Chapter 35
I askedBones if we could have a few nights apart and his easy text of Sure had me frowning and questioning everything. Three days passed without him calling or making plans, and I walked into my mother’s house in low spirits. But I put on a smile because the last thing I wanted was for her to know anything was wrong.
Stanton showed me into the dining room where my mother already had the seating chart splayed out across the long oak table.
“I’m glad to see you’ve recovered from your migraine,” Mom said as she hugged me.
“Oh. Yeah. Nothing a little sleep couldn’t help,” I lied. Charlie had stayed the night just to ensure that if I needed anything she could get it for me.
“Good.” She gestured to the seating chart. “It’s a mess.”
I looked down at the names laid out on the chart. “It’s not a mess.”
“Liar,” she said with a laugh. “There are so many people that decided to RSVP late. There are only a couple of empty seats at the tables, which is wonderful, but Don Moriarty will be bringing his new wife and it turns out Sheila is coming, too.”
“Oh no…second wife and half-her-age third wife are going to be in the same room together?”
“If we’re not careful, they’re going to be at the same table.”
“We either need to put them on the opposite sides of the room or see if we can change the decor to medieval suits of armor. I’d pay good money to see Sheila chase the new toy around the room with a claymore.”
Mom laughed. “You’re terrible.”
An hour later, we had it all sorted.
“Now that that’s finished,” Mom closed the binder, “I can ask you why you turned down Walker.”
I blinked. “How did you know that?”
“I called him and he told me,” she said.
“Mother,” I said with a sigh.
“Don’t Mother me. Tell me why you didn’t accept his offer for dinner.”
“Because I already told you I wasn’t interested,” I explained.
“Not that excuse again.”
“It’s not an excuse. It’s the truth.” I leaned in and kissed her cheek. “I’ll see you Saturday at the event.”
“Do you want to ride with us?” Mom asked.
“No, I’ll take my own car.”
As I was driving home, I realized I didn’t want to go there. I missed Bones.
I called him.
His phone rang and rang. I thought it was about to roll to voicemail when he finally answered.
“Duchess,” he greeted.
“Hey,” I said, suddenly feeling embarrassed. “What are you doing?”
“Working on my motorcycle.”
“Oh.”
There was silence on the other end, as if he was waiting for me to say something.
“I was wondering if I could take you to lunch,” I said.
“Yeah, I could eat.”
He sounded casual. Almost aloof.
“I’m at Charlie’s Motorcycle Repair. The bike’s apart so I’ll need a ride. I’ll see you in a few.”
Bones hung up before I could reply.
I drove to the commercial district and pulled into the driveway of the garage. I cut the engine and climbed out of the car. Kelp and Raze were working on a motorcycle, but I didn’t see Bones.
“Hayden,” Kelp greeted. “Hey.”
“Hi,” I said. “Is Bones around?”
“Yeah, he’s washing up,” Raze explained. “He’ll be out in a bit. You want coffee or something to drink?”
“No, I’m fine. Thanks.” I stood there awkwardly, unsure of what to say.
A side door opened leading into the garage and Rach stepped out. “I’ve got Mitch Landry on the phone. There’s a problem with the order.”
“I’ll handle it,” Raze said, stalking toward her.
Rach nodded and then her eyes met mine. “Hey.”
“Hi.”
“I’m gonna pick up lunch,” Logan said, appearing behind Rach. “Then I’ll be back. Oh. Hi, Hayden.”
Nerves skated through my belly. Everything was wrong. I hadn’t seen them since the deeply personal blowout we’d had and I wasn’t even sure where to go from here.
And where the hell was Bones? He was taking forever. Though I wasn’t even sure I wanted to see him either since he’d been so cold to me on the phone.
“What are you doing here?” Logan asked.
“Bones and I have lunch plans,” I explained.
“Ah.” Logan nodded.
“You guys are being weird,” Kelp said from the corner of the garage. He was rooting around in a red tool chest. “Work out your shit. It’s making me uncomfortable.”
Rach glared at him. “Not all of us get the luxury of going to The Ring and wailing on each other to vent our frustration.”
I frowned. “Wailing?”
Kelp turned around, a tool in hand. His left eye was bruised.
“Wailing,” I repeated in understanding.
“It’s not wailing,” Kelp stated. “It’s sparring.”
“You guys beat the shit out of each other and laugh it off like weirdos,” Logan stated. “At least Smoke didn’t get involved.”
“Because we refused to spar against him,” Kelp remarked. “He’s barely recovered from…you know.”
“I’m sure he loved that,” Logan said with a shake of her head.
