by Kay Marie
“Bro, really? Do you actually think she would still be hanging around, let alone coming into the clubhouse if she did decide that?” He puts his hand on my shoulder and looks me in my eyes. “Talk to her. The worst thing that can happen is she tells you she’s not interested.”
“Are you two done having your little heart to heart?” Rascal points his cue stick at me. “It’s your shot, princess.”
Rascal is one of the brothers I haven’t gotten to know yet. He’s pretty close with Sketch, Kicks, and Hollywood since they all grew up together with Bull’s sons. For the most part, he’s a pretty quiet guy. When he does talk, it’s always some smartass bullshit, unless he’s talking to Minx or her friends. I take my shot and miss. My head isn’t in the game at all.
“You’re lucky we’re not playing for money because you fucking suck,” Hollywood laughs. I shrug.
“If we were playing for money, I would actually be trying and you would get your ass handed to you,” I respond. Hollywood can be a cocky fuck sometimes. He’s the pretty boy of the brothers. If you saw him walking around without his cut, you’d never believe he’s a biker.
“After this game, you can put your money where your mouth is. We’ll find out who the better man is,” he challenges me.
“I don’t want to take your money tonight. Maybe another time,” I tell him.
“Shit, I have no problem taking your money. Let’s do this,” Rascal says to Hollywood. More brothers, cut bunnies, and hang-arounds start showing up. Lolita is walking around getting drink orders from patched members. She’s slowly making her way around the room and I watch Hollywood’s eyes follow her.
“Right now,” Hollywood asks Rascal.
“Yeah, right now. Unless you’re too scared you’ll lose,” Rascal says.
“Me? Scared? Never.” Hollywood sets his cue stick down and goes to rack the balls. I put my cue stick back on the rack and sit at one of the pub tables. Sketch sits across from me. This should be interesting. Hollywood likes to believe he’s the shit at everything. Rascal is about to knock him down a peg or two. I don’t know much about Rascal, but one thing I do know is how good at pool he is. He doesn’t brag about his skills like Hollywood does. Lolita walks up as Hollywood is taking the first shot. He sees her and fucks his shot up.
“All that talk and this is how you start out?” Rascal laughs.
“Fuck off.” Hollywood is trying to avoid watching Lolita now.
“Can I get y’all something to drink,” Lolita asks Sketch and me.
“I’ll take a Bud Light,” Sketch tells her.
“Make it two,” I say.
“You got it.” She gives us a smile and walks back to the bar. Rascal sinks three balls before missing. Hollywood proves to be better than expected. Lucky for him, it’s Rascal’s turn when Lolita brings mine and Sketch’s drinks back. She drops them off and quickly walks away again.
“The fuck was that about,” Sketch asks. Hollywood shrugs.
“Who knows,” he says. Hollywood goes to take his next shot, sinking the remaining balls until he only has the eight ball left.
“Eight ball, left corner pocket,” he calls his shot but barely misses it, giving Rascal another chance. “Fuck.”
Rascal sinks his last ball, calls his shot and sinks the 8 ball.
“You’ve gotten better,” Rascal tells Hollywood. Hollywood slaps a ten into Rascal’s hand and sulks. Sketch jumps up and grabs a cue stick and Rascal takes his place at the table. I guess we’ll be playing for a while now.
Chapter Fourteen
Cali
“Well that was weird,” Lolita says after Ryan walked away. I shrug and she goes into talking about something that happened at Rosie’s. I stop listening after a while and my thoughts drift to Ryan. She said he’s been more broody than normal and I can’t help but wonder if his attitude changed after our conversation the other night. Once Lolita finishes her story, I decide to go back to Minx’s house.
“I’m going to head back to Minx’s. I’ll see you later tonight,” I tell Lolita.
“Oh! Are you coming to the club party?”
“Yeah, I’m pretty sure.” I give her a small smile.
“It’s gonna be so much fun! Go, rest, get ready. Do whatever you need to do,” she says while shooing me away. I laugh as I walk away. I open the door to go outside and walk right into Mouse.
“Woah, slow down there,” he laughs out.
