Chapter 38
Savage brought me over to the group of Old Ladies who were sitting close enough to the bonfire to stay warm, but not so close that they would overheat.
“Go away,” Willa joked. “No boys allowed.”
Savage sniggered and kissed my lips briefly. “Sit,” he ordered.
I took a vacant chair in the circle of women and settled my heaping plate onto my lap.
“Something to drink, babe?” Savage asked me.
“Oh, water’s good. Thanks.” I beamed up at him. He squeezed my shoulder and then left.
“Well, I never thought I’d see the day when Savage acted like a puppy for a woman. I’m Logan,” she said with a smile. “I’m with Smoke.”
“Smoke, right.”
“Should I do a quick round-robin of who’s who?” Willa asked.
“Please,” I begged.
Willa went around the circle, pointing at women and naming off their husbands. Everyone except Rach was with a biker.
“We need name tags,” Mia said.
“I’ve got it pretty well sorted, I think,” I said, shoveling in a bite of fruit.
Savage returned with my water and then almost immediately left again to join Duke and the others.
“You guys look like smitten kittens,” Joni said. “Totally unable to take your eyes off each other.”
“You’re one to talk,” Joni said to Sutton. “You and Zip are trying to win the award for most sexual eye contact.”
Joni rubbed her baby’s back. “It worked, didn’t it?”
“We should start a book club,” Rach announced. “Which is really just an excuse to eat chocolate and gossip.”
“We do that now,” Mia said with a laugh.
“Yeah, but if it’s a book club, we can read smutty romance novels and then our men can reap the rewards,” Sutton said. “Logan knows a thing or two about smutty romance novels, don’t you?”
Logan laughed. “I might know a thing or two. And Smoke definitely isn’t complaining.”
I ate my food, loving the banter and camaraderie from this group of women.
“How are you liking the apartment?” Brooklyn asked, patting the baby resting against her chest. “You can be honest.”
“I love it,” I admitted.
“And the delivery trucks don’t bother you?” Logan asked. “They were hard to get used to when I lived there.”
“You lived there?” I asked in surprise.
“For a time,” Logan replied.
Mia’s daughter, who’d been occupying herself on the blanket within the circle, crawled to Logan and then placed her hands on her legs and stood up. Logan scooped the girl up into her arms and bounced her on her lap.
“When are you adding to the baby pile?” Joni demanded.
“Soon,” Logan said, smiling down at the baby.
“How soon?” Joni asked.
“Whenever one of Smoke’s super-sperm decides to set up shop in one of my eggs,” Logan quipped. “We’re no longer using protection, so . . .”
“Oh, yay,” Allison said with a soft smile.
The woman hardly said anything; but she was kind. They all were.
Tears came to my eyes, and I hastily turned away to dab them with a napkin.
“Hormones, or something else?” Mia asked with a wry smile.
“Both?” I said with a watery laugh. “This is nice. I’ve never had friends before and I . . . this is just nice.”
“Group chat,” Joni announced. “It’s time to put you in the group chat.”
“Group chat?” I asked in confusion.
“For the Old Ladies,” Mia clarified. “It’s easier to experience it than it is to explain.”
“Be warned, though, a lot of the texts you’re going to get are just inappropriate memes and dirty jokes,” Willa said. “It’s part of the charm.”
“You’ll get used to us.” Mia smiled. “Promise.”
The sun set and the babies were put to bed. I’d moved the camp chair closer to the blaze and turned up the collar of my coat. Savage perched next to me on a log, resting his hand on my thigh.
My head was a whirl. I was happy and full, and I was with Savage and the family he’d carved out for himself.
I’d been welcomed and teased, and I truly felt like I belonged here.
“How you feeling, babe?” Savage asked me softly.
“Good.” I turned to him with a smile. “They’re wonderful.”
“Yeah, they are.” He rubbed his jaw. “Duke hugged you.”
“Noticed that, did you?”
“Yeah. I think it’s going to be okay,” he said quietly. “I think I’m gonna get everything I didn’t know I wanted.”
He stole a hand across my belly and stared into my eyes.
“You God damn son of a bitch!” a biker yelled from across the bonfire.
The sound of a fist meeting flesh turned my stomach.
“What the hell?” Mia asked, standing from her chair but not rushing to investigate.
Savage pulled away from me and shot up. He rushed to the two men who were fighting on the other side of the bonfire. Despite the light from the blaze, I couldn’t see their faces.
“Hey, break it the fuck up,” Colt growled, sandwiching himself between the two men.
“What’s going on?” Joni asked.
