Chapter 6 #2
His shoulders relaxed and his mouth softened again. “Oh. But you’re a friend.”
“Which is an even bigger reason I should be paying you. You’re smart as hell and you’ve already got a lot happening in your life.” I took another sip of the smoothie as he fiddled with the silver ring on his finger. “I value your time, so I’m paying you.”
The flush returned, a violent red that splashed across his skin like an unrelenting sunburn. Even though actual darkness was settling in, I could still see it. His blush was a whole lot cuter than a sunburn, though. “Thanks.”
I smiled. “No problem.”
He hugged his sketchbook closer to his chest, and I eyed it carefully. “Are your tattoo designs in that book?”
Barber had told me Oli wanted to be a tattoo artist, but PD refused to acknowledge the idea, which was a shame. If I ever got a tattoo, I would want someone like Oli to do it. Well, that wasn’t entirely true. He needed more confidence first.
He glanced down at his sketchbook and cleared his throat. “Yeah.”
“Maybe you could show me?”
He blanched and shook his head immediately. “No. I don’t . . . no. I don’t think so. Not yet.” He went back to playing with the ring on his finger nervously.
“Oh, okay.” Heavy silence filled the Jeep again, and I drummed the steering wheel. Maybe I couldn’t date Oli, but I wished he was comfortable with me. What had I done to make him act so miserable?
Outside our windows, the world went by like normal. Sidewalks with stores lining the buildings. Inside, our space was saturated in quiet and awkwardness that made me antsy. I caught sight of the ring on his finger as he clutched the sketchbook.
“What’s that ring you keep playing with?”
He snapped his attention to his hand and his fingers quivered. His grip on his sketchbook tightened. “Uh . . . .” He groaned. “If I tell you, you can’t tell Barber.”
I snorted. “Believe it or not, I don’t tell Barber everything. He’s my pa’s boyfriend and lives with us. He’s not my fairy godfather.”
He snorted out a laugh. “He’d be a horrible fairy godfather.”
I chuckled. “He really would be.”
“It’s just that I work with him and he’s like . . . . He’s like a replacement father to me. Kind of, I guess. Or an overbearing uncle. I don’t want him to lecture me.”
“Barber, lecture?” I snorted out a laugh. I’d never heard Barber lecture anyone. He was the most laid-back guy I’d ever met. He thought fun meant blowing up cars in his uncle’s backyard and teasing the hell out of anyone dangerous he came across until they reacted.
Oli frowned. “He will about this.”
His words made me pause and I glanced suspiciously at him. “Okay. I won’t say a thing to him. Tell me.”
The silence stretched between us. The only sound was the annoying click of my Jeep’s turn signal each time we reached a corner. Outside, the moon emerged from behind some clouds and silvery light spilled into the cab.
Finally, he sighed as he glanced down at his ring again, twirling it on his finger. “It’s my dad’s.”
“He’s in prison, right?” I asked, tone soft.
According to Barber during one of his “I’m worried about Oli” gossip sessions, Oli’s dad was a King who was out of commission.
He’d gotten caught up in some drug shit and ended up behind bars.
Oli had never had much of a relationship with Cain to begin with because Oli’s mom had been a hookup and Cain had never wanted to be a dad.
Whenever Oli tried to start a relationship, Cain pushed him away.
Being in prison made the entire situation worse.
Despite “not wanting to be a dad,” apparently Cain made it clear to the Kings to keep Oli away from MC business.
Cain had enemies like every one of those bikers.
Oli nodded. “Yeah. He’s a King, the vice president before he was locked up.” He brushed his thumb over the skull and crown on the silver band. “This was his VP ring. King, the president of the club, gave it to him.”
I flinched. Fuck. If any of the Kings’ enemies saw Oli wearing the jewelry .
. . . I didn’t want to think about what they’d do to Oli.
Now I knew why he didn’t want me to tell Barber.
“Are you sure it’s a good idea to wear it?
The Kings have a lot of rivals. We even have a plan at my house for what to do if anyone knocks on the door looking for Barber.
If the wrong person saw you wearing it—”
“You don’t have to tell me,” he snapped. His shoulders hunched and he laid his temple against the window, staring at the ring. “But it’s all I have of him, you know? He doesn’t want anything to do with me. Says it’s too dangerous. All I want is to get to know him.”
I wish I could say I understood, but I didn’t.
I’d known my mother and she wasn’t someone I’d ever want to see again.
She’d chosen drugs over me and left me to fend for myself.
Some people were just born shitty and stayed that way.
I’d never known my father, but never wanted to, either.
What kind of man ditched his son with a drug addict mother?
Pa, the man who’d chosen me, had taken care of me, and his family had welcomed me in.
He was more of a parent than my biological ones.
But it was nice that Oli thought maybe his dad could be good, sort of the same as a little kid who thought wishing on a shooting star really would make his dreams come true. There was something sweet about it. I had no idea when that part of myself had died.
If Oli’s father didn’t want to know him, then I didn’t understand why Oli pushed the issue. His father clearly wasn’t worth the trouble. He didn’t deserve Oli.
I didn’t say any of that. No doubt, he wouldn’t appreciate my opinion.
“You can’t see him in prison?” I turned the Jeep onto his street.
“He won’t see me. Like I said, wants nothing to do with me.
” He sat up when I pulled into his driveway, the Jeep rumbling as I shifted it into Park.
Someone had turned on a pair of cheerful lights on either side of the front door.
He stared in that direction and I did, too, taking in the chipped brown wood and the large “Welcome!” sign hanging off a nail.
The house was a tiny white cottage with a blue metal roof that was easy to make out between the moon and the streetlights.
A brick path cut through the minuscule, but clean, front lawn, and a Honda Fit sat out front of the single-car garage.
While Oli didn’t live in a great neighborhood, he and his mom kept their house neat, unlike their neighbors with overgrown yards.
Oli glanced at me, eyes wide and pleading. “Do you want to come in? I could start looking at some of your assignments tonight. Mom makes delicious food.”
I held in a wince. “I have a meal plan I need to stick to. I really can’t veer off from it or Hawthorn would kill me.
” It wasn’t entirely true. While Hawthorn specifically told me to keep to the plan as much as possible, he’d also said I could have some cheat days.
I refused. Nothing would stop me from bulking up before our first game.
“Mom has food. She’ll have stuff you can eat.” He lowered his eyelashes, giving me a pleading pout that reminded me of a puppy, and I was weak to those kinds of looks, especially from cuties like Oli.
I smiled. “All right. Dinner. But no to the assignments. I don’t have any ready right now. But when I do, I’ll let you know. Deal?”
He grinned. “Deal. Come on!”
I had no choice but to follow him into the house, my smoothie left behind in my Jeep. At least I’d drunk most of it.