Highway Don't Care (Freebirds)

by Vale, Lani Lynn

  Deciding that would be a good plan, I typed up a text on my phone asking Max if he would go with me.

  Me: Can we go to the cabin and stay for the weekend?

  Max: Sure. I just got some lights and indoor plumbing installed.

  Me: Since when?

  Max: Why are we talking like this when we are sitting next to each other?

  Me: Because we’re awesome.

  Me: You aren’t talking.

  I saw Max glance at his phone, roll his eyes, and then lay the phone back in his lap.

  Me: Max

  Me: Maxie Poo.

  Me: Maximilian Horatio Tremaine.

  Max: Where did you get Horatio? That’s not my middle name.

  Me: This is getting good. What do you think he’s gonna do?

  It was getting good too. So good, I decided to tape it. Good thing I did too, because she used that moment in time to slap the shit out of Gabe. I was so stunned that she’d done it that it took me a few seconds to react. One second I was leaning back in the chair and watching the drama unfold, and the next, I was grabbing the bitch by the hair. I pulled my arm back, and propelled it forward, knocking her square in the eye. She crumpled to the ground on her hands and knees.

  Yanking her by the hair, I very nearly dragged her until she got back on her feet and followed me out the door. I let my grip on her hair loosen as I got to her car. Leaning away from her, I watched as she straightened.

  “I don’t care how upset you are. You do not ever hit him again. I swear to God, if I see or hear that you did that again you won’t eat solid food for a month. Got it?”

  She opened her mouth to say something, but then thought better of it. Yanking open her door, she folded inside and slammed it behind her. She did a pretty impressive burn out once she was in the street, and I wondered if I could ever do one of those in my POS car. Probably not.

  I turned around and startled to see the men of Free lined up behind me. Every last one of them was wearing a shit-eating grin on their face, too.

  “Excuse me while I finish my hash brown.” I said squeezing in between James and Sam.

  Sam ruffled my hair as I walked past. Everyone came back in except for Gabe, who I saw walk into the direction of his house. I’d go check on him in a few minutes, but my guess was that he needed a few minutes to calm down.

  “I gotta say, Ember. It is completely awesome when you do that hair-dragging thing. Last year with Sam’s psycho, and then again with Gabe’s, it is just truly a pleasure to witness.” Elliott said.

  We shot the breeze for another twenty minutes before I deemed it safe to go in search of my soon to be hubby. Ditching the boys, I walked into the garage and stopped dead when I saw the bike that was going up for auction. It was absolutely stunning. The motorcycle was polished. The wheels gleamed. The paint job was an American flag. It looked like it’d been through one hell of a war with tatters swaying in the wind. A hand reached up from beneath the ground as if seeking the flag to lie with him in his final resting place. Written on the side in a beautiful script the words: For Kayla.

  My heart squeezed.

  At the one-year mark to Dougie’s death, we went to the Arlington cemetery and decorated his headstone with flowers and flags. Kayla drew a picture of her daddy in the sky with a stick figure Kayla blowing kisses at him. She was a very intelligent at the age of four, although very quiet when you compared her to Janie. We had a memorial service/wake for him at a local pub since that is what he would have wanted.

  Everyone was drinking and having a good time when the idea to make a bike and auction it off at one of the biggest motorcycle rallies in the South came about. Although, never in my wildest dreams would I have guessed it would look like this! It was magnificent. Fat tears splashed down my eyes when I thought about the reason this bike was made in the first place.

  At first, I was skeptical that a bike would be able to portray a person as fine as Dougie, but this bike resembled everything that he believed in and more.

  Two strong arms wrapped around my waist, and I sank back against the chest of the man I loved.

  “It’s beautiful.” I said to him.

  “I think it turned out nice. No one knew what we all planned. Everyone just built off the previous man’s work. When I got it, it was already a piece of art. I just polished it up a bit.” Gabe whispered against my hair.

  We stood like that for a long while. We stopped only when my side started to protest.

