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In turn, Shade would do anything for Easy. And the man knew that.
As they turned onto County Line Road, he realized they weren’t heading to Dino’s Diner. No one told him what the plans were after the run today, and he hadn’t asked. He should’ve known by the sweet butts showing up at The Barn early this morning before the ride.
Didn’t matter to him where they ate afterward. He was planning to grab some grub, then hit Chelle’s house for a few more hours of painting. There wasn’t much left to do to finish up that first room. Rolling a quick second coat should do it unless Chelle wanted something else done.
If he got that out of the way today or tonight, then he could concentrate on work and hunting the Shirleys this week.
That reminded him to pull Judge and Trip aside for a quick update.
Cage led the formation off the hardtop onto the rutted, rough lane of the farm. Trip had been putting off having tons of driveway stone dropped because riding a sled over a thick layer of that shit sucked. The prez would rather have most of the long lane paved, but that cost a shit-ton of scratch.
Anyway, that project had been put aside and the money spent on buying Cage’s modular home and getting it set up near Judge’s house just on the other side of the tree line.
Trip kept going back and forth on whether the club should invest in a business that specialized in emergency housing like what was brought in for Cage at first. Or buying more modular homes, setting up a little neighborhood on one corner of the large farm and renting them out, almost like a trailer park but with permanent housing on foundations.
Shade ignored most of that talk because he didn’t have a head for business. He only did what he was told or did what he knew needed done. He kept it simple and left the hard decisions to the ones in charge. That wasn’t him and never would be.
He liked that just fine, too.
They rolled down the lane, breaking formation. Some of his brothers parking their sled near The Barn, some near the pavilion, and some tucking theirs away in the shed for the night. Shade left his near the back door of the bunkhouse so he could take a quick shower after he ate and before he headed over to Chelle’s. He needed to rinse off the road dirt and the dead bugs.
He followed Sig—who had an arm draped loosely over Red’s shoulders—around the corner and over to the pavilion where everyone was gathering. The sweet butts had set up a spread like a buffet and Ozzy was checking the pig on the spit.
Just the smell of it made Shade’s mouth water. He never took good food, like Chelle’s homemade chili yesterday, for granted.
Rev was lighting the fifty-five-gallon barrels scattered around the courtyard. Whip was propping open the double side doors to The Barn. Judge and Deacon were carrying a cold keg of beer outside and setting it in a blue plastic half-barrel full of ice.
Shade preferred when they came back to the farm to party, rather than go to Dino’s. At the diner, they all had to sit at a bunch of tables pushed together in a back room. Where here, everyone was free to roam and do whatever the fuck they wanted.
Which was sex—and lots of it—drugs—for the most part in the form of pot—and loud rock and roll.
He also couldn’t forget the drinking.
Today he wouldn’t be drinking much, maybe a beer or two, before he hopped back on his sled and headed into town. He definitely would share a few bong hits, a few puffs off a joint or hits off someone’s pipe before heading over to Chelle’s, too.
He might not smoke hand-rolled tobacco like a lot of his brothers, but he never turned down weed. He relied on it to keep him sane when his past wanted to do nothing but spin him into insanity.
Sometimes when he began to unravel, he had to reel himself back in before he passed the point of no return.
Even with waking up to that memory, today would end up being a good day. With the run, his brotherhood and spending time with a soul-settling Chelle.
His gaze slid through the courtyard, over the two American Bulldogs who were wrestling in the grass, and landed on the pavilion where the sweet butts weren’t the only ones waiting. Saylor and Tessa were helping Lizzy, Angel, Crystal, Billie, Brandy and Amber. At the same time, Daisy was trying to entertain Dyna with a stuffed teddy bear, the baby awake and aware in her stroller.
Cassie’s daughter would only be around while everyone ate, then would be shuffled home once the sun set and everyone’s morals and mouths began to get loose from beer, booze and sweet butts who lost their clothing. Not that they started out with much to begin with.
