Chapter 14 #2
Wyatt has a self-satisfied grin on his face when I’ve finished with my tirade, out of breath and feeling a little dizzy from the truth bomb I just dropped on everyone, including myself.
“You guys are a couple of pussies,” Jude says, standing from his seat and pushing his plate to the edge of the bar. “I’m going to go call my woman so she can cuss me out about leaving the toilet seat up again.”
“I thought you stopped doing that shit,” Wyatt says.
Jude shrugs. “I like getting her riled up and seeing what she does next. Lucy is very creative with her punishments.” He pulls his phone out of his pocket. “Glad you got your shit figured out. Now make the woman yours and stop bitching.”
Jude turns and walks out of the clubhouse.
“He’s a cocky fucker. It’s not as though he has all his shit figured out,” Wyatt says.
I humph in reply. Jude may be a chaotic mess on his best day, but he has his shit figured out a lot better than I do, and that is never something I thought I’d say.
The fact that I didn’t wake up with a hangover and one or two club bunnies in my bed is more of a surprise to me than anyone else.
After finishing dinner and playing a little pool with the guys, I went to my room alone, much to the confusion of Silas and the other Iron Disciples.
He just shook his head and made some comment about being glad he doesn’t make the trip to Shine because there must be some portal we go through that turns us from being single to practically married.
I mean, he might not be that far off. Every damn time one of us is struggling with the idea of making a commitment to someone, we seem to figure it out somewhere between Michigan and Massachusetts.
I guess we can add my name to that list now.
We stopped once for food and fuel when we hit the road early this morning.
Instead of making my brothers ride in the truck the entire way back, I switched with Wyatt and Jude at the halfway point, putting my bike in the back of the van.
I waved them on when we got back to the clubhouse, signaling for them to go home to their women.
Pulling up to the gate, the prospect lets me in and helps me unload my motorcycle from the back.
“You coming in for a beer?” he asks when we close the doors to the van.
“Nah, I’m beat. Gonna head home.” I get on my bike and he closes the gate behind me. We’re still keeping shit locked down since there’s a threat out there, and we don’t know if or when the Russians intend to strike. They haven’t met us head-on, but that doesn’t mean they won’t.
When I get to Shine’s main street, I can turn right and go home like I said, or turn left and make my way to the bar.
It’s Sunday night, and Camryn is there. I haven’t talked to her since Friday, after the kiss we shared in the truck.
Syd and I have texted, so I know she’s spending the night with Ellie again since Camryn is working late and I wasn’t sure when we’d be back.
Lucy offered to have her hang at her house, but it’s easier to get Syd to school the next day since Ellie’s mom works there.
Plus, I like that she has a friend in Shine—that she’s settling in.
I pull up to the bar, and one of the new security guards is outside having a smoke. Thorn and Thistle has never had security, but with the shit happening with the Russians, we decided it would be a good idea to post one here just in case.
“Hey, Barrett. Good to see you,” Jimmy says, shaking my hand. He’s one of the guys I hired last week. Thankfully, he and the others had left before Camryn gave me the dressing down of a lifetime. The last thing we need is one of our employees seeing us get served a ration from our women.
She’s not my woman, though, is she?
“Hey, Jimmy. How’s it been?”
“Not bad. I’d have thought this place would be dead on a Sunday, but she’s been pretty steady all night. I think Camryn is good for business.”
I nod and walk past him, opening the door to find Camryn at a full bar top, with a few tables occupied as well.
She’s talking to some guy at the bar, leaning over as he shows her something on his phone. She throws her head back and laughs at whatever it is, and he looks at her as though he would do just about anything to make her laugh like that again.
Who the fuck is this guy? She’s not his to make laugh like that. She’s not his to look at like that.
But she isn’t yours, either.
Fuck. I hate when my brain makes sense.
Camryn continues to talk to the douchebag sitting at the bar.
She grabs him another beer, then a few more for the other people.
When she turns to look at me, her smile looks more forced than it did for the funny guy at the bar.
It’s a small shift, and one someone wouldn’t necessarily notice if they hadn’t been studying this woman’s reactions like I have for the last several weeks.
Camryn grabs a beer from the large cooler and pops the cap off. “You’re back early. I didn’t expect to see you until tomorrow,” she says, walking up to me and handing me the longneck.
