Chapter 3
Bear
By the time we arrive at our apartment, I’m absolutely fuckin’ green with envy over my best friend getting a shiny new sister.
Waking up one day to find a blood relative that actually wants to know you is the pie-in-the-sky dream for most of us in foster care.
We’ve both long since accepted that life screwed us over when it came to family.
I never knew mine and Rick wished he’d never known his mother.
She was an addict who neglected him for years.
I’m glad they took Natalie at birth, so she didn’t have to experience any of that.
I shouldn’t feel jealous, because Rick’s a righteous friend and he deserves something nice to finally happen for him.
Natalie seems really nice, and if I’m honest, she’s also gorgeous.
But I’m not about to make a fool of myself over my friend’s new sister.
Especially as I’m seven years older than her and she’s off limits.
Wanting something you can’t have is a special kind of hell.
Now that we’re home and I see Rick showing her around our place, some of my jealousy settles.
I glance around our place, trying to see it from her perspective.
We haven’t put a lot of effort into making it homey.
If I’m honest, it looks more like a bachelor pad.
We’ve got a big sofa that wraps around the back of the living room and good, solid tables and chairs in the dining room.
There are no plants, throw cushions, or pictures on the walls.
Seeing Natalie eyeing the bare walls, I wish we’d made more of a fuckin’ effort.
I smooth my cut down and try not to act embarrassed. Rick tosses his keys on the counter and turns to his sister. “We have two bedrooms with a private bath. They call it double master bedrooms. You can have mine,” he says. “I’ll take the couch.”
This is who my best friend is. He gives first, then suffers for it later.
Her pretty face falls and she starts to protest, but he cuts her off with a small shake of his head. “I won’t have my sister sleeping on the fuckin’ sofa like a visitor. You’re important to me. So you get the bed.”
He leads her down the short hallway and opens the door to his room. When Rick begins gathering his shit up, I step in and wordlessly begin to help him clear the space.
“My room’s nothing fancy but it will have to do until we find a three-bedroom,” Rick says.
She looks surprised.
“Hey, I know I was a bit of an asshole back in the clubhouse, but I was blindsided. I love the idea of having a sister, so if we’re gonna do this, we can find ourselves somewhere bigger.”
“I don’t want to impose, you might hate living with me,” she says.
Rick looks at me and mutters, “He snores, leaves takeout containers on the counter, and his socks stuffed behind the couch pillows. I put up with him okay.”
“Fuck off. You’re hardly Suzy Homemaker.”
Rick’s room is bare bones, much like mine.
I jerk open the dresser drawers to find them mostly empty. That’s when I realize with amusement that most of his clothes are stuffed in the oversized dirty laundry hamper. It doesn’t take long to clear the space out. Then we pull his bedclothes off and put on fresh ones.
“There you go. Does everything look okay?” Rick asks.
“Rick,” she gushes, “This is amazing. I don’t know how to thank you for letting me stay with you.”
He shrugs, clearly uncomfortable with her gratitude. “You’re family and I’m fuckin’ thrilled to have you in my life.”
“Now, where’s your stuff? Did you leave it at a hotel?”
She shakes her head as her hands come up to clasp her small bag. “I stuffed what I could in my bag. My foster parents thought I was going to the library.”
My heart sinks. They wanted to keep her in place looking after those younger foster kids and taking her money from her. Something about that makes me angry, but I don’t say a word. Although Rick shoots me a look, he doesn’t dredge up her past. She’s talked enough about that already today.
Instead, he shrugs it off. “No biggie. It’ll just give us an opportunity to go shopping soon.”
She smiles, patting her bag. “Let me buy food. If I’m not paying for a motel then I’ve got enough cash for that.”
“Sure,” Rick says enthusiastically. “Why don’t you settle in and get refreshed. Don’t worry about the food, I’ll get us something today and tomorrow we can figure things out.”
I follow Rick out of the bedroom leaving Natalie in there to make herself at home. Just before he heads out the door he turns to me and says, “Hands off my sister while I’m gone. I mean that.” He pauses for a split second and adds, “In fact, she’s off limits to every fucker we know.”
It’s an easy promise to make, but it might turn out to be a hard promise to live with.
I lift up both hands and make a placating gesture because he’s not wrong to make her off limits.
Our club brothers can be like a dog with a bone when it comes to pursuing women.
