I followed him down the hallway, watching the leather of his cut sway against his body. It looked right on him. It suited him and enhanced his muscly form. It looked like he should always wear it that way. Reef Bryant was of the ocean. Clothes weren’t armor he needed; they were a distraction. Not being fully clothed should have been silly, ridiculous, but it wasn’t. It was him.
I was locked in yet another Reef daydream, so when he stopped, I collided with his body and it came as a bit of a shock.
“Can I have your attention?” The gruff, commanding tone of his voice had my insides melting again.
Stepping around his back, I saw we were in the common room, back to the place that was party central-slash-meeting room-slash-canteen. The last time I’d been there was to talk to the Black Sentinels about my troubles. Right now, it was breakfast time, so nearly every chair was occupied. Every time I came here it was different, but filled with the same people, the same family and the same connected feeling of belonging. I looked up at the full house and saw Gigi sat next to her man, Gears. They were close, eating bacon sandwiches off the same plate, huddled, looking inseparable and in love. Angel was on the other side of the table, looking in the direction of Wolf who was stood at the stove, working eggs in a pan. Other brothers, some I recognized from the previous night, some I didn’t, stopped and gave Reef their attention.
As he opened his mouth to speak, an older couple wandered in and I recognized the male as Angel’s dad. His long grey hair was covered with a skull-patterned bandana and he had his arm around the shoulders of a lady who was fifty something, but seriously pretty. Her style was original and when I grew up, she was who I wanted to be.
“Mom! Dad! Quick! Wave is about to make an announcement.”
Of course, that was her mom. Her cool dad wouldn’t settle down with some average Debbie Downer, and of course Angel was cool as fuck, her husband was as hot as fuck and her parents would have to be cool and hot, too.
The sooner this was over the better. I didn’t belong here, and it was only going to be a matter of time before they figured that out and kicked me to the curb. I didn’t know how to be part of a family. The last family I’d been part of had consisted of Reef, Dean and their parents, and look how that had turned out. I was a home wrecker, a destroyer of all things good. I couldn’t even keep a relationship with my own folks. I was their flesh and blood and they didn’t find me exciting enough to be around.
“Malia is concerned that some of you might have the wrong idea about our relationship, so just in case there’s any confusion, we’re together. Very together. As together as together can be. Any questions?”
Had I just been electrocuted? Or shot? Maybe I was shot. There was no other way to describe the jolt I received. My vision was blurring. Yes, I’d been shot. Any minute now I was going to succumb to the darkness and… fuck. Dean was actually going to make good on that insurance policy.
But before I could hit the ground, Reef kept speaking. “Things didn’t go the way I wanted a long time ago and I’m not letting that shit go on repeat. She’s mine, I’m hers and you need to get used to seeing her around.”
With that, he walked towards Wolf in the kitchen, leaving me stood facing the whole room with my mouth wide open. Seriously, I was about to black out. How the fuck was I still standing?
What had just happened?
That wasn’t what we’d discussed.
My glazed eyes were forced to focus when Angel and Gigi clapped in approval.
Both of them were looking at me, grinning like they were over the moon at the prospect of me staying.
“You gonna speak to me?”
Since his announcement some hours ago, I hadn’t managed to find the right words and now we were on our way to Gears and Gigi’s place with the rest of the Black Sentinels.
After he’d dropped his bombshell on everyone, I pretty much went into shock. My emotions flip-flopped from wanting to drop at his feet and worship because teenage Malia was fist pumping the air like all her Christmases had come at once, to remembering I wasn’t a teenager. I was a grown up with a fiancé I’d run out on because I was still in a fucked up situation which I’d made extra fucked up by having lots of toe curling sex with our ex best friend. My life was officially mental. Twilight zone, fucked up, cuckoo, insane, kind of mental.
Back at Shadow’s place, I’d changed again, somehow managing to recycle my meager clothing supply like a magician pulling rabbits out of a hat, while Reef went to work.
