Chapter Twenty
Surprise
“Shit. Where’s my list?” Distracted, I tried shoving a hand through my hair, only to find it was twisted up into a tight topknot. Oh, yeah. I’d put my hair up so it wouldn’t get in any of the acres and acres of food my girl posse and I were preparing for the party later tonight. Thank goodness for my girls. If it weren’t for Roxie, Misty, Shiloh and Mabel helping me get things done, this first day of my twenty-ninth year would have been a disaster instead of some chaotic but fun girlie time. “Has anyone seen my list? It’s got all the food that has to get done first, like the six dozen cupcakes and the four pans of lasagna.”
“No idea where your list is, but if you want to find your pen, it’s behind your right ear.” Shiloh spooned a pound of delicious-smelling browned-off hamburger into the six-quart slow cooker she’d brought from home, combining it with processed cheese she’d cut into cubes, and cans of stewed tomatoes with chiles. There were other things in there that made it the best queso con carne in the world, and I’d almost wept in gratitude when she’d happily agreed to make it for the party.
“Not to distract from the Great Lost List Hunt,” Roxie said from her place at the island, where she was setting up stacked wire racks for the soon-to-be-decorated cupcakes. “But this seems like a lot of food. How many people did you invite?”
“Actual numbers are always dicey when it comes to parties like mine,” I admitted, randomly opening some cabinets. Nope, no list. “I sent out twenty-five invitations. If all twenty-five show up with their plus-ones, that’s fifty, right?”
Roxie looked around at the never-ending sea of food. “Your math is good, babe. That doesn’t explain the seventy- two cupcakes or the four extra-large pans of lasagna that took nearly ten pounds of hamburger and Italian sausage, and I don’t even want to know how many pounds of cheese. You also have pumpkin pies and apple pies, and then there’s your birthday cake on top of that, as well as two ten-pound bags of candy. I know it’s a party, so it’s better to have too much than too little. But doesn’t this seem like a lot of food for fifty people?”
I scrunched my nose at her. “It probably would be way too much for fifty people. But this is an unofficial Gravedigger bash.”
“So?”
“So, I’ll let you in on a little secret, Rox. Bikers are a tough lot, and they’re stone-cold deadly when they have to be. But they turn into the whiniest group of five-year-olds when they’re left out of something, or when they’re hungry, and the majority of them are going to be right across the street from where we’re having this party.”
“Oh my God, truth , sister,” Misty said, dumping premade cans of white frosting into a bowl. “And you can’t serve them just any food, either, Roxie. Lasso is such a picky eater, the first year of our marriage I nearly walked out half a dozen times because he didn’t like what I’d made for dinner. Who the hell turns their nose up at red beans and rice and homemade cornbread? Who? I’ll tell you who. My husband, that’s who.”
“So,” Roxie said after the laughter had died down, “are you saying our little party tonight is going to have a few Gravedigger party-crashers?”
“More than a few.” Over at the wall-mounted oven, Mabel pulled out the first two pans of lasagna, carefully set them on the waiting racks to cool, then shoved in the last two pans and set the timer. Whee, awesome. I would check the lasagna off my list as soon as I found the stupid thing. “Like Ginger said, the party’s right across the street from the Gravedigger compound. Those boys are going to hear the music blaring and laughter ringing out, and then they’re going to hear from their brothers that there’s all this amazing homecooked food going on, and that’ll do it. I’d say we need to expect… oh, about eighty to a hundred guests flowing in and out of Vixen’s Den, give or take.”
I nodded. “Sounds about right.”
“Holy crap.” Wide-eyed, Roxie surveyed the room with new eyes. “Girls, are we sure we’re going to have enough?”
“Now you’re getting it.” I laughed and paused in my search long enough to give her a hug. “I want to thank you again for going to the shop with me before the butt-crack of dawn this morning and getting it all decorated. You’re the best, Rox.”
With a laugh, Roxie returned my hug with gusto. “Are you kidding? Not only did you buy me coffee and croissants, but I also got to act like a decorating influencer setting the scene for the ultimate Halloween birthday party. I had a ball.”
She was right about setting the scene. Thanks to Roxie’s decorative flair, the shop was almost unrecognizable. Every wall was covered in something—bloody handprints and splatters, crime scene tape, webbing with hundreds of spiders tangled up in it, and a well-lit selfie-slash-photo booth wall that we’d framed in decals of jack-o’-lanterns, red-eyed bats and a huge, glow-in-the-dark full moon. Overhead, orange, black and purple streamers mixed with about a zillion orange and purple twinkle lights. Orange and purple lighting also glowed from centerpieces on the rented tables, as well as all around the dance floor and stripper pole. It looked amazing, and I couldn’t wait to kick off the festivities.
