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I carried Jayla downstairs. She was cuddled into my side and still completely exhausted. What I had hoped to be an early night with her last night had turned into an even later night than normal.
After I picked her up from Lucy’s a couple days ago, Lucy had been called out of state for family reasons. Her dad was really sick and they lived all the way in Washington State. While we shared care for Jayla, Lucy’s place had become where she spent most nights, simply because we didn’t want her to feel like she was constantly being shuffled from one place to another.
Routine was best for her.
But since Lucy was away, Chelsea and Op had helped me set up space in my room for a bed and some toys. It wasn’t perfect but it would do for now.
And I had to admit, I was enjoying having her around. I knew I was getting attached to her, and by the way she clung to me and always sought me out in a crowd of brothers, I knew she was getting attached to me too.
I loved kids. We didn’t have many around the club, but with my brothers getting to the age where we wanted old ladies, not club whores it was inevitable.
I knew the club girls were part of the attraction for men to the club.
For me, I’d grown up in the place, but for young guys looking for family and the lifestyle that the brotherhood gave them, having the club girls also was a large pull.
It felt good, knowing that you could have a woman on tap almost every night without the strings of a relationship. A lot of men came to us broken as well, and finding old ladies and starting families wasn’t high on their list of things they wanted out of life. Sometimes they didn’t even want that at all, too afraid to let someone get close to them, having lost too much already and not wanting to feel that pain again.
We attracted men of all types, but we all had something in common. We all wanted to be a part of a family who had your back through thick and thin. We didn’t want to have to second guess who was standing beside us. We wanted loyalty and passion and family.
We all wanted to ride our bikes and live free.
And that’s what they were given here.
When we got to the dining room, it was reasonably full for how early it was.
Jayla had woken me up at six a.m. with a poke to the eye and a high pitched giggle. Luckily I was an early riser anyway, so I got us both dressed and headed out to find food.
Jay’s eyes lit up. “Macy.”
I spotted Leo sitting at a table, attempting to get his little girl to eat her breakfast. Her curls bounced as she shook her head from side to side. Leo had been quiet the last few weeks.
I knew why.
A few months back, we had some trouble with some guy going after one of our club girls, who was now turned Old Lady for the president of our Troy, Alabama chapter down south.
When we went into this man’s house in search of her, we hadn’t found her but had instead rescued a young girl called Andie.
Leo and her got close while she lived at the clubhouse and attempted to get back on her feet. She was a sweet kid, young, not even out of her teens. But obviously wiser than her years.
Macy fell in love with her and I think Leo was well on his way with some strong feelings of his own. And then one day about a month ago, she was just gone. He hid his feelings well, but I knew he must have been taking it hard.
Leo lost his wife, Macy’s mom Kim, during birth. She hemorrhaged and there was nothing they could do. Kim had been his high school sweetheart. They lost each other for a while when he joined the military, but some things were meant to be and she turned up in town just after he patched in with the club.
Losing her was a loss to all of us.
I felt my brother’s pain and torment through that time, and I would have given anything to take away even a sliver of the pain that he had felt.
In the end, it was having Macy that pulled him through. She was his light inside a very dark tunnel. One that I hope he doesn’t retreat into now that he seems to have lost another woman that he cared deeply about.
I placed Jayla on the floor. “Go sit with Leo and Macy. I’ll be over soon.”
She bounced away. I watched as Macy caught sight of her and began jumping excitedly in her chair. I filled two plates for us and headed over.
“But I don’t want to go,” I heard Harlyn groan as she followed Optimus and Chelsea into the dining room.
“You are going to school. That’s fucking final, Harlyn,” Optimus snapped, turning sharply to face the whining child.
“They aren’t like me, Daddy. I’m different.”
