Tame This (The McCallans, Book Two) (36 page)

“Life is awesome that way,” Jay replied dryly with a smile. He pulled himself upright and
added, “I might’ve just broke my cock, so that sucks for you.”

Melanie laughed again but pulled herself up from the couch, just as they both heard,
“
Rawk
! Cock-cock-cock-sucker!”

Jay turned toward the bird and his mouth dropped open. “What the hell, did you just say
cocksucker
?”

“O
h my God!” Melanie groaned. “You’ve still been teaching him that!?” She smacked him in the arm and said, “Jay! I hate you right now!”

“Hey buddy,” he smiled at the parrot. “Say cocksucker again.
Cocksucker
.”

“Cock-cock-cock!”

“Uh…sucker,” Jay finished. “Cock. Sucker. Come on, pal. Just say it one more time.”

“I’m driving myself to the hospital,” Melanie said, grabbing her bag that had ended up on the floor.

“No you’re not, just give me a sec. Hey Fucktard, say
cocksucker
.”

“Come on Tank,” Melanie called for the dog. “Let’s put you out back, boy. I have no idea how long we’ll be gone.”

“Just once,” Jay pleaded to the bird. “Cocksucker.” The bird just stood on the perch, staring at him with his head tilted. “Performance anxiety? I have no idea what the hell that is like, but I’ll pretend to understand.”

He heard the front door shut and that’s what made him look around at the empty house to notice Melanie was gone. “Well shit. Thanks for nothing, bastard,” he told the bird as he rushed to the door.

He was just about to shut it behind him when he heard, “Cock-cock-cock-sucker!” from inside the house.

“Yes!” Jay fist pumped as he jumped off the front porch.

Melanie was tossing her bag onto the backseat of her car and barely smiled at him, but it worried him because of the way she was holding on to the car for support.

“Oh, baby, hey, lemme help you…” Jay rushed to her side but she was open
ing the driver’s door. “Hell no, you’re not driving.” He redirected her to walk with him around the front of the car and opened the passenger’s side. “What are you thinkin’, woman? Like I really feel like eating a telephone pole when a contraction hits.”

“What am I thinking?” she spoke softly as she climbed into the car, trying to breathe steadily. “I’m thinking you should just stay home with the bird and have fun cocksucking. That’s what I’m thinking.”

“Whoa hey now,” he chuckled at the smile on her face. He bent down to help her with the seatbelt and kissed her face. “I wouldn’t want to be anywhere in the world except here with you.”

“I’m sure you can think of a few places,” she retorted with a tiny smile.

He did pretend to think for a moment, and when she shoved him playfully he laughed and said, “I’m kidding. If I’m somewhere without you, I’m in the wrong place for sure.”

“Aww, you’re getting so good at this sweet and sappy stuff. It almost breaks my heart that you
have to stray so far from your personality.”

“Oh, what little faith you have in me,” he winked, lowering himself to his haunches to be eye level with her. “You’ve brought out a side that I’ve saved all this time just for you, sweetheart.”

“Oh, just for me?”

“Yep, just for you. And there’s enough to go around for this little one, too,” he added, softly touching her belly as he leaned forward to kiss it.

He looked up at Melanie and noticed her eyes were full of moisture. She placed her hand against his face and didn’t say anything, but it looked like she was trying not to cry.

“Now who’s getting sappy?” Jay teased.

She exhaled a deep breath. “Yeah, that was really sweet,” she answered in a strained voice. “But I’m having a damn contraction, Jay. Can we please go now?”

He laughed and kissed her face. “I love you
, babe. I am the luckiest fucking bastard on the planet.” 

EPILOGUE

Two months later…

I consider myself a pretty fair guy. Most people don’t give me the benefit of the doubt, but that doesn’t really matter to me. I don’t feel like I have to prove anything to anyone. People are too damn judgmental in the first place. Just knock it the fuck off, okay? We don’t need that useless shit in the world.

But…I’ll admit I can be a pretty big asshole when I want to be. I don’t wait for an invitation to offer my opinions because hey, ninety percent of the time, the people that need to hear it the most would never ask in the first place. I like to be generous like that. You know, when people can’t ask for help, I’ll just jump right in and tell ‘em how it is.

I’m Jay Fucking McCallan. The first time I ever said that to anyone was as a seven-year-old. Yep, said it right to the face of my grade school principal. Granted it was private school and my last name got me out of it just as quick, but it only got worse from there. My parents never spent any time with me, so I pretty much did whatever I wanted. Teague and I went to the same school since we were old enough to
, and I can’t even begin to describe all the trouble we got into. There are even things we did that my parents will
still
never know about…

Relationships. I’ve always known what it was like to be appreciated by your best friend and adored by your sister no matter what. Teague has been my biggest supporter for as long as I can remember, and Kellie was the only female I ever loved. I’ve always had girls on the chase in one form or another. Sometimes it’s pretty fucking cool to be seen as a piece of meat, I’m not
gonna lie. I’ve never wanted to get close to a single one of them, so if that’s all they saw me for, I was okay with that. A few tried to get deeper into my world but that shit was halted pretty damn fast. Stay out of my life. Stay away from my thoughts and don’t force me to share stuff with you. I’m not a fucking country song. Not gonna whine for a woman to make my life complete. And if you can’t handle that, back the fuck off. I don’t want you anyways.