  “I think I’m gonna go take a nap. I’m exhausted. I’m not going to do any laundry today, by the way.” I supplied before blowing him a kiss and walking towards the back door.

  His laughter followed me out the door.

  Cheyenne intercepted me on the way to Gabe’s, and she ended up coming over to keep me company. Nevertheless, what we really did was both fall asleep in Gabe’s bed, and sleep the afternoon and evening away.

  I woke disoriented. I heard the murmur of men’s voices, but was too comfy to move. I had my arms wrapped around Gabe’s pillow, and my face buried in it breathing deep before I felt movement at my back. Looking down I noticed a skinny arm wrapped around my stomach, and snoring happening right behind my head.

  “This is hilarious.” Gabe whispered.

  A soft chuckle followed this statement and Sam said, “Cheyenne is drooling on Ember’s hair.”

  That wasn’t the first time it’d happened, and probably wouldn’t be the last. I slept over at Cheyenne’s place at least once a week since we were sixteen. Only recently had that slowed down. Every single one of those times, I would wake up in this position.

  “It’s like the snoring wars, Texas edition.”

  Indignation flooded my body and I raised my finger and flipped both of them the bird.

  Chuckles escaped them as I untangled myself from Cheyenne’s death clutch. Gabe reached down and hefted me to my feet, and I made my way groggily into the bathroom. I made quick work and zombie walked into the living room to find them both playing Call of Duty. Rolling my eyes, I walked up beside Gabe and plopped down next to him. I curled into his body, making it hard for him to work the controller.

  He didn’t shrug me off though. I stayed like this for ten minutes before they set the controllers down and started talking about dinner.

  “Pizza.” I muttered into Gabe’s arm.

  Just then, Cheyenne walked into the room and made herself comfortable in Sam’s lap.

  I must have fallen asleep again but I woke when the front door closed quietly, and the lovely aroma of Italian spices and pizza sauce filled the air.

  Sitting up, I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and glanced at the clock. Yikes. It was already eight at night. We’d slept the day away. Cheyenne was still knocked out on the couch so I threw a pillow at her and hit her in the face.

  Grinning when she threw the pillow back at me blindly I said, “Wake up, homie. Pizzas here.”

  Walking into the kitchen, I sat at the table and started eating pizza directly from the box. I had no clue where Sam and Gabe were, but it wasn’t long before Cheyenne joined me. She grabbed us both a coke and we devoured an entire pizza between the two of us. I let out a large belch that was followed shortly by Cheyenne’s slightly shorter one. I beat her by at least three points.

  “That was attractive.” Sam said as he walked in the door.

  Her answer was to let another one rip, and I laughed.

  Gabe followed behind Sam and started laughing when he heard her burp.

  “I’m good as long as she doesn’t fart. Then I might be a little grossed out.”

  “What, you haven’t farted in front of each other yet?” Cheyenne asked.

  Gabe glanced at me and said, “Not intentionally.”

  “What’s not intentionally supposed to mean?” I asked quizzically.

  “Nothing.” He muttered and opened the pizza box.

  I decided to let this slide for now. It struck me as being one of those things you don’t want to hear in front of others.

&nb
sp; “What happened to all the pizza? Did y’all already put it in the fridge?” Gabe asked.

  “What do you mean? We ate it all. Wasn’t it ours?” Cheyenne asked.

  I concurred by nodding my head.

  “No. That was an extra-large! How could y’all eat all that? We only went outside for more beer. Are y’all being serious?” Sam asked.

  “What did you want us to do? We thought y’all took the other box outside, or wherever y’all went!” Cheyenne squirmed uncomfortably.

  “Oops.” I said.

  Rolling their eyes, they sat back and drank their beers. They were much better sports than we would have been.

  “What time are we leaving this weekend?” I asked them.

  The rally in Tulsa started this weekend, and I couldn’t wait. We’d never been to a rally before, so we were excited to experience something new that our men loved so much.

  “Probably Friday morning. It’s going to take a while to haul the bike on the trailer. So we’re gonna just go early so we’re not trying to rush.” Gabe explained.

