Chapter 11
CHAPTER
ELEVEN
Rain
My alarm goes off, making me groan. I silence it on my watch. My eyes fall shut again, and I doze for a moment before my brain kicks on, telling me that it’s time to get up. I wake up slowly and stretch. The sun is shining through the blinds, and I wince as it hits me across the face.
I really need to buy some curtains ASAP.
Rolling over, I check my phone and see I have no new messages. Instinctively, I open up a social media app and start to scroll as I lie on my side, curled into a ball. Before I know it, twenty minutes have passed, and I’m feeling more awake.
When I look at the clock in the corner of my screen, I scramble. I wasted too much time lounging in bed. I need to get ready now, or I’m going to be late for work.
I put my phone down on the nightstand and get out of bed.
After grabbing clothes from the closet, I head out of my room and across the hall to the bathroom.
Thirty minutes later, I’m dressed, my hair tamed, and makeup on.
After dropping my dirty clothes in my bedroom, I grab my phone and purse before I head into the kitchen.
As I walk in, I see Ridge standing at the stove, cooking.
Even after a few days of being here, I’m not used to not being alone.
With Dad being sick, I have felt like I’ve lived on my own for so long that it’s weird to have someone in the house with me.
Even when the nurses would come, I was always leaving.
It’s odd to slowly get used to another person being around.
“Morning,” Ridge says as he turns toward me, spatula in hand.
“Morning,” I say as I move toward the coffeemaker.
“How did you sleep?” he asks.
“All right. You?” I mumble.
He tips his head from side to side. “Took me a minute to fall asleep, but once I did, I was out.”
“I get that.”
After my coffee is doctored just right, I lean against the counter and watch him.
Over the last few days, I’ve learned a lot about him.
He spends a lot of time in the kitchen, the man folds laundry as soon as the dryer goes off, and he always puts his dirty dishes in the dishwasher as soon as he’s done eating.
Not only that, but he doesn’t wear shoes in the house.
“What are you making?” I ask after a minute.
“Bacon and eggs. There’s enough if you want some,” he offers.
I eye the clock on the stove and see that time is running out. “I would love to, but I can’t. I need to get on the road, or I’ll be late.”
He nods.
“Do you want me to pick up dinner on my way home?” I offer.
I watch as he turns off the burners, and he turns toward me.
“Actually, I was wondering if you would meet me at the clubhouse.”
“Why? What’s up? Is something going on?” My mind races with the possibilities.
Growing up a club kid, you learned that going to the club without notice was usually a bad thing. It meant danger.
“We’re just having a get-together. The guys are worried that you’ve been absent and think I’m holding you hostage. Thought you might want to come and prove them wrong.” He raises a brow, making me chuckle.
“Aw, it’s almost like they like me or something,” I tease.
“Or something. So will you come?”
I nod as I place my cup in the sink. “Sure. I get off at six. If it’s okay, I’ll swing by here to change before I head that way.”
“If you want, I could always take a change of clothes for you to the clubhouse.”
I shake my head. “Thank you for the offer, but I don’t have time to pick something out before I have to go. I’ll just stop by here. It’s on the way.”
“Sounds good.”
“All right, I’ll see you then.”
“Drive safe,” he murmurs, touching my shoulder lightly as I pass by.
Leaving him in the house, I make my way outside and head to work. As I drive, I can’t help but think about how everything has changed.
It feels weird living with another man. The only man I’ve ever lived with is my dad, and we were more like two passing ships.
When I got old enough, he trusted that I would do the right thing.
He spent more time at the club and less at home.
Not that he was an absent parent. I think he just didn’t know how to handle a teenage girl.
Then I grew up and moved out, and I don’t think he had much reason to be at home after that.
At least until he got sick. It was only recently, when he got really bad, that I moved back in. Even then, though, I was still paying rent on my apartment. I still had a place of my own to go to if I needed a break.
Now my apartment is gone, and if I need space, the only place I have is my dad’s place. The home that feels like his ghost is watching over me, laughing.
“Just had to get the last laugh, didn’t you, Dad?” I mutter to myself.
All things considered, though, it could be worse.
Ridge is pretty easy to live with. I see him in the morning and sometimes in the evening before I go to bed.
On the evenings he won’t be home, he leaves food for me.
Sometimes it’s in the fridge, and all I have to do is heat it up. Other times it’s in the Crock-Pot.
It’s nice. I don’t know the last time someone took care of me. Make no mistake, that’s what he’s doing. I always built Ridge up to be a villain in my story, but it turns out he’s not as bad as I once thought. It’s been nice having him take care of me. Not that I will ever admit it to him.
When I pull into the parking lot, I push all thoughts of him from my mind and start running through my schedule for the day. Getting out of my truck, I head inside and run into the head of HR, Maxine.
“Hey, Rain!”
“Hey, how are you?”
“I’m good. Hey, I heard you moved. Have you turned in your new address yet?”
“No, do I need to?”
Maxine laughs, shaking her head. “Of course! Just email it over to me, and I’ll get it handled for you.”
“Thank you.”
“No problem. It’s my job,” she says as she walks away.
I make my way to my desk and get situated, pushing all thoughts of Ridge away.