“I’m sorry, Mouse.”
“No need to apologize. You’re lucky one of us was watching where they were going.” He winks at me. “You headed back to the house?”
“Yeah,” I reply.
“I’ll walk you there. You can never be too safe,” he says.
“Thanks, I appreciate that.”
“Anytime. Plus, Buster would have my ass if I let anything happen to you.” He smirks.
“He’s not that worried about me, is he?” I glance at Mouse and he rolls his eyes.
“From what I’ve seen and heard, yeah, he is.”
We don’t talk anymore after that. Chains is sitting out on the front porch when we walk up.
“Need a break,” Mouse asks him. Chains shrugs.
“If you’re offering, sure,” Chains replies, standing from his seat. Mouse makes himself comfortable on the deep-seated porch swing.
“See you around, Chains,” I say before walking inside. I walk in on Emma and Rivet sitting on the couch watching some show about doctors.
“What are you two watching?” I sit in one of the oversized recliners.
“Grey’s Anatomy!” Rivet tells me. “You’ve never watched it?”
“She doesn’t watch much TV. She eats, sleeps, and bakes,” Emma laughs out.
“This is true.” I agree with Emma. “And when I do have spare time, I usually read.”
“Reading puts me to sleep,” Rivet admits and I can’t help but laugh at her.
“Not to change the subject or anything, but what does one wear to a club party?” Emma turns to Rivet.
“Something sexy, but not too sexy. You don’t want to be mistaken for one of the cut bunnies,” she tells us. “Don’t worry, between mine and Minx’s wardrobes, we’ll find y’all the perfect outfits.”
“We gotta get her dolled up first.” Emma hooks her thumb at me. A grin stretches across her face. “She’s gotta look good for Buster.”
“I’m pretty sure she could wear a potato sack and he’d still see her with stars in his eyes,” Rivet tells her. I roll my eyes. “It’s true! You could tell how smitten he was at A Novel Bunch the other day. He looks at you the way Raze looks at Minx. With so much adoration.”
Every time I’ve seen him since he showed up at the bakery, I have had so much running through my mind I haven’t paid much attention to his body language. At the pizza shop, he seemed like he was carrying quite a bit of guilt over what happened with us. His apologies sounded sincere. After having a couple of days to process everything, I decide I’m ready to talk to him again.
“We have a history. I’m sure that’s what you saw,” I tell Rivet. While I plan on talking to him, my heart has a wall built around it.
“Girl, I know what I saw. Trust me,” Rivet says. I don’t respond, staring at the TV but not watching the show. Once it’s over, Rivet jumps up from the couch.
“Alright girls, let’s go get sexified!” She pulls me from the recliner and leads me upstairs, Emma right behind us. Rivet takes us into her room, going straight for her closet while I sit on the edge of her bed.
“Work your magic,” I tease her. She pops her head out of her closet, making eye contact with me.
“When I’m done with you, Buster won’t know what the fuck hit him,” she deadpans and disappears back into her closet. After a few minutes, Rivet comes out holding an oversize sweater and a bralette.
“These with a pair of skinny jeans will be the perfect combination of sexy and sweet,” she tells me, handing them to me.
“Oh! Your super distressed jeans t
hat show off your thighs would be perfect,” Emma tells me.
“The ones I wore to the bonfire,” I ask her.
“Yes! Those, with some Chucks,” she suggests.
“I agree. Go change,” Emma commands. I chuckle and walk over to Minx’s room where all my things are. I change into my distressed jeans, sans underwear. The bralette is a white lacy one and it’s gorgeous. I may have to talk Rivet into letting me keep it. The sweater hangs off my shoulder, which would be perfect for showing off my tattoo, but I switch sides, hiding my ink. It has a deep v-neck in the back with a twist. I have a couple of my own that are similar to this, but the v-neck isn’t quite as deep. This one shows off the whole back of the bralette. Once I’m dressed, I put some Chucks on and go show Emma and Rivet.
“Hell yes!” Rivet says.
“Fucking gorgeous,” Emma gushes.
