Chapter 17
Seventeen
Sometimes I open my mouth and my maiden name shows up.
—Sage’s secret thoughts
Sage
I didn’t know what to expect as I weaved my way through the throng of cars and bikes at the Dixie Wardens MC Montana Chapter’s clubhouse, but it wasn’t a bunch of kids squealing, dogs barking, and laughter.
I was greeted by nearly everyone with smiles, waves, and welcomes.
Literally everyone in town was here, which was when I realized that the entire town must’ve been filled with bikers and their families and friends.
Did the Dixie Wardens MC know someone who wasn’t a friend?
I ended up stopping at a table overflowing with drinks and poured myself a cup of what I thought to be strawberry lemonade.
When I took a drink, I realized that I was correct, only there was also alcohol added to it.
After the day I’d had, I would need it.
I hadn’t been fired.
Which was good, I guessed.
But I had been reprimanded. I’d also been told that my travel nursing contract might be ending early.
I doubted it, though.
They talked a good game, but they were still short nurses.
If I was let go, they’d be short at least eight including me.
They were seriously understaffed. And the staff that they did have worked half-assed.
I was probably one of three that worked there that actually did their work and did it well.
As I took a healthy sip of my drink, I let my eyes wander, looking for one man in particular.
I couldn’t stop thinking about Gentry.
That kiss had been…
I glanced up to look around for him, my gaze going for several seconds before I spotted him talking to a couple of women near the back patio area next to the grill.
The women were quite scantily clad.
As in, wearing a mini skirt and a tank top despite it being sweatshirt weather.
One was leaning closer to Gentry, her hand not quite touching him but close.
He had on a pair of jeans, work boots, a black long-sleeved t-shirt and a baseball cap pulled down low over his eyes.
Whatever the woman who’d almost done the touching said made him laugh.
I frowned hard, not liking the instant anger and despair that rocketed through me upon seeing him talking to someone else. Let alone doing other things.
Other things that he really had every right to do, seeing as I wasn’t really his wife…
He brought his beer up to his lips and that’s when I saw my clothes hanging from one arm.
Leggings and a t-shirt.
I was going to freeze.
“Hello.”
Startled, I whipped my head away from Gentry and found myself staring at one of my favorite people.
I smiled at Mable. “Oh, hey.”
She patted my hand and said, “How’s Neo?”
I gave her the rundown.
“That’s good,” she said. “I’m glad that he’s making progress. How’s search and rescue going?”
I thought about my answer for a long moment as I continued to scan the crowd.
“I’ve only been to three meetings,” I said.
“And I like it. It’s fun to meet new people.
Though a lot of them seem to be bikers that I see here.
So maybe it’s not new, exactly. It’s also nice to be able to go onto the trails not alone.
I like hiking, I think. But it’s still pretty new to me and I’m not exactly comfortable doing it alone. ”
“I know what you mean,” she said. “After the bear attack on one of my friends, I’m nervous to go out by myself, and I’ve been doing it for my entire life.”
I winced.
The bear attack had been bad.
I’d been in the ER that day and it was terrifying.
I’d also helped with the patient after the attack. She’d almost died.
That’d been part of my reason for not wanting to go on my own.
I knew nothing about Montana wildlife.
I knew they had a lot of it, too. Bears. Moose. Elk. Mountain lions.
I grew up in the city. The most interaction I had with wildlife was an occasional squirrel and a raccoon that got stuck in a garbage can.
They were about as far from “scary” as you could get.
“Gentry can’t take his eyes off you.”
I followed Mable’s gaze to where she was staring across the wide-open space and found my heart speeding up when I found him.
He was surrounded by a bunch of kids, laughing.
He was holding up a pinata and several of the kids were trying to beat it with their hands.
My heart ached at the picture he made.
His son would’ve been seven this year.
He’d have been right up in the middle of all of those kids, loving and living every second of it.
My mood instantly deteriorated.
That was my fault.
I’d been the reason that Gentry had lost his child.
If he hadn’t saved me…
“Hey!”
I blinked and turned slightly to find someone sitting directly behind me.
“You’re a nurse, right?”
I looked over at the man who was holding a beer to his lips and staring at me with unwavering attention. “I am.”
Odin was a large man. He was very intimidating, and sometimes when he spoke it startled me because he did it so infrequently.
He was the town’s medical examiner, and I didn’t have very many opportunities to run into him.
His girlfriend was the sweetest thing in the world, though.
Constance was a photographer and worked at the wildlife rehab facility just outside of Bear Pass.
She was sunshine to Odin’s cloudy day.
“You want a job?”
I blinked. “Um, what?”
“Odin’s taking over Dr. Pendelton’s practice,” Constance explained. “He doesn’t like working with incompetent people, and that’s how he feels about Dr. Pendelton’s entire staff. He’s trying to find people that won’t bother the shit out of him.”
My lips twitched. “I can’t promise that I won’t bother the shit out of you.”
“At least you’d be aware that you could bother the shit out of me,” he grumbled.
“I also asked Creed’s sister, Bernice, to come in.
I’m still keeping my job with the medical examiner’s office.
Bernice is a nurse practitioner. Between the three of us, I think we could putz around until we have it all figured out. Hire more staff as needed.”
I thought about the farmer who wouldn’t have a doctor if it weren’t for him. Then I thought about how much I hated the ER.