  Nodding my head, I made a note to myself to call the hotel to see if they could add one more day on to our stay.

  Standing up I went about making them a sandwich. If I thought about it, I might feel somewhat bad that we ate an entire extra-large that could have fed two full-grown men. Who was I kidding? Why would they think an extra-large would be enough for four people? I made the sandwiches anyway though, it’s not their fault Cheyenne and I can eat like men. Cheyenne got up and helped me seeing as I don’t know what Sam liked.

  I wasn’t sure what Gabe liked either, but I took a wild guess he would eat anything. Therefore, I made him two huge sandwiches with turkey, ham, two kinds of cheeses, lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, mustard, and finally mayo. My mouth watered as I looked at the finish product, how I could still eat was beyond me, but I’ve always been like this. I can eat a full meal, and two hours later eat another. My family called me a bottomless pit. I had a feeling this pregnancy wasn’t going to be good for my figure.

  I did pretty well on the sandwich. The only thing he took off was the tomatoes. Good to know. Just as the last bite cleared his mouth, his phone rang. Chewing quickly, he reached into his pocket and dug it out. His expression tensed as he saw who was calling, and we all held our breath as we waited for the news.

  “Hello?” Gabe answered.

  He listened for a few minutes as expressions came in went on his face. Nervousness, indecision, anticipation, hope, and finally savage joy. A bright smile lit his face as he heard what I was assuming the lawyer, told him.

  “That sounds wonderful. When do I get to pick her up?” He asked.

  Nodding his head he said, “Okay. Neutral is probably better. How long do I get to keep her?”

  “Okay, thanks for everything. I’ll see you tomorrow morning.”

  We all watched him as he processed the information he was given.

  Making eye contact with me he said, “She’s mine. Not that we had any doubt. We have to go pick her up Friday evening at her daycare parking lot. They feel its best that we meet somewhere neutral for the first time. I’ll get her until Monday morning, and then I’ll take her to her daycare.”

  A smile broke out on my face when I jumped up and clapped my hands. “That’s fucking great! Cheyenne, we need to go shopping. Like now. That’s two days away. WAIT! We’re going to a bike rally on Friday! Can we take a baby to a bike rally?”

  We all sat silently thinking when Cheyenne said, “Well we’re taking the twins. They are the same age, so what’s the problem here?”

  That was true. We were planning to ride there, but that would be out of the question when there was a baby involved.

  “Well Cheyenne and I can ride in the car with the kids.”

  “Y’all don’t know how to drive a trailer. James was going to drive it with the kids. One more kid won’t make a difference. I bet he’ll enjoy the shit out of this trip.” Gabe grinned evilly.

  I ran into the bedroom, grabbed my tennis shoes, and then came back out finding them still in the same spots as when I left.

  “Alright, let’s get going. We have two hours until Target closes.”

  Sam decided it was in his best interest to stay here. Something about being allergic to Target. On impulse, I grabbed my coupon binder before I headed out the door. I wasn’t sure I would need it, but I brought it anyway. Who could go to target just for what you came for?

  I think Gabe was secretly excited. He didn’t out-right say it, but you could tell he was eager to buy something for her. He didn’t let out one argument about not wanting to go shopping. He was silent on the trip there, and only said something when asked a question. When we actually got to the baby section was a different story.

  He started piling crap in by the bucket load.

  “Gabe! Why are you getting newborn? We don’t even know what size she is. Let’s focus on the main essentials like a bed, car seat, and some accessories.”

  He gave me an “are you kidding me” look and continued to toss anything he liked in the buggy. I didn’t interrupt him. He looked like he was on a mission. Not that he ever lost sight of me or let me get more than four feet away from him. While he was busy buying junk, I was getting baby wash, towels, diapers, blankets, wipes, and on and on. By the time we were finished and I pried the shopinator away from the baby section, we had two buggies full of baby stuff. As well as tickets to get a crib and changing table, dressers, and a jungle gym.