“Let’s put your hair in a cute messy bun, and for makeup, we’ll do light eyes with bold lips. You rock that look,” Rivet suggests.
“Sounds good to me. Do your thing,” I tell her. She claps her hands in excitement and lets out a squeal. Between the two of them, they get my hair and makeup finished before getting themselves ready. When we’re all dolled up, we head downstairs to find Mouse. We find him outside, still sitting on the porch swing, only now Sketch is sitting there with him.
“Whoa,” Mouse gapes.
“Pick your jaw up off the ground, Mouse. If Buster or Saint sees you drooling over them, you’re a dead man.” Sketch laughs.
“What are you doing here, Sketch,” Rivet asks him.
“I heard Wren didn’t want to come to the party, so I offered to come hang out with her. Give the prospects a little break,” he explains. Emma eyes at him suspiciously but doesn’t say anything. Rivet smirks at him.
“How sweet of you,” she says to him. He shrugs in response.
“Are you ladies ready,” Mouse asks us.
“Yup!” Emma bounces down the porch stairs. “Let’s go, Mousey.”
Everyone laughs except for Mouse, who looks to Sketch.
“Please don’t make that a thing,” he pleads, causing Sketch to laugh again.
“Have fun, Mousey,” Sketch says to him.
“Oh, fuck,” Mouse sighs. “Let’s go.”
Rivet links arms with me and we follow Emma and Mouse to the clubhouse. The nerves are kicking in.
“Don’t worry. He won’t be able to take his eyes off you,” Rivet whispers to me. I hope I’ll get a chance to talk to him.
Chapter Fifteen
Buster
Once the clubhouse fills up more, Lolita stops walking around collecting drink orders. Now she’s behind the bar with Tink. After Hollywood and Sketch finished their game, I took Hollywood’s challenge and Sketch left to go off on his own. We’re finishing our game and I’m not doing too great. I’m finding it hard to concentrate. Hollywood sunk his last ball and is now lining up his shot for the 8 ball when a couple of the cut bunnies walk up. He takes his shot and sinks the 8 ball.
“Hey fellas,” London, a newer cut bunny, says as she comes to stand by Rascal and Hollywood.
“I need another beer,” I say to the guys, ignoring London.
“I’ll come with you,” Hollywood replies. We walk over to the bar leaving Rascal with London and Ruby. Tink likes to split the bar into sections depending on how many are working. Tonight, it’s her and Lolita. The bar is pretty crowded but we find a spot toward the end of the bar and it happens to be Lolita’s side. Hollywood probably chose this side on purpose.
As patched members, we usually get served before anyone else, no matter how busy it is. Lolita sees us before she’s about to take someone’s order and comes to us first.
“Hey, guys. What can I get ya?”
“Another beer for me, please,” I tell her.
“I’ll take a shot of Fireball and another beer, please, Doll,” Hollywood says. Her cheeks turn pink before she turns around to go get our drinks. “Do you think Cali is going to actually come tonight?”
“She supposed to. I guess we’ll see,” I reply. I glance around the room, my eyes go right to Cali. She has her back facing me and she’s talking with Mouse and Buzz. Jealousy turns inside me.
“Here you go.” Lolita sets our drinks in front of us as Diesel walks over to us.
“Brothers! How’s it fucking going?” Diesel is talking to us but staring at Lolita with a smirk. Two brothers potentially into the same girl? This could be interesting.
“Thanks, Lo.” I grab my beer. “I gotta go. I’ll see y’all around.”
“Go get her, tiger.” Hollywood slaps me on my back. I shake my head, moving around the room. Cali has her hair in a messy bun. I can’t help but want to mark up her perfect skin. I walk over to the couch where Kicks and Clutch are talking. From here, I get a side view of her. She’s been dressing a lot sexier than I’m used to.
“What’s up,” Kicks asks. “Enjoying the view?”
“What?” I turn to him and he’s glancing in the same direction I was. “Ha, yeah.”
“What are you waiting for? Go talk to her,” he tells me. It’s like she could sense we were talking about her because at that moment, she turns and locks eyes with me, smiling. My heart skips a beat seeing her gorgeous smile. Mouse nudges her shoulder and she slowly walks toward me. My grin grows into a full-blown smile once she’s standing in front of me.
