Page 7 of Rebel

The hostess makes her way to us, telling me she has a table ready. No one argues because there are folks who have been waiting longer but not going to complain. I just want to feed the crew and get home so we can do our nightly routine of gathering our dirty clothes and shoving them into the laundry room, then showers, and of course their nighttime snacks before they make their way to their bedrooms to watch television, play games for forty-five minutes—or here’s a concept—read a damn book.

Once we are seated and have given our drink orders, the waitress starts to go over the specials of the day. This is when Kon starts to push my buttons. He asks her if he can substitute something for fries because he’s diabetic. This has the younger woman start to fawn over him, which is exactly what he wanted her to do. I can tell Thanos and Stefanos are starving, so I push his games along.

“Kon, if you are so worried about your sugars get a plain salad with extra protein and a hot tea. Maybe add that vegetable soup too.”

My oldest son glares at me, though he finally puts in his order. His two younger brothers follow and then the waitress looks at me.

“Give me the special, extra biscuits and gravy on the side. Oh, can I get a house salad with garlic dressing also?”

She nods then gathers our menus and moves to place our order at the kiosk off to the side. All three boys are getting soup and I’m getting a salad. I’m curious to see how fast our food is served. Never been to the grill part of this place, only the bar side with some coworkers when one of the doctors was leaving.

“Daddy, is that man going to be okay? You saved him, right?”

Looking at Thanos, I smile. He looks more like his mother than me, lighter-brown hair and the hazel eyes, but he has my heart.

“Yeah, Son, he should be fine. Just needs to slow down and pay attention when eating, just like I tell all of you. Time and place for everything.”

Before I can get another word out, the woman with long deep-red hair approaches our table with a tray filled with soups and a nice-looking salad. She puts the tray on the holder another woman pops open for her. As she passes soups out to the boys, I can feel her eyes on me but she does nothing to catch my attention. Finally, when she has my salad in her hands, she glances up and whispers quietly to me.

“Hey, stud, Rebel doesn’t like garlic so I brought out an Italian and Thousand Island. Trying to help out, if you know what I mean. Oh, wow, speak of the she-devil, here she comes. Enjoy.”

She turns and walks away as Rebel slowly approaches our table. I’m shocked to see her knuckles are ripped up and slightly bleeding and, holy shit, she’s got some blood on the corner of her lips like someone cracked her in the face. When she sees my face,she barely shakes her head but looks to the boys, and I get it. I’m not ignoring it, just pushing aside for now.

“Hey, guys, mind if I join you? I could use a coffee and maybe a piece of Cook’s sugar-free apple pie. Hey, don’t be making faces unless you try it.”

The boys shift over so Rebel is right next to me. Suddenly, my throat tightens and I feel like I’m about to choke, so I take a deep breath and a sip of my tea. Our waitress stops by with a coffee mug and a carafe, I’m guessing of coffee, and a huge number of creamers in a bowl. Rebel reaches for a handful of cream and starts opening and pouring them into her mug. Kon is watching her, along with Thanos. Stefanos is starving so unless someone starts to choke again his head isn’t coming up at all, he’s enjoying his food too much.

“Why do you use so much cream? Maybe ask for a cup of cream with a drip of coffee.”

Shocked, I look over to Stefanos, as he’s shoving chicken nuggets in his mouth after dipping them in honey mustard sauce. Rebel looks at him as the wheels in her head are moving, so I lean back and watch the interaction between the two of them. Glancing at Kon, he’s mimicking me. My little stud in training.

“First, I’m Rebel, nice to meet you all. Second, I’m not a fan of the taste of coffee but love the bump of energy I get from it. Hope that answers your question. Now give it to me, what are all of you guys’ names.”

Each boy introduces themselves, well, Thanos does when I give him an elbow. He puts his triple cheeseburger down with the “what” look. I look at him then Rebel. He grins and then introduces himself. She’s looking at us and then shocks the shit out of me.

“Well, that’s a lot of Giannopoulos testosterone to be in the company of. So we have a doctor, teenager, preteen, and a cute kid. Good to know.”

I can see the boys are taken aback but I don’t know what to say. Leave it to Kon to jump right in.

