Chapter Five #3
His eyes went over me and then the RV. His mouth twitched. “Looks like you got everybody working.”
I finally found my voice. “What the hell are you doing here?”
“Nice to see you too.”
“You’re supposed to be in the hospital.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“Discharged.”
I looked at Skull.
He nodded. “Technically.”
My eyes narrowed. “What does technically mean?”
Ashland sighed. “Don’t.”
“Don’t what?”
“Start,” he breathed out.
“I am not starting anything.”
Prime coughed.
I pointed at him without looking. “Not one word.” I continued to look at Ashland. “You can barely walk.”
“I walked over here.”
“Fifteen feet.”
“Still walked.”
“You’re impossible.”
“So I’ve been told.”
Skull pushed the wheelchair closer.
Ashland looked over his shoulder. “No.”
Skull stared at him. “Sit your ass down.”
“No.”
“You’re sweating.”
“It’s warm out,” he shrugged.
Shay stuck her finger in the air. “It is sixty-eight degrees.”
“Babe, your finger tell you that?” Prime asked.
I covered my mouth and tried not to let a laugh escape. I was the only one who tried not to laugh.
Pearl pulled out her phone and swiped a couple of times. Her jaw dropped. “It is sixty-eight degrees.”
Prime blinked rapidly and looked proud. “Well, damn. My baby is a little barometer.”
“Thermometer,” Piney grunted with his head under the hood. “Now if she can tell me when it’s going to rain, then she is a barometer.”
Shay grabbed her boobs and looked up at the sky. “I think we’re in the clear for the next twenty-four hours, but I think a strong storm is moving in.”
Pearl tipped her head to the side. “I did not know your tits can tell when it’s going to rain.”
Shay shrugged and dropped her hands. “I didn’t know either. I’m pretty sure Piney is going to shit himself if it rains tomorrow.”
“Jesus Christ,” Anchor mumbled.
I wrinkled my nose and looked at Ashland. “I did not expect any of this when I crossed the bridge. You guys live in your own little world.”
“Things sure did change when the girls got to the island,” Prime said.
Ash shifted his weight, and a grimace crossed his face.
“Sit down before you fall down,” I said firmly. He made his point that he was home. Now he needed to sit down before the guys had to pick him up off the gravel parking lot.
His eyebrows lifted. “Bossy.”
“Only when I know what I’m talking about.”
He stared at me for a good ten seconds, and then he finally reached behind him and grabbed the wheelchair arm.
Skull immediately locked it in place.
Ashland lowered himself into it slowly, and I pretended not to notice how much relief crossed his face once he was sitting.
He looked toward the RV again. “What happened?”
I folded my arms. “It died.”
“Good explanation.” Ashland looked at the guys. “What do we know?”
Piney answered. “Not much yet. Battery’s good. Cranks but won’t catch. Could be fuel. Could be electrical.”
Ashland nodded once, then looked back at me.
Yesterday, he’d been in a hospital bed. Today, he was sitting in a wheelchair in front of my broken RV, surrounded by his club, looking at me like coming back here had been the most obvious thing in the world.
I shook my head. “This is insane.”
“What?”
“You.”
“What about me?” he asked.
“You’re supposed to be recovering.”
“I am.”
“You’re here.”
“Yep.”
“You walked out of the hospital.”
“Got discharged,” he corrected me.
I squinted down at him. “I’d like to know which one of the doctors you threatened to sign your discharge papers.”
He leaned back in the wheelchair. “There was no threatening. I like to call it persuasion.”
Skull chuckled and shook his head. “That’s a creative way of putting it. I wonder if the doc whose knees you threatened to break would feel the same.”
My jaw dropped. “Ashland,” I scolded. “I don’t know why you thought you had to get out of that hospital.”
“Because I’m done having everyone else handle my shit.”
I frowned. “Your shit?”
“You.”
My mouth opened.
Pearl made a small sound.
Prime coughed again.
Ashland looked around. “Everybody fuck off.”
Nobody moved.
Anchor laughed.
Ashland glared at him. “I mean it.”
Anchor jerked his chin.
Slowly, everyone started drifting away.