“Wanted to get home,” I reply. “The guys wanted to get back to their families, and so did I.”
This time, Camryn’s smile is softer, a little more relaxed. “And here I thought you would have been excited to have a few days away from us. On the road without a care in the world.”
“Funny thing is, shit tends to follow you…even when you’re hours away.”
“Shit follows you, huh?” She scoffs and shakes her head, then turns back to her other customers.
What the hell did I say?
I blow out a breath and lean back against the stool, sipping on my beer.
Never in my life has there been someone I feel like I’ve screwed up with more than Camryn.
I’ve also never cared if I did. For all the ways I’ve learned how to navigate the woman smiling at everyone but me, I somehow manage to put my foot in my mouth and have no idea what I even said to piss her off.
I check the time on my phone and see we’re close to closing. It’s been a long-ass day of riding. Though the thought of going home and taking a shower before I lie down in my own bed sounds abso-fucking-lutely fantastic right now, I head out the front door and tell Jimmy he can take off.
“You sure?” he asks.
“Yeah, I’ll keep an eye on things and help Camryn close up. No need for both of us to be here. I’ll make sure you still get paid for the hour.”
“You don’t have to do that.”
I shake my head. “I don’t have to do anything, but I’m going to.”
Jimmy nods and shakes my hand. “Thanks, man. I appreciate it.”
He grabs his keys from his pocket and heads to his car, waving as he pulls out of the parking lot.
When I walk back into the bar, the funny guy with the phone is writing something on a cocktail napkin.
He slips it to Camryn, who smiles and shoves the paper in her back pocket.
The guy gets up from his stool and gives Camryn a megawatt smile, which she returns.
I stare him down as he walks toward me, then passes me on his way out the door.
He never once looks at me before the door closes behind him.
What am I, fucking invisible?
The bar has thinned out, and there are only a couple guys who I recognize still sitting at one of the tables.
I have a seat with them, and we shoot the shit.
They get another round, and Camryn brings me another, but she still won’t smile at me.
The other guys? No problem, but the second her eyes land on me, it’s as though I’m a stranger she has no interest in being friendly with.
If we were anywhere else, I would demand she tell me what’s going on, but I’m not about to embarrass her in front of her customers.
I may not know what pissed her off, but I’m not stupid enough to think that wouldn’t tip her over the edge. Hell, she’d probably kick me out of my own bar. Ozzy would get a fucking kick out of that—me being the first brother to get tossed from Thorn and Thistle.
Camryn walks to the back, and when she returns, she sets a case of beer on the bar top in front of her.
“You have more cases, pup?” I call from the table.
“Yup.” Concise and to the point. Yeah, she’s definitely irritated with me.
“I’ll grab them,” I say, standing from the table.
“I got it,” she says, walking out from behind the bar, but I step in front of her.
“I said I’ll grab them. The guys are ready to go anyway. You cash them out, and I’ll grab the beer.”
She exhales a sharp breath. “Fine. Here’s the list.”
Camryn smacks it against my chest then turns around to go back behind the bar.
I return, carrying three cases of beer as Camryn finishes cashing out the table I was sitting at, and they leave.
She opens the case of beer on the counter and grabs a few, bending over to put them in the cooler.
I’m no saint, and my eyes wander to her delectable backside.
Then I see the napkin poking out of her pocket.
“What did that guy write on the napkin?”
Camryn startles and looks over her shoulder at me before straightening and reaching for more bottles. “His number.”
A derisive snort escapes me. “Figures.”
Camryn whirls around. “Oh, I’m sorry, is it so out of the realm of possibility that someone might be interested in me?”
“Of course not. You’re fresh meat in a bar where most of the women are taken.”
“Wow,” she draws out. “So I’m just the shiny new thing in town. Way to make a girl feel good about herself, Barrett.”
“That’s not what I meant. God, why do you always take one little thing I say and blow it out of proportion?”
“My mistake. I hope more of my shit doesn’t follow you around.”
“Is that what you’ve been mad at this whole time?”
She rests her fist against her hip and pops it out. All attitude and fire, this one. “I’m allowed to have feelings about the things you say, Barrett.”
“I understand that, but it would be nice if, instead of getting mad, you actually talked to me about it so I could explain myself.”