by Jane Slate
“And forget about Kade!” Mel continued.
“He’s a player. You know this, Stel.”
Stella groaned, changing the subject.
“It’s too earlyyyyy.”
Noon was much more Stella’s style. Waking up at the ass crack of dawn had never sat well with her and on top of that, it was a Saturday. Saturdays were reserved strictly for all-day sleeping in. But Mel’s father was head Organizer of Blessing of the Bikes, which meant that her presence at the festival was non-negotiable. And since Stella owed her a long line of favors, neither was hers.
It wasn’t that Stella had anything against catering to outlaws. She had grown up in her father’s club and was used to dealing with rowdy men and their egos. Hell, most of them, including Kade, were pretty damn nice to look at. It just wasn’t her ideal way to spend a Saturday.
Especially now.
As the last of the men, most of them Veterans, rode into the venue, the crowd of people who had gathered on the sidelines erupted into a round of applause that echoed all the way down the street. Dice greeted each man with a firm handshake and a slap on the shoulder as they parked their bikes and climbed off. Stella spotted Maddox and nudged Mel in the side. She blushed and picked a piece of lint off her dress, trying to appear distracted.
Mel had been partaking in an on-and-off again thing with Maddox for the past month, a reality made difficult by the fact that he was already in a long-term relationship with a woman he had children with.
Dice snapped his fingers in front of his daughter’s dazed face and tore her from her thoughts.
“Ay! Earth to Mel, the boys are thirsty!”
“Add another bag of ice to that cooler and prepare for incoming.”
Mel sighed and stood up from the grass, wiping dirt off her legs. Stella did the same, following her over to where three bright orange coolers sat undisturbed.
A leather clad man swatted Stella on the ass in passing, looking back at her with a wink and a well-timed whistle. Stella scoffed and arched her arm, ready to toss the last of the water in her bottle at him, but Mel stopped her, nodding over at Dice.
“Behave,” she warned evenly.
“He’s pissy enough as it is.”
Stella rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest in defeat. Dice’s domineering attitude had gotten old a long time ago, but as usual, there was nothing she or Mel could do about it.
Mel bent down and dragged the cooler over to where a dense pack of men were waiting. They made catcalls when she approached but Dice cooled them down, noting that she was his daughter. Stella followed with another cooler and gave the man who had swatted her ass the finger when Dice wasn’t looking. He snickered and turned his attention back to his boys. It was then that Stella noticed the familiar Sons patch on his jacket.
Stella gave Mel a nude.
“Is he a new recruit or something?”
Mel looked over at the man and shrugged.
“Maybe...”
“I don’t recognize him from the last meeting though. Maybe he’s from a different branch.”
She dragged the final cooler over and opened it. Stella shrugged and began handing each man a beer.
“Looks like we’re done here,” she said about twenty minutes later when the coolers were finally empty and the men had retreated into the shade with their old ladies by their sides.
Mel yelled after Stella as she made a beeline for her car.
“Wait!”
“I still need your help! What about when it comes time to feed all these guys?”
Mel was frantic. Stella looked down at her watch. It was noon. She had told Mel and Dice that she had another obligation to tend to in the afternoon. In truth, her only intention was to go home and sleep.
Still, Mel was visibly desperate.
Stella groaned in defeat and relented.
“Fine, fine.”
“But when all this is finally over, I want you to promise that we can go out for Margaritas.”
Mel, always the tight-laced respectable one, rolled her eyes.
“Stel. It’s barely noon. Margaritas?”
Stella smiled and shrugged.
“Come on Mel! Live a little. Besides, by the time we’re done here, it’ll be three or four. Happy hour baby!”
“Alright fine.”
Mel reluctantly agreed, making her way over to a set of picnic tables with Stella in tow. She began unwrapping hotdog packages, lining the uncooked dogs on the burners of a grill.
“Just promise you won’t get shitfaced,” she added.
“We don’t need another repeat of last time.”
The last time being three weeks ago. Stella had taken Mel out for a drink to celebrate the fact that they had both had their cherries popped. It seemed like kind of a morbid thing to celebrate, but then again, Stella had never really been what one would call normal.
One drink quickly turned to four and before Stella knew what was happening, a very annoyed Mel was holding her hair back as she puked into the bar toilet.
Yeah. It definitely wasn’t her finest hour.
Mel shot Stella a knowing glare as she took a seat at one of the picnic tables and began laying buns on paper plates. Stella sat down to help her and sighed.
“Pinky promise.”
She offered Mel her pinky finger. Mel rolled her eyes and snickered, taking hold of it with her own. Stella pulled away and gave her a playful nudge.
“C’mon Mellie, lighten up.”
She held an uncooked dog up to her mouth and mimicked a blowjob with it. Mel laughed and began to relax. At the catcall of Dice, she begrudgingly scrambled to her feet and made her way over to the pack of sweaty bikers awaiting more beer.
It never ceased to amaze Stella how quickly they could guzzle it down. Mel instructed her to bring an extra cooler over and she did as she was told, dragging it behind herself in the grass.
“You’re such an ass,” Stella overheard Mel say to Maddox.
