Chapter Six
Maeve stood in line at the coffee shop.
She’d woken up late, and this never happened to her. There was no way she was ever a late riser. She loved to get up early, and stuck into her day. Lying in bed was never relaxing. However, she couldn’t help but admit it was one of the best sleeps she’d ever experienced.
She felt well rested, and that was what this break was supposed to be all about.
After washing her face and doing her morning skin care, she’d made her way downstairs to find Razor already preparing Eden’s breakfast. Her little sister was already experiencing morning sickness, and she hated that Eden was going through that.
Razor suggested if she wanted coffee, she might want to try the local coffee shop. It had been too long since she last came here, so that was exactly what she was going to do.
She was rather excited about it.
A nice large mocha latte, or a matcha, or whatever they had to offer, with a sticky bun. That was in line for her breakfast that morning, while she tried not to think about Doc.
His warm, muscular arms felt so good wrapped around her body. She didn’t want him to ever stop holding her.
Just the memory of it felt so damn good.
“You know, I hear these have the best coffee, even better than the diner.”
It was like her thinking about him had magically escorted him to her. He stood right behind her, and she couldn’t help but turn her head and offer him a smile.
“Doc.”
“Maeve.”
He was close, but not too close.
She wanted his arms on her, but she held that yearning back.
Now was not the time to ... force this.
“Good morning,” he said.
“And to you as well.”
“It feels like it’s going to be nice and warm today.”
The queue was getting smaller.
“You want to talk about the weather?” she asked.
“Do you want me to talk about your snoring?”
She gasped and turned to look at him. “I snore?” She tried to keep her voice down.
He started to laugh and shook his head. “No, you don’t snore. However, I have a feeling if you did, it would be cute.”
It was her turn to order, and she opted for the mocha latte, with the sticky bun.
Doc ordered the same, and even though they paid their own separately, they found a small table and sat down.
She took a sip of her mocha latte, and she closed her eyes, basking in the taste. It did taste so good.
“This is delicious.” Tearing off a piece of sticky bun with caramelized pecans, she took a bite, and that was exactly what she needed. “So, what brings you to the coffee shop?”
“I told Razor to send you here.”
She looked at him a little wide eyed. “Razor saw you?”
“Yes, but don’t worry about it. He’s not going to give you a hard time.”
“What if he tells Eden?”
“Does it matter?”
“She’s pregnant and I don’t want her to worry,” she said. Maeve didn’t have a problem with her and Doc’s relationship. What she didn’t want was for her sister to worry about her. Pregnancy was a stressful time.
Doc reached out and stroked a finger against her hand. “Stop worrying. Razor’s not going to say anything. That is for you two to talk about.”
She also didn’t want her sister to meddle. Her previous partners hadn’t exactly been great, not that Eden knew about them. Maeve was glad she never introduced them.
Maeve didn’t even know why she was so worried.
It wasn’t like her sister expected her to live her life without experiencing sex.
She remembered the social workers warning her about parties and a rotating door of boyfriends.
There was a lot of fear-mongering involved.
Maeve’s only relationship at the time had been to makeup, yet that hadn’t stopped them from making her worry.
They had told her every single decision she made had to involve her thinking about Eden. They hadn’t realized she’d already been doing that. Their parents left her in charge, seeing as she was the oldest of the two. Even now, she always thought of Eden before herself.
Pushing those thoughts to the back of her mind, she offered him a smile. “You’re right and I’m not going to worry. How was your morning?” she asked.
“I was dealing with Charlotte.”
“Oh, no, is everything okay? I don’t mean to pry and you can tell me to shut up.”
He took hold of her hand. “Stop worrying, and I want to talk to you about it. Charlotte and her mother are struggling with what decision to make for college.”
“I thought the beauty courses were working?” Maeve asked.
“They are, for Charlotte. Nancy’s not happy. She wants Charlotte to go out and explore, and make bad decisions as well as good decisions.”
Maeve was not going to interfere.
“Charlotte told me she’s doing well in the classes. I know it has only been a couple of weeks, but she’s a fast learner.”
“I know. I just want the best for her.”
“I imagine Nancy does as well.”
“In her own way.”
“Do you regret getting a divorce?” she asked.
“Not at all.” There was not even a second’s worth of hesitation.
“Wow, that was fast.” She let out a chuckle in an attempt to hide her happiness.