“Hi,” she says innocently.
“Hi,” I respond.
“Do you mind if we could go somewhere a little quieter to talk,” she asks. I nod my head.
“Yeah, come on.” I hold my hand out for her to grab and surprisingly she takes it. I keep her close behind me as we walk through a small crowd. We walk down the hall leading to all the rooms. Once we reach my door, I pull my keys out to unlock it. I open it and gesture for her to walk in. She studies the room as she does.
“Is this okay?”
“Yeah, of course,” she says. I shut the door behind me. “You don’t have much in here.”
“I don’t stay here much since Shade and I got our house,” I tell her. She sits on the edge of the bed. “So, what’s up?”
“I’ve had a lot of time to consider things. You know, since I haven’t been working.” She lets out a light laugh.
“I bet it’s weird to have so much time off, huh?”
“It is, but it’s also kind of nice,” she admits. “Anyway, I was thinking, maybe we could start over.”
“Start over?” I give her a confused look.
“Yeah, I mean, we haven’t seen each other in five years. We both have changed in that time and I thought we could kind of start over and get to know each other again,” she explains.
“Is this a way for us to work on things and maybe get back together,” I ask her, trying to gauge how she’s feeling. Her cheeks turn a deep pink and she glances at her hands. I move so I’m in front of her. I put a finger under her chin and lift her face so she’s looking at me. “I need an answer, Sunshine.”
“My heart is still bruised, Ryan. This is a way for us to,” she pauses like she’s trying to find the right words to say next. “Not forget the past, but to move on from it. To earn each other’s trust again. We can date and learn new things about each other and after a while, we can revisit the relationship talk.”
“I’ll take it. I’ll take whatever you want to give me. I’ll do whatever I need to do to earn your trust again, to earn your heart again,” I tell her.
“Okay,” she says, trying to hold back a smile.
“Okay,” I smirk at her. “Would you like to go back out to the party with me?”
“Sure.” She stands next to me. She seems so small next to me now. I’ve always been almost a foot taller than her, but I bulked up after I moved to Arizona. I hold my hand out to her again and she takes it. Together, we head back out to the main room.
Chapter Sixteen
Cali
“Do you want anything to drink?” Ryan says right by my ear.
“Hey B,” Minx shouts. She looks at me, her eyes going wide. Her eyes go from me to Ryan and back to me, and a smile crosses her face. “Hey, Cali.”
“Hey, Minx. This spot open?” I gesture toward the chairs next to her.
“Of course! Sit,” she tells us. As soon as Lolita sees us, she walks over to us smiling.
“What can I get y’all to drink?”
“Something fruity,” I ask her.
“Ever had a Malibu Beach?”
“No, but I’m willing to try it,” I say.
“I’ll have a beer,” Ryan tells her. I grin at him. Lolita smiles and shakes her head before going to get our drinks. I turn my body so I’m facing Minx and she turns to face me.
“So . . . “ She looks behind me at Ryan and back to me. “Spill.”
“I came to my senses,” I tell her, letting out a light laugh.
“Explain,” she says. I glance over my shoulder at Ryan and he’s already looking at me. I grin and he gives me a full tooth smile. Shade is on the other side of him and says something that gets Ryan’s attention. I turn to Minx.
“We talked and we’re going to date and learn about each other again. After a month or so, we’ll decide if we want a full-blown relationship or not.”
“Oh, you will. I’ve seen the way y’all look at each other,” she says. I roll my eyes and she laughs. “You’ll see.”
Lolita brings our drinks over to us, smiling.
“Are you two a thing now?” She points between us.
“Yes,” Ryan says before I can get anything out. I half-ass glare at him, trying not to smile. “What? It’s easier than explaining everything.”
Ryan runs a finger down my spine and my skin breaks out in goosebumps.
“Uh-huh, sure. I’ll let it slide.” I wink at him and turn my attention back to Lolita. “It’s a long story, but yeah, we pretty much are.”
