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Lyle pushed himself up to standing. He swayed for a second and rolled his shoulders, clicking his neck. Lyle moved over to the chest of drawers and turned on his coffee machine adding a pod to it. It buzzed and clicked. Then Lyle reached down, behind the chest of drawers and pulled out a bottle of whiskey.
Penny stifled a hiss.
She pulled herself back though. Now was not the time. She’d observe for now. Lyle was shameless about it, too, glibly pouring himself half a mugful as the coffee machine trickled black, steaming coffee into the mug, as well. Lyle was on a two beer limit an evening. This explained how Lyle was still passing out drunk as a skunk most evenings. Penny simmered but stored it away for later.
Lyle leaned casually against the chest of drawers sipping his drink, nonchalantly watching.
Penny met his eyes. Lyle sniffed and put the half drunk coffee whiskey concoction down on the chest of drawers.
“Lyle, which one’s the shower gel?” Ash called out.
Lyle rolled his eyes. “The one that says shower gel on it.”
“Oh, so not this little black bottle that smells like coconut?” Nix said.
Lyle frowned. “No, that’s a conditioning hair mask-”
“What the fuck?” Nix replied.
“Yeah, dummy, I told you-” Ash’s voice sounded.
Nix bickered back. “Fuck, well maybe I want my hair conditioned-”
“Yeah but you’ve rubbed it all over your body-” Ash countered.
“You only need to use a pea sized amount,” Lyle shouted back.
Ash laughed. “On what planet are peas that size, Nixy-boy?”
“Fuck, it’s slippery as hell!” Nix shouted back, and the sound of wet skin on the shower sounded out.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake. Too fucking early for this,” Lyle growled, but he rose patiently and loped to the bathroom. “What are you two fuckers doing? Jesus, could you have made any more of a mess if you tried?” Penny heard Lyle’s gruff voice mutter.
“Hey, Big Papa Bear, you coming in to join us?” Ash’s voice said playfully.
Lyle tutted. “Well, I obviously wasn’t fucking going to, but seeing as how I’m wet now ‘cause you two are flailing about like dolphins on crack, I might as well get in and show you how to use the hair mask-”
Penny listened to the boys bickering good-naturedly in the bathroom as she looked up at her toenails, the red paint twinkled back at her merrily, and she smiled.
The half-drunk cup of whiskey-coffee sat on the chest of drawers, cold and forgotten.
Lyle straightened up from the crouched position he had been in all afternoon. He put the electric screwdriver down and flexed his wrists, then stood up with a sigh. He was getting old, and his joints clicked as he stretched.
Fuck.
He wasn’t cut out for this work. He was on renovation work. He couldn’t do the runs, he’d been taken off rotation for that. He couldn’t be trusted on his bike. So he was demoted, in a sense, to grafting with Jared’s guys. They were fine, stoic, heads-down work-hard type of guys. They drank and they liked the girls, and they played pool, and they went out on the runs. They were mainly Jared’s buddies from his time in the military. Yeah, the poor fucker lost half his leg in Afghanistan and clearly had a shit time of it but then straightened himself out, started a business, was brave enough to take on the renovation work on the former five star hotel that Colt had burned to the ground. Happy to take on a MC wanting to fix up their new clubhouse. Yeah, Jared was sound enough but he was always trying to coax Lyle into talking about “what he went through.”
Lyle would rather die than talk about it.
But now Lyle was stuck here, drinking again and fucking around screwing plasterboard and building timber frames and insulating the walls of what would be April and Colt’s new penthouse apartment. It was a building site now but they planned on moving out of the janitor's cottage and into the top story suite of the clubhouse. It was a four bedroom, sprawling, open plan living, dining area, cinema room, all ensuites, walk-in closets, balcony with a hot tub… Colt would be living it up in here. The fucker. And Lyle had practically built it. The walls were bare dry-wall, some of the bedrooms had been textured. The electric and plumbing had been done by Jared’s guys, those that were qualified. Lyle had been given the grunt work. But he’d fucking done it. He’d nearly fucking finished it. He was going to get drafted in to fit the kitchen, tile the floors, probably tile the bathrooms… fresh new start for the Prez.
Lyle’s room was fine, he wasn’t really jealous of the room. He had the same as pretty much everyone else. All the other single residents anyway. Well, Rafe andhis twin sisterRita lived above the Glasshouse, the exclusive MC strip club in town. But everyone else had the same rooms. Except those that were coupled up. Sophie and Phantom mainly slept in her little apartment above her ice cream parlor, and Ash and Nix bounced between their two rooms across the hallway from each other.
Fuck, Ash and Nix.
Lyle wiped his brow with the back of his hand and his head swam a bit. He needed a drink.
What the hell had happened there? He’d seen Penny looking on and he’d just… let it happen. He liked having Nix there, talking him up, encouraging him. He liked having Ash there, playing the joker, lightening the mood. It helped. And Penny, well, she was just perfect and he wanted to be perfect for her. He couldn’t do it alone. He liked having those fuckers beside him. He needed those fuckers beside him.
