by Mallory Funk
It doesn’t take long before I have a nice pace going. I had spent the last couple days at home and visiting my family. I was able to spend time with Hale who was so innocent with his questions. I hope that I can make him proud and be the uncle that he deserves.
I had figured out what I was going to do the master bedroom. Though I can’t see myself sleeping in there anymore, I decide to make it into a gym since it has an attached bath. Since I’m putting a shower in there, it would make perfect sense to me to have a gym. That way I wouldn’t have to come to the club to exercise; not that I mind it or anything, but it gets busy sometimes.
Today I was going to work out and, since my Camilla watch wasn’t scheduled until tomorrow, I decide to ask my family for help with the bedroom. I’m sure Ella would want to go through Stacey’s things and decide if there was anything she wanted to keep. I had also thought that maybe it’s time to show them so that they won’t worry when I spend hours at home. Plus, I will need help moving equipment inside the room, so I would rather they see what I’m doing first.
“Alright, brother, I’m done. I’ll see you at my place in two hours?” I say to Steal and he nods his head. I can tell he’s curious, but that will be solved soon enough.
I leave the room and head into my room at the club. It is easier showering here than going home to shower, so I quickly do that before I leave and make sure that I have everything ready at my place.
I sit out on my front porch waiting for everyone to arrive.
My parents are the first which is no surprise to me.
My mom looks excited that she’s here, because I haven’t asked my family to come here in so long.
“Hey son,” she says as she leans in and kisses me on the cheek.
“I don’t know what the big mystery is, but I can’t wait,” she says rubbing her hands together.
“Son,” my dad says with a nod.
“Once everyone else is here, we can go inside,” I say and they both take a seat beside me.
We make small talk until I see Damien and Ella pull up on the back of his bike. I had asked for just the adults since we were going to go through some memories today. I didn’t want to risk the kids damaging anything.
The greetings are pretty much the same except Ella knows what I want to show everyone. We stand around and it’s only a few minutes later that Olivia and Steal are pulling up.
Once everyone is standing there and greetings are out of the way, I speak up.
“Alright so this isn’t easy for me, but I asked you here because I want to go through our bedroom and I know that there might be some personal things from your childhood with her, Ella, that you might want to keep. Honestly, I just need my family here for the support,” I say. I don’t see a point trying to hide anything. They are my family and will understand.
“We are here for you,” my mom says in a firm voice.
Everyone heads inside and Ella stares at what I know is the box that Stacey left. Olivia sees it and looks over at me with sad eyes. “Is that?” she says and I nod my head, not needing her to finish that sentence.
“Do you want us to get rid of it?” Ella asks not taking her eyes off of it.
I shake my head without any hesitation. “No, I’m going to open it when I’m ready. It’s the last thing she gave me. I’m just not ready yet,” I say. They nod their head in understanding.
Once everyone heads towards where our master bedroom is, they look unsure.
“Look, this isn’t going to be easy. Stacey had kept some stuff over the years in the closet and that’s really want I want help with, and maybe we can go through some memories. I want the bed and everything else gone. I don’t know if I could ever use it, so maybe we can bring it to the club for someone,” I suggest, looking at my dad.
He nods his head in approval. “That sounds good. We will see if anyone needs it first. Now I’ve got to ask; there isn’t anything personal around here that you don’t want your parents to see, right?” he says and Ella and Olivia let out a little giggle at that.
I shake my head with a blush on my face.
“No, there is nothing like that. I… ah… grabbed everything before you came over, so we should be safe,” I tell them awkwardly and everyone chuckles at my expense.
My mom walks over to the window to open the curtains and let the fresh air in since the room is pretty stale now.
“Just tell us what to do,” she says looking over at me with a soft smile.
“Alright, well we can start by going through the boxes of her mementos she kept in the closet,” I say, and Damien pulls out a box placing it on the bed.
Ella gasps as she opens it with a small smile. Tears begin welling in her eyes.
“This has to be one from when we were younger. She had always liked to collect silly stuff and I had teased her about it. Now I’m just thankful she did that. It’s like I’m remembering everything like it was yesterday,” she says softly but her voice is strained.
We all look at everything she pulls out from movie stubs, to a couple figurines she had that obviously mean something to Ella. Then there are photos; a lot of photos.
Ella laughs and tells us that Stacey loved to take candid photos, and that sometimes they ended up horrible but, once in a while, there was a great one in the stack. There are so many and it looks like some were newer since they had club people in them.
My mom gasps at one of her and my father. He has his head thrown back in laughter and she’s smiling at him, and you can see the love she has for him in her eyes. I can tell that Stacey caught them at a perfect moment.
“Can we take this one? Or have a copy made?” my mom asks.
I immediately nod my head. “Of course. I think she would have liked that,” I tell them.
We find a similar picture of Ella and Damien. They are holding DJ on what looks like his first birthday. They are all eating cake. DJ is in a high chair in between his parents smiling while covered in icing. Damien is feeding Ella a piece of cake. Ella is smiling at him. It’s a picture perfect moment. Fuck, why didn’t she ever tell me that she took pictures like this?
