“Beer is fine. I never understood the love of tea-flavored sugar water, even when I lived in the south before.”
“You lived here before?” I tossed out the question over my shoulder as I moved to the kitchen.
“Well, not here exactly, but right along the Kentucky and West Virginia border. One of the times when my mom moved closer to try to be a family with my dad. It didn’t work out and we ended up back in North Dakota where my mom is from and she met her current husband.”
“That must have been rough,” I handed him his beer, a semi-local brew from across the North Carolina border.
“This stuff any good?” He questioned while examining the bottle.
“Well, to each his own, but I happen to like it. If you don’t, there’s always water from the tap.” That brought a smile to his face before he tipped the bottle to his lips and took a sip, followed by a longer swig.
“So, if you grew up mostly with your mom, how’d you end up in the MC?”
“My dad’s a founding member. My step-dad ended up helping get the Dakotas chapter set up too. I guess being both born and married into the life through my mom made it all stick. Besides, I was there helping out as a teenager when the Dakotas Chapter was established. So, about the time that I was set to make a decision, everyone there was already family to me. It didn’t make sense not to be a part of that.”
“I bet your mom misses you.”
“Yeah, but Flint is her best friend’s son. If I hadn’t left, he would have been forced to go. Since Jenn is most likely pregnant with his kid, it seemed best if they stayed and I went.”
“Still, doesn’t seem fair though. They both cheated on you, and you get exiled?” I made a mean face while he just shrugged it off. After taking a sip of my beer I asked the big question. “What if it’s your baby? Then what? I will not hold you to our deal if you need to go get your family stuff straight.”
Steel glanced up at me then, really looking at me, almost as if truly seeing me for the first time. “Whether it’s my kid or not, I will never be with Jenn again. Even if there was that spark between us, I couldn’t go there again. What she did, and who she did it with, those are unforgivable in my book. If it’s my kid, I’ll take care of it financially and do the visit thing either here or there, but other than some co-parenting there will be no family ties between Jenn and me.”
I just nodded my head and took another sip of my beer.
“Although, if my having a kid is a problem for you…” I stopped his thought process right there.
“No way. You warned me you had baggage. Hell, you’ve seen some of mine first hand already. What’s done is done, and we can figure it out as we go. As far as I’m concerned, we’ll roll with whatever. I just didn’t want you to feel obligated to stay if things change for you.”
“I take my vows seriously, JoJo. Whether we’re only married for your required five years or beyond, I’m only yours in every way. Like I said, I don’t do the cheating thing. I understand if that’s not what you signed up for. I’ll deal with whatever you need to do.”
“You don’t need to worry about that. I’m pretty much in the same boat.” The genuine smile that graced his features then sent the butterflies in my belly into a frenzy.
Chapter 6
We both sat, sipping on our beers, and just thinking. At least, I was thinking. About everything. Steel’s normally harsh grey-blue eyes seemed a little less intense tonight. They reminded me of a sea trapped in a ring of quicksilver. I was absolutely mesmerized. I knew he was watching me appraise him, and still I continued on with my outward inventory of the man. Besides the five o’clock shadow on his face from lack of shaving, his bald head wasn’t exactly bald anymore either. From the look of the stubble cropping up everywhere he would have a full head of thick, dark hair if he’d just let it grow out.
“You’re wondering why I shave it off?” I just offered him a smile and slight shrug of my shoulders in answer. I figured he would tell me if he wanted me to know. “I did it for the first time when I was fourteen. My friend in school was diagnosed with leukemia. He was thirteen at the time, but he didn’t start losing his hair until he went through a few treatments. Some of the kids at school, including a girl Charlie had been crushing on, made fun of him. He never told anyone he was sick. He didn’t want their pity. The girl, Amy, started flirting with me soon after, and I smiled at her and maybe led her on to believe she’d be my girlfriend. Then the next day I came to school with my head shaved. I even shaved it down with a Bic razor until no stubble was evident. Amy had told all her friends that we were going to be a thing and I was going to make it official that day.” He laughed then. “Honestly, I didn’t even know what the hell I was supposed to do to make it official, even if I had wanted to. I showed up, completely bald, and rejected her in front of all her friends. They were all stunned, but the best thing in the world happened in that moment. Charlie laughed so hard I thought he was going to piss himself. He hadn’t laughed like that since before he found out he was so sick. I kept my hair shaved off out of solidarity for Charlie for the next two years, and then it just became habit.”
