Chapter 11 #4
Pumpkin let out a groan and pulled away. Dosia didn’t look entirely thrilled either, but they both put on the biggest smiles as they faced their daughter and congratulated her on her pony riding skills.
“I have about ten minutes before I have to get over to the stage,” Pumpkin told Dosia after handing his phone to JJ so she could see the pictures of her riding the pony, whose name turned out to be Phil.
“We’ll find Frankie and head that way too,” Dosia said, the blush in her cheeks not quite gone down.
Pumpkin squeezed her hand. “Do me a favor?”
“Sure,” she agreed.
“Win the auction,” he instructed her. “I don’t care the amount. I’ll pay it.” Gripping her under her chin, he said, “Winning a date with you is worth any price.”
Dosia’s flush returned full force. “What if someone else tries to go really high?”
“Win anyway,” he stated pointedly. “We haven’t talked a lot about finances, and there’re some things I still need to tell you, but I promise, I can pay it.”
Her expression turned suspicious, but she still nodded.
Pumpkin bent to kiss her again, loving the fact that he now felt he could do so freely. She’d agreed to a date! It was a step in the right direction, and best of all, she kissed him back.
“Going once, going twice…!” the older woman in a leather cut prompted. “Sold!” she banged the gavel down on the table in front of her. “Scotty, come collect your date!”
The crowd cheered and parted like the Red Sea as Scotty ran up to the stage towards his father.
After Scotty had started bidding, only a few others had placed their bids on Lucky to help make it fun for Scotty.
Because no way was anyone getting between that boy and his father.
Eventually, Scotty won after others started offering him more money in addition to what he had with him from his allowance.
It was insanely adorable. Dosia wasn’t the only one who shed a tear as Lucky picked his son up and carried him down the steps of the rented stage. “I won!” Scotty shouted. “I won a date with my daddy!”
Frankie had been able to snag one of the rare tables available in the crowd and had saved a seat for Dosia.
JJ was sitting on her lap with a coloring book and Frankie was feeding SJ some mashed pears and carrots.
Other ol’ ladies had been around and would greet Frankie, but none of them looked twice at Dosia.
She didn’t feel ignored or slighted by that.
Most likely, they thought she was a random woman who had taken a seat next to Frankie.
It wasn’t like she was wearing a cut like they were.
She noticed a number of kids and teenagers with denim cuts too, including Scotty.
“Does a denim cut mean something different?” Dosia asked Frankie. “The ladies’ cuts are leather but they both say ‘Property of’ on the back.”
“I don’t know if there’s a specific reason why, but denim is for the club kids and leather is for the members, prospects, and ol’ ladies.
Before Sissy, Lucky’s daughter, became an ol’ lady herself, her cut was also denim even though she was an adult.
Same with Steel and Jenna’s adult kids, though I rarely see them wearing them, even at club parties. ”
Dosia nodded. “But you don’t have one?”
Frankie shook her head. “I’m an employee, not a member.”
“Doesn’t seem right,” Dosia said, shaking her head. “If someone was to look at you, they would have no idea you’re protected by the club or have a club kid with you.”
Frankie bobbed her head side to side. “Fair point, but also not like I’d ever ask for something like that.”
“I will,” Dosia stated boldly. “As soon as I’m an official ol’ lady, it’s the first thing I’ll ask for.”
Frankie gave her a sweet smile. “You are an official ol’ lady.”
“I don’t have a cut,” Dosia pointed out. “Neither does JJ. ”
“Pumpkin has them,” Frankie told her. “They came in weeks ago.”
Dosia frowned. “He seems really intent on keeping me away from the club. Do you know why?” Pumpkin had asked her on a date and had even kissed her earlier, but he never introduced her to any of the club. Not even the couple they met outside the pony ring.
Frankie scraped what little was left inside the baby food jar before lifting the spoon to SJ’s mouth.
“Pumpkin’s been through a lot recently. I know something’s going on with him and his club brothers.
In a weird way, they don’t pick on him like they used to.
” At Dosia’s raised eyebrow, Frankie rolled her eyes.
“It’s like their love language or something.
I don’t get it either, but I know it’s getting to Pumpkin.
He thinks they’re babying him.” Frankie’s expression turned guilt-ridden.
“I get where he’s coming from because I was doing it too, in the beginning.
The night we met you at the restaurant, he confronted me and asked me to stop.
I honestly hadn’t even realized I’d been doing it, but I can see now how it might have upset him. ”
Dosia nodded slowly. “And you think my presence in the club will change that?”
