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“I’ll be home for that.”
“Make sure you are,” she said, tossing me the toiletry bag. “Your mom didn’t say anything, but Charlotte’s probably going to stay with us, right?”
“Shit, she probably forgot to ask,” I said, pulling her to me.
“I don’t mind,” Trix said with a shrug. “It’s nice to have another female in the house.
“I love you, Sweetbea,” I murmured. “You know that, right?”
“You tell me every day,” she replied, smiling up at me. Jesus, that smile still had the power to make my legs go numb.
“I’ll stop by and tell the boys goodbye on my way out,” I told her as I leaned down for a kiss. “Let me know if they give you any trouble while I’m gone.”
“You know they will and you know I won’t,” she joked, leaning up on her toes to kiss me again. “Too bad we don’t have time for a quickie.”
I thought about it for a minute.
“They’re going to leave without you,” she said, laughing. “Go, babe.”
“Call me if you need me,” I said, dropping my shit so I could grip her ass in my hands. Our boys were nearly grown and I’d been copping a feel for years, but swear to Christ, having her ass in my hands never got old.
“This ain’t my first rodeo, Hulk,” she reminded me. “I’ll see you soon.”
I kissed her hard and inhaled the smell of her, knowing that before I stopped for the night the scent would be gone from my clothes. I hated that fact so much that sometimes I waited to unwrap my spare set of clothes until I was jonesing for her, just so I could get a shot of the laundry soap she used on our shit.
If the boys knew that I’d never hear the end of it. Better for them to just think I was a nasty piece of shit that didn’t change my clothes for days.
“I love you,” she murmured, kissing my chest through my t-shirt. “Make sure you layer up, it’s going to be a miserable ride.”
“Miserable? Not possible,” I argued, grinning as she stepped back so I could pick up my stuff. “But it’s definitely gonna be cold as fuck.”
Fifteen minutes later, after we’d stopped by so I could say goodbye to my boys and my parents could tell my baby sister where they were going, we were on our way south. They still hadn’t told me why they were in such a goddamn hurry to get to Cecilia, but I knew from experience it probably wasn’t anything good.
I let my mind drift as we flew down the freeway.
I’d known Slider and Vera my whole life. My biological father had been a member in the club until he’d died and I’d been adopted by Casper and Farrah. The back field of the clubhouse had been my playground, the industrial kitchen where I’d pilfered my first stolen goods—two twinkies and a jar of pickles.
Slider and Vera were the only grandparents I’d ever known. I couldn’t imagine one without the other. Listening to the story of how they got together was a trip. They were so different by the time I knew them that it was hard to imagine them young, or answering to anyone—especially parents. I smiled a little thinking of Slider getting bitched at by his mom. Swear to God, if you want to see a man put in his place, all you have to do is watch him with his mother.
I loved the wind in my face and the vibration of the road more than almost anything—even in the shitty weather we were currently dealing with—but just then I was thinking that Cecilia better have a damn good reason for us to be headed to San Diego because I wished I could have heard the rest of the story.
Chapter 16
Vera
I sat on the bed with one leg crossed over the other debating my predicament. Charlie had been gone for hours and I really had to pee. I knew I wasn’t supposed to wander around alone—he’d been really clear on that—but holding it was becoming nearly impossible.
“Don’t talk to anyone,” I murmured to myself as I stood up. Oh, crap, that made it so much worse. “Don’t look at anyone. Straight to the bathroom and back.”
I slowly opened the door and peeked around it. I could hear voices from the main room, but the hallway was clear. Leaving the door cracked behind me, I walked as quietly as I could to the bathroom and closed myself in. Fortunately, it had a working lock. Unfortunately, the place smelled like death and I gagged. Charlie said there were women who came in and cleaned, but there was no evidence that anyone had been in there with anything resembling a mop in a long time.
I stepped around a wet spot on the floor and called myself every kind of idiot for walking around in bare feet, but the minute I sat down I sighed in relief.