“I take it Charlie’s story didn’t have a happy ending?”
“No, it sure didn’t. He hung on, getting sicker and sicker for those two years. We thought he was starting to get better around then.” Steel shook his head then. “He did for a month or so, but then everything took this major downhill slide, and he was gone a couple weeks later.”
“I’m sorry to hear about that. It’s a horrible thing to watch a loved one go through. I imagine it's even worse for a kid or a teenager.” Steel simply nodded. “So you’ve kept your head shaved bald for the past 16 years? I was astonished after I started tallying up the years. “That is dedication, because even I give my legs a break sometimes and pack on the winter fuzz or whatever.”
When Steel’s eyes twinkled and he chuckled at my admission, I felt like I won an award. I didn’t want him stuck down a miserable memory lane because I was curious. “I promised myself I’d keep it bald until I manned up enough to read the letter Charlie left for me. Obviously, I still haven’t gotten there yet.”
“Oh my God, Steel!” Fourteen years is a long time to be a coward.” His head snapped back as if my words had physically assaulted him. I brought my own hand up to my mouth to shut myself up when I realized how that came out. “Shit. I didn’t mean it to come out like that.”
Steel just shook his head. “No, you’re right. I’ve been running from that letter for too many years.”
“If you need someone to hold your hand while you read it, I will. I promise not to judge anymore than I already just did. Believe me, I know how hard it was to sit through the reading of my father’s Last Will and Testament. Hearing his words echoed back by a veritable stranger was the worst. I can’t imagine a personal letter waiting on me.”
“Thank you, I may take you up on that one day. We probably have other things we should work out tonight. I guess we’re going to see your lawyer tomorrow at 10?”
“Yes, I hope you don’t mind. I’m not sure if you even need to be there, but just in case, it would be good if you could go.”
“I’ll be there, if for no other reason than to keep your brother in check. He’s a real piece of work.”
“That he is. My dad used to say it was because my mom coddled him too much. I don’t know though. I don’t like to make up excuses for other people’s shit behavior. My brother and I were both raised by the same parents and I would never think of selling the family business and leaving him high and dry if the situations were reversed. Hell, I’ve even offered to split profits with him if he does any work for the garage, but I’m not handing over checks to my brother for what me and my crew earn while he’s off playing dress up on the stage. That would be like me asking for a profit share from his performances. I admire his work, and he gets paid for it. I would never take a part of that if I never earned it. I won’t pay him for work he hasn’t done in the garage.�
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“I’d probably lose some respect for you if I thought you were paying him off. I’m glad you put your foot down.”
“You’d lose respect for me doing that, but not for marrying a complete stranger to save my business?” He simply smiled at me.
“You’re doing what you have to do in order to keep a part of your family alive, and pay the bills. You’re not doing anything people throughout history haven’t done by way of arranged marriages. No, you don’t lose my respect for that.”
We sat in silence for a few more minutes after I refreshed our drinks. There was nothing awkward or uncomfortable about the silence we were sitting in. It was just reflective on both our parts. Our lives had both taken a beating and serious upheaval lately. Which reminded me… “So, what do you want to do about our living situation? I’m assuming you’ve been staying in the clubhouse?”
“Yeah, I have.” Steel looked around then. “I don’t want to impose on you. I can keep staying there if you want me to.”
