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“Sure man, I’ll head out there next time and see what’s up,” Tommy said as he took another drag from the cigarette he lit up during our conversation.
“One more thing,” I mentioned after taking another healthy pull off the mostly vodka drink. “You have to ride, man.” I stared at his truck as if to get my point across and Tommy laughed.
“Fuck, I forgot that part.” Then he doubled over laughing and fell off the tailgate. I glanced over at Kim because the asshole had literally fallen at her feet. She laughed at him then extended a hand out to help the dipshit up.
“Thanks, Kimmy. You’re hot as fuck,” his mumbled compliment only made her roll her beautiful eyes.
“And you’re stupid drunk. You should crash here in your truck tonight,” she suggested.
“Yeah, maybe.”
Tommy stumbled off after that leaving Kim and me behind with the cooler of sodas and the vodka. I opened the cooler and pulled a Coke out to hand to her.
“Thanks,” she mumbled. I watched as Kim put the Coke down and placed both hands on the tailgate to lift herself up. Once she had her butt firmly planted there, I moved closer until her knees were touching my stomach. The way she smiled at me as I moved in close had something in my chest pulling tight in a way I hadn’t felt in a long time.
I downed the rest of the drink Tommy made me and tossed the cup to the back of his truck. Then, I rested both of my hands on Kim’s knees and squeezed. “I kinda wish I never discovered how awesome you are.”
“O-kay.” Her brows pulled down as she drew out the word, making me think what I’d said hadn’t come out right, but my fucking brain was a bit sloshed as the effects of the alcohol started to kick in.
Prospecting had made me a lightweight. We weren’t allowed to drink while we were ‘working’ and it just so happened that we were almost always working. Especially me since I lived at the clubhouse in the bunkroom.
The clubhouse only had fifteen bedrooms, three were reserved for the club girls to share. The others went to the brothers who were either officers or had seniority. The upstairs supposedly had several bedrooms, too. Ratchet kept that space off limits as his family lived up there. From what I’d heard there were several bedrooms, a couple bathrooms, and a living room and kitchen area as well.
I’d never seen it, as it was off limits. I’d barely been down the hall with all the bedrooms, unless called to clean up someone’s mess. The bunkroom, where I stayed, was exactly what it sounded like. It was one giant fucking room with metal bunkbeds. For each two-man bunk, there was a small dresser on either side for their personal effects and that was it. There were six bunks in all, room for twelve men. I was one of seven men who currently stayed there. They’d given me the spot just after I turned seventeen because I had nowhere else to go.
The longer I stood there holding onto Kim’s legs, the more uncomfortable I was probably making her. All I could think about was the fact that I couldn’t take her home because I lived in an open room with six other men. The thought that I ‘shouldn’t’ take her home because I had a girlfriend never even surfaced while my hands were on the woman seated in front of me.
“I think maybe I should go,” Kim finally said.
I nodded my head and took a wobbly step backward. “Shit,” I mumbled.
She laughed at me. “Come on,” Kim offered as she hopped down and put her arm around my waist. “I thought everyone knew better than to accept a drink Tommy poured, but you sucked it right down like it was water.” Her head was moving back and forth, but I had a hard time watching the movement without feeling a little dizzy.
“Where can I drop you off?”
“Live at the clubhouse,” I managed to tell her as we finally made it to her car.
“I thought Mack said they wanted y’all gone tonight?” Pretty sure I managed to nod, but it must not have been clear because once we were both tucked away in her car she asked me again. “I’m not allowed to take you back tonight, am I?”
“Nope.”
Chapter 6
Kim
I glanced over at Tripp in the passenger side of my car to see that his head was lolling to the side and snapping back up every couple seconds. I blew out a frustrated breath and headed home because there was nowhere else to go.
I watched when Mack left the party with the girl who was too embarrassed to be seen with him as anything more than a drunken mistake. One day, my brother would realize he was worth way more than to be treated like that. Then again, I didn’t think he was playing a committed role in her life. They were both using one another as a convenient hookup, and I guess that was their choice.
It took just shy of twenty minutes to get back to the little house my brother and I shared. It was a three-bedroom place, but just barely. The one bedroom was the size of a closet, and that’s what we used it as since our mother left. It used to belong to me. My brother had been given the bigger room, since he was older and probably since he was a boy too. I never resented him for it.
When Mom left, he took over our parent’s room, because I didn’t want anything to do with their space. He made it his own and I did the sane with his old room. I glanced over at Tripp again, wondering what I was supposed to do with him. With any luck, Mack went somewhere else with the skank he kept hooking up with, and I’d just throw Tripp in his room for the night.
We had one couch in our living room, and it was really more of a loveseat, in that it only fit two people on it and just barely. Otherwise, we had two chairs that we’d picked up cheap at the local Goodwill in Augusta after Mom left with most of our furniture. She didn’t even want the stuff. She sold it to help get her ass to Eugene, Oregon, where her family had moved to after she saddled her horse to our father.
Her family welcomed her back into the fold as if she hadn’t married our father almost twenty years ago. They all pretended that my brother and I didn’t exist, so we went on with life as if they didn’t either. What else could we do? I wasn’t about to hop on a plane and head out west to be rejected to my face. Although, part of me wanted to, just to see the look on her fancy new fiancé’s face when he realized she had children who she abandoned and stole from.
I was a little bitter, but deservedly so. When I pulled into the driveway, it was to see a red sportscar sitting there cockeyed taking up all the space. I had to pull back out and park along the street, which we really weren’t supposed to do in our neighborhood.
