Page 8 of Pumpkin
The entire club—or most, Pumpkin couldn’t recall if he’d seen Scar there—had gathered around the sidewalk to cheer on the racers. While it was supposed to be a friendly match, Pumpkin had seenseveral bills being exchanged between the brothers. Lucky even let Scotty put a dollar in on Bree.
Bree’s chair was certainly better equipped for speed over Pumpkin’s. She also had upper body strength that was impressive for someone her age.
But Pumpkin was not about to lose this race to a girl. Even if that girl was his sixteen year old niece. He’d considered taking the fall for this race, but then Bree had trash talked him—no doubt with training from her parents—and so Pumpkin gave no quarter.
The race was twice around the path. It had originally only been once, but Bree had goaded him into agreeing to twice.
They were pretty much neck and neck—or wheel and wheel—for the first round. After they crossed over the halfway line, Pumpkin caught two of his nephews, Aaron and Ollie, bringing a ribbon across to mark the finish line. No doubt a hundred pictures of the victor would be shared, and Pumpkin was not going to yield.
Right after they crossed over the halfway marker, though, Bree did something Pumpkin wasn’t expecting. She started to slow down.
Fearing something was wrong with her, Pumpkin slowed too, intending to check on her, but then Bree put on a burst of speed, pushing herself forward and surpassing Pumpkin. Doing a couple three-sixty spins from her distance ahead, Bree let out an exuberant laugh. Pumpkin kept pushing forward, but somehow Bree kept her distance from him.
Then she started goingbackwardson the sidewalk and even gave him a little wave before shouting, “Sucker!” and bolting forward at a speed Pumpkin had no hope of matching. What the fuck just happened?! If Pumpkin didn’t know any better, he’d think that she’d been holding back that entire first round. Fucking hell!
Bree rounded the pond, and Pumpkin lost sight of her. He kept pumping his arms, hoping to just go faster, but his speed remained consistent.
Bree was already mid-celebration over her victory as Pumpkin made his way past the clubhouse, around the corner, and up to where the start/finish line was.
Pumpkin hadn’t realized he was short of breath until he tried to speak. “You…cheated…” he gasped out.
Bree, though, laughed. “Sure, if you consider having two plus more years’ experience than you ‘cheating’, then absolutely. I’m a big, ol’ cheater.” She rolled her eyes for dramatics.
And she wasn’t even breathing heavily! Pumpkin was huffing and puffing like a chain smoker.
Frankie neared, bringing SJ and a water bottle. In that moment, Pumpkin was torn between priorities. But Frankie didn’t even give him an option to choose. She silently handed Pumpkin the water bottle.
A lot had happened in the week since his release from the rehab center. The ol’ ladies had stocked his kitchen with more casseroles than he could name. Darrin had been officially assigned to be Pumpkin’s bitch. He was on-call twenty-four-seven for whatever Pumpkin or Frankie needed. Additionally, he was to drive Pumpkin to his physical therapy sessions at the clinic in town. Since it was the same clinic Bones received regular treatment at, Darrin was now responsible for driving both of them.
Steel and Pumpkin had gone to the bank with Susan Black, the club’s lawyer. After signing enough paperwork that Pumpkin had worried about getting arthritis, the settlement funds were transferred and Pumpkin’s bank account gained a lot more zeros.
He was very specifically not doing anything crazy or unnecessary with it. Just because he had access to an amount of money most could only ever dream of, did not mean Pumpkin didn’t need to spend it wisely. There was no telling how long it would be before he could work again. Other than transferring an amount into a trust for SJ’s future and education, Pumpkin had not touched it yet.
A new face was also among the club now, though he wasn’t officially a prospect yet. Chip Maynard had arrived two nights ago. Sent by Kitty—Poison’s Knightmare from theNon CrasMC and the VDMC’s sister club—Chip was a veteran who had been living on the streets of Detroit for the past several years. After helping Kitty and Poison stop a serial killer, they’d given him money to get him toMount Grove by bus, as well as enough for food and lodging. Chip was still finding his feet, and hadn’t made a choice about joining. All he knew was that he wanted something more, something better than what he’d had. Steel had welcomed the veteran and was working to accommodate his needs, including getting him in to see Dr. Rutenburg, Jumper’s therapist, and allowing him to stay in one of the empty apartments in the clubhouse.
Pumpkin hadn’t had a chance to talk to Chip yet, but he was glad to see him socializing with the club by being present for the race.
With Darrin and Viktor patching over soon, the club needed more prospects.TechnicallyScar was a probationary prospect, but it wasn’t like he was acting like it. Mostly because he was, well,Scar.It was more or less a miracle on Tally’s part that he was once again a permanent structure within the club.
Scar’s probation was up in November anyway, and it wasn’t like he was a real prospect because no one had the balls to treat him as one. Pumpkin imagined Chip would be similar. Not because they were afraid Chip would hunt them down like rabid dogs and dance on their corpses, but because of his PTSD. Every patched member had served, and while some had walked away from their time in the military in better shape than others, all had come away scarred in one form or another. Not one of them would have the heart to treat Chip like they would any other prospect because they knew Chip was already suffering enough. Chip’s acceptance into the club would be much like Jumper’s, in that he would be here to heal rather than to serve.
So the club was definitely going to need to start recruiting again.
After gulping down the remainder of the water, Pumpkin traded the empty water bottle for his son. Thankfully, Frankie handed him over willingly. Their friendship had been strained of late. Pumpkin was grateful beyond words for everything Frankie had done for him, but he still did not like the fact that Steel was forcing Frankie to remain in his house to essentially care forhim, not just SJ. And his pride was not handling it well.
Standing SJ up on his legs, Pumpkin helped his son balance as he bounced up and down on his chubby little feet.
It took Pumpkin a moment to realize that, while his brothers were celebrating Bree’s victory, they weren’t razzing him for his defeat. His initial instinct was anger. He’d been injured; he hadn’t died! Pumpkin opened his mouth to let his brothers have it, despite the presence of children, but instead he paused. Hecouldpoint it out to them, yell and scold them for treating him like he was made of thin glass.
Looking around at his brothers, hisfamily, he got a much better idea: he was going to see what it was they would let him get away with. Maybe losing to his niece wasn’t going to be such a bad thing after all.
“You know,” he said purposefully loud to Frankie, “I do like my house, but the color’s a little…off for my tastes. Think I’ll paint it soon.”
While Frankie just looked at him like he’d lost his mind, Pumpkin caught sight of three of his brothers putting their heads together to figure out who was available to start painting Pumpkin’s house.
He had to hide his smile in SJ’s belly. This was going to be fun.
CHAPTER 2