Not far.
Of course not.
Piney and Post moved toward the other side of the RV. Pearl pulled Shay with her.
Prime stayed exactly where he was next to Shay.
Ashland pointed at him. “Especially you.”
“I’m supervising.”
“Go supervise over there with your ol’ lady.” Prime grinned and finally moved with Shay on his heels.
I looked back at Ashland. “You cannot refer to me as your ‘shit.’”
“You know what I meant.”
“No, I really don’t.”
He rubbed his hand over his beard. “You came here for me.”
He kept saying it like it meant something bigger than the simple fact that I’d driven here. Maybe it did. I didn’t know.
“You came here because you needed help,” he continued. “I’m the one you’re gonna talk to. I’m the one who’s gonna tell you what’s happening here. And whatever’s going on with your old boss, we’re gonna handle that too.”
“We?”
“Yeah.”
“You’re in a wheelchair.”
He stared at me.
I immediately regretted saying it.
Not because it wasn’t true, but because something hard flashed in his eyes. Frustration with himself.
I softened my voice. “Ash.”
“I know where the fuck I am, but I’m not going to be in this wheelchair for long. I just need to work on getting my strength back. Lying in that damn bed did nothing for me.”
“It helped you heal. You needed to rest,” I said softly.
“I know,” he grunted. “But I am done resting. Now it’s time to get strong and help you.”
I looked at him. Really looked at him.
The scar. The tired eyes. The stubborn set of his jaw. The hands gripping the arms of the wheelchair like he would rather break them off than admit he was exhausted. And underneath all of it, he was still Ashland.
Still the guy who had stepped into the hallway twenty years ago because he saw something wrong and couldn’t ignore it. Still the person I had thought of when everything got too strange for me to handle alone.
I nodded toward the RV. “So this is what you expected when they told you I rolled onto Skull Island?”
His eyes moved to the crooked RV and then back to me. “Actually, yes. Clint said you became a hippie.”
I laughed softly. “That sounds about right. I wanted to see the world, and I did it.”
He leaned back a little more, then his mouth curved. “Is this what you expected when you rolled onto Skull Island?” he countered.
I looked around. The broken RV. The haunted house in the distance.
Bikers pretending not to watch us. Ashland Moore sitting in front of me twenty years after the last time I’d seen him.
I wrinkled my nose. “In a sort of a way. You were about the only thing I could picture. Clint told me you grew a crazy beard.”
A smile spread across my lips. “He was not lying.”
“Good.”
“Why good?”
“Means you would’ve been disappointed if you knew what was coming.”
I laughed. “That makes no sense.”
“Ramona.”
“What?”
“You came here because you thought I could help.”
I swallowed. “Yeah.”
He nodded once. “Then let me.”
I glanced down at the wheelchair and looked back at his face.
I knew the chair was temporary. I knew that Bob wasn’t going to let anything stop him.
My dad didn’t twenty years ago, and someone slitting his throat wasn’t going to either.
I came here for his help, and I was going to give him help, too. “Okay.”
His shoulders loosened slightly. “Okay?”
I folded my arms. “But you’re going to let me help you, too.”
“You helping me isn’t part of the deal,” he replied.
“It is now.”
“How are you going to help me?” he asked.
I smiled. “I’m gonna help get you out of that chair. I’m sure you’re supposed to be doing physical therapy, and I also know you aren’t going to.” I propped my hands on my hips. “So that means I am going to be your physical therapist.”
Ashland shook his head. “You’re crazy. I just need to get moving more, and I’ll be fine.”
I shrugged. “Then I’ll be here to help you move.” I held my hand out to him. “Deal?”
He looked at my hand, and then up at me. “What if I say no?”
I hitched my thumb at the RV. “Then I’m out of here.”
“You gonna push that over the bridge?” he laughed.
I rolled my eyes. “I will be out of here once Piney gets it running.”
“You’re gonna leave me before we even get a chance to catch up?” he asked.
“Only if you don’t let me help you, Ashland.”
He put his hand in mine. “Deal, but you gotta stop calling me Ashland in front of these assholes.”
A laugh escaped my lips. “Deal.”