Now I’m an adult. Okay, so I’m supposed to be one. I never thought anything would ever faze me until I became center stage to the two most important people in my life. How this happened, I have no clue. I guess the moment she walked into my life was the moment the damn stars started to align or something. Okay, I don’t believe in that garbage, but Melanie likes to tease me about it. She’ll throw all kinds of nonsense my way just to give me a hard time.

And I let her. She can say whatever the hell she wants to me and I will always love her. For me to actually feel that about someone scares the fucking shit out of me. I don’t want to lose in life. I don’t want to be holding on to something only for it to be taken away from me in some way later on. To have most all of my happiness come from one single source is just not right in my book. I don’t like giving away that control. She has the power to bring me to my knees and it is difficult for me to accept.

But the parts of me that knew I would not be whole without her decided to break down the stubborn parts that were going to let her go. It was losing
either way, and somehow, just the thought of her living in another city—or shit, moving on with someone else—woke me the fuck up. I had to gamble everything I had to win that hand. I had to gamble and hope with all that I had that it was the right thing to do and I wouldn’t be setting myself up to lose everything. It was the hardest fucking thing I ever did. But you know what…?

I would do it again in a heartbeat.

Because life isn’t like a game of cards. I learned this, and I learned it the hard way. Life consists of human qualities like love and forgiveness, second chances and redemption. You don’t get that in a stupid game of cards. If you lose your hand, there’s no going back to change your strategy for a different outcome. And fuck no, in a card game you don’t get makeup sex when you act like an ass or say something stupid.

That is
the
best part of fucking up in the real world.

And it helps when your woman is the most amazing
person ever. I don’t know what I did to deserve her, but I have been blessed beyond measure. I feel like a fucking homeless dog that’s been taken in by a loving family.

Tank knows what t
hat’s like. He’s in the front room to greet me as I enter the house. His favorite spot is right next to the couch, and his tail thumps up and down when he sees me.

“Hey buddy,” I say quietly. The house was pretty much silent. Even the birdcage has been covered with a sheet for night-night time. It’s the only way we can get Fucktard to shut the hell up now and then. Don’t get me wrong, I love chatting with the bastard, but there are some changes in this household that just don’t allow that asshole to run his mouth all the time.

Tank pulls his lazy ass off the floor to greet me. He’s huge already, up to my knees, and he’s only going to get bigger. It was probably one of the dumbest moves I’ve ever made—bringing a puppy into this crazy new mix in my life—but I was pathetic and desperate and knew that Melanie wanted him. I would have adopted five of him if I had to. Yeah, I used a sad and useless animal to lure Melanie back into my life and I’m not even fucking ashamed of it, either.

But Tank has been worth his weight. It took him several weeks to get over cowerin
g anytime someone came near him or even looked at him, for that matter. He would even piss on the floor if he got too scared. This was a huge fucking problem for me because I always had to clean it up. I was ready to put a damn diaper on the dog anytime people came over. Thank God we realized it had to do with eye contact. A stranger can pet and talk to him without making him piss on the floor as long as we warn them not to look him in the eye.

I have no idea how long we will have to go through this, but as much as it is an inconvenience, it also makes me angry that someone did that to an innocent animal. We love Tank to pieces, despite his flaws because of a fucked up human being, and it was a glorious day when that bastard got reamed in court with a fine and jail time for animal abuse. I know there
are many out there just like him, and that kills me inside, but I’m thankful we at least saved Tank from one heartless abuser.

S
ometimes Tank is very timid and still acts as if someone is going to yell at him for anything he does. He even eats his food like he’s afraid to. It’s so sad. I don’t know if he will ever grow out of that phase or not, but we accept him anyways. He is a mellow dog by nature and would rather sleep all day, but he is also very much a lover. Even now he’s at my side to be pet and he would normally be with Melanie—which means she was probably occupied somewhere else. I’d walked into this house enough times in the past two months to gauge what everyone was doing at the moment.

I set the bags on the kitchen counter and put a few things away. Hell yes I went to the store for my woman, and if anyone wants to give me shit for that, you can kiss my ass. I even picked up feminine products.
Because I can. And I have balls of steel.

Tank already has his nose in the air, sensing that I pick
ed up a bone for him. But when he notices that
I
notice his interest, he hangs his head slightly and looks away. God, that kills me. The poor dog can’t even be excited for something without feeling guilty about it.

I hold the bone in front of him and talk to him softly, encouraging him to take it. Finally he ever so slowly reaches forward to take it from my hand. I pretty much have to wedge it in his mouth because he’s still unsure if he should be doing this. “Good boy,” I tell him. “Go lay on your bed. Good boy.”