“I can’t believe you pulled all this together so fast.” Beating the frosting until she liked its spreading consistency, Misty plopped her butt down on an island stool and grabbed for a Devil’s food cupcake. We’d decided to keep it simple since time was of the essence, so the cupcakes were to be decorated with the white frosting and sprinkled with black and orange jimmies. “Just think, it was only a handful of days ago that you were totally anti-party.”
“It was more a matter of being anti-twenty-nine,” I drawled, still looking for my list. I prowled over to where I’d set up my own ten-quart slow cooker, now bubbling away with a mixture of chili sauce, grape jelly and the meatballs I’d picked up at Costco. No list, but the meatballs made me smile. I’d tried out the odd recipe years ago for another party, and Tyr had gone crazy over it. Now I made it because he loved it, along with his favorite lasagna, beer, bags of pretzels, and party trays full of cheese and cold cuts…
“Oh, hell.” With an exasperated sigh, I left the meatballs and made a beeline for the fridge. Opening it up, I sighed again when I spied the little Hello Kitty journal sitting on top of the three extra-large round trays heaped with several pounds of cold cuts and cheeses. “Found my list in the damn fridge. See?” I swept around to face the room, dramatically brandishing the Hello Kitty journal while my girlies all laughed. “This is what it is to get old, you guys. I’m twenty-nine as of today, and right on cue I’m putting things like books in the refrigerator.”
“I think that has more to do with party preoccupation than early senility, girlfriend,” Shiloh remarked, stirring her queso. “And since I’m suffering from major pregnancy brain, I have no room to laugh. For instance, today I drove here using Romeo’s spare set of keys for my car. Why? Because I have no idea where mine are.”
“Check the fridge,” I advised, thumbing through the journal.
“Pregnancy brain is no joke,” Mabel offered while the others laughed. “Ashtray and I have been blessed with five kiddos, and I swear that with every birth, I lost a little more of my brain. At this point it’s a wonder I can even tie my shoes.”
“Who needs tie-up shoes when legs like yours look great in heels,” I told her, winking.
She blew me a kiss. “And this is why I love you.”
“Maybe you’re not preoccupied about the party, Ginger,” Misty said, and her sweetly innocent voice made me look up at her with growing alarm. “Maybe you have pregnancy brain, too.”
By God, I would kill her. Slowly. I was sure Tyr knew a place where I could hide the body. So sorry, Lasso, Misty was perfectly fine when I last saw her…
As if they’d rehearsed the move for years, everyone in the room turned in unison to stare at me.
Great.
“Pregnant?” Mabel closed in like a shark smelling blood in the water. “Pregnant, as in you’re seeing someone? As in, you’re seeing someone and it’s serious enough to get you preggers? And you didn’t tell any of us about it?”
“Oh, you know Ginger, she’s not like that. If anything, she’s a total overshare girl.” With a nervous laugh that sounded fake even to my ears, Roxie adjusted her apron and gestured toward the journal I held. “So, um, what does Hello Kitty have to say about our progress? Aren’t there veggies or something we have to clean and cut for a tray?”
“Screw the veggies, I’m sensing some serious tea about to be spilled.” All eyes, Shiloh also moved closer. “Come on, Ginger, tell us. Are you joining Ana-Sofia and me in the baby races?”
“I’m trying to join, too,” Misty offered, then shot me a wicked grin. “Just like you, right, Ginger?”
Seriously, she had to die. “As it happens, since I’m clearly not getting any younger, I am trying to get pregnant while I still can.” There. Noncommittal, with no specifics. Nothing wrong with that.
Of course that wasn’t nearly enough to satisfy my posse.
“Who’s going to be the father? Don’t tell me you’re trying one of those sketchy places that does artificial insemination,” Mabel said reproachfully, going all-in on a pearl clutch. I almost laughed out loud. Of all the things she’d seen and heard as a Gravedigger woman, this was the one thing that scandalized her. Amazing. “Honey, you have to listen to me now, because this is important. You don’t know whose baby batter you’re shooting up there between your legs. Those clinics pay good money to bums off the street to blow their wad into a Dixie cup, for God’s sake. You have to be more selective.”
Someone please kill me . “Mabel, I think their process is a little more selective than that.”
