Free Baby, Be Mine by Vivian Arend Page A

Eight
    Gage wondered what his chances were of making it through the evening without at least a black eye.
    There were seven of them gathered tonight. Katy and himself. Mr. Thompson. The four boys started with Clay and rolled on down through Mitch, Len and Troy. Six years separated oldest from youngest, and all of them except Katy were over six feet.
    They worked together. Played together, and basically tormented the hell out of each other like any true family. And they protected their own with a vengeance.
    His getting Katy pregnant was not going to go over well.
    Len nabbed a third helping from one of the takeout containers scattered over the table. “Even after I checked it thoroughly, Tanya Lynn insisted there was something ‘funny’ with her engine. I think it was a ploy to get Troy to take her for a test drive.”
    “Did you take her for a test drive?” Clay taunted his youngest brother. “I thought you’d done that a few times last month already.”
    “Fuck off.” Troy didn’t even blink. “You don’t seem to mind dealing with the repeat business of checking Carrie Taylor’s nearly brand-new Yukon.”
    “She rides it hard,” Clay offered as an excuse.
    “That’s what I hear.”
    Gage laughed along with the rest of them. “You seeing Carrie Taylor, Clay? That’s new since I’ve been gone.”
    Clay shrugged. “She’s alright.”
    Troy directed a smirk at Mitch, obviously hoping to get attention off himself and onto someone else in the room. “Saw you got pulled over by Anna Coleman. Trying to set a new record for speeding tickets?”
    Mitch leaned back, no denial on his face. “Not my fault she likes her men fast.”
    Mr. Thompson cut in. “Enough about your love lives. Lord, I’d swear you were all a bunch of old women the way you go on at times. Gage, I want to know what you’ve got planned for the next while now that you got the travel bug out of your system. You sticking around Rocky more permanently, or did you like it up north?”
    Beside him Katy wiggled. She’d been awfully quiet for most of the meal. Partly because it was impossible to get a word in edgewise. Mostly, though, he suspected she was nervous about sharing her news.
    He understood the sensation. There was a huge knot in his belly. “Definitely sticking around Rocky. I made nice coin during my stint, but the oil fields are no place to work full time.”
    The older man nodded. “You going to keep on at the shop with us then?”
    “Yes, sir. No use in taking business from you—there’s not enough work for two shops.”
    Talk turned to more business items for a bit. Familiar and easy, and Gage’s mind drifted.
    The massive round table they were gathered around had been one of the first places in Rocky Mountain House Gage had truly felt welcome. His foster parents had meant well, and they’d been the best of the lot he’d ever had, but a caring couple in their late sixties couldn’t fill the holes in a fifteen-year-old’s heart. Couldn’t give the acceptance and real family feeling he’d gotten when Clay had brought him home to the Thompson dinner table.
    Back then Meg Thompson had still been alive. She’d taken one look at Gage before hugging him tight then shoving fresh baking and an enormous list of chores on him and Clay.
    The inclusion on the work list had meant more than the food and hugs. Belonging included sweat equity—Gage had known that instinctively.
    He’d sat down at that first dinner with the four Thompson boys and ten-year-old Katy, and he’d felt at home for the first time since his own mother had been violently stolen from his life.
    Beside him Katy had a definite case of ants in the pants, fidgeting like crazy until he wondered that none of the guys were noticing her strange behaviour. Gage laid a hand on her thigh out of sight of the others. Casual-like. Just a light pressure to let her know he was there for her.
    Her entire body tightened, and she darted a glance around the table to see if