Page 38 of Pumpkin
Dosia’s face paled. But she shook her head. “No, she’s mine.”
When the wood started to crack under his grip, the snapping sound brought Pumpkin back to his senses. His daughter was picking up on her mother’s terror, and Pumpkinneverwanted to be the cause of his daughter’s fear.
He stepped back, trying to calm himself but his lungs still felt like they were only taking in half the amount of oxygen his body needed to function.
“I want a paternity test,” he demanded harshly. “And I want my name on her birth certificate. Don’t you dare fight me on this, Dosia. There’s not a judge in the world who wouldn’t give me custody.”
Then he stormed from the bookstore before his ragereallytook over.
CHAPTER 8
Dosia couldn’t remember ever being so pissed in her life, but beyond her anger, she was scared. Everything she’d feared had just come to pass. Pumpkin knew about JJ. Pumpkin was demanding paternal rights. Pumpkin was threatening to take JJ away from her.
She clung to her daughter, needing to hold onto her as tight as humanly possible.
Could she run? Would she get far enough? Where could she possibly go? A lawyer. She needed a lawyer. How could this have happened? This wasn’t the plan! She’d made a plan only that morning. How had it gone so wrong so soon?
Dosia did a deadpan to her aunt, and a cold wave washed over her. Thank the gods, Calliope wasn’t standing there with a smile on her face or trying to make light of what had just happened. Where had she even gotten JJ’s shirt from? Dosia didn’t remember her daughter wearing it that morning. It couldn’t have been possiblymoreon the nose.
Calliope’s face was solemn, like she understood the gravity of what she’d just done. Her hands were even raised slightly as if in surrender. “I know we can’t talk right now.” Her eyes glanced down to JJ’s back. “And I know you won’t believe me, but I did what was best.”
“For who?” Dosia demanded. She was barely holding back the floodgates. Was it possible to cancel her flash sale? There was no way she’d be able to keep the store open now.
“For you,” Calliope insisted. Then she stepped back, making room between herself and the counter. “Go. I have the store. We’ll talk tonight.”
Dosia shook her head. There was so much she wanted to say, needed to say, but had no idea how to say, and certainly none of it was appropriate in front of her daughter. But at least Calliope and she agreed that Dosia couldn’t remain there right now.
She started forward, keeping a tight hold of JJ.
“Dosia?” She froze as Calliope called after her. “Your purse.”
Shit, she did need that. Especially because her car keys were in it. Dosia turned back around to find Calliope was holding out her purseandPumpkin’s jacket. She reached to only take her purse, but Calliope pushed the jacket against her anyway, essentially covering JJ’s back.
“Trust me,” her aunt insisted.
Dosia glared daggers at the one woman she never thought would betray her. Calliope wasn’t just her aunt. They were best friends, as close as sisters. “I’ll never forgive you for this,” she said as quietly as she could so as not to alarm JJ.
The hurt on Calliope’s face was evident, and her smile was weak as she tried to reassure Dosia. “We’ll talk later.”
Dosia couldn’t guarantee they would. She couldn’t guarantee a damn thing right now. All she could do was hold onto JJ as she hurried from the store to her car parked out front.
A large, black SUV was parked on the other side of the road. Pumpkin stood just beyond the hood, arguing with another man in a cut. Dosia froze when his eyes landed on her. They narrowed—until he visibly saw his jacket covering JJ in her arms. His look softened for a heartbeat before he turned his back on them.
Dosia remained where she was for a single second longer, afraidhe’d turn back around, and then she hurried the rest of the way to her car.
Pumpkin was barely keepingit together. Darrin was insisting that he take Pumpkin to PT after Pumpkin had given him the slip, but Pumpkin was inno moodto deal with that. When Darrin offered to take Pumpkin back to the clubhouse, Pumpkin declined. The clubhouse with all their happy, wholesome families was the last place Pumpkin wanted to be right now.
Did that make him a bad father? Probably. But SJ was safe and happy with Frankie and his cousins, and Pumpkin just needed… Hell, he didn’t know what he needed. He needed to process what just happened, what he’d just discovered.
“Take me to the dealership,” Pumpkin ordered before climbing into the passenger seat. He needed to go somewhere, and the club’sHarley-Davidsondealership was some place Darrin wouldn’t argue about taking him, or worse, call Steel to verify it was “okay” to take him there. Christ, he fucking hated not being independent. He was a grown-ass man, yet everyone kept checking with Daddy Steel that he could go places or do something. His game of seeing how long the club would let him get away with shit was wearing thin fast.
He had adaughter!
Pumpkin closed his eyes as Darrin headed down Main Street at too fucking slow a speed. Couldn’t the man pick up the pace just a little?
He didn’t remember much from his patch-in party, but the one thing he’d always been sure of was that they’d used protection. There’d been two used condoms on the ground next to him when he’d woken up. Had they had sex a third time, only unprotected? That didn’t seem like him. He might have been drunk, but still.
A daughter. He had a fucking daughter. How the hell had this happened?
