“Anytime. You know it.”

Rule rubbed a hand up and down the baby’s back and lifted his pierced eyebrow. “By the way, congratulations on the new baby …” He trailed off, leaving the “asshole” part of his statement implied in deference to the sensitive ears hovering between them.

Rome paused in pulling open the front door. “Cora told you?”

“Dude, I worked with her last time you knocked her up. I know what those mood swings and overnight double D’s mean. I’ve known for months. I was just waiting for one of you to come clean.”

Remy looked between the Archer men and widened her bright blue eyes that looked so much like her father’s. “Baby?” At least that was what I think she was saying in her own little-baby way.

Rome nodded and groaned while Rule and I laughed. “Yeah, honey, a baby.”

She just giggled and repeated the word over and over again. Rome shook his head in exasperation. “We just found out it’s a boy. Cora really wanted you and Shaw to have your moment in the new-baby sun before saying anything.”

Rule grunted and followed us out into the driveway, Ry now fully asleep and content against his chest.

“There’s enough excitement for the good things in life in this group to handle Ry and your new addition, you both shoulda known that. A boy, huh? We’re gonna run out of R names at this rate.”

Rome chuckled. “I think maybe this go around we’re gonna go with a C after Half-Pint. We’ll just have to see.”

Rome moved around the truck to get Remy situated and I moved toward the passenger side when Rule stopped me by saying my name softly.

I looked at him and was surprised at how intent and serious his icy gaze was. “You’re quick with some really good words for other people, Opie. You know just what to say and exactly how to say it. So when do you start giving yourself some of that advice?”

I frowned a little because I wasn’t following. “What do you mean?”

“I heard you finally let Royal catch you, but now that you’re on the hook, you’re flailing around like a fish out of water.”

I didn’t love how that image made me look but it was pretty damn accurate. I rubbed a hand across the back of my neck and looked down at the ground. “To be fair, I wasn’t running too far out ahead of her in the first place.”

“Doesn’t matter. Think about what you just told me. You’ve never had anything good in life before, it’s new to you, so maybe you just need to allow your own learning curve like me and the little man here. We all need a break every now and then.”

“The difference is you earned your break. I haven’t earned anything.” Especially a shot at something lasting with a knockout redhead that blew my mind and made me feel like with every breath I took that had her in it, I was finally, truly waking up from that coma I had been caught in. I didn’t want to think about it, so I just nodded a good-bye and climbed up into the truck.

It was a pretty quiet ride back to the Bar. RJ fell asleep and Rome seemed lost in thought. He offered to drop me back off at Wheeler’s so I could pick up the Nova, but I told him I would find my own way there. I had work in less than an hour, so I hung out and asked Darcy to feed me until my shift started.

She was mopey, had been since Avett vanished. I knew she was worried about her daughter and at a loss about what to do in order to help her. Plus we were now down a cook and hadn’t been able to find anyone to fill the spot. Darcy couldn’t work day and night, so Brite had called in an old Marine buddy to fill in the slot until Rome and I could come up with a more permanent solution. I was surprised at how much I was worried about the pink-haired menace myself. I knew she wasn’t taking money or beer for herself. I knew she wasn’t making excuses for an abusive boyfriend because she was stupid. There was deeper trouble there. The kind I used to be intimately acquainted with, and I hated that Avett had found herself down in that gutter. No one should have to experience that, not even someone as young and foolish as Avett.

The shift started out pretty slow and then picked up when a bachelorette party wandered in. Dixie was frustrated that all the girls wanted to do was flirt with me and make sexy eyes at Church, so she pretty much hung out behind the bar while I handled the group. They were pretty tipsy and extra handsy, but I knew a killer tip was at the end of it, so I didn’t mind throwing on the drawl extra thick and making sure I smiled at each and every one of them individually a lot.

At some point in the night the older woman that had become a regular fixture found her way inside, and when she noticed I wasn’t locked back behind the bar, she took a seat at one of the tables. She was watching me like I was a steak and she was starving for some red meat. I saw Dixie give me a jaunty wave from behind the bar as I sauntered over to my admirer and asked her what I could get for her. She smiled at me and again I was struck by how easy it would be for me to fall back into my old habits. Easy was so long ago I almost forgot what a golden opportunity looked like.