I looked around the bonfire at the Old Ladies, waiting to see if anyone knew anything. Logan’s expression was tight, and her lips were clamped together.
“It’s Smoke’s right,” Boxer said to Colt. “You beat Zip into oblivion when you found out he was screwing your sister.”
“I wasn’t screwing Joni,” Zip announced. “I mean, I was, but I was planning on making her my Old Lady.”
“He’s been fucking my daughter,” Smoke roared. “I want satisfaction!”
“Fine,” the other biker said. He cracked his neck. “You want to pummel me? Go right the fuck ahead. Won’t change a damn thing. I’m claiming Tavy.”
“Fuck, Raze,” Boxer muttered.
Smoke lunged for Raze, but two other bikers held Smoke back.
“If you want to fight, we’re taking this to The Ring,” Colt said. “You can bash each other all you want, but not here.”
“Let’s fucking go,” Smoke seethed. “I’ll put you in the ground. Brother or not. How fucking dare you!”
Logan’s breath hitched and she made a noise. A noise that seemed to break through Smoke’s haze of rage.
His shoulders slumped. “Son of a bitch,” he muttered. “You can let me go. I won’t kill him.”
The two bikers holding Smoke let go of him and Smoke marched toward the clubhouse. Logan trailed after him.
“Fuck,” Colt said, looking at Raze. “Is that why Tavy isn’t here tonight? You wanted to tell Smoke without her present?”
Raze nodded.
“I need a fucking drink,” Colt stated. “Church tomorrow to discuss this shit.”
I looked at Mia, Joni, and the others. “What was that all about?”
Brooklyn cocked her head to the side. “Well, I guess Tavy and Raze have been dating in secret and it just came out. Did you know?” She looked at Mia.
“No, I didn’t,” Mia said softly. “Logan did, though. Did you see her face?”
“Who’s Tavy?” I asked.
“Smoke’s daughter,” Joni explained. “And Logan’s best friend.”
“And Smoke’s daughter has been . . . with his biker brother? Oh,” I murmured.
“Not just a biker brother,” Mia expanded. “But Smoke, Raze, and a few of the others are actually from the South Dakota chapter. They lost their president, so they joined up with us in Waco. So Smoke and Raze go way, way back.”
“And you’re not supposed to sleep with a brother’s female family member. It’s part of their code,” Joni said.
“But you and Zip?—”
“Yeah, and when my brother found out, he beat the shit out of Zip,” Joni explained. “It was his right as my brother.”
“Huh.” I looked at Savage, who was speaking to Raze in a low voice.
“Logan will smooth it all over,” Joni said.
The group of women fell silent and then Sutton laughed. “Tavy and Raze. I didn’t see that coming.”
Savage slapped Raze on the shoulder and then marched over to me. “Hey, babe.”
I tilted my head back to look at him. “Hey.”
“You wanna see my room?”
“You mean you want to show her your penis,” Willa joked.
“If she’s willing,” Savage said with a wicked grin.
“I’m always willing,” I blurted out. “I mean?—”
The Old Ladies cackled like hens.
I grasp his outstretched hand. He hauled me up and we walked toward the clubhouse. He opened the screen door and ushered me inside and when I tried to walk to the stairs, he tugged me back.
“I’ve been to your room,” I said. “It’s up there.”
He shook his head. “I got a new room on the first floor.”
We walked a few paces, and he gestured to a door. After flipping on the light, he waved me inside before shutting the door behind us.
The furniture was the same, but the room itself was bigger.
“Not much different,” he said. “But this one has its own bathroom.”
I frowned. “That hardly seems like a reason to change rooms.”
“All the brothers with Old Ladies get rooms with bathrooms. I didn’t get to give you a full tour of the place—the Old Ladies were determined to have you to themselves tonight, but tomorrow I’ll show you the tiny homes being built out in the field. They’re for the brothers who have babies. Don’t know if you noticed, but the club is breeding like bunnies. We needed more space, and the single brothers who live here don’t need to be awake at all hours of the night due to screaming babies.”
“That would kind of cramp their style,” I said with a laugh. “I am amazed at how many babies there are.”
“Those of us with Old Ladies are determined to keep the species going.” He leaned down and kissed my lips. “I didn’t get it before, but now I do.”
“What? What didn’t you get?”
“Going to bed with the same woman in my bed every night, holding your belly, watching you grow our babies. I thought Colt, Duke, all of them were crazy. How could they want such stability? And then I realized they had everything that was missing from my life. Stability. Comfort. Intimacy.”
His hand snaked up the back of my shirt. “Come to bed, babe. Let me show you how much you mean to me.”