always came to her aid.This was severe enough for me to ask to meet with the teacher. She tried to separate the boy from my daughter the best she could, but finally during their Christmas program, it all went down. The boy pulled on Chloe’s hair and Addie knocked him off the risers. She proceeded to spit in his face. Keep in mind, this was during their school program and all the parents witnessed it. After that day, all the girls surrounded Addie. She got a lot of attention for it, but then at the end of the night I noticed Addie left with Melissa Peters. She’s a local daycare provider that was involved in a lot of the school’s fundraisers.”

“Yeah, I know Melissa. We went to school together.”

She nodded. “Creed talked to me about hiring her. Anyway, neither one of Addie’s parents came to the Christmas program. In fact, I never met either of her parents and I was the class mom for the second semester.”

I nodded. “That makes sense. Callie was always working in the evening and Shane couldn’t have given two shits.”

Creed and Granger approached us and suggested we bowl together. I was more than okay with that because I wanted Addie to socialize, and a familiar face was good for her.

It melted my heart when Creed would help Addie when it was her turn to bowl. Granger did the same thing for his kids. Every once in awhile, Creed would walk over and peck my lips, and Addie would also walk over and hug me then return to playing with Chloe. It was like she wanted to remind me she was there so I wouldn’t forget her or something.

After bowling, we said goodbye to the Grangers and returned home. Creed ordered me to take a hot bath and soak while he read Addie her story and tucked her into bed. I wasn’tgoing to fight him on that one. It wasn’t long before Creed joined me then we finished our night making love in our bed.

Satisfaction

Creed

I was waiting outside the gates of the Fallen Angels compound. It was the day scheduled to meet with Sniper, the president of the Devil’s Rejects, and Axel, the president of the Fallen Angels. I came offering a few gifts to Sniper. I had to prepare myself because I knew my upcoming experience wouldn’t be much different than being at Club X, but it would be dirtier.

I was committing a felonious act as I waited on my bike while Irons and Baros sat in a van behind me. I watched as the Fallen Angel in front of me opened the gate then waved us forward.

We drove to the compound and parked our vehicles. Standing outside the doors was Sniper and Axel. I climbed off my bike and walked up to shake their hands.