“Didn’t plan on it,” my husband assured me before diving back in and making my eyes roll to the back of my head.He managed to get the job done and left me in a puddle of bliss as the second round of knocks came.
“Not trying to interrupt your O-filled reunion, but there’s a call for you on the club’s landline, Baffle.Came in from the Pen.”My heart stuttered at the sound of Crutch’s voice and also the message he was delivered.“Bigfoot’s keeping them on the line until you can get there.”
Rick glanced up at me as he wiped the wetness off his face with his shirt sleeve.It was the same shirt he had been wearing yesterday.Not that it mattered.He had been too out of it to bother trying to strip him down and I didn’t want to bother Knuckles for more help than he already gave by getting his brother to the bed for me.
“Go, find out what’s going on.Crutch said Bigfoot is keeping ‘them’ on the line, not your dad, so it might be important.”That tipped the scales and my husband threw off his shirt, snatched another one up, and got ready to walk out the door.
“They don’t get to smell your pussy all over me,” he explained before he left to go find out why the prison was calling.
Holy shit, that was hot.
When Rick didn’t come back right away, I tried not to panic.Instead, I got up and dressed in some of the clothes that were still here from before my little post-incident cabin sabbatical.Then I went on a mission to find my man.I met with a stumbling block, two of them in fact, along the way.Knuckles and Grunt were there when I made my way to the common room.
“Come on, we’re going to ride with you over to the RV shop so you can get to work.”
“But, I wanted to find Baffle first.I was supposed to help with the cookout.”I used his road name since his club brothers were the ones I was speaking to and not my husband.
“I know, darlin’, but he’s going to be tied up for a bit.There was an emergency at the prison.”Before I could ask, Knuckles held up his hands with his palms facing out toward me.“I don’t know any more detail than that.He asked that we take you to your studio because he’s going to be awhile.”
“I’m tagging along because like hell am I going to miss seeing the finishing touches on your Chevy,” Grunt insisted.
“Okay, well, let’s get over there then.”My stomach felt like it was in knots.“Are you sure I shouldn’t stay here?”I asked one more time as I glanced over my shoulder to where Bigfoot’s office was.
“Positive.He’ll be along as soon as he’s done handling whatever it is they needed.I think the cookout might be postponed for another day anyway.”
“Why?”
“Angel isn’t feeling social today.”I stared at Grunt, who had been the one to deliver that answer.
“How would you know that?”
He chuckled.“Down girl!No need to protect your new sister from the grubby biker.Sammy told me just before you came looking for Baffle this morning.”
“I didn’t see Sammy.”
“She went to be with Angel despite what the girl wanted.”He snickered.“Something you’ll learn about our new top ol’ lady is that she inserts herself when it seems necessary.Girl’s got heart.”
“Maybe a savior complex,” Knuckle teased as the two of us piled into a UTV while Grunt hopped on his Harley.
“We’re not all carpooling?”I joked to keep the mood lighter.Grunt shook his head and Knuckles made a point of laying my crutches across the entire back seat.“Okay, yeah, I can see where they might take up a bit of room.”
Reluctantly, I ended up leaving with my husband’s club brothers instead of him.Something in my gut told me I should have stayed and waited.At the very least, I should have ignored them and checked in on him.Then there was the other part of me that remembered I’d told Rick that I loved him twice and he hadn’t given that back to me.Maybe he needed the separation to figure out how to deal with me.I knew that didn’t sound right either, but we’d only just spoken for the first time since the second incident with Johnny last night and I was feeling a little raw and unsure.
Grunt had been correct in his assessment that I was nearly finished with Classic Sin.I’d had a lot of spare time to get it done when I wasn’t speaking to Rick, so I threw everything I had into what was left on the piece.That included the paint job I was about to throw on the finished product.
When we got to the shop, both men immediately questioned all the plastic beneath the pallet my piece sat on.
“What the hell?Did you move this by yourself?”Knuckles asked as he pointedly glanced at my casted leg and then back to all the surface protector plastic that had been laid down.
“No, Brady came in to do it yesterday, long before the sun even rose.”
“Why did Brady get to know what you were up to ahead of time?”Grunt pouted like a little kid who didn’t want to share his toys.
“Because, ultimately, this is Brady’s building and I had to get permission before painting a piece this big in here.Speaking of which, I’m not sure I have paint suits that will fit either of you, though I do have extra respirators.You both might have to set up chairs just outside the bay or a couple bays over while I do this.”
Knuckles glanced around and then rummaged through the other bays until he produced a couple pair of mechanic’s coveralls.“These should work,” he said as he threw a pair to Grunt.
For the next seven hours, I prepped Classic Sin for its inevitable paint job, took breaks to hydrate, and prepped some more.Most of what I was doing was the initial e-coat and then primer coat.It was not an attractive step in the process to the untrained eye who couldn’t envision what the finished product would look like the way I did.Grunt proved that by the way he stared in horror at my art after the primer had been applied.