“I trust Ginger and the choices she’s making in her life, so I’m not going to worry about it because she’s got this.” Roxie’s voice was a little too loud before she again gestured at the journal. “So, Ginger, what’s next on the party prep agenda?”
“Oh my God, you know who Ginger’s seeing, don’t you?” Shiloh, always so damn sharp and on-point, narrowed her green eyes at Roxie. “I’ll bet you’ve even seen Ginger and her mystery man together, haven’t you? And you too, right, Misty?”
“We-ll,” Misty drawled, shimmying her shoulders playfully while frosting a cupcake. “I haven’t seen them together. I’ve just heard them. It was like listening to a porno flick.”
“Death is too good for you,” I decided, glaring at her while she laughed. “I will torture you for this, Misty. Slowly, over an open fire.”
“It’s okay, Roxie, you can tell us,” Shiloh went on relentlessly. She was such a badass chick, I adored her when she wasn’t trying to upend all my secrets. “It’s someone we know, right? A Gravedigger? That’s why Ginger’s being so secretive, yeah? We’d recognize the guy if we saw him, wouldn’t we?”
“Um. Um.” Panic-stricken, Roxie’s gaze shot to me. “A little help?”
Oy . “Okay, here’s the deal, girlies. I am currently seeing someone, and we’re about as serious as it gets. We’re both very much in love, we’re the happiest we’ve ever been, and yes, we are actively trying to get pregnant, to the point where he probably knows more about my fertility cycle than I do. He wants a big family, and since we’re starting kind of later in life we’ve decided to go full-steam ahead with the whole baby-making business.”
By degrees, Mabel unclutched her pearls. “So, no artificial insemination?”
“No. Just regular insemination.” Then I grinned. “Lots and lots of regular insemination.”
“Oh, thank goodness,” Mabel let loose a huge breath. “You had me worried.”
“Why the secrecy, though?” Shiloh said, frowning. “I love that you’re in love, Ginger. I want you to be happy. Don’t you know that we’re your friends and we would love to celebrate this huge life event with you?”
“Oh, Shy.” Touched beyond words, I reached over and wrapped her up in a big hug. “There are reasons for us keeping everything under wraps, but I promise it has nothing to do with you guys.” I still wasn’t sure how Tyr felt about going public with our relationship, despite what he said about Red Flag. For now, since I didn’t even know if the Gravediggers were still at war with Hades and his crew, I was content to follow Tyr’s lead. “I promise, as soon as life settles down for a bit and we can all catch our breath, I’ll fill you in on absolutely everything. Like how he made me faint last night, just for a couple seconds, but I swear the sex was so good I legitimately lost consciousness.”
That got a lot of “oohs” just as I heard the unmistakable sound of the heavy metal front door sliding open. A spurt of alarm zipped through me before I saw Tyr walk in, closely followed by Ashtray and Romeo.
“How did you guys get in?” Mabel demanded as the men approached, before shooting me a quick look. “Did you forget to lock the door?”
Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit . “Um…”
“Tyr has himself a key to this place, woman, and why wouldn’t he? He owns the whole damn building.” Ashtray rolled over to where his wife was, and straight-up grabbed her ass. “Gimme some sugar, babe.”
“Wait. Tyr owns this building?” Shiloh looked from Ashtray to Tyr while her husband joined her at the counter for a quick kiss and cuddle moment. “Is that true?”
“Yeah, it’s true,” Romeo answered for Tyr, letting his wife go to rip open a bag of nearby tortilla chips. He then zeroed in on what she was making and took the lid off of the slow cooker. “Shy, is this done enough to eat? Smells great, but it looks lumpy.”
“That’s because the cheese is still melting, and those chips are for the party. Romeo, baby, it’s not ready—”
He dipped a chip into the slow cooker and munched out. “Mm, still tastes awesome, baby, because you’re a genius in the kitchen. Guys, you should try this, my Shy Girl knows how to cook.”
“Is that lasagna?” Peeling off his shades, Tyr made goo-goo eyes at the pan of lasagna on the counter. “That looks done.”
“It’s for the party.” I practically leaped into his path before he could demolish all of our hard work. “In fact, everything you see is party food. I’ll fight you to the death to protect the party food. Can I interest you in a bologna sandwich?”
He stared at me. “A bologna sandwich? Have you lost your damn mind, woman? There’s lasagna sitting right there.”
“Here we go,” Mabel sighed. “Another cage match between Ginger and Tyr. Any bets on who’ll win this time around?”
