Chapter 6
NOVA
After the reception, a line of vehicles made its way into the Sleepy Eye Community, where many former members of the little Memphis Motorcycle Club lived. Lula’s house was located next door to her parents, Pax and Bebe.
I felt safe in this neighborhood. The two entry points were guarded. But mostly, I trusted that Pax and his older brother, Ford, were the kind of men to keep problems from hitting home.
Newlyweds Dan and Lula would be at a hotel for a few days. As I entered the house with my drowsy girls, I wished I were more nervous about staying home alone. I wouldn’t mind a distraction from obsessing over the paper in Boone’s jacket.
“Can you handle spending a few days without a babysitter?” Zodiac called out to me as he entered through the garage.
My brother’s club president was an arrogant jackass, but Zodiac cared in his own way. Right now, he walked with his “baby mama,” Elle, who had recently moved to Baton Rouge with her eight-year-old son, so they could build a family with Zodiac.
I never believed Zodiac would settle down. Even after he got Elle pregnant, I was certain they wouldn’t work. Despite my love of romance books, I tended to be overly cynical about real-life relationships.
Zodiac had proven me wrong when he asked Elle to move in with him. They looked happy today, even if she was clearly tired as she began her third trimester.
Zodiac asked me, “Should Elle and I bunk here, so you’ll have a man around to supervise your comings and goings?”
As I released my spaniel-mix, Ramen, and Lula’s Chihuahua, Xena, into the yard, I assured Zodiac, “We’ll be fine, but thank you.”
Zodiac ignored my words and stood in the kitchen with Elle. Nearby, the girls dropped onto the couch and stared tiredly at me.
Skylar mumbled, “We don’t want baths.”
“We’ll take a quick shower and sleep in my bed for the night.”
The girls nodded and then leveled their blue-eyed gazes on Zodiac. Before one of them could start hassling him about his baby, Elle sighed dramatically.
“Nova’s a badass fox. She’s perfectly capable of staying overnight without a man stinking up the place,” Elle said and took Zodiac’s hand. “If she does need your assistance, she has access to a phone.”
I appreciated Zodiac’s concern and Elle’s trust. He walked over to the girls and considered saying something to rile them up. Skylar grinned with anticipation.
“I’m choosing to leave you be.”
“Swoon,” Elle mocked. “My lover is so wise.”
Zodiac smacked her butt. “I am wise.”
“Well, not really. You were going to stay here and babysit a grown woman.”
“Zip it.”
I waited until Zodiac and Elle took their playful bickering outside before shutting the garage and returning to the girls.
“No sleeping when you’re sweaty,” I told them, winning instant groans of protest. “Let’s take a shower, climb into my bed, and watch ‘Lilo & Stitch.’”
Skylar was a lot like me when I was little. She didn’t like brushing her hair or wearing anything dressy. She walked around like an annoyed teenager in need of a nap.
I quickly grew out of those habits once my mom married a man with strict expectations for his stepchildren.
Lyric was more laid-back, but she always wanted to wear character beanie hats. Even at the wedding, she wore her white bunny hat to match her flower girl dress.
I sometimes worried about when Lyric would need to give up her hats for school. As a boy, Dan always wore cowboy hats around the house. He never seemed comfortable without his version of a safety blanket. Now, Lyric had the same habit.
Inside Lula’s huge primary shower, the girls and I stepped under the water. Skylar and Lyric quickly tilted their faces upward to take advantage of the many shower heads. They were the same way when we stood in the rain.
I decided to imitate them and let the water wash away my makeup and earlier fears. When I looked back at the girls, they were spitting water at each other. Their goofy joy was what I had missed growing up, and I never wanted to steal it from them.
As I let the dogs inside for the night, my thoughts flashed to Boone. I felt drawn to him in a wholly lovestruck way. But a man would do me no good. My girls had only recently found a routine in Little Memphis. They didn’t need their mom chasing a man.
