AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“And even if she did, we all know he’d love it,” Camo teased with a grin, gently rocking the sleeping infant in his arms—the most recent addition to the Brothers by Blood family.
The men and women around us chuckled to themselves, many having met Tate several times, making them quite aware of how much of a flirt she was, especially after having a drink or two. I was just thankful that the old ladies were pretty damn comfortable in their relationships and weren’t bothered when they occasionally caught this young girl staring at their silver-fox husbands with large doe eyes.
“I see she already has the gentle touch of an Old Lady,” Chelsea, Jaxon’s mom, commented, pinching her fingers together with a smile as she dragged herself out of her folding chair. “I’m going to raid the pantry. We need snacks.”
“It’s like you read my mind!” I said loudly, scooting off Jaxon’s lap when my stomach growled in response to the suggestion of food. We’d had a barbecue earlier, but I was a few White Claws deep at this stage and starting to crave something salty to balance their sweetness.
I followed Chelsea into the clubhouse kitchen, which was the size of those industrial kitchens they had in restaurants, not exactly surprising considering there were at least twenty club members and their families who ate here, some who lived upstairs and others who were here during the day but had their own houses down the street. “What kind of snacks do you want?”
I shrugged, lifting myself onto one of the counters. “What do you have?” She flung open the doors, and my mouth dropped open. “Wow.”
Chelsea laughed softly as she tossed bags of chips, cookies, and crackers out beside me. “I bury my favorites in the back,” she said, clambering into the large pantry, her feet completely off the floor as she dug deep behind cans and packets of food. “Got it!”
Finally, she sprung free with a bag of nacho cheese Doritos, popping the bag open and tossing one in her mouth. I did the same with the Lays, the two of us sighing contently.
“Chelsea, how did you become an Old Lady?” There was that fountain of words again, spilling over without allowing my brain to process them first. “Sorry, that’s probably none of my business.”
Her smile softened, and she placed the bag she held to the side before dusting off her hands. “No, it’s fine,” she said, leaning back against the kitchen counter. “I was a club girl here before I became an Old Lady. For a while. A year, maybe two.”
I wiped my hands on my black skinny jeans, not even caring when they quickly became speckled with salt. “A club girl? Really? That’s allowed?”
Shocked was an understatement.
Club girls were single women who lived at the club and cooked, cleaned, and kept the men there happy in more ways than one. Some also worked at the club’s other businesses like the strip club or behind the bar. In return, they were given a place to stay, protection, and some kind of allowance to live on.
Chelsea bobbed her head. “There are no rules against it. I didn’t really have any family, and the club paid for college while I was working here. There are a few of us who started out that way… Harmony, Hadley, Skylar.”
I licked my lips, picking at the tiny grains of salt on my pants as I considered the question I’d been mulling over for a couple of days. “What does it take to be an Old Lady?”
Chelsea paused, a Dorito in her hand, hovering right in front of her mouth. She slowly lowered it, tossing it back into the bag before leaning against the counter. “It takes a lot, Stella,” she said simply, no fluff, no dramatics. “Us girls always said that the first rule of being a club girl was to love the club. For old ladies, it’s not just a rule to follow but a life you live. You don’t just love him, you need to love what he stands for. And honestly, that can be hard at times when people look at you sideways, judge you, and make assumptions.”
I’d felt that already.
Any time I’d walked through the supermarket with Jaxon or run over to kiss him when he’d picked me up from school, eyes followed us always, their judgment burning a hole in my back.
I’d even had the school counselor ask if I was safe and if I needed her to help me make an escape plan.
It wasn’t very often that I even thought twice about the strange looks, knowing in my heart that Jaxon might look scary with his leather and tattoos but that I knew him deep down. I knew who he was and that he would never let anything hurt me.
The club, on the other hand, still made me nervous at times.
They’d always treated me so well, but I wasn’t completely naïve. They had guns, and I was sure I’d seen drugs, not to mention the night Mark slipped something in my drink, and the club went after him. I’d seen him a few days later picking up his brother from school, and it wasn’t pretty. He had a cast on his arm, and his entire face was black and blue.
Jaxon made me promise to keep the events of that night to myself, and to this day, I’d never even told Tate what happened or explained why we weren’t welcome at Mark and his brother’s house anymore.
“Jaxon told me you got accepted to the University of Chicago,” she added when I hadn’t responded. “That’s exciting.”
“It is,” I agreed, licking my lips as I thought carefully about whether I should just leave it at that. “I haven’t told Jaxon yet, but their summer program starts in a little over a week, and I got asked to attend.”
She released a heavy sigh. “You sound like you’re not so sure.”
“I’m not.”
“Because of Jaxon?”
The air in the room had suddenly become very thick. “You probably think this is so dramatic to be considering staying here in Athens and not going to college all because of some short-term, teenage romance,” I scoffed, finally jumping to the floor. Jaxon had just turned nineteen a month or so ago, but I was still eighteen. And while in this moment, I saw this relationship as forever, I was well aware the statistics were working against us.
Less than two percent.