There is also a great picture of Olivia, Steal, and Hale. Steal is giving Hale a piggy back ride and Olivia is chasing them; all of them are smiling.
Of course, I find several pictures of me as well. Lots of me when I would be telling her a story of something someone did at the club, or doing simple things like cooking her a meal.
Ella nods her head. “She was crazy good at what she did. I told her that she should have done more with her photos, but she was afraid that she wouldn’t like doing it anymore if it was a job. She always said that she always enjoyed capturing the emotions of people when they weren’t thinking that anyone was watching. She didn’t think that they would be very candid if others knew that she took photos.
“Why wouldn’t she tell me this, we were serious about each other. I fucking loved her,” I ask Ella.
She shrugs her shoulders. “I’m not sure. I knew about it because I saw the photos one day when I was working on a laptop that we both shared at the time. She wasn’t really confident enough in her pictures to tell anyone. I think she thought it was a silly hobby or something.”
I just nod my head like I understand, but I'm not sure that I really do at this moment.
We spend the rest of the day clearing out the room. It’s pretty much empty now. I end up with a box of stuff that my mom had insisted I keep.
It’s not that I want to get rid of everything that reminds me of Stacey, but I felt that living in a home that she had picked everything out in was holding me back from moving on.
If I fall in love in the future, I will still always love Stacey.
Chapter Fifteen
Tyson “Torch”
Four weeks later...
I’m currently sitting in the clubhouse.
We still have no word on Reaper but, as far as I know, there are no messages getting to Camilla. Though it seems her family’s home was trashed. We had
to drive them back to see what was salvageable.
I thought that maybe Camilla would be scared or broken about it since that’s how she was when she was brought back here, but she seems more pissed off than anything.
There is nothing special going on right now, but I can’t bring myself to leave when Crash is sitting next to Camilla at one of the tables in the main room laughing at something she says.
I have this ugly feeling in my gut. I feel like my insides are twisting.
Sure, I have gotten to know Camilla more over the weeks. I watched as she, along with Crash, helped the women to learn some self-defence moves. Other times I have noticed that she genuinely looks happy here. She takes her time to get to know everyone and her family is fitting in quite well.
I find myself staring at her more. Not in a creepy way; at least I hope that she wouldn’t think it was creepy.
She’s not shy at all. She laughs with the brothers and Old Ladies. Her fucking smile is something else. I wish that I could be the one to make her smile.
I don’t remember the last time I wanted to hurt a brother so bad just for daring to talk to Camilla.
You can tell that they have become good friends though.
“You know, if you glare any harder I would think that you were jealous,” Ella says startling me.
“I have no idea what you are talking about,” I tell her and don’t bother to look at her.
She scoffs at my words. “You can pretend you don’t know, but the way you are glaring at Crash talking to Camilla tells me all I need to know. I just can’t wait until you realize it for yourself,” she says as she gets up and walks away.
Realize what?
There is nothing to realize.
Sure, she’s an attractive woman and I like seeing her happy, but that doesn’t mean anything.
We have become friends over the weeks; nothing more.
When she’s done talking about whatever they were talking about, Camilla walks towards me since I am sitting against the bar.
She smiles at me when she’s close enough.
“Hey, what are you doing sitting here all by yourself?” she says with a smile.
I can’t help but smile back at her. I wish I knew what it was about her, but just seeing her smile makes me happy.
“I don’t really feel like shooting the shit today,” I tell her.
“Is anything wrong?” she asks me with concern.
I shake my head, “No nothing like that, darling. It’s just one of those days, ya know?” I tell her.
She nods her head in understanding. “That can happen sometimes. Well, I will leave you alone then,” she starts to walk away, but I grab her hand when she turns away.
“It’s okay, darling. I don’t mind talking to you,” I say, and it’s the fucking honest truth.
She’s the only person here that I want to be around right now.
Camilla smiles at me softly and a light blush comes over her face.
“Well how about we go get some supper? I’m starving and I know that if I cook something, I will have to share it,” she says.
I can’t help but chuckle at her words.
It’s true. Never expect to eat alone when you are cooking at the clubhouse.
It makes me want to take her to my house so that she can cook herself whatever she wanted and hope that she would share.
I shake that thought from my head as soon as it enters.
I don’t need to be thinking about things like that.
When she looks uncertain, I realize that I have been taking too long to answer.
“Or I could just go ask Crash. He was just telling me that he was hungry,” she says and makes a move to turn and walk towards my brother.
I grab her arm again. “No, sorry I was just day dreaming. Let’s go have supper,” I tell her getting up from my seat.
“Are you sure? I don’t mind asking Crash,” she says.
I shake my head. “No, I'm starving. Let’s go get a burger,” I say and put my hand on her back and move her towards the door.
