Page 81 of Ghost

“Gunner, knock off the big brother shit. We haven’t spoken in ten years. I didn’t even know you had moved, thanks for that bit of information.”

Lyssa moved away toward the food, ignoring the rest of us, but assured Haizley they would talk soon. Getting up from my table, I left Gunner to argue with his old lady and followed mine over to the food.

Make no mistake, she would be my old lady. Gunner’s sister or not, fate dropped her back into my fucking lap and I wasn’t letting her up.

Grabbing a plate before she could, I offered, “Tell me what you want.”

“I can feed myself; been doing it a long time.”

“Yea, but now you’re holding Dani, and she needs you. Let me help.”

Her eyes flared briefly before narrowing. “I don’t know what you think is going to happen, but it isn’t. I am here for Dani and for her only.”

“Lyssa—”

“Please don’t call me that. I used that because it was the first thing I thought of. My name is Melissa.”

I nodded and asked again, “What do you want to eat?”

With a heavy sigh, Melissa relented. “Pancakes. They’re her favorite.”

“Cakes.”

“Yes, baby, you can have pancakes.”

I put three pancakes on the plate, grabbed some butter and syrup, and followed Melissa to a table.

Sitting down beside her, I sat quietly, waiting while she cut up the pancakes for Dani.

“Can I get you something?”

Just then, a cup of coffee was placed in front of Melissa. She looked up at Haizley and smiled. “I love you.”

My gut twisted. I knew they were friends. Haizley told us last night they not only knew each other, but were best friends from college. But I wanted that smile directed at me. I wanted to hear her whisper those fucking words to me.

“Hey, Doc, can you give us a minute?” I asked hopefully.

“Nope.” Haizley sat down on the other side of Dani, and Gunner brought her a plate of food and sat down with her.

The front door opened, and Ryder, Ellie, and Tabby walked in. Looking at my watch, I noticed the time. Chrissy would be at school. Following closely behind them were Blade and Beck.

The clubhouse was filling up fast. Hanging my head, I wondered if I would ever get a chance to talk to her.

I watched Melissa as she helped Dani with her food. Ellie sat down with Tabby, and the way she looked longingly at Dani broke my heart. I reached over and put my hand on hers.

“He’ll be ok.”

“You don’t know that. We haven’t heard anything in weeks.” Ellie looked up at Melissa. “Please, can you tell me anything? Do you know how Danny is?”

“I don’t know anything,” Melissa answered, shaking her head.

“Officers in church in fifteen minutes. Mellie, would you please join us?”

She looked up at King and nodded. Her face solemn. It was clear she didn’t want to be here.

“Princess?”

She snapped her gaze to mine and inhaled sharply.

---