He finally takes it and trots back to his bed by the couch. His tail is wagging and that makes me smile.

Eager to see my girl, I head down the hall quietly. It’s almost seven o’clock. It had been a long day at work and when I texted Mel to see how she was doing, I asked if she needed anything. I was in a fucking zombie state
while at the store, but did it in a heartbeat. Now I was ready to crash for the night.

I walk into the bedroom and smile
instantly. Melanie is asleep on the bed, fully clothed right on top. Her mouth is open and she’s breathing heavily. I’m not sure if I should laugh at how funny she looks or feel bad for how exhausted she probably is.

I just
take a picture instead. I’ll decide later.

Next to her
is the portable crib, and right there in the middle is a wiggly but smiling baby when I appear at the edge. I put my finger to my lips but he only smiles more, and that is enough to give me a second wind.

Picking him up I whisper, “Hey pal, how are you? Did you trick mommy into naptime so we could have bro time?”

I place him against my chest and his little legs are pumping up and down with excitement. God, I love that. It’s like he’s trying to jump for joy whenever he sees me. You gotta understand what that feels like. My tiny heart just wants to burst with happiness.

I look over at Melanie on the bed, still sound asleep. She’s gorgeous, every bit of her. When I place a blanket over her, she closes her mouth and curls up with the pillow. So fucking adorable.

I take another picture.

I want to kiss her but don’t want to risk waking her up, so I just
carry Cade down the hall with me to the front room.

Caden Beckett. I was floored when Melanie named him that. Floored but so damn happy. And it just seemed to suit him, too. Beck had always been so smiley and happy-go-lucky, and Cade was always smiling too. No one could ever replace my friend, but baby Cade sure made life feel a lot fuller for me. I have Melanie and I have Cade, and I never would have dreamed that I would be this happy with two people.

“What’s up canine brother?” I speak for Cade and make him wave to Tank.

The dog wags his tail as he continues
to work over his bone, and the baby drools a wad of spit all over my arm when he smiles. I flip on the television out of habit and sit down on the couch with my little guy. Even though Tyse had moved out, he’d left the TV behind for us. I never told him he had to move out but he did a couple weeks after Melanie moved in. I understand the flow of it. I did the same thing at Teague’s. There’s just a time when you know things should change, and once relationships and families start growing, it’s a given.

Tyse still comes over quite a lot. I’m okay with it. I have a half-brother that happens to be pretty cool and
he accepts me for who I am. Kellie fucking loves him insanely much, and I’m happy for that. He’s able to give her some of the things I never have been good at. Don’t get me wrong, I love my sister beyond measure. But I’ve just never been the brother that she can have long conversations with and I don’t listen patiently. No, the second she would mention some guy or any hurt feelings, I wanted to severely beat someone’s ass. I was never the type to sit idly by and talk reason with someone.

My brother has more of that to offer. And the
chicks seem to gravitate toward him like a damn magnet. He has no plans to settle down with someone—he’s been too busy opening a new branch of McCallan business with my grandfather—but it’s gonna be interesting when the right girl does claim Tyse one of these days. He’ll be a tough one to pin down like me, but just in a different way.

“
Blah
!” Cade announces, breaking my thoughts.

“Oh really?” I chuckle, turning him to face me. “And what more do you have to tell me today? What did you and mommy do? I bet you got to suck on some titties, huh pal? That’s no fair. Seriously. I bust my butt at work and you get to stick your face in mommy’s chest six times a day. And then I bet you crapped your drawers a few times, too.  And you played the innocent baby card and had mommy wipe your butt for you, right?”

All I get is a big ass grin from him and it makes me laugh.

“You th
ink that’s funny, huh?” I lean forward and kiss on his face, getting slobber all over the place.

Slobber
doesn’t bother me. Neither does spit-up. It’s the shitty diapers that took me a while to get used to. In fact, it took almost a month before I even changed one. Melanie was out for a few hours with Camryn and it was just me and Little Man for a bit. I had no idea a four-week-old baby could shit that much. It was fucking
everywhere
. We were just watching football and he must not have liked that our team lost because he just exploded in his diaper. It was only a matter of seconds before it seeped onto
my
clothes too.

No way was I touching that. Straight to the shower, in our clothes, and I removed it all that way. I wrapped him up in a towel without a diaper at first because I had never attempted to put one on him. I’d seen Mel do it dozens of times and I had never been asked to, and I just figured she’d be home soon. Well the towel didn’t help much when he peed on me, so on to the diapers I went. It wasn’t the most diffic
ult thing to figure out, and I’ve been changing them ever since.

I happen to glance at the coffee table and pick up a few of t
he papers on it. They’re from Cade’s checkup with the pediatrician earlier today.
Caden Beckett Jacobs
was at the top. I stare at his name for almost a minute. It’s not like I haven’t seen it in its full form, but tonight it kind of makes me sad. Melanie had given him her last name, not Jordan’s. The guy hadn’t even met Cade yet. He’d done nothing to help Melanie out financially, but he hadn’t even wanted to see his son’s face.