Chapter Seventeen
? Vinyl could tell Elena was nervous. He’d watched her enough tonight to get a pretty good read on what was going through her head now. It also didn’t hurt that their little goddess wore her heart on her sleeve.
“Watch the third step,” she warned Pax as they walked ahead. “It’s a little iffy.”
Tanner crouched next to Vinyl where he’d stopped at the area that she’d called attention to. He didn’t have to put his foot down to know the wood had rotted. The rest of the porch wasn’t in much better shape. From what he could see, the only thing holding it up, were the colorful Christmas lights wrapped around it.
“We can fix this,” he said, not feeling guilty in the slightest about the lie. There was no ‘fixing’ this porch. The whole thing needed to be replaced, but he had a feeling she’d put up a fuss if he shared that. “It’s just a little bit of rotting wood.”
“A little bit?” Tanner mumbled, shooting him a look.
“Just go with it,” Vinyl instructed under his breath before giving Elena an easy smile. “We can work on it Saturday… when we bring you home.”
“Bring me home?” she repeated, her brows shooting up.
Vinyl bit his cheek to keep from smiling at the glimpse of fire in her eyes. One minute she looked like she was about to crawl out of her skin and the next, she was shooting daggers at him with those pretty brown eyes. The contradiction was going to keep him on his toes.
“We were hoping you’d stay the entire evening at the compound,” Pax said, holding up a hand when she began to protest, “in one of the empty cabins we keep for guests to crash in.”
Tanner nodded. “It’s safer than trying to navigate those back roads late at night.”
“Especially if you want to visit the clubhouse,” Vinyl continued. “We’ve got a full bar but if you drink, you have to stay over. It’s one of Ms. Taffy’s rules.”
“Oh,” she breathed out on a gust of air. She looked at all of them for a second before nodding. “Well, I guess that makes sense but still. Shouldn’t you run it by everyone first?”
Tanner chuckled and shook his head. “Nobody will have a problem with you staying over, sweetheart. The most anyone will do is wonder why you’re not bunking with us.”
Elena’s eyes grew big.
“We go at your pace, baby doll. You’re the one in charge.” Pax tugged her close using the hand he was still holding. “Although I hope it won’t be long before you’re staying in our cabin.”
Vinyl watched her cheeks brighten to a pretty pink.
“We should be able to finish the porch before it gets dark if we get going early enough,” he announced, switching back to their previous topic. They’d given her more than enough to think about between now and Friday night. Now, it was time to deal with getting this rebuild squared away.
The entire time they’d been talking, he’d had half an ear on the conversation and the other half focused on the groaning wood beneath them. They were pushing their luck by standing up here together. He highly doubted the porch could hold this much combined weight; the three of them weren’t little guys. It didn’t help that Tanner was stomping up and down the rickety platform, testing for weak spots either. With every thud of his boots, Vinyl’s worry intensified. They were going to fall straight through if Tanner kept it up.
“Will your roommates be alright with us getting started around seven or so?” Vinyl asked. This porch was a definite safety hazard; one that he wished they could tackle sooner than Saturday. Unfortunately, their schedules were packed to the brim with things that couldn’t be put off any longer. The big custom job they were working on now had to be finished before the end of the week and they were already behind. None of them had been able to focus much now that Elena was there, and it showed. Shit had already started to pile up.
“They’re usually up before the sun rises,” she answered, nibbling her lower lip. “How much do—"
“It won’t cost you a dime,” Tanner cut in. “We have a bunch of extra lumber from a project last summer that’s just taking up space in the barn. Ms. Taffy has wanted it cleared out for a while now. We’ll be killing two birds with one stone.”
“We have enough?” There was no need for Vinyl to elaborate how much was “enough”. They all knew it was going to be completely rebuilt.
“We should,” his buddy answered with a nod.
“Does that sound good?” Pax asked their woman.
Elena blinked at him as if stunned.
“Does that sound good, baby doll?” he repeated when she didn’t answer.
Her brow crinkled. “I guess?”
Vinyl smiled encouragingly when she looked over at him.
“Are you sure?”
“One hundred percent,” he answered without hesitation. There was no question about it—not for any of them.
“You okay, girl?”
The voice coming from their doorbell security system scared the shit out of all of them. He almost fell backwards down the steps. Elena jumped, prompting Pax to grab hold of her. And Tanner fell off the fucking porch into the front bushes.
“Sorry!” the voice apologized. “Is your feller okay?”
“Fuck!” Elena rushed to the edge Tanner had fallen off and looked over with a grimace. “Watch out for the th—”
“OUCH!”
“—orns,” she finished with a grimace. “Sorry.”
Vinyl moved her gently out of the way so he and Pax could haul their buddy up and out of the tangle of rosebushes that broke his fall.
“I got stabbed in the ass!” Tanner groaned as he joined them once again. “More than once.”
“Let me take a look at it,” the voice from the speaker cackled.
Tanner froze.
“Can we pretend you didn’t hear that?” Elena asked him with an embarrassed smile.
“Ask him if he needs a kiss to make it feel better,” another voice suggested with a giggle.
“Ladies!” Elena’s cheeks were getting brighter with every second.
Vinyl found it hard not to laugh, especially when Tanner’s hands moved as if to shield his butt from the speaker.
Elena covered her face with her hands and slumped against the front door. “Kill me now.”
“I thought you said they were lesbians?” Tanner asked in a whisper that was far from quiet.
“They are,” she answered, moving away from the door when it started to open.
A little old lady with white hair popped her head out with a smile. “That doesn’t mean we’re blind, honey.” She wiggled her brows at them. “I may have cataracts, but I can still see a hunk when one comes calling.”
Another woman, dressed in a matching moomoo pushed her way onto the front porch to join them.
“Introduce us,” the newcomer instructed, fluffing her hair as she looked at the men.
“Guys, this is Eloise and Ester,” Elena introduced with a sweep of her hand. “Eloise and Ester, this is Pax, Tanner and Vinyl.”