She tried to listen in on the conversation without seeming obvious but her hearing was strained, so she took a step closer and began to act distracted with handing out beers.
“Careful,” Mel warned Maddox underneath her breath.
“I think you forget that my daddy is one of the founders of your club. Touch me again Maddox, kidding or not, and I won’t just tell him. I’ll tell Scarlett too.”
Maddox chuckled and cracked his knuckles.
“Scarlett?” he shot back.
“What’s she going to do?”
Scarlett was Maddox’s old lady and the mother of his two children, Clementine, age five, and Stevie, age eight. The two weren’t married but that didn’t make Scarlett any less Maddox’s property. Not that Maddox behaved much like a married man himself.
Mel tensed her jaw and pulled her wrist from Maddox’s grasp.
“I don’t know,” she replied evenly.
“But we can find out, if that’s what you would like to happen.”
Mel looked around to make sure no one else was within earshot. She didn’t seem to notice Stella.
“Look, I said it’s over and I meant it.”
“Just please, respect that.”
Just when the conversation started to get really intense, Kade pushed through a pack of men and intervened. Other than Stella, he was the only one who knew what had been going on between Mel and Maddox. He was, after all, Maddox’s lifelong best friend.
“Everything alright here?” he questioned with his signature grin.
Mel crossed her arms over her chest and was quick to respond.
“Yes.”
She stood up straighter and collected herself, reaching into the cooler and handing both Maddox and Kade a beer.
“Maddox was just thirsty. Right Maddox?”
Maddox snickered and lit a smoke.
“Right.”
Maddox had a way with women. He made them feel special and beautiful and wanted but only when it was most convenient for him. Every other time,
he was a jerk. This was one of those times.
“You get back to me when you’ve grown up,” he called out to Mel over his shoulder. He followed Kade over to where the rest of the SOW were hanging with their ladies and scooped Scarlett into his arms, almost making a point of it. She squealed and placed a wet kiss against his cheek as he eyed Mel, who slumped and walked away.
Stella felt sorry for Mel but she couldn’t help but feel sorry for Scarlett too.
They weren’t exactly friends. Scarlett stuck with the club wives and old ladies and despite being the daughter of one of the SOW founders, Stella had very little to do with the club these days. Even so, Scarlett’s obliviousness was painful to watch.
Stella made her way over to where Mel was sitting at a picnic table and nudged her in the side.
“You okay?” she questioned softly, picking a leaf from her friends honey blonde hair.
Mel shrugged and remained quiet.
“He’s an ass,” Stella commented matter-of-factly.
“Besides, he’s not even that hot, is he?”
Both girls turned to look in Maddox’s direction. Mel sighed and flattened a wrinkle in her skirt. It couldn’t have been any farther from the truth. With Maddox’s chiseled face, bedroom eyes, and sun kissed skin, he was akin to some kind of Greek god; or at least the closest a Falls Creek man could come to one.
Mel turned to look at Stella in silent defeat as Maddox began to devour Scarlett whole. He kissed his way down her neck as she squealed and ran her manicured hands beneath his leather cut. Their children were busy playing in a patch of matted grass behind them, completely oblivious to their parent’s blatant public display of affection. Regardless of how forced it might have been, Stella could tell that it made Mel’s skin crawl.
“Hey,” Stella spoke up with a mischievous smile.
“Want to go cow tipping?”
It was a trivial thing they had found enjoyment in growing up. Blessing of the Bikes took place on Dice’s forty-acre farm. Cows, horses, sheep and chickens took up shelter in the large red barn that sat in the center of all the commotion.
When the beer clanking, chest bumping, bike revving festivities became too much for Mel and Stella to bear, they would hop the fence and frolic with the animals.
Although the cow tipping aspect hadn’t occurred to them until they were teenagers.
Mel rolled her eyes and stood up.
“Really Stel?” she answered, exasperation heavy in her tone. She arched a brow and crossed her arms over her chest.
“What are we, thirteen?”
Stella sighed.
“Just trying to lighten the mood.”
Mel shook her head and continued handing out beers. A few men winked at her and made obligatory catcalls, but she was used to their candidness and ignored them. Stella placed her hands on Mel’s shoulders and gave them a squeeze.
“C’mon, you can’t keep letting him do this to you Mellie.”
She spread her arms and took a step back to look Mel over.
“You’re Mel, the great and powerful! You don’t need some...”
Stella paused and looked back at Maddox in search of a physical flaw.
“Some sweaty, conniving, alpha male!”
Mel snickered.
“Yes!” Stella exclaimed.
“See? That’s the Mel I know and love. Seriously though, you can do so much better, you know that right?”
Mel nodded and began to lighten up.
“I guess you’re right,” she answered with a crooked smile.
“I am pretty great, huh?”
Stella slapped Mel on the ass playfully.
“Damn right!”
Kade noticed and whistled. Stella prepared a comeback, but he stepped forward and was quick to interrupt her.
“MEL!” Dice called from a few feet away.
“Come here for a second baby!”
Mel rolled her eyes.
“What now?” she muttered to herself. She turned to look at Stella as she walked off.
“I’ll be back in a second.”