Went. To. Work.
Just like that.
He’d dropped me off, kissed my still shell-shocked lips and left me to have a mini mental breakdown.
Now it was, well, now and I was none the wiser about what the fuck had happened and why he’d actually done it. The only thing I could get straight was that I had to nip this in the bud before my heart got invested and mashed up. I’d be totally devastated when this went bad, or he remembered just what I’d done to him all those years ago.
“That wasn’t what we agreed,” I forced out, words feeling foreign because I hadn’t used any in hours.
“What wasn’t?”
“All that stuff. Earlier. Your announcement.”
His hand clenched the steering wheel. I’d expected him to pick me up on his bike, but he’d appeared in a big, shiny truck, the back part of the cab loaded with pretty wrapped gifts. “You made a statement. I didn’t agree with it. I made a different statement.”
“Publicly. You made your statement publicly without any discussion.”
“Babe.” He stopped the truck on a grass verge in the middle of nowhere that looked picturesque and secluded. There was just one house, currently surrounded by a lot of parked cars, trucks and bikes. Turning to look at him, I waited for him to continue because surely ‘babe’ couldn’t be it. “You were overthinking shit, twisting that same bunch of crap in your head, so I decided to untwist it for you.”
“But that wasn’t what we agreed.”
“I didn’t agree to anything.”
“But this morning—”
“You were getting all fucked up.” Him pointing out the obvious was embarrassing.
“But what if I don’t want what you want?”
Reef’s face became amused before he full out belly laughed, which just plain irked me. “So, you don’t want this? Just like that, you can walk away when your situation is better?” He gave me a flat second to answer, and I tried but the words wouldn’t come. He left me sat there as climbed out of the truck, opened the rear cab door and started gathering the wrapped gifts. “No. You won’t. It won’t just be like that, because it ain’t gonna happen. But if you believing that stops you from having a mental mind explosion before we get inside and are guests at my brother’s celebration, then have at it.”
“Can we talk about this later?” Reef was right. I was a guest and also a virtual stranger in the house of his brother and wife, and they’d welcomed me with open arms.
I climbed out, stood beside him and waited for his answer as he started to hand me gift boxes and pretty bags. “We could talk.” I smiled; this was a relief. “But we’re not going to, because it won’t change anything.”
“Reef!”
Signaling he was done with the conversation, he walked past me and off towards the rear of the old house. “There’ll be no talking later, but if you wanna put those lips to use, babe, I can think of one way that won’t get any argument from me.”
My effort to remain pissed at him morphed into being turned on at his suggestion. The last time my lips had done what he’d hinted at was amazing, and I knew as soon as he offered me his dick, I’d be on my knees faster than a man who’d taken a bullet. I’d already had a hard enough job keeping my hands off his body. He hadn’t put anything on underneath his leather club cut.
The backyard of Gigi and Gears’ place was packed, and as I followed Reef, I was once again taken aback by the feeling of family thick in the air. It didn’t matter where these boys were; that feeling of belonging was t
hem. They caused that. It was deep in the core of each of them, the most intrinsic element that held them together.
Family and respect.
“Uncle Wave! Uncle Wave… you went way overboard.”
A pretty young woman rushed over to the table where Reef had started dumping the presents. She had masses of wavy chocolate hair with deep colored eyes to match, and a hint of Latino skin tone. She was beautiful, and by the way she smiled at Reef, he meant something to her.
“Me? Overboard? Never. Show me some love, birthday girl.”
I stood there awkwardly while they had their moment until the words, “Hello, Wave,” came from beside me in a voice that sounded like royalty.
“Momma Geary, looking fine.”
The older woman blushed like she was sixteen. I wasn’t sure I would have used the word ‘fine’ to describe her.
Co-ordinated, yes.
Put together by a personal shopper in Bloomingdales senior fashion collection, yes.
Possibly ready for an impromptu tennis match with tea and finger sandwiches to follow, definitely.
