EXILE
Lula’s assurances about long-distance dating helped me calm down.
A little, anyway. Rationally, I should be able to handle us living apart.
Seeing her every weekend would allow me to keep my life and build a relationship with Lula.
Yet, the thought of not seeing her during the week left me edgy.
My addiction to Lula had overruled my common sense.
As she went through her work emails in the family room, I took my phone into her lux office. I wasn’t sure what to tell Nova. Though my sister trusted me to be dependable, I couldn’t pry myself away from Lula.
The phone rang a single time before Nova picked up. “Are you calling to say you’ve tired of the rich lawyer and want to come home?”
“Not exactly.”
“Is she keeping you against your will?”
From the background, I heard Zodiac say, “If the fool needs saving, he just needs to ask.”
Frowning, I muttered, “He’s still around?”
“Oh, well, fun fact. See, Zodiac left earlier. But then, good news, he came back with his friends. Our house is now the clubhouse, apparently. I’m whipping up snacks for the whores on their way over to shower the guys with blowjobs.”
My chuckling couldn’t erase the guilt I felt over ditching her. “Lula’s great,” I said as if those words would explain my situation.
“I’m great, too. Now, get your ass home and kick out your stinky club pals.”
“I don’t stink, woman,” Zodiac said before stealing the phone. “You need to put ice on your temper before you give yourself a hissy fit.”
“Bite me, butthead,” Nova snarled at him.
“Language,” Zodiac admonished. “Think of the children.”
While Nova cursed at him, winning hoots of encouragement from my nieces, Zodiac walked outside to talk alone.
“Her pussy’s that great, huh?” he asked.
“Yes. I can’t leave yet.”
“Well, you can’t move there,” Zodiac spat out, suddenly hostile. “You get that, right? You’re prolonging the inevitable.”
“Lula’s got money. She can move to Baton Rouge.”
“Yeah, but she won’t. I’ve spent years studying up on the Reed family, and they don’t live apart. It’s disgusting, but you can’t change them.”
“Well, I still need a few more days.”
“What’s a few more days going to do but make it harder to tell her goodbye?”
“I could get sick of her,” I said, despite knowing my words were a lie. “Or more likely, her people will get on my nerves. They’re all treating me with kid gloves because I saved Lula. Once that wears off, I’ll be viewed as an outsider cramping their style. That’s when I’ll come home.”
Zodiac didn’t respond immediately. His silence meant he was plotting.
“I get it,” he said, surprising me. “If I got a taste of Elle Reed’s pussy, I wouldn’t want to walk away after a day. So, here’s what we’ll do. Let’s view your time in Little Memphis as a vacation. That’s all this is.”
Zodiac paused at the sound of Nova yelling at someone inside the house.
“Your sister has gotten an idea in her pretty head that you’ve ditched her and the girls to live it up with your lawyer. But I’ll explain how this is just a getaway to clear your head. She’ll settle down.”
“You aren’t really bringing whores to the house, are you?”
“Is that a real question?”
“For you, yes, it is.”
“Well, I had planned to have a girl come by to give me a quick blowjob. You know, just to tide me over while I play your sister’s bodyguard. It’s not like Nova will help a guy out.”
I gritted my teeth to keep from bitching at my president. He was actively helping me right now, but the guy drove me crazy when he treated my sister like one of the guys.
Nova grew up in a tiny town where fucking was something bored married people did to make babies, and if the husband was drunk. It wasn’t for fun, and she didn’t enjoy hearing Zodiac’s bragging.
“You have three days before we come up there to get you,” Zodiac said and hung up.
I stared at the phone for less than a minute before Nova called me.
“What’s really happening with this woman?” she asked, sounding tired.
“I’ve fallen for her.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know,” I said and exhaled roughly. “Magic or something more basic. She’s just gotten under my skin, and I need to let this feeling between us play out.”
“Wait, so when are you coming home?”
“In a day or two.”