Stella eyed Kade and nodded, poking him in the chest.
“So...”
“Where’s your girlfriend?”
Kade snickered and took a long drag of his smoke, clearing his lungs.
“Hell if I know,” he said with a shrug.
“Besides, she ain’t my old lady. We’re just friends. Nothing serious.”
Stella leaned against a tree and laughed bitterly.
“Sure,” she answered sarcastically.
Kade thought it over and shrugged.
“So what are you doing talking to me, then?” Stella countered.
Ouch.
A brief expression of hurt flashed across Kade’s face. It never really mattered who the girl was. It never seemed to take much for him to forget the only woman who had ever kept him grounded in favor of bleach blonde bike warmers. That is...until he got bored with them. And he always got bored with them.
Kade chuckled and looked Stella slowly over, changing the subject as his eyes grazed her cleavage.
“You know I care about you Stel.”
He furrowed his brows, nodding over his shoulder to where Stella’s father was standing with the other founding fathers of SOW.
“Your daddy said you dropped out of med school...”
“That true?”
Stella shrugged.
“What, we don’t hook up for a few days and you go talking to my father about me?”
Heavy rock music blasted from a sound system in the distance. Mel was on her knees beside it, attempting to help Dice set it all up. He never was technologically savvy.
“Maybe,” Kade bit back.
There was a playful glimmer in his eye that never failed to get under Stella’s skin.
“Really though, what’s up? I thought being a doctor was your drea-”
“It’s not anymore,” Stella interrupted.
She wasn’t in the mood to have another conversation about her future. Especially not with Kade. Their relationship, if it could even be called that, was a complex one that had been strictly physical in nature. They didn’t have these types of discussions. Hell, lately, they had barely even spoke at all.
Stella noticed the girl Kade had arrived with pushing through the crowd and sighed. Kade followed her train of vision and pushed away from the picnic table, flicking the bud of his cigarette.
“Well it was nice talking to you...”
His voice faltered. He stared at Stella, his gaze hot and intense.
“Yeah,” she answered.
She tore her eyes from his and swallowed down the lump in her throat. It wasn’t jealousy but it was something.
“See you around.”
With that, Kade walked through the matted grass toward the petite blonde. He looked briefly back at Stella but she refused to meet his gaze. The girl he had arrived with stood with her hands on her hips and an annoyed expression on her face.
“Why the hell were you talking to her?” she hissed. She went to slap Kade’s chest but he grabbed her roughly by the waist and pressed his mouth against hers.
Stella gagged and rolled her eyes as Kade swooped the girl into his arms and carried her over to where the rest of the SOW crew were gathered. Mel approached Stella and handed her a beer. Stella cracked it and took a well-needed sip.
“What was that little exchange?” Mel questioned.
Stella took a deep breath and wiped the excess moisture from her mouth with the back of her hand.
“Nothing.”
This time, Mel was the one poking Stella in the side.
“Right.”
“Who’s lying now?”
Stella remained silent. Mel took a seat in the grass and overlooked the crowd. Stella sat down beside her and stretched her legs. Each of them watched the men they had feelings for embrace other women.
It wasn’t a comforting feeling.
“Why do men have to suck so much?” Stella questioned,
breaking the silence.
“It’s the testosterone,” Mel answered matter-of-factly, running a hand through Stella’s hair.
“I think it makes them stupid.”
Stella smiled and nodded, looking down at her watch. It was just past 3 P.M.
“So, are we still on for Margaritas?”
“I could really use one.”
Mel laughed.
“Yeah I don’t think I could deprive you of that. Besides, Dice said we could leave whenever we want. I guess he’s feeling generous.”
Dice.
It never failed to weird Stella out that Mel called her father by his club name, but that was just their way.
“Well what are we waiting for?”
Stella stood up and reached for Mel’s hand, pulling out her car keys and making a beeline for where her Firebird was parked in a makeshift parking lot. As far as she saw it, the quicker she got away from Kade and his current time passer, the better.
“Wait!” Mel called after her.
“I just have to grab my things and tell Dice I’m leaving.”
Stella nodded and started up the engine. The car shook to life.
“Be quick!” she called to Mel.
“You know traffic is going to be a nightmare and I really want to get there in time for their 4 o’clock special.”
Mel nodded and was back in a flash. As soon as she slammed the passenger side door, Stella gunned down on the gas and veered onto the dirt road that stretched back into actual civilization.
Falls Creek was a small town, but in comparison to the tiny suburb where Dice’s farm was located, it was practically NYC.
Mel rolled down her window and lit a smoke with a bright pink lighter.
“So where are we going?”
Stella raised an eyebrow.
“I thought you stopped smoking?”
Mel shrugged.
“I did, this one doesn’t count.”
Stella snickered. She was familiar with that lie. It was one she often told herself.
“Well?” Mel questioned, taking a drag.
Stella frowned, then she remembered Mel’s initial question.
“Ricos,” she answered, making a right hand turn onto a paved road and picking up speed.
“I haven’t been there in forever.”
Rico’s was the best Mexican grill Falls Creek had to offer. They had the best fajitas in town and their selection of Margarita flavors couldn’t be beat.