“Yeah. Me.” Tyr grinned at Mabel before twining his arms around me and sweeping me into a surprisingly graceful dip, half a second before his lips landed on mine. Vaguely I heard someone gasp before everything went silent, and suddenly the only thing that mattered was the warmth of his mouth on mine. When he finally let me up, breaking our kiss with a sweet nuzzle of his face against mine, I discovered that my arms had wrapped themselves around his shoulders as if he was the only thing keeping me afloat. “Now can I have some lasagna?”
“You drive a hard bargain, mister.” I laughed, then realized it was still unnaturally quiet in the room. I blinked and looked around the room to find everyone but Romeo gaping at us. “Oh. Right.” I cleared my throat and smiled brilliantly. “Surprise!”
“ What the fuck?” Mabel and Ashtray said together. It was kind of sweet, how in sync they were after all these years.
“I can’t believe it.” Shiloh stared first at us, then at her husband, who was busy scrounging up a package of party plates. “You knew, didn’t you, you jerk! Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Tyr wanted to keep it a secret because of Hades.”
“What, you were worried I was going to tell that asshole about them?”
“Don’t blame me, blame Tyr.” Ducking his wife’s glare, Romeo lifted his chin my way. “Ginge, where do you keep knives and serving pieces, or whatever?”
Mentally I kissed one pan of lasagna a fond farewell. “Big knives are in a block on the counter. Pancake flipper or spatula is in a cannister by the stove.”
“I’ll get the utensils,” Roxie sighed with a resigned, if-you-can’t-beat-‘em-join-‘em look on her face.
“I knew about Tyr and Ginger because I’m like a modern-day Sherlock Holmes and figured it all out on my own,” Misty announced gleefully. “Anyone want a cupcake?”
“Me.” Ashtray grabbed one up like he’d never had food before.
“You knew about it because you overheard us having phone sex,” I told Misty with an eyeroll. “And on another note, I’ve just discovered why we women instinctively shoo the menfolk out of the kitchen when we’re busy making stuff. Honestly, you guys are worse than a plague of locusts.”
“Like shoveling snow during a blizzard,” Mabel agreed.
“We’re here to taste-test your efforts, no need to thank us. And you,” Tyr added, grabbing me close once more, “are out of uniform. Where’s your birthday present, baby girl?”
It was ridiculous, how I melted when he called me that. “In the guest closet. I wasn’t sure if you were serious about, you know… letting the world know.”
His lips touched mine. “Go get it.”
I hurried over to the closet by the front door, my heart pounding so wildly it was a wonder I didn’t faint. My hand shook as I reached for the butter-soft leather, and it occurred to me that this was a moment that would live forever in my mind. The moment I got to share this brand-new phase in my life with the people who meant the most to me, my chosen family whom I loved so much. After this, there would be no going back.
That was okay. I didn’t want to go back. Back was when I was alone. Back was when I didn’t have anything real to love.
Forward was Tyr. With him, I’d kick my twenty-ninth year off right by showing my family of friends that I belonged to him.
With a surge of happiness and the confidence of a woman who knew she was loved, I pulled the cut out of the closet, slid it on over the lightweight sweater I wore, then headed back to Tyr’s side. I couldn’t seem to stop smiling, because part of me had always dreamed of this—of belonging to someone, and knowing they belonged to me. I still couldn’t believe the man who was my destiny was Tyr, but it felt right.
No. More than that.
It felt like it couldn’t have been anyone else but Tyr.
“Oh, would you look at that,” Mabel stage-whispered to her man, who was busy downing the last of the cupcake. “Babe, look what Ginger’s wearing.”
“ Mhath Teess pakth ,” Ashtray said, his mouth stuffed full.
“You got that right, Ash,” Romeo said, slicing up the lasagna while Shiloh served it up onto the party plates. “That’s Tyr’s patch.”
“Wow,” Misty breathed, her eyes going soft with happy tears. “Turn around and let us see it, honey.”
A little teary myself, I turned around to show them the back. The rockers proclaiming me as PROPERTY OF TYR practically glowed in my mind’s eye, and I laughed under my breath when I heard my girl-posse squeal in delight when they saw it.
“Happy?” Tyr whispered in my ear.
“I’ve never been happier,” I whispered back, wishing I could freeze time so I could live in that moment forever.
Little did I know that mere hours later, I’d wish with all my heart that somehow, freezing time was the one thing I had the power to do.