“Nonsense. You’re saving my business. You’re welcome to stay here. I mean, we are married. It would look weird to live in two different places anyway, especially for newlyweds.”
Steel laughed. “Yeah, I suppose it would. I can pay my share too. In fact, I insist on that. Half the bills and I’ll help out with the labor on the house as it gets refurbished. I just refinished my mom’s hard wood floors for her last summer.”
“That’s great, because I was just going to Google how to do the floors and hope for the best.” Steel laughed at that too.
“You’re a brave lady.”
“I try.” I replied as I smiled at him. “Hey, you never got to see the upstairs. Do you want to take a look?”
“Sure.” I don’t know what possessed me, but I reached out and took hold of Steel’s hand, pulling him along behind me to the stairs. His hand was so much larger than mine that I was practically engulfed in his warm grasp. The calluses along his palms and fingers were evident as they grazed across my own, slightly more delicate skin. I may be a grease monkey, but I moisturized the hell out of my skin so I didn’t end up with teeny tiny versions of man-hands.
“I have two bedrooms and one full bath upstairs. I’ve toyed with the idea of just making one big master suite up there, but I’m not sure what that would do to resale values. For now, I’ve just left the one bedroom alone as a guest room if any of the girls needed it or for my brother when he actually came to visit dad before he died. I don’t feel so inclined to have my brother stay here anymore, because he obviously doesn’t care if I lose my house if he were to sell my business or not. You know?”
“I get it. It’s too bad he doesn’t though, because family is a short commodity. Once it’s gone, there’s no replacing what’s missed.”
I turned my full attention to Steel at the top of the steps. “Exactly. So, this first room is the guest room.” I showed him the sparsely furnished space that contained a queen sized bed, a dresser, and a desk. “There’s a small closet over in the corner too.” I backed out after allowing him the chance to look around. Then I moved on to the next door, which happened to be the bathroom. It was your standard box house, starter home bathroom. It had a toilet, a sink with a cabinet space underneath, and a tub-shower combo. There was a small linen closet in the space between the wall and the shower too.
Then we moved on to my room, which made me a little nervous. I opened my door to show the queen size bed in the middle of the opposite wall from us. On each side of the bed a nightstand stood just below window level. On one side sat my small lamp while the other held my tablet that was currently charging so I could read a little before bed. Damn Angel for getting me started with her books a couple years ago. Whereas she enjoyed the actual physical book though, I was good with the electronic versions, because they took up less space, and I could take them anywhere with me and not be weighed down.
My bed was covered in a heather gray duvet set with beautiful azure blue accents. That color scheme carried throughout the room from the window treatments to the accent pillow thrown on the armchair that was tucked off by itself in the corner. My dresser sat on the same wall as the door to the bedroom, and just opposite the bed.
When I looked back to see Steel’s reaction he wasn’t looking around the room, taking it all in. Nope, he was watching me as I tried to see the room through a stranger’s eyes. “What?” I asked, feeling a little self conscious all of a sudden.
“Nothing. This room is completely you and yet still somewhat surprising too. I like it. Maybe we’ll need a bigger bed though. I kind of liked the king they had in the suite in Vegas.”
“Spoiled!” I laughed out.
“Yeah, not really, just wishful thinking.” I smiled as he finally continued his perusal of my personal space. “Do you always keep it so tidy?”
“I guess I’m just not a naturally messy person. I pick up after myself. I’m not obsessive about cleanliness or anything. It’s just easier to keep up with this way.”
“I like that too. One thing that living with a bunch of bikers will make you appreciate more is cleanliness. Some of the guys from the Dakotas Chapter had horrendous hygiene and worse rooms. I remember they tried making me clean the brothers’ rooms when I was prospecting. I told them that was where I drew the line, because there were some things about people you couldn’t un-know.”
“I’m surprised you had to prospect at all. You’re a legacy times two in a way.”
“Yeah, well, even legacies have to prove themselves worthy first. Being blood isn’t enough. As you well know with your brother, the difference between blood relatives can be night and damn day.”
