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“JJ! Come on, man,” Fitz complained.
“Just gimme a minute.” He trotted through the open gate and met her in the middle of the clubhouse lawn. She was grinning hugely and looked so unbelievably gorgeous he couldn’t stand it.
“Hi!” she said and jumped into his arms, as if it had been weeks since they’d been together. In reality, they’d last seen each other at eleven o’clock the night before, when he’d finally dragged himself off the barstool next to Maude’s and headed home to sleep before the run.
Maude was a slightly weird, very cool, old lady. She was quiet and mousy, always with a book in her hand, but once you got her talking, she had somestories.
“Hey!” he said as he caught her in his arms. The way she’d jumped at him, now she was wrapped around him. “Is something wrong?”
“No.” She kissed his cheek. “I’m working on choreography with Keisha before I teach and she starts work, and I wanted to see you before you left, so I got up early.” Leaning back, she let her grin drop away. “Is this okay?”
Jay couldn’t stop himself from turning to the lot, where he saw four of his brothers, and Kelsey, all watching. Everybody was extremely interested. Everybody but Duncan looked shocked. Luckily, nobody on this run was likely to give him shit.
He hadn’t thought out how, when, or maybe whether he intended to introduce Petra to the club. So far, he’d liked having this thing nobody knew about, something completely separate from anything about the Bulls. The club had ruled his life from the day of his birth. For the most part, he loved it, had never wanted to be anything other than a Bull and a mechanic at Brian Delaney Auto Service. He’d gotten the first part, but not the second.
But as much as he loved the club, every part of his life in it was shadowed by better versions of Jessups. His fucking legendary father. And his brother, who now, only three years older than him, was already a Sergeant at Arms, just like their old man. And Jay couldn’t even get off the pumps.
What if the only reason he felt so good when he was with Petra was because she was entirely separate from the Bulls? She didn’t know his family. There was no one to be disappointed in him in front of her, or tell her embarrassing stories about all the ways he’d fucked up.
Except now she wasn’t separate from the club anymore.
He’d waited too long to answer her. “I’m sorry. I thought it would be a nice surprise.” She wriggled to get out of his arms, but he held fast.
“It is. I’m glad,” he said and really meant it. Seeing her, having her so happy to see him, made him warm and calm and happy. He just didn’t want something to happen to ruin it.
“Okay,” she said and put her arms around his neck again. “Then kiss me.”
He did, right away, before some stupid thought about their audience got snagged in his head. As soon as their tongues touched, and Petra shifted in his arms to hold him more tightly, Jay forgot there was anyone else on the planet.
When it was over, he set her down. She tugged on the plackets of his kutte. “Be safe, okay? Text or call when you can—and definitely when you get back in town.”
“I will. You be safe, too.” He took her head in both hands and kissed her again. A sentence floated onto his tongue, and he said it before he could chicken out. “I’m gonna miss you.”
She smiled and brushed the tip of her index finger along the edge of his bottom lip. It was a gesture she’d started doing with some frequency. “I’m going to miss you, too.”
He let her go, and she turned and headed to her car, without ever acknowledging the men on the lot behind him.
Jay watched her until the Volvo turned at the corner and disappeared.
“Who wasthat?” Simon asked, eyeing him with confused shock.
“None of your fucking business,” Jay replied and mounted his bike.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