If he regretted getting divorced, then there was no way they were ever going to continue a relationship.
It wasn’t going to happen, but he didn’t regret it, and that meant more to her than she even realized. It felt good.
“Trust me, the only good thing to come from me and Nancy is Charlotte.” He opened his mouth and then paused. “And my son Jake.”
This time, Maeve put her hand on top of Doc’s.
“That was his name?”
“Yeah, Jake. He was ... everything. A little teaser. A second chance. I don’t know. All I know is when he was in our life, he made everything better.”
Tears filled her eyes.
“I’m so sorry for your loss.”
“It was a long time ago.”
“Is that what ... you know, caused you and Nancy’s separation?”
Doc shook his head. “To be honest, no. We were able to hide a lot of our troubles. We were good at that. Nancy and I never meshed well. There was always something going on between us that was a little fucked up. We weren’t really in love.
It was a case of us ending up together because we got pregnant.
I didn’t love her and she didn’t love me. ”
“I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t be. We’re actually better as friends. It’s not always easy, like now with Charlotte. I’m happy for our daughter to find her own path. Nancy wants to tell her what path to take.”
“At least she’s a good kid, so you know whatever path she takes is going to be the right one for her.”
“I think to be honest, Nancy wants a reason to get out of Rivermont Ridge. She wants to start a new life, far away from me, and from all of this. But I think she’s going to try and use Charlotte as a reason. You know, to follow our daughter and make sure she’s okay.”
“If you’re worried about that, why not talk to her?” Maeve asked. “What I learned with Eden is that talking helped a lot.”
“We don’t exactly have a good track record with that.”
“It’s going to be okay,” she said, stroking the back of his hand. “You’ve got to have a little faith that it’s going to work out.”
“What are you doing tonight?” he asked.
Maeve laughed. “I’m not doing anything tonight. I’m not sure what Eden is doing. I think we’re going to hang out, catch up. She can give me all her honeymoon details.”
“Well, if that doesn’t pan out, you can always give me a call, and I can come and pick you up, or you can swing by the clubhouse.”
“Is this a date?” She felt her cheeks start to heat. “Because you know I can’t do anything, I mean, I could to you.”
“I know, and it’s because I happen to enjoy spending time with you, Maeve.”
And that felt so good for him to say. It felt even better than good. More than good.
****
Doc had no choice but to let Maeve go, as he had some club business to attend to.
Most of the morning was spent dealing with the Russian Bratva.
They wanted to make a deal to distribute coke through Rivermont Ridge.
They felt it was a good place to work their product, seeing as it was also a connecting town, which could draw in tourists.
This was not the first time the Bratva had attempted to do business and Doc shut it down. There was no way he was letting drugs into Rivermont Ridge, nor was he letting the Bratva loose. Chaos Monsters MC controlled the town, and all the shit associated with it. No one else.
He terminated that meeting, and all the brothers agreed with him.
They had seen the damage drugs did to a club.
There was no fucking way he would ever let that shit come to town.
It was toxic. After the Bratva meeting, he got several of the boys to patrol the perimeter of the town, but also added extra detail at the strip club and the bar they owned in town.
There was no fucking way he was letting any of this shit slide. Just because he told the Bratva no didn’t mean they weren’t going to attempt to distribute that shit without his permission. Again, it was bad shit he’d seen in the past.
By the end of the day, there was one last call for him to make, and he went and knocked on Nancy’s door. His ex-wife opened it, holding a jar of ice cream.
“Have you come to tell me what a fucked-up mom I am?” Nancy asked.
He stepped into the house, following her down the hall, after he closed the door. “You’re not a bad mom, Nancy. You know that.”
“Tell that to Charlotte, who told me today that I don’t listen and I don’t fucking care about her. Does that girl even realize what I sacrificed for her?”
This was not the first time, nor would it be the last time, he heard the same old shit.
Nancy would never say this to Charlotte.
Mainly because during one of their arguments, he had told Nancy he would kill her if she ever breathed a bad word of being a mother to their kid.
She could say all her spiteful shit to him, but their kids were always in the clear.
“Drop the fucking shit,” he said.
Nancy turned to look at him, and he saw her going red in the face. “What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”
“You and I both know that up until a year ago, you didn’t give a shit about Charlotte’s choices.”
“I cared a great deal.”