Epilogue #2
the love all around for when they mess up,” Joany pitched in. “And obviously,
Aaron broke the record for messing up after he moved in with Granny. Unlike his
folks, who had no fucks to give about their kids, Granny thinks a stint in
juvie might help him see the error of his ways. And according to the kids,
Allan is o-v-e-r over his brother’s damage and getting clipped along
with him for shit he A, isn’t a fan of doing, and B, half the time doesn’t even
do. So he’s on the straight and narrow at Granny’s house and Aaron is awaiting
a judge telling him how long this lesson he’s gonna learn is gonna last.”
And again, Jag was right about how far brotherhood went when
only one brother was acting like a brother.
Interesting to know.
He still had no idea why they were sharing this info with
him.
“And I’ve been ambushed when I show at the store for
this…why?”
“Mrs. Harris came to S.I.L. We have a rep and it’s a good
one. So she wants Allan back in group,” Fabe shared.
Oh fuck.
“Now, here’s the real sitch, ’cause me and La-La say no,” Joany told him. “He was never
the ringleader, but who knows how long Aaron will be gone, who else is in their
crew that might come around and cause a ruckus, and generally, this family is
bad news. Sure, three quarters of them are now doing time, but even though that
takes them out of the picture for right now, it also proves my point.”
“Let me guess,” Jag began, looking down at Archie. “You
think he should be allowed to come back.”
“Me and Fabe, yeah,” she said.
Of course she did.
“I don’t think he should have to pay for his brother’s
mistakes,” Archie told him. “They were only in group a month or so, and I
didn’t get to know Allan very well. The most insidious bullying Aaron did was
overshadowing his brother like he did. I think he’d benefit from group. I think
it’d be good for him to learn what community really is.”
Shit.
She wasn’t wrong about that.
Likely realizing she was losing ground, Joany belatedly laid
out the rules for Jag’s engagement.
“Important note, you can’t vote with her just because she’s
giving you the goodness.”
“You are very wrong about that,” Jag contradicted.
Archie chuckled.
Joany did an eye roll.
“All right, Allan was never a problem,” Lafayette (who,
incidentally, today was dressed like Jim Morrison on the bottom with tight
black leather pants, but up top he was John Lennon with a “New York City”
T-shirt, though his was cropped and showed his stomach). “But it isn’t about
Allan. It’s about the other kids. The group is tight. They’ve bonded. And no
shade on Allan, but we have to think of his influences and what he’ll bring to
the other kids.”
“Have you asked the kids what they think?” Jagger queried.
This appeared to flummox them.
All of them.
He was surprised and again looked down at Arch. “You
haven’t?”
“It’s our responsibility to make these decisions for them,”
she said. “And that’s a responsibility we took on for them, and the trust their
parents give us.”
“They aren’t five, Arch,” he replied. “Pretty soon, they’re
gonna have to be making a lot harder decisions. You gotta
guide them now, so when they get there, they make the right ones. Hell, Mal
considers himself the man of the house already and he isn’t even close to
having his first shave.”
After he finished talking, Arch smiled up at him then turned
to the team.
“Powwow with the kids next week. We’ll get their input and
decide from there.”
The crew nodded their approval to this plan.
“Just to say, I don’t want to be the tie-breaker with you
guys,” Jagger put in.
“Too bad and too late,” Joany declared. “You are. Next up is
a discussion about the kickass couch Archie found. Fabe and I want to rearrange
the front of the store into a pseudo-living room that you see the minute you
walk in. Archie and La-La want to rearrange the entire book section so the
shelves surround the couch that’s, again, set up in a pseudo-living-room-style
scenario. What’s your vote or do you need to see the couch?”
Weirdly, Jag kinda wanted to see
the couch.
But wisely, he said, “I’m not weighing in on this.”
“And I’m not lugging a ton of books around to rearrange the
book space,” Joany returned. She then stated the obvious, “So I need you to
vote with me.”
“We can make it a project, and next week, the kids can help
us do it,” Archie suggested.
“If we put it up front, it has a bigger impact,” Fabe
stated. “It shares immediately what you’ll find in this store and it’ll do that
in a good way. And anyway, we need some fresh around here.”
“Agreed, we need some fresh, totally. I’m tired of lookin’ at this baby this way,” Lafayette said, throwing
out an arm to indicate the entirety of the space. “So I say we do a full-store
overhaul. Plan it out, even close down a couple of days to get it done.”
If they couldn’t agree on where to put a couch, Jagger
didn’t want to be anywhere near when they discussed a full-store overhaul.
“Uh…” Joany cut in. “This is new to the debate, but I will
add at this juncture you can’t overhaul a store without breaking a nail. So, if
that’s the vote, I’m sitting that work out as a conscientious objector.”
“That’s not what a conscientious objector is, Jo,” Fabe told
her.
“It is so,” she shot back. “I am very conscientious
about my nails.”
“Can someone either kill me or let me and Archie go so we
can get the fuck out of here and start our weekend?” Jagger asked.
“We’ll decide what we’re doing with the store on Monday,”
Archie decreed. “And we’ll talk to the kids on Monday too.”
“Maybe we should poll the kids about the couch,” Lafayette
suggested.
“That’s actually a good idea,” Fabe agreed.
“Have fun doing something I would not be caught dead doing
for two whole days and two whole nights,” Joany bid to Jag and Arch. She
finished with, “Or one whole night for that matter.”
“You don’t know what you’re missing,” Archie told her.
“I also don’t care,” Joany said.
She gave them a finger wave, a wink, and with the two guys,
she wandered away.
Thank fuck that was done.
He looked down at Arch and gave her a shake against his
body.
“You ready?” he asked.
“Am I dreaming, or is my man really going camping with me?”
she asked back.
“My father loved camping.”
That bought him warm eyes, a soft look and her melting into
his side.
Then she said, “I just gotta grab
my bag. I brought it down. It’s in the office.”
“I’ll text Dutch and let him know we’re on our way.”
She smiled up at him, curled into him, rolled up on her toes
and tipped her head way back.
Jag didn’t need any more of an invitation.
He gave her a proper hello kiss.
And then they headed through her store to get to her office
in order to grab her stuff and get on the road.
Halfway there, he stopped them.
Archie looked up at him curiously.
Jag sighed.
Then he asked, “Where’s this couch?”
She started laughing, her black eyes alight, her expression
gentle and happy and ridiculously beautiful.
Then she tagged his hand and they made a detour to look at a
couch.
The fire crackled as the velvet dark of night with
its pinprick stars blanketed two dark-haired men who still had the thrill of
the wind on their faces.
They sat on and laid against thick throws covering dirt and
boulders in the Colorado mountains, the women they loved between their legs,
using their chests as cushions.
One of the women had a certain kind of ring on her left ring
finger, and soon, another would be joining it.
The other woman would have those same kinds of rings,
just…later.
Not far away, two bikes sat side by side, glinting in the
moonlight.
One was new.
One was old and had two lipstick kisses sealed to its
tank—the kiss of the love of the man who bought that bike, and the kiss of the
love of the man who’d inherited it.
Two small tents had been erected across from each other,
away from the fire.
The cooler for their beer was a hitch in the side of the
river that ran close to the site.
Dinner had been hotdogs and s’mores.
The bottle of whisky they were passing between them was now
only half full of amber liquid.
There were no words.
No conversation.
Eyes were aimed at the fire or at the stars.
It was peaceful.
It was easy.
It was everything.
Stories of the Chaos MC will continue to be told as part of
the Wild West MC series.