I don’t say anything to anyone, but I can feel eyes on us as we leave the clubhouse.
I don’t care what anyone is thinking right now. Camilla is my friend and she is the one thing that helps me feel like it is okay to live.
She must not realize how amazing she really is because she came to us a broken, scared woman. I don’t know where she got the strength to take a bullet for someone she didn’t know, but that showed me the kind of woman she is and one day I hope she will tell me more about herself.
You can see the change in her, and I want to know more about her and the woman she was and has become.
I walk her to my truck, but I can’t help but glance at my bike. The thought crosses my mind to put her on the back, but I know what a big deal that would be. She’s my friend; not someone I would want to claim.
It’s nothing against her, but I don’t know if I will ever be ready to claim anyone else.
When we pull up to the diner, I hold the door open for her and we take our seats.
“I love the burgers here,” Camilla says as we sit down.
“Glad to hear that. I’m here at least once a week,” I tell her.
We place our orders. The Hole in the Wall Diner was burnt up a while back, but the club had it renovated and it looks better than ever. The place needed updates anyways, and at least they now have them. They were also able to expand their dining area, which is great because they have been really busy since they reopened.
“I don’t think that there is anywhere that could compare to the burgers here,” she says with a chuckle.
I nod my head in agreement.
We end up having small talk while we eat and I can’t help but feel relaxed in her presence.
I see the door open and Crash comes in with Stitch and Ink, but one look at my narrowed eyes and they sit at their own table.
I don’t like the way Crash is looking at us. Fuck. I don’t like the way he is looking at Camilla.
Camilla waves at them and they nod their head back at her.
“Hmm… I wonder why they didn’t say ‘hi,’” she says to herself.
“I don’t know,” I tell her when I do know that it’s really because I don’t want to share her with anyone.
She lets out a chuckle. “Well, maybe you and Crash should stop glaring at each other so that we maybe can enjoy the rest of our meal,” she says, and I can’t help but smile at her.
“I don’t know what you are talking about,” I tell her with a small smile.
She shakes her head, but I can see amusement in her eyes so I know that she’s not mad.
She’s quiet for a moment enjoying her onion rings looking lost in thought and, when she’s finally ready to talk, I am afraid I know what she’s going to say until she opens her mouth.
She looks me in the eye seriously. “Would you rather get a lap dance from Stitch or slow dance with Ink?”
I can’t help when the pop I was drinking sprays all over my mouth and lands all over the table. Maybe some even splashed on her but I can’t say that I feel sorry about that.
“What the fuck?” I ask her in disbelief.
When I look over at her, she’s holding her stomach and her body is hunched over the seat and I see her body shaking.
She takes a deep breath and shows me how red her face is, and I can’t believe that she’s laughing at me. There is no sound coming out of her mouth. It’s the kind of hard, silent laughter because she’s laughing that hard.
My brothers coming running to the table to see what the fuck is going on.
“What happened?” Crash asks.
I shake my head.
Before I can open my mouth though, Camilla lets out a big snort and takes another loud breath.
“Did she just?” Stitch says looking at Camilla with shock.
Ink nods his head. “I believe she just did.”
“I can’t believe you would ask me something like that,” I say bringing my
gaze back to the woman I’m now sure has lost her mind.
“What did she ask you?” Crash asks me.
Camilla starts to calm down and looks at him. “I asked him if he would rather get a lap dance from Stitch, or slow dance with Ink.”
My brothers look at her for a full minute before bursting out in laughter.
My brothers finish laughing and Stitch looks at me with a smirk over his face. “Well, which is it brother?”
I can’t help but shake my head. “Neither,” I say with a chuckle.
“No, no, no you have to choose one,” Crash says with amusement in his eyes.
“I would choose neither,” I tell them.
“Well, it was a ‘would you rather’ and the rules to that are that you have to pick one,” Camilla says looking at me seriously.
“Fuck,” I groan rubbing a hand over my face. There is no way that they are going to let this go.
They all look at me with anticipation in their eyes.
“This isn’t fair. Why don’t you guys have to answer the question?” I ask.
“Well I can’t lap dance myself,” Stitch says automatically causing Camilla to spit out her drink the way that I just did.
“Well how about this. I will ask each of you a question and you all have to answer at the same time?” she asks.
I can see everyone reluctantly agree.
Before I know it, they are all sitting down with us and their food is being dropped off at our table.
I don’t like that Crash is sitting next to Camilla in the booth, and she’s pretty much squished to the wall, but she has made no complaints about it.
Stitch sat beside me with a wink which was completely weird, but I couldn’t help but laugh at my brother.
Ink pulled up a chair to the end of the table and I have to say that I miss this feeling. Just hanging out with my brothers even though I want to rip Crash’s arm off because it is brushing against Camilla’s.
The lunch hour is spent laughing, and I love seeing the smile on Camilla’s face. She fucking lights up a room and the random “would you rather” questions do keep it entertaining.
I don’t remember laughing so much before.