“True.” I sat on the edge of my bed. “Luckily, none of the girls are too filthy at our clubhouse. Although there are only six of us with rooms there. The Riding Club members have access to the clubhouse and our common areas, but only the active MC members get space set aside for them.” Steel sat down beside me on the bed, our knees touching, and his spicy scent wafted over me making little tendrils of desire become noticeable.
“So, you mentioned doing work for your mom earlier, what does she think of our arrangement? She’ll probably hate me right away, because we didn’t invite her to our impromptu wedding. What about your dad? How will they react when they find out?” I really wanted to know how he planned to, or managed to, break the news to his family. I didn’t really have anyone I had to worry about getting judgmental with me about a quickie marriage. I had another reason for popping the questions out there too. I was suddenly nervous as we both sat within touching distance on my bed. Was it our bed now? Was he planning on sleeping in the guestroom or in here? Hell, he mentioned that ‘we’ needed a bigger bed just a few minutes ago. God, I was so damn confused. I was down for trying this marriage out for real. I mean, I had already sampled the goods and they were delectable. Why not? I just didn’t know if that’s how he felt.
“They’ll be fine, I promise. I’ve always kind of done my own thing. Honestly, I don’t think either of them will be that surprised.”
“You run off and marry strange women often?” I laughed.
“No, just once. I don’t think they’ll be surprised that I helped you out though, or that I’m genuinely starting to like you the more I get to know of you.”
That particular proclamation left me feeling all kinds of warm and fuzzy inside.
Chapter 7
We were waiting for Mr. Alexander when my guilty conscious got the best of me. I should have been helping the girls out with getting a place ready for a baby, just in case. “Do you think Angel Girl and Sweet will be okay?”
“If they’re not, it’s on them and not you, babe.” I attempted a smile at his reassurance, but that didn’t alleviate the guilt I felt. Suddenly I was sure that as soon as we were done with the lawyer visit, I would head to the store and pick up some things I could contribute. They were sure to need formula and diapers for the baby as well as some other stuff. Hell, I didn’t really know what all you need
ed for a baby, to be honest. I worked on cars for a living and none of the women from the club had kids yet aside from Legs. Her daughter had been missing since before I met her though so I never got to see her in a mom role. I turned my head to look at Steel as I was thinking about how weird it would be to suddenly have a kid thrust on you and he just smiled back at me with that cocky, self-assured grin of his. Jesus, my ovaries kind of announced they were ready to find out whenever he looked at me that way. Then it hit me what he’d said. He had just called me babe.
I chose to ignore the endearment, just in case he didn’t actually mean to say it. It could have been a slip up, something he was used to saying with his ex or something and it just toppled out of his mouth. “I think I’m going to head over after this and see if there’s something I can help with. The girls are getting the room ready for Angel to bring the baby back, in case that’s what happens. I’d feel like a real asshole if I didn’t help. It doesn’t matter if I’m mad at Sweet right now. No need to take it out on the baby, you know?”
“I think that’s great if that’s what you want to do. You’re right, it’s not the baby’s fault, and Sweet’s issues aren’t yours or mine to take on, even if he is projecting them onto our situation. Don’t feel guilty about the fact that we figured our shit out quickly while he chose to hide his secrets. That’s not on us.”
“I guess not. I just don’t get why he would do that after knowing everything those two went through when other people meddled in their lives.” Steel was about to say something when Mr. Alexander’s office door opened about the same time my brother came strolling into the lobby waiting area.
“Oh good,” Mr. Alexander said with a smile. “You’re all here. That should make this easier.”
As it turned out, my brother had a whole lot of ‘what if’ style questions to throw around. He also stated that he wanted to contest the validity of our marriage. My. Alexander shut him down by playing the video of my Vegas wedding, and telling him he didn’t have a leg to stand on. To my utter shock and horror my brother then asked his next question.
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