“I’ve only been around for a little over a year.
From what I’ve seen in that time, a lot changes when one of them claims an ol’ lady.
And the club is big and boisterous. They can also be extremely nosy.
I think Pumpkin wanted to wait until the two of you were an actual couple before he said anything.
Otherwise, he’d never know if you wanted to be with him for him or if you felt pressured by the others to be with him. ”
Dosia looked towards the stage where the lady with the microphone was trying to talk up her own son to the women bidding below. Her eyes narrowed when the man flexed his enormous muscles and she saw a wedding band on his hand. “Isn’t he married?”
“Oh, yeah.” Frankie chuckled. She looked around until she saw a willowy redhead in the shade of a tree and pointed.
The woman was surrounded by other women in leather cuts.
They had a large blanket on the ground where toddlers and infants played.
“That’s Abby. Trust me when I say, there’s no danger to their marriage here. ”
Dosia looked at the woman in question. “She doesn’t seem to mind that her husband is currently getting bid on.”
“First, because Bulldog is so entirely devoted to Abby that there’s not even the possibility of him being unfaithful,” Frankie said with a hint of awe in her voice. “Second, because Bulldog is up for labor only, not a date.”
“Ohh,” Dosia let out. “Makes sense.”
“The only reason Lucky put down that he was available for a date was because the entire town knew Scotty would win. He would never actually take another woman on a date.”
The level of devotion the VDMC men showed their women was awe inspiring. Dosia bit the inside of her lip before she admitted, “Pumpkin asked me on a date.”
Frankie spun around, her eyebrows raised. “Well, it’s about damn time. I’m honestly surprised he waited this long.”
“I asked him to,” Dosia sheepishly confessed. “I specifically told him I only wanted to co-parent with him.”
“So when he sleeps over your house, you two aren’t…?” Frankie let the question trail off.
Dosia shook her head, but also kept her mouth shut about what she was internally calling The Bookstore Incident.
“We just…talk. But every morning, I wake up to him holding me. I lay really still until he wakes up. Then he scoots away like he doesn’t want me to know he was holding me during the night. ”
Frankie nodded slowly. “That’s one reason. Or he is trying to respect your wishes but keeps going to you in his sleep.”
As Bulldog’s bid was won by an elderly woman in a wheelchair, Dosia asked, “Really?”
Her friend shrugged. “It’s a possibility.”
Next up was Pumpkin. Dosia sat up straighter. “Whatever happens, I need to win this bid,” she told Frankie. “I promised him. He thinks all he’s going to get are pity bids.”
Frankie gave her an exacerbated look. “Sweetie, I hate to tell you this, but Pumpkin’s a bit of a reclusive celebrity around here. The entire town knows about his accident and there are a lot of women here who want to win a date with him.”
Dosia scowled, which only made Frankie laugh. Right as the bidding started, though, a voice from behind Dosia distracted her, “Um, Dosia?”
She turned to see Calliope behind her, Oolong on her shoulder. JJ gasped out, “Auntie!” and scurried off Dosia’s lap to run to her great-aunt.
Frankie nudged Dosia to get her attention. Dosia heard someone bid a hundred dollars for a date with her man, and her entire body stiffened. Standing up, Dosia shouted as loud as she could, “Five hundred!”
Everyone in the crowd turned to stare at her. Her face burned with embarrassment, but Dosia held her ground. The utter relief on Pumpkin’s face at her bid made Dosia feel not so crazy about her ridiculously high amount.
Unfortunately, though, someone else yelled, “Five hundred and fifty!”
Shit. Dosia looked at Pumpkin, unsure he wanted to pay that high, but the look he was giving her was nothing short of a plea. He was standing without his cane too, the dipshit. Just for that, she should let him sweat a bit, but she wasn’t that cruel.
“Six hundred!” Dosia shouted.
Louisa, the woman announcer, let out a nervous laugh. “I think we have a bit of a bidding war on our hands. Ladies, please make sure you can pay. Is there?—”
“Seven hundred!” another woman shouted, a different one than before.
Son of a bitch! Dosia’s head spun back towards the stage, where Pumpkin was mouthing the word “higher” to her. Fuck. She sure hoped he could pay, because she sure as hell couldn’t.
“A thousand!” Dosia yelled.
A hush of amazement fell over the crowd. So far, the highest bid had been for seven hundred and fifty dollars for a man and his service dog .
“A thousand,” Louisa said into the microphone excitedly. “Going once, going twice…” She waited a heartbeat and then yelled, “Sold!” before hitting her gavel on the table.