And his pretty sister is young, vulnerable, and has just escaped from a bad situation.
“I’m hearin’ what you’re layin’ down, bro. There ain’t no need to say it twice.”
Rick calms down instantly and gives me a helpless look.
I know what his problem is. Not only has he never had a family member, but he’s never even thought about having to deal with all the issues that come along with looking out for an innocent younger sister who looks all womanly and tempting to men.
My poor friend is probably losing his fuckin’ mind about now.
I jerk my chin towards the door and say, “Get food for your hungry sister and get twice as much for me.”
He finally smiles, grabs his keys, and heads for the door. Watching him walk out the door, I feel my envy dying away.
When I turn around, Natalie is sitting on the sofa, wringing her hands in her lap.
I take a gigantic step back. “I’m sorry. Am I makin’ you uncomfortable?”
When her eyes lift to mine, her expression is bewildered. “What? No. Wait, should it be?”
I back up until my back hits the far wall and then I slide down to sit on the floor. I lower my eyes in case she finds my gaze intimidating.
“Do you mind if I ask what you’re doing?”
“Making myself less threatening.”
“You think you’re threatening?”
“I know I am. It’s my size. It’s always been a problem.”
She’s nodding yes, but her expression shows no sign of true understanding.
“Remember when I said Rick and I were shuffled from one foster home to another, but for different reasons? Rick had a hard time sitting still, following directions, and used to fight a lot. I was considered undesirable because of my size.”
“You were always jumbo sized?”
I smother back a smile because she’s making it sound like I’m just a jumbo-sized shrimp rather than a monstrously large human.
“I was always big for my age. I was six foot tall and two hundred pounds at thirteen and just kept getting bigger. I’m used to people being scared of me.
Maybe some guys use it to their advantage, but I didn’t want people thinking I was a bully or whatever.
All that was bad enough, but girls have always been wary of me, so I try to make myself small and non-threatening. ”
I glance up. Natalie’s looking at me with concern in her big, brown eyes. She gets up, walks across the room, and holds out one hand to me. “Come on. Get up and sit on the sofa. You don’t have to worry about stuff like that when you’re with me.”
Instead of taking her hand, I push up off the ground and stand up, hating the way I tower over her. “Alright, if you’re sure, I’ll sit with you.”
When we settle onto the sofa, I’m still careful to keep some space between us.
She immediately tells me, “Sorry about your childhood. That must have been rough, right?”
I nod. “Your brother was the first person who didn’t make me feel like a slow-moving freak. He was always nice to me, from day one.”
“I’m glad to hear that. Ever since I heard that I had a brother, I tried to imagine what he’d be like. Rick turned out to be much nicer than I dared to dream.”
She shifts around to face me. “Rick said you became friends in a foster placement. Does that mean you grew up together?”
“No,” I say. “We met up in a foster placement when we were fourteen. For some reason, we just clicked. He was the first real friend I ever had and we’ve been inseparable since.”
She studies me for a moment. “Do you mind if I ask a question?”
“Ask away. I ain’t got nothin’ to hide.”
She asks hesitantly, “Are you two a couple?”
“Yeah, we’re a couple of badass bikers,” I shoot back, straight faced.
“You know what I mean. If you are, that’s fine. And if you don’t feel comfortable answering that’s fine too.”
I chuckle. “Look, I’ll save you from having an awkward conversation with your brother.
One of the big things we have in common is liking ladies.
We don’t do weird stuff like date each other’s exes, share women, or talk about anything sex related.
That shit might be okay for other men, but we don’t roll that way. ”
She smiles at me. “You’re very direct. I like that in a man.”
I don’t know if she’s just innocent or tryin’ to flirt with me, but I change the subject anyhow. “Don’t tell him that I told you this, but he secretly listens to those podcasts about providing for and protecting your woman. He believes in that shit hardcore.”
Her face lights up. “So, my brother is a romantic at heart.”
I’m shaking my head before she even gets the sentence out. “More like he believes in clear communication and beating any man’s ass that messes with his woman.”
Her eyes fly open. “My brother has a girlfriend?”
Wishing I’d kept my big, fat mouth shut, I issue a correction. “Nah. But he’s always tryin’.” His sister don’t need to know about what her brother gets up to with the club girls.
“I get it. Sorry for jumping to conclusions about you and Rick.”
“It’s all good,” I tell her. “Do you mind if I ask you a question?”