Nova didn’t speak, and I felt her panicking a little. Since the shooting, my sister had pretended to be unbothered. She often regaled the girls with tales of how she beat up the shooter.
“I’m a badass,” she reassured them when they were scared.
Nova might have been a badass, but she was also a woman who didn’t know how to live on her own.
She moved from our mom’s house into a place with Chris.
I took her to Baton Rouge and built a life in the fixer-upper.
Now, she was playing hostess to Zodiac and the boys.
Without a doubt, she was flipping out inside, even if she faked like she was calm.
“I’m flipping out,” Nova admitted, startling me with her honesty. “I don’t want all these men in the house, but I can’t be here alone with the girls. What if someone breaks in and I’m sleeping? What if the house burns down?”
“It’ll only be for a few days.”
“Promise me.”
“Why don’t you believe me?” I asked, unaccustomed to Nova pushing back at me in this way.
“Your choice to run off to see this woman is bizarre behavior for you. I’m not sure I’m talking to the same brother who took me out of South Dakota. What if this new brother is the kind of guy to decide he doesn’t want to live with his boring sister and nieces anymore?”
“This isn’t about you. I have a crush on this woman. I barely saw her yesterday. I want a little more time together before I come home and things go back to normal.”
“What does she have that I don’t?” Nova mumbled, and I could picture tears filling her big blue eyes. “And skip any qualities I can’t match because of the whole incest thing.”
“It’s just a few days,” I promised.
Nova’s voice broke as she asked, “What if you fall in love with her? It won’t be just a few days, will it?”
“I need you to trust me.”
“I do trust you.”
“Really?” I asked when she began crying.
“No. I think you’ve changed, and I’m dealing with a stranger.”
“I miss you, too.”
I could see the smile lighting up Nova’s face. “We watched ‘Name That Tune’ last night, and I got most of the songs right.”
“Next week, I’ll be there when you do it again.”
“No, you’ll be at the clubhouse with the stinky men currently farting up our house.”
“If you don’t feed them high fiber meals, they’ll probably fart less.”
Nova laughed. “Too late. I made chili for dinner.”
Despite sharing her laughter, I hated how she had just been crying. “I promise I’ll be home in a few days, and I’ll be the one farting up the place.”
“I believe you,” Nova said, and I hoped she was telling the truth.
We talked for a few more minutes about how Zodiac used too many towels and tried feeding the dog leftover spaghetti. Once she finished complaining about him, Nova got off the phone so she could check her chili.
Sitting in the office, I soaked up the expensive vibe in this house. My place with Nova was slick. We spent a fortune turning the fixer-upper into a comfortable place. But Lula’s house was swanky.
I felt out of my league suddenly. Or maybe I was looking to create roadblocks with Lula since I felt guilty for bailing on Nova and the girls.
Returning to the family room, I overheard Lula snarling into her phone, “You tell the motherfucker to get off his ass and send the paperwork by the end of the day. If he doesn’t get it done, I’m sending my brother and his friends to that dumpy motel where your boss is shacked up with his ugly ass sister-in-law. Do you get me?”
Lula hung up and smiled at me. “How is Nova?”
“What was that about?”
“A local businessman suffering from small dick energy has been dodging me for days. He probably thought I’d let things slide after the attack, but I informed his receptionist that I’m still expecting his signature.”
Crossing my arms, I smiled at her smug expression. “I heard about your nickname.”
Lula’s grin widened. “When I first got called the Blair Witch, I was offended. She was a gross witch, right? But they meant I was relentless and broke people’s sanity.
That part I liked since I was hounding the club’s enemies.
Plus, I take on cases of abused women and kids.
Pissing off their bullies makes my soul sing. ”
I was soothed by the menace shining in Lula’s eyes.
She wasn’t a rich, untouchable princess.
Lula grew up in the biker lifestyle. The men she loved rode with a one percent club.
She joined one herself and threatened Crimson Guard’s enemies in the same way I would if someone messed with the Black Rainbow.
Lula and I weren’t so different. This reality was another reason I hated the idea of ever leaving her side.