Reef removed one arm from the young girl and folded it around who I now knew was Gears’ mom. He was cuddling the both of them and they were lapping it up.
“Goodness, Wave, where’s your shirt? You’ll catch a cold.”
“You know you love a sneaky peak at this body.”
There was no hiding her blush this time, but she attempted it with a fake play slap to his chest. “Now, who do we have here?”
I’d finally caught her attention.
“Momma G, Ella, this is my girl, Malia.” The smile on his face was one of smug challenge, goading me to disagree with him. I got the feeling he wouldn’t mind having another opportunity to stamp his claim in front of anyone who would listen, so I damped down the need to rebuke it.
“Cool,” came the younger voice.
“Pleasure to meet you. Let’s get you a spritzer. You look like a spritzer kind of girl.”
I didn’t have long to ponder whether I was indeed a spritzer kind of girl, before she took off, expecting me to follow. I looked at Reef, debating slapping him now the elder member of our chat had turned her back, but saw him challenge me again with a smile. “Go on, don’t keep her waiting. And when she says spritzer, she means ninety-nine percent wine and very little spritz.”
I would have huffed and stamped my feet, but for a number of reasons I didn’t. It would be pointless, definitely childish, and she was another respected woman in this world, so I wanted her to like me.
An hour later, Reef had disappeared into some guy crowd. They were grilling, laughing and at times it seemed, one step away from full on wrestling. Men.
I was still firmly in the clutches of the women. Angel and Gigi were busy sorting out all the food trimmings to go with the meat, and there was a lot of it. Ella, the birthday girl, hovered close to Gears, which left Momma Geary perched beside me on sentry guard, slowly getting sloshed on more wine, less spritzer.
I’d done well to keep up with the conversation and avoid most of the drinks that kept appearing in glasses around me. I’d been sneakily dumping them and grabbing soda on many fake bathroom trips. I needed my wits about me if I was going to try to convince Reef that us, him and me, could be a huge disaster in the making.
“He’s such a lovely young man,” she whisper shouted. “You’ve hooked a good one.”
“Uh—”
She leaned closer in a conspiratorial manner and nearly toppled off her chair in the process. “Wave. He’s such a good boy.”
I nearly choked on my mouthful of soda.
Good Boy?
If she’d seen the things he’d done to me only the night before, I was pretty sure she wouldn’t have picked the word ‘good’.
“The way he rescued our Gigi and helped my boy through some of his toughest times. I will admit, I have a bit of a soft spot for him.”
No kidding.
“That’s nice.” I was at a loss for anything else to say.
“It’s about time he settled down. He’s always looked, I don’t know, incomplete. He told me once about this girl who’d broken him. Took his heart so deeply he didn’t know if he’d ever get it back.”
This time I did choke, but Momma Geary failed to notice and ploughed forward with her eyes focused on Reef. “I used to look at him and pray he’d get over her. He deserves to be loved by someone who sees his worth. Only a pure idiot, and—” she looked around again, before whispering “—complete bitch, would choose someone else over him. That boy is golden to the core.”
I felt the copious volumes of soda swirl in my tummy.
“Looks like he’s getting over her, though, moving on. He’s never introduced us to anyone before, so you’re a good thing in my book. A very good thing.”
“Uh…”
Should I tell her? Should I tell her I was the pure idiot and complete bitch?
“Gigi broke my boy’s heart, but she had her reasons. This girl who broke my Wave just sounds unworthy.”
“Excuse me, I need to visit the bathroom.”
I jumped out of my chair.
“Again? Do you have an… infection?”
I ignored her questions, desperate to flee her unknowingly truthful insight.
Once inside the bathroom, I locked the door and tried not to blink. Blinking would lead to tears and I couldn’t cry here.
With my big girl pants pulled up, I peeled myself from the back of the door and grabbed the edge of the basin before forcing myself to look in the mirror.