“What’s the pay?” I found myself asking. “And the hours?”
“Competitive with what the hospital pays,” Odin answered.
“I’m contracted out as a travel nurse, so I doubt that you can pay me that,” I admitted. “But I’d be willing to take a pay cut to stay.”
Anywhere Gentry was, I’d be, too.
This was the first time in years that I’d felt completely safe, and that had everything to do with Gentry.
I wouldn’t leave him.
The safety was worth it.
I could sleep. I could go to the store. I could go to work.
Never once did I worry that I would die.
“Then less than what you’d get paid travel nursing, and about the same as you’d get paid if you worked at the hospital,” he said. “I want permanent staff. So it’ll be a competitive pay with yearly raises. Plus, you’re Gentry’s. It’s nice to have family around.”
Family.
Gentry’s.
Was that what I was?
I didn’t feel like I was.
I felt like I was the reason he didn’t have a family…
“When would you need me to start?” I wondered.
“As soon as possible.” He took a sip of his beer. “When does your contract end with the hospital?”
“Four days,” I answered. “You saved me from having to apply at the hospital that I hate.”
If I would even get that job after today…
“Then it all works out.” He paused. “Can’t bring that dog, though. Constance has a little girl. I can’t risk it.”
I nodded. “He’s getting better, but he’s not there yet. He may never be there. I wouldn’t bring him around adults, let alone children.”
“Maybe he will.”
“Maybe who will what?”
Gentry.
“Maybe her dog will get better. But he won’t get better at my place of work,” Odin grumbled. “Why are you wearing so much glitter?”
Gentry flicked his fingers at Odin, and flecks spread through the air to land on his torso.
Odin winced.
“Kids, especially girl kids, come with a lot of glitter,” he informed us. “And for some reason, Major’s grandkids are all dressed in glitter dresses with glitter in their hair and on their nails, and they want to share it with everyone.” He paused. “Why would Neo ever come to your place of work?”
Odin tipped his beer bottle in my direction. “Because I just offered your fake wife a job.”
“She’s my wife,” Gentry growled. “No need to add fake to it.”
The vehemence in his voice took me off guard.
He looked like he was about ready to fight his club brother.
Apparently Odin was very hard to get along with at the best of times. But I hadn’t thought he’d said anything offensive enough to get Gentry’s hackles this raised…
“Huh.” Odin’s eyes sparkled. He was enjoying pissing Gentry off.
“Well, seems to me like she’s been wandering for twenty minutes looking for you, and not once did you come and greet her.
Seems to me, if she was a real wife, you would’ve clocked her the moment she pulled into the property and been at her side.
Instead, you were sitting there talking to one of those club women with her clean clothes hanging from your arm.
” Odin leaned forward. “Let me tell you something. No one, and I do mean no one, likes to wear their dirty clothes from the hospital longer than they have to.”
Silence.
But then he turned to me with a frown, his mouth opening and closing as if he’d forgotten completely that he had my clothes.
“Let’s go change,” he said instead of apologizing.
Mable gave me a wink.
Odin leveled a look at me. “We start Monday.”
I gave him a thumbs-up. “What time?”
“Uhhh.” He hesitated.
“Eight,” his girl answered for him. “That’s when most doctors’ offices open, right?”
“Sure.” Odin shrugged. “Eight.”
“How about nine?” I teased.
Odin’s grin widened. “I like nine better, dear.”
His girl rolled her eyes. “Whatever, loser.”
He caught Constance’s neck and pulled her to him. When he had his kiss, she softened into his hold, placing her head underneath his chin. When he was done, he looked back to me where I was still shamelessly staring at their display of affection and said, “Eight thirty.”
I gave him a thumbs-up and turned to Gentry. “Lead the way.”
He did, weaving through people, grills, tables of food, wild children, and even the occasional dog.
I wished Neo could be around people…
“You’re wishing Neo could be here,” Gentry said as he got to the back deck that led inside a metal building.
“I am,” I admitted. “He would’ve loved being in the middle of all this before.”
“I think he’ll get there eventually,” Gentry said optimistically, even though we both knew it’d take quite a bit to get him there. Maybe too much to get him there. “This is the clubhouse.”
I looked around, surprised.
Or not.
I mean, I expected Spartan, seeing as this was practically a bachelor’s pad on steroids.
However, this was…
“It’s like a hunting cabin with eight million recliners.”
“Everyone has their own,” he admitted. “I swear they love to see us coming at La-Z-Boy in Bozeman.”
I would imagine so, seeing as there had to be over fifty recliners in the large open space. Some light brown. Some dark. Some old. Some new. Some leather. Some fabric.
“Which one is yours?”
“The one with the sheriff’s blanket on it in the back there,” he pointed to a recliner in the very corner of the room.
“I might have to steal that blanket,” I admitted. “Looks like you went light with leggings and a t-shirt.”
He looked down at his arm that had my clothes hanging off of it.
“I grabbed what was on top of the laundry pile,” he admitted. “Your panties are in my pocket.”
I flushed. “Thanks.”
I was happy that he hadn’t just had them flapping away on his arm. And also there was this sick thrill that went through me that not only had he found me a pair of panties, but he’d also shoved them into his pocket. Almost like a souvenir.
“Let’s head to my room, then you can grab one of my sweatshirts,” he suggested.
I followed him, wondering why my belly was swarming with butterflies all of a sudden.