A door on the other side of the garage opened and Bones came out. He was wearing a white shirt with a streak of grease across the chest.
“Hey,” he said.
“Hey,” I replied.
“Jesus Christ, not you two as well,” Kelp muttered. “Colder than a witch’s tit in here.”
Bones glared at him.
“Are you coming back?” Rach asked me.
“I have to drop Bones off, so yeah, I’ll be coming back.”
She nodded. “Can we talk? Later?”
“Sure.” I looked at Bones. “You ready?”
“My shirt is stained with grease and I don’t have a clean one. I’m not really restaurant appropriate.”
“We can figure something else out,” I said.
We headed toward my car. Bones didn’t say anything as he opened my door for me. I climbed in and he shut it. He walked around to the other side and got in.
“Okay, what the hell is this?” I blurted out.
“What the hell is what?” His tone was calm, his expression impassive.
“You’re acting like a stranger.”
“Duchess, you pushed me away and I haven’t heard from you in three days. How the fuck else do you want me to act?”
I blinked. “Phone works both ways.”
“You said I was smothering you. So I backed the fuck off.”
“Oh.” I frowned. “I did say that, didn’t I?”
“Yeah, you did.” He rubbed the back of his neck in frustration and then lowered his hands. His knuckles were raw.
“You were sparring too?” I asked.
“How’d you know?”
“Logan mentioned it.” I shrugged.
He paused for a moment and then said, “Everyone’s still reeling.”
“When’s the funeral?”
“Tomorrow.”
“Would you have told me? If I hadn’t asked?”
“Why would I have told you?” His eyes met mine and the coldness evaporated, replaced by burning emotion. “You said it yourself. You’re not one of us.”
I tried not to flinch from the sharp blade of his words.
“I didn’t belong at the wedding either, but I came with you. Do you really think I wouldn’t come with you to a funeral?”
“I don’t know. I thought I was beginning to know you. But you left the wedding. And you wouldn’t let me take care of you. Why won’t you let me take care of you, Duchess?”
“And why do you want to take care of me?” I asked. “Why, Bones?”
“Jesus Christ, do I have to spell it out for you?”
“Yes!”
“I love you, God damnit!” he roared.
“Well, I love you too, you arrogant, overbearing?—”
I didn’t get the rest of the words out because Bones reached across the car, grabbed my face in his hands, and kissed the breath out of me.
When he pulled back, we were both breathing hard. He pressed his forehead to mine. “No more bullshit.”
“No more bullshit,” I agreed.
A smack landed on the hood of my car, instantly pulling my attention.
“Fornicate somewhere else!” Kelp called out.
Bones looked at me and raised his brows.
I shot him a grin. “I didn’t really want lunch anyway.”
“I was supposed to go back to the garage,” I said as I snuggled closer to Bones.
He moved the pillow behind his head to get more comfortable and then settled again. “Why?”
“Rach wanted to talk. I got the feeling she and Logan wanted to patch things up.”
“Text them,” he said.
“I don’t have their numbers.”
“I have them.”
“What am I even supposed to say?” I asked, forcing myself up.
“Maybe you don’t say anything. Maybe you give them a chance to speak first.”
I threw him a glare over my shoulder.
“Did you tell Charlie what happened?” he asked.
“I gave her the highlights,” I said with a sigh.
“What did she say?”
“She didn’t say much,” I admitted. “She wasn’t sure how to even process everything that’s happened. Between the wedding and the call about Darcy, my blowout with Logan and Rach—it feels like I shouldn’t even have had a blowout, you know? Like, I just met them. I shouldn’t have weighed in. I wasn’t in the thick of it. I’d just met Darcy. I had no right to?—”
“Fine, don’t talk to them. But you’ll see them tomorrow at the funeral and you’ll have to deal with it then. Now, you promised me lunch, so what are we going to do about it?”
“Tell you what, why don’t we head to the clubhouse so you can grab a few of your things, including a clean shirt. I’ll take you to lunch and then we can come back here and do more of what we just did.”
“You want me to keep shit at your house?”
“I have stuff in your clubhouse room already,” I reminded him.
“You do,” he agreed. “We gonna talk about it?”
“Talk about what?”
“The yelling of the feelings in your car?”
“Why do we need to talk about it?” I asked.
“Because it means something.”
“Well, obviously.” I rolled my eyes. “It’s why I’m giving you a drawer like, a minute and half after meeting you.”
“It’s been longer than a minute and a half.”
“Fine, two minutes.”
“Brat,” he said with a laugh.
I grinned. “Can I feed you or what?”
His eyes darkened and he pulled me toward him. “Or what.”