The girl who looked back at me was exactly who Gears’ mom had talked about.
She was an idiot, a heartbreaker and most of all unworthy of a good man like Reef Bryant.
Disgusted with myself, I left the bathroom intent on leaving the house.
I dodged more brothers, wives, girlfriends and kids, and found a set of car keys in a pot by the front door. Next to it was a pad where I began to write ‘sorry for taking the car, tell—’ but was interrupted before I could finish.
“What are you doing?”
Gigi was stood at the end of the hallway.
“I, uh, need to leave. This is wrong, all wrong. Gears’ mom is spot on. I’m an idiot. I don’t deserve him. This is for the best.”
“You leave, you’ll crush him. Take it from someone who’s been there.” Gigi’s face was dead set serious.
“It’s better this way.” I swallowed around the sadness of my admission.
“You’re wrong and when he finds you again, he’ll tell you that.”
“Just let me go.” I broke finally.
“You walk out that door and I’m heading straight for him to let him know.”
I looked at her, tears flowing. “I wouldn’t expect anything less from his family. After all, he’s yours, not mine.”
I grabbed the keys, thankful that she didn’t protest, and got what I was sure would only be a ten-minute head start.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Wave
I’d hoped that leaving her on her own all afternoon would help her see just how amazing the Black Sentinels family was. After all, when I was at my lowest, they’d picked me up and got me going again, living. Malia needed to experience that, and me keeping her pegged to my side would have given her a false impression. She’d have twisted it up and convinced herself that they were only doing this because of me. If she mingled on her own, she’d be responsible for them accepting her and would be unable to refute it.
I’d lost her for a while but felt calmer when I saw her sat with Geraldine, Gears’ mom. That woman loved me, so I knew she’d make Mal feel welcome and at home. Something felt a little uneasy when I clocked her bolting for the bathroom with Gigi hot on her heels. My concern only grew when I next saw Gigi. First, she was alone but more importantly, she was making a beeline in my direction, like a targeted missile.
“Wave, we’ve got a—”
“Cake time!” Geraldine interrupted her, just as she was ab
out to finish her words. As she went to talk again, Momma Geary decided she wasn’t fooling around and pulled Ella into her arms. It was absolutely going to be cake time. Knowing everything this family had been through burned a hole in my gut. Seeing them all come out the other side sealed that hole ten times over.
I barely paid attention to any of the speeches as they dragged on and on, my eyes moving between the bathroom, where Malia still hadn’t appeared, and Gigi who was up front and center with her family, happy tears streaming down her face.
Even when we began to sing happy birthday, badly, loudly and out of tune, Malia didn’t appear.
Something was wrong.
As soon as the circle around Ella dispersed, all on the hunt for cake and frosting, I pulled Gigi to me, only to be thwarted again by Geraldine.
“Wave, where’s your girl? I must say I rather like her.” Typical Geraldine, couldn’t just say it like the rest of us. Had to put some country croquet spin on it. “She seems to have soothed that loneliness you’ve been suffering through over that other one.”
“What do you know about that?” I asked. I’d never shared with her specifically, only Gears, which meant he’d shared with his old lady and she’d passed it on to the family matriarch. With a glance in Gigi’s direction, the sheepish look on her face told me I’d hit the nail on the head.
“I told her.” Geraldine threw her arms out to add some extra ‘hoight and toight’ to her animation. “He’s a lovely young man who’s been so sad at having to heal from a lost love. It’s good that you found someone worthy. And you do look happier. I told her the other girl’s loss and poor choice was her gain.”
My body became heavy, unresponsive.
“Mom! You did what?” Gigi looked at her, horrified.
“Am I wrong? The loser who let you down before doesn’t deserve you. And I can see this one making you happy. You’re a new man. I just wanted to tell her.”
I didn’t dare open my mouth. I was pretty sure if I did, I’d cuss out one of the loveliest women I’d ever met.
Malia: A Black Sentinels MC Novel Page 17