What if Boone did let me catch him? Could I be goofy with my girls like I was now? Marriage had never seemed particularly fun. I didn’t remember much from my parents’ time together, but Laverne’s other husbands sucked the joy out of our lives.
In contrast to my stepfathers, Chris Daly seemed like a fun guy. He joked a lot and often wore a smile. He was the very definition of the “class clown.”
Our girls inherited his blond hair and smile. Sometimes, Lyric would laugh, and I felt like Chris was in the room.
I wasn’t sure what I planned to tell the girls when they got older.
They knew their dad was dead. Skylar barely remembered him.
Lyric was born after I left Chris. When he showed up in Baton Rouge to take us back to South Dakota, Dan handled the issue.
I understood my brother had killed Chris to protect the girls and me.
One day, I would need to find a way to explain that truth to Skylar and Lyric.
Once we were cuddled in bed, the girls quickly dozed off. I played with their hair and let my thoughts return to Boone.
His parents were involved in the biker lifestyle and lived in a town south of Little Memphis called Rawlins. Boone had been in jail for a few months. He also had a Chihuahua named Beef Jerky, who mostly stayed with his parents in Rawlins.
The few times he engaged with Skylar and Lyric, he only nodded and mumbled positively at whatever they were saying. Boone was clearly humoring them. Did he even like kids?
I recalled one time when Skylar was yelling at Zodiac about how he had no baby. The whole thing started right after Elle announced she was pregnant. The girls didn’t understand how there was a baby inside the still thin blonde.
Zodiac could have easily ignored their challenges, but the man had to poke back. Over time, even when Elle’s belly grew round, Skylar and Lyric claimed Zodiac was lying about his baby.
“There’s no baby,” Skylar would sneer. “Fibber.”
After Zodiac got the latest ultrasound pictures of his son, he lorded them over the girls.
“That’s no baby,” Skylar insisted. “That’s a monster.”
“You put the boogeyman in Elle!” Lyric screamed and started running around the room while squealing.
Boone had been over at Clint’s house when the situation happened, and he laughed so hard at the girls’ behavior. I could barely take my eyes off him. Boone was so handsome, but he rarely smiled. Seeing him so relaxed made me fall deeper into the fantasy I’d built about us.
Waking up the next day, I felt like an absolute fool for putting the paper in his pocket. Our attraction was completely one-sided. Boone had never shown any particular interest in me. He hadn’t flirted, not even one tiny bit! What the hell had I done?
My panic subsided by the time Dan and Lula showed up in the afternoon for a party at both Ford and Pax’s houses.
I had fully convinced myself that Boone would never look inside his pocket.
Dan often forgot slips of paper in his jackets, and I’d have to dig them out before doing the laundry.
Men were just absentminded that way. Boone would never know.
And if he did find it, so what? He knew I gave the paper faces to people. There was no reason for him to assume anything. Everything was fine.
And if somehow, he did find the paper, and he did think I only gave it to him, so what? I would claim I was stoned and goofing around. My lies were already planned out.
Boone arrived with Goldie and Vanessa. The latter joined the party at her parents’ house and chilled out with my girls. While the three of them colored pictures, I stood nearby, smiling and acting normal.
My gaze frequently flashed toward Ford Reed’s next-door backyard, where Boone regularly walked in and out of the house.
I noticed him walking toward Dan and Lula, who were talking to Zodiac, Elle, Clint, and Ivy.
The group was behaving oddly, with everyone making out in really exaggerated ways.
I sensed they were trying to prove who was more into their partner.
When I noticed Boone talking to Dan, my heart raced with paranoia.
I really didn’t want my brother to lecture me about my behavior.
I stared hard at my girls before forcing my gaze back to Boone.
He was walking away from Dan. My brother and the five others in the group looked at me in unison.
I knew instantly that I’d been ratted out!
After spending the entire day telling myself not to panic, I flipped out and ran inside the house. I hurried past Dillon talking with her grandmother, Bebe, and searched for a hiding place.
I’d built so many sexy and sweet fantasies about Boone Chester, but not once had any of them ended with me hiding in the bathroom.