  We got up to the checkout and while they were going through the buggies, I started pulling out the coupons, pulling up my Cartwheel app, and bring up my mobile coupons. There was a line behind us, and they were all gawking at the price and the mass amount of shit we got. Cheyenne walked off, because she hated to be with me when I started arguing with the cashiers.

  The total rang up to nearly three thousand, and then I handed her the coupons. One and two dollar coupons don’t seem like they would add up, but they most certainly do. Especially when you combine them with store coupons. The total went down nearly two hundred bucks. Then I went to the mobile coupons, which brought it down another thirty dollars. By this time, we had a crowd watching to see how much I could bring it down.

  Gabe stood by fascinated. Once all the manufacturer and store coupons and Cartwheel coupons were subtracted, the total was brought down to nearly five hundred dollars. Now tell me again, why does everyone bitch and complain when I just saved five hundred bucks just by being a couponer?

  There were a shit load of people behind us watching though, and they even clapped as we left. It was wonderful to have someone be aware of my awesomeness.

  “That was pretty fuckin’ awesome. Do you do that all the time?” Gabe asked as we made our way out to his truck. Cheyenne was knocked back in the front seat reading on her phone. We started loading the junk into the truck, and just loaded the last box of diapers when a Blue older model Chevy turned slowly into the parking lot. The bass on the truck was thumping so hard the entire car was shaking. It sounded awful, and I would have loved to make a comment to them but I was sure Gabe wouldn’t like that too much.

  It was when I was getting into the truck that Gabe’s body covered my own. He’d stepped in front of me and backed me up hard against the truck. The car passed us though without incident. My heart was pounding so hard I thought it was going to pop out of my chest. Gabe herded me to the backseat and got me in without any further ado. He took off out of the parking lot and we were on the highway in no time.

  Gabe clenched the steering wheel with one fist. His knuckles were white; the veins pulsed on his arm and neck. He was severely pissed, but I didn’t really understand why. Nothing happened, and it seemed like a coincidence that they were even in the same parking lot as us.

  “Gabe, what’s the big deal?” I asked.

  He ignored me, so I tried again.

  “They didn’t even see me. Nothing happened.”

  Still no answer, so I shut up.

&
nbsp; We drove home in silence. Cheyenne must have sensed the tension in the air, because she didn’t say a word either. Gabe stopped in front of Cheyenne’s door and helped her out, walking her to the front door. I decided to go drop in on Max. I was thinking that Gabe needed a minute, so I’d let him unload all the shit since he decided to ignore me the entire way home.

  Walking in Max’s front door, I closed it with a bang, not looking back to see if Gabe noticed or not. Max was on the floor, back up against the couch. He had the remote in one hand and a beer in the other. In front of him on the coffee table was a slice of cake. My mouth watered, and I looked at him. He didn’t acknowledge me, but he knew who it was. Plopping down next to him, I grabbed the fork and ate half of his cake.

  I longed for the other half, but I wasn’t going to eat all of his cake. I knew how much he loved his sweets.

  “What’s wrong, babydoll?” Max said finally.

  “Gabe’s mad about seeing a skull in the parking lot of Target. He ignored me all the way home, so I’m gonna ignore him for a while. I’m letting him unload the truck while I sit here and ignore him.”

  Giving me a sideways glance he said, “Sounds like a solid plan. Let me know how it works out for you.”

  It ended up working out better than I anticipated. I sat there for three hours before falling asleep at one in the morning. Max covered me up at some point, and I slept the rest of the night on the couch before waking up somewhere around five in the morning with a bladder that was about to burst. Once taking care of the awkward morning moments, I walked out into the cool morning air and headed to Gabe’s place.

  Something must be really wrong for him to not even come get me. I twisted the front knob and opened the door. I found him sitting on the couch. He was staring at the dark flat screen that hung on the wall. His head turned and watched me cross the floor until I took up a seat across from him. He stared into my eyes for long moments before he spoke.

  “This isn’t going to work. How do I do this with my little girl? How do I put her into danger? There’s no way to protect her with all this shit swirling around her. Something’s got to give.” He said quietly.