“So we have a Rebel biker chick. Good to know.”

My mouth drops as both younger boys’ forks land on their plates loudly. There are eight eyes looking at Rebel. Those gorgeous warm caramel eyes of hers are looking intently at Kon. He’s squirming under her glare and I kind of like that she’s not afraid to hold her own ground. With these three boys, any woman would have to because I’m not around all the time. If I hook my star to a woman who is weaker and not sure of herself, that could be disastrous. I literally shake my head to shut my fucking thoughts off. Just when I think I should say something, Rebel beats me to it.

“Konstantin, right? Or do you prefer Kon? I like the full name, just sayin’. Well, let me explain something to you, stud. First, don’t be a dick to any woman because it just ain’t cool. Second, I wasn’t being a smart-ass, that’s just me being me, but I’ll cut you some slack because obviously you don’t know me. Third, if you don’t have any experience with someone, don’t jump to conclusions. Fourth and finally, I get you’re finding yourself but remember, kid, we all are, no matter our age. Knock the chip off your shoulder and you might see life really isn’t that bad.”

Not only is my mouth open, but my hand is also gripping my seat for dear life. It’s like this woman was in my head reading my thoughts to my son. Holy Mother of God, how did she do that? I glance from Rebel to Kon to see his face is white and no—please no—his eyes are filling up. Damn it. I go to stand up but Rebel puts her warm hand on my thigh and I’m a goner. She stands and walks to where Kon is sitting. She crouches downnext to him and starts to whisper in his ear. His face goes from white to normal to slightly blushing. He wipes his eyes but never pulls away from the woman whispering in his ear. All three of the remaining Giannopoulos men are watching intently. When Rebel stands and pulls Kon to his feet, I’m impressed. All of my boys are big, like me, and my oldest has been trying to work out to build muscles and bulk. Rebel pulled him up like he was a kid. What amazes me more than anything is when she put her arms around him and hugs him close to her. Kon instantly put his hands around her and hangs on for dear life. In that moment, I realize what all my boys are missing out on without a woman around and in their lives. No matter how much I try to be their “everything,” it just isn’t working. Blinking to clear the wet from my eyes, I’m shocked to see Kon whispering in Rebel’s ear. Her head is nodding and she’s speaking to him softly. When she pulls back, I can see Kon is reluctant to let her go. Rebel must feel it because she stops and grabs his shoulders, squeezing tightly. Something she says brings a huge smile to his face and both sets of eyes look my way. I throw my arms up in the air.

“What now? I didn’t say a word.”

That brings chuckles from Rebel and Kon. Eventually, Stefanos and Thanos join in. The two break apart with Rebel ruffling Kon’s hair, which brings a smile to his face. When he sits, his eyes never leave Rebel’s form as she walks to her own chair. She sits and leans over, hitting my shoulder with hers. Looking down, holy fuck, those eyes seem to drag my soul out of my body, dusting it off and then throwing it back in. I feel lighter and, more importantly, happier. Who the fuck am I and what’s going on? I don’t do relationships because of the three kids sitting around this table. I won’t because don’t ever want them to get connected to someone and that person will then have the opportunity to hurt them. Even with my Hippocratic oath to save lives—along with all the other shit like respect, care, beingprofessional, and being selfless—anyone hurts my boys and I’ll kill them with my bare hands, not feeling an ounce of guilt at all.

“Hey, Doc, you still with us? Do we need to call a doctor?”

I jump back as two fingers snap in front of my face. Rebel is grinning and I can hear the boys cackling. I shake my head and grab her fingers, pulling them down onto my thigh. Her eyes pop and I can see the shock and fear on her face for a brief second before she relaxes and squeezes said thigh, which has my body reacting in a way not meant for being in public.

“Sorry about that, somehow, even with this table full of characters I drifted. What did I miss?”

Immediately everyone starts talking at the same time, but the tense moment is gone. I go to release Rebel’s hand. She gives me a brief squeeze before she pulls her hand off of my thigh. Her touch has every nerve in my body at full alert. If I’m this “energized” by her simple touch, she’ll probably kill me if we ever make it to the point of sharing a bed. Hearing her giggle, I look to see her watching me.

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