Chapter 22 #2
She brings Joe up to her chest and we both breathed him in.
“He tried, Marls, he really tried, but they’d ruined him.
” She cried again as she looked up at me.
“The drink and the drugs were the only way he could cope with his demons. He just kept getting banged up and he was always nicking money off of me, so in the end I moved out. That place you found me was all I could afford.”
“Fucking hell. I’m so sorry baby. So sorry.”
Joe made a little noise and we both studied him for a while. It was all we seemed to do since he’d been born, just looked at him in wonder.
“Ash, I swear to you that we’ll give this little boy everything that you never had. We’ll give him so much love, we’ll all be falling over it. He will never spend a day of his life not feeling loved, safe, and protected.”
“Will you help me be a good mum?”
“No, baby, I won’t need to. I already know that you’re gonna be the best mum there ever was.”
“Can we call him Joseph Ryan?” She asked quietly … hopeful.
“Yes, we can.”
“Thank you.”
“I love you, baby.”
“I love you too, Rock Star.”
We both looked down at Joe, who was then wide-eyed and staring up at us.
“We love you, baby rock star,” we both tell him.
Did I mention that Marley and Ash love Joe?
She was one of the lucky ones. She’d gotten out and stayed first with Jim, then her brother.
We’d tried our best to help Ryan over the years. We’d payed for rehab and even had him living with us, but he still managed to get himself into trouble, despite us paying for the best lawyers to get him out of it.
Ryan died in prison on his thirty-second birthday. He committed suicide in the most horrific of ways, which I won’t go into.
“I’ll set up a rehearsal timetable for everyone else, but Cam’s people have said you can have access any time this week.” Len states, interrupting my thoughts.
“Yeah, I’ve spoken to Reed. He has shit to do tomorrow, but we’ll be there every day from Tuesday.
” I tell him. “We just need all the staff sworn to secrecy. I really don’t want this getting out.
The event is already a sell-out, so we can’t increase sales and I think it’ll be a show stopper if we can just get up on stage, unannounced, and play songs from both bands. ”
“It’s gonna be epic,” Georgia states.
“Epic? Fucking epic? You’ve been hanging with Paige and Harley too much, Porge. That’s their word of the moment,” Len said.
I can’t help but laugh as he takes the piss out of her.
“Fuck off, Len. There’s nothing wrong with epic,” she tells him.
“There is when you’re forty-six, dude.”
“I’m a dudette, and still eighteen in my head.”
“Ah, God no. Not eighteen-year-old George. I wouldn’t wish her on anyone. Even Paige and Harley are better behaved than she ever was.”
“I wasn’t that bad. Big brother Marley, back me up here,” she demands.
“Drop me out of this one, Porge. Let’s just say dad’s right on this one and you got the daughter you deserved with Lula.”
“I was never as bad as Lu. I blame Ash. I swear her genes filtered through the placenta and corrupted my perfect child’s DNA.”
“Then how come Kiks is such a good girl?” Len asks.
“Coz she’s only got mine and Cams genes. Ashley’s crazy DNA was all absorbed by Lu, making her extra naughty.”
“I can hear you.” Ash sticks her head into my office door and shouts.
“Hey, Fag,” Jimmie calls out from Len’s end, “I’m with you on this one, boys,” she adds.
“Tallulah is all George. You seem to have a very selective memory of what a diva you were,” Jimmie tells her.
“What d’ya mean was? She’s still a fucking diva,” I add.
“Shut up, Butt. I thought I could at least rely on you for backup. T, my brothers are picking on me,” she calls out to Cam in her best whiny voice.
“Don’t call me Butt,” I tell her through gritted teeth.
George and Jimmie thought they were hilarious one drunken Christmas when they called Ash, Fag … Fag Ash, geddit? Yeah, I didn’t laugh either, and because of my lack of humour, they christened me Butt … Fag Butt. The three of them ended up on the floor laughing at their own very unfunny joke.
We were now entered into everyone’s contacts list as Fag & Butt.
The following Christmas, Jimmie had gone to a local retirement home and asked the old dears to knit us a couple of jumpers with our names on them, then offered to donate one thousand pounds to a charity of our choice if we wore them all day.
Len and Cam also adding a thousand if we went through with it, leaving us with little option but to agree.
Hilarious … Not.
The amount of times we’d been in the company of Americans and had to explain that Fag Ash and Fag Butt had nothing to do with neither very burnt, or the backsides of homosexuals.
“Children, children, back to the matter in hand. I’ll email you a rehearsal schedule as soon as it’s done, that way you’ll at least know when to expect others to be turning up.
The riggers and electricians will be in and out all week, so they may need the power switched on and off at various times too. Anything else?” We all remain silent.
“This year’s event is bigger and better than any other. We’ll be able to add at least ten more charities to our books next year. Goes without saying that whoever we choose, we’ll bear in mind where Maca would’ve liked the money channelled.”
Ashley comes and curls into my lap as Len talks.
“He’d be so proud of what you’ve achieved with this, so fucking proud,” Ash states, loud enough for the others to hear on their ends of the phone.
I hear Len clear his throat, but George remains silent.
“Porge?”
“Don’t, Marls, don’t.”
“All right. Well, that’s it for now then, boys and girls. I’ll be at the offices all day tomorrow. I’ll see ya there if you’re about.” He hangs up. I hear George sniff and then she’s gone so I disconnect from my end.
“Wanna watch a film or SamCro with me?” Ashley asks.
I slide my hand under her vest and love that she’s braless. So much so, that I have to give her nipple a little suck.
“What, so you can sit and get all wet and excited over Jax?” I ask.
“Well, come on. Even you get a hard-on over Jax.”
I throw my head back and laugh as if she’s being ridiculous.
“Seriously, you know full well that it’s Bobby that my heart belongs to.”
“Whatever. You watching or not? I have the whole of season six to get through. I’m sick of avoiding spoilers everywhere.”
“Put it on, but d’ya mind if I read?” I question. I feel guilty that I’ve done nothing but read these last few days.
“Go for it,” she tells me before kissing my mouth, sliding off my lap and heading out the door.