Page 17 of Ricochet

CHAPTER NINE

“Who’s ready for a party?” Grayson turned in the front passenger seat of Colin’s rental car and the back seat erupted in giggling, “We are!”

“Guess we should go.” After a few hours of sleep in the hotel, Colin pulled out of the hotel parking lot. Grayson’s crew had to be twice as loud as the radio, so he turned it off as they headed to the joint guys-and-girls party that Sevenhad apparently promised Emma would be family friendly and filled with cupcakes.

Colin wasn’t sure how anything with Mayhem was family friendly, but who was he to judge? They arrived at an outdoor park that had as many motorcycles lined up as it did cars in the parking lot. There was a man-made lake, picnic shelters, a small wooden building that looked like a forest ranger hut out of a 1950smovie, and a hundred of Jax and Seven’s nearest and dearest.

“Whoa.” Colin shifted into park. “This isn’t what I expected.”

“Nothing about anything out here is what I expect,” Grayson added.

“Off we go.” Emma opened the door over the older one’s head and pulled the younger one behind her. “We’ll be having fun while you two debate wedding expectations.”

“When she puts it like that…” Graysongrumbled, unbuckling.

Colin took in the whole scene. There was a giant wooden dance floor where a metal band shredded guitar, but not too far away, there were kids playing in their bathing suits and running in and out of the water.

He got out, and the scent of beer and barbeque hit him. Two huge black pits attached to the back of mammoth trucks poured smoke. Across from that was a table longerthan the one in Titan’s war room filled with what had to be snacks and side dishes.

His stomach growled, and for the first time in what felt like weeks, he smiled for no reason. Fun floated in the air, mixing with the scent of food and drink, kids playing, and people dancing. No one seemed to care what anyone else thought about them. There were good ole boys in overalls dancing next to good-lookingwomen in sky-high heels. He recognized a few faces. Seven and her pink hair were hard to miss. Same with Victoria in a yellow dress, both swarmed by kids holding hands dancing around them. There were few people Colin didn’t recognize and one he did—Adelia, a face always with Seven or Victoria.A beautiful one at that.

“Hey,” Winters caught Colin’s attention from behind.

Colin turned. The bigman had a little kid—not a baby but too small to be running around on the ground, asleep on his shoulder. “Hey, man. How’s it going?”

Winters’s large hand spanned the width of the girl’s back, rubbing small circles as her cheek draped on her dad, somehow sleeping through the excitement. “Not bad. But this little one’s a party pooper.”

“Where’s Mia?”

“Making sure the kids don’t dive headfirstinto the water before we eat.”

“Ah, good plan.”

A little arm stretched and grabbed onto Winters’s ear, and they laughed, but she nuzzled her face into his shoulder the picked up her head to look around.

“Annie, are you waking up?”

She turned to her dad’s voice, and a sweet smile grew. Annie saw Colin, and she didn’t shy away.

“I think she remembers me,” Colin said.

“Of course, she does.”Winters shifted her to lean against her back and made cute-kiddo noise. “Here, she’s sick of me.”

Before Colin had a chance to think, Winters had Annie in Colin’s arms. Every time he did this, she weighed more than he thought she would. It took him a good two times of moving his hands so that they both seemed happy with how he held her, but in the end, Annie seemed pleased to get to watch herdad.

Sophia and Javier walked from the parking lot, and his sister beamed. “I do notget to see you with little ones enough.”

“Maybe you should have your own,” he shot back.

Javier raised his eyebrow. But Sophia didn’t stop gushing, and her husband quickly clued in, maybe even remembering the last time she went on one of her Colin-and-baby moments.

“I need a picture.” Sophia reached for herphone.

“We are pretty cute, huh, Annie?” He bounced her but decided she didn’t like that, and he wasn’t in the mood for a pukey shirt. “Or we can just stand still and look good.”

“Got it. See?” She showed Javier.

He raised his voice an octave higher. “He’s so cute.”

---