The man takes up more time in my mind than I would like to admit, and it’s becoming a problem.
Ridge
I can’t help but watch her walk away.
I want to call out to her, but I don’t. For some reason, I want to tell her to have a good day, but knowing Rain, that would annoy her, so I bite my tongue.
Something I’ve gotten really good at lately, it seems.
I knew this would be hard. I just didn’t realize how hard it would be.
I’ve been trying to spend as much time with her as I can, get to know her as much as possible, but Rain doesn’t make it easy.
She doesn’t come out in the mornings until she has to leave for work, maybe having enough time to drink a cup of coffee before hitting the road.
It’s frustrating because I can hear her alarm go off two hours before she leaves.
I don’t know what she’s doing in her room for an hour before she gets in the shower, especially since I purposely did not put a TV in there, but it’s time I would like to spend with her.
If I didn’t know any better, I would think she was going out of her way to avoid me.
She doesn’t owe me anything, and it’s not all her fault either.
I’ve been busy doing shit for the club and with work.
I’ve been getting home late lately. Sometimes we eat together in silence, watching something on TV.
On other occasions, she will hang out in the living room while I eat when I get home late, but most of the time she heads to her room after I get home and closes the door behind her.
Clearly signaling that she wants alone time.
I get it. Hell, it’s weird as fuck for me having someone else in my space.
I don’t even want to think about how weird it is for her.
She’s the one who had to move into a new place.
I got lucky because this place is mine. Nothing around me is new, with the exception of her.
Well, and the bras I found hung up in the laundry room the other day.
Sighing, I turn back to the stove, plate my food, and start to eat while standing.
My mind shifts to this evening. Part of me feels bad that I’m about to blindside Rain, but if I told her about it beforehand, she wouldn’t show. I don’t know how I know that, but I do. She would run and hide.
It’s for the best. Surprise her around everyone, and she can’t blow up. Not right away, at least. No, she will save her anger until we are alone.
“It’s fine. It’s all going to be fine,” I tell myself as I put my plate in the dishwasher.
Heading down the hall, I go to my room and get ready for the day. Thirty minutes later, I pull up to the compound.
As Wolf opens the gate, Yak walks over to my bike.
“Big night tonight,” Yak says.
“That it is.”
“There’s a pool going on. You want in?” he asks.
“On what?” I ask hesitantly.
“On if your girl is going to lay you out for announcing her as your old lady without warning.” He smiles.
Wolf sighs as he walks toward us. “I told him it’s a bad idea.”
“Oh, come on. It’s going to be epic, and you know it,” Yak says.
I run my hand over my face. I don’t know how I didn’t see this coming, but I should have. This is the exact type of thing Yak is known for.
“Do I even want to know how much the pot is?” I ask reluctantly.
Yak chuckles. “Dude, it’s a couple hundred, and it keeps growing.”
“Son of a bitch,” I mutter.
“So do you want in?” Yak asks.
Wolf reaches over and slaps the back of Yak’s head.
“Hey, what was that for?” Yak whines, rubbing his head.
“Because you’re an idiot,” Wolf tells him.
“You’re just jealous that it wasn’t your idea,” Yak says.
Wolf rolls his eyes before looking back at me. “Aspen and Maggie are in the clubhouse waiting for you.”
“Thanks, man. I’ll see you two later.”
I pull forward and head down the driveway. When I reach the clubhouse, I pull to a stop and shut off my bike.
Panther steps out of the clubhouse as I stand.
“What’s up?” I ask.
“Not much. You?” he asks as he leans against the railing.
“Just here to get things ready.”
“Did you tell her what tonight’s about?”
I shake my head, making him chuckle.
“I understand it, but that doesn’t mean I agree with it.”
“Trust me, I’m starting to regret my decision,” I mutter, making him laugh again.
“Let me guess, you found out about the pot?”
“What the fuck was he thinking?” I ask, referring to Yak.
“I don’t know, man, but just a heads-up, I think all of us are in on it.”
I run my hand over my face as I curse.
“Et tu, Brute?” I quote the famous Shakespearean play, Julius Caesar.
“If you can’t beat them, join them.” He shrugs.
The sound of the door opens, making us both look toward it.
“Hey, get your ass inside. We got work to do,” Aspen snaps at her brother.
“Patience. We will be inside in a minute,” Panther tells her.
She rolls her eyes and heads inside.
“She seems to be doing better,” I say quietly as the door clicks shut behind her.
Not that long ago, Aspen went through some shit. She and Maggie walked into the wrong bar. Maggie got out, but Aspen didn’t and was held hostage as a psychopath’s plaything for longer than we would like to admit. If it wasn’t for Wolf, she might not have ever made it out.
“She is. Day by day, minute by minute,” Panther says quietly.
“That’s a good thing.”
“It is. Thankfully, Wolf has been there to help her. I think he is the reason she is doing okay.” He turns and looks back toward me. “You better head inside. They have a to-do list a mile long that has your name all over it.”
I smile and walk up the steps.
“Got it.”
He slaps my shoulder as I pass, and I head inside.
“Okay, ladies, put me to work,” I say as I slap my hands together.