Stone: At Your Service (Carolina Bad Boys #1) Read Online Free Page B

rumbled out as he greeted my son.
    The rest of what I heard was a series of high-pitched nonsense and Nicky rambling on, a huge smile on his face. “Nah, I ain’t famous.”
    There was a pause, then Nicky’s loud chuckle. “No, I don’t know Mickey Mouse.”
    A couple minutes later, he handed the phone back. “He’s winding down.”
    “ Sugar crash,” I mouthed.
    “ Daddy?”
    “ Yeah, baby boy.” I listened to him yawn, that soft pop of his innocent mouth.
    “ Do Baloo for me.”
    I fell back on the bed. “‘Bare Necessities’?”
    “ Mm hmm. ”
    I shut my eyes and curled against the phone like I folded around his little body when I sang him to sleep. I’d employed every trick I could think of when he suffered from colic the first nine months and Claire was battling postpartum depression. Disney characters were the old standby. Putting on my best Baloo-bear voice, I sang him the song as he sleepily harmonized as Mowgli.
    The song ended and all I heard were soft breaths, deep and heavy. Ma came on the line, whispering, “I don’t know how you do it, Joshy. He’s already asleep. You’re a good daddy.”
    I crooked my arm over my face, swallowing a few times. “Thanks, Ma. Thanks for takin’ care of him.”
    “ Oh hush now, you do all the work. I just do the spoilin’.”
    “ You know he’s gonna be up pissing all night because of the sodas and ice pops, right?” A grin slid across my mouth.
    “ Hmm . I hate to break it to you, but you were the same way. And I done been through the wars with you.”
    “ Love ya, Ma.”
    Her voice softened . “I love you too. Behave, or I will break out the willow switch when you get home. On you and Nicky both.”
    Ending the call, I kept my eyes closed. JJ still asked about Claire, wondering why his momma left him , why he could only remember me singing him to sleep at night. I didn’t believe in sugarcoating the truth, but I did believe in protecting him. Most times I told him she wasn’t ready to be a mom. “ But she sure missed one helluva a kid. ”
    Then I ’d sit in the rocking chair beside his bed all night, making sure his dreams didn’t turn into nightmares. That’s why I’d never left him before.
    “ Still hurts?” Nicky read my mind.
    “ Yeah. But not because Claire left me. Because she left JJ high and dry.” I propped up onto an elbow. “Man, what if I’m not good enough to be everything to him?”
    “ That’s bullshit and you know it. Anyone who sees the two of you together knows it, too. Besides, you’re not doing it alone. You’ve got me and the guys, you’ve got Gigi.”
    “ You think?”
    “ Yeah. But, if you stopped sowing your wild oats around the lowcountry and settled down, maybe he could have another mom.” He knocked into my shoulder.
    “ Well that isn’t gonna happen now that I’m your lover, right?” With a grin, I pushed him right back.
    Sure, marriage had never been a cakewalk. That had been blatantly obvious as soon as Clair e smashed a piece of our pretty wedding cake into my face after the shotgun-she’s-pregnant ceremony. But I’d been determined to give it my best shot, which meant putting up with all of Claire’s worst ones. I’d stuck it out for the kid because family was important. Now I didn’t give any woman the chance to shake me up, shake me down. There was too much at stake.
    I t wasn’t as if I didn’t have offers. Half the female population in Mt. Pleasant—including a good quarter of the married ones—acted like I was a high commodity. They saw the surface only: tough guy, big muscles, successful business owner. They didn’t delve into the single dad working all hours, whose personal time was spent with his son, his family, his friends. The Friday night freebie-fucks were what I needed to de-stress from a week full of worries, bills, and bitching.
    And I sure as hell was not looking for anything else.
    At least here I’d be somewhat anonymous. Nicky’s love muffin, not Mt.