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Jessie refills my wine and gives me a wink. “You good here?”
I raise the glass. “I’ve got good company.”
I sit and sip my chardonnay, staring into space. Some more customers arrive, and Jessie tends to them as well.
A few minutes later, I’m pulled out of my thoughts by a voice I don’t recognize. “Excuse me.”
I turn to see the pregnant woman. “You’re Rory, right?”
Confused, I say that I am. “How do you —?”
“We asked Jessie about you,” the woman grins. “The bartender? None of my friends recognized you.” She indicates a group of women sitting at a table a few feet away. “So we asked her if you were new in town. She said you grew up here and you were here visiting your dad. And, well…” Her lips quirk up. “We put two and two together. You’re Rogue’s wife, right?”
Whoa.I’m so startled I almost fall off my chair.
The woman notices and starts to laugh. “Oh, sorry, I guess that was pretty direct. I’m kind of like that. I’m Tori,” she says, holding out her hand. “My husband is the Enforcer for the Lords of Carnage MC. My friends there? They’re also married to Lords. The big gossip around the club right now is that Rogue was secretly married and that his wife is back in town. So I couldn’t resist coming up to talk to you.” She shrugs. “So you’re Rogue’s wife, yes?”
“Technically, yes, Rogue and I are still married. We haven’t been together in a long time, though.”
“Jessie said you’ve been away for over a decade. She also said Rogue found out you were back because he ran into you here at the bar.”
Wow. This chick comes on like a freight train. “Yes, that’s all true.”
“Wow. So how come you never got divorced?” she asks. At my expression, she snorts. “Sorry. Like I said: direct.” She points at herself. “I’ve also been called nosy more than once.”
I probably should be offended. But the weird thing is, her frankness is almost charming. It ends up disarming me a little. “I left town after we had our falling out,” I tell her. “And we haven’t seen each other since. I guess maybe we both just wanted to pretend none of it had ever happened.”
“So, are you with anyone else now?” I shake my head. “Well, neither is he. As a matter of fact, I’ve never seen him get serious about any other woman.” She grabs my drink and links her arm through mine. “Come on. Come join our table and meet the others.”
And before I can protest, I’m led over to the rest of the Lords of Carnage wives, where a seat is waiting for me.
“So, everyone, this is Rory. And we were right — she’s Rogue’s wife,” Tori tells the women. Plunking herself down in the seat next to mine, she keeps talking. “Which means she’s one of us.”
In short order, Tori introduces me to all the women around the table. There’s Eden, a lithe, leggy brunette. She’s the “old lady” of the MC’s president, whose name is Axel. There’s Bailey, whose pale, creamy skin contrasts with her almost-black hair. She’s with a biker named Gage. Next is Laney, also with black hair, and green eyes that remind me of a cat’s. Her husband is the Rourke, the club’s VP. And finally, Bethany, a sweet, quiet-seeming woman with caramel-colored hair.
I’m a little intimidated by this group of women who obviously know each other really well — and who are also obviously very curious about me.
“Wow. So you’re Rogue’s wife.” Bethany stares at me wide-eyed. “I can’t even imagine it. Rogue, married!”
“But I —” I begin, getting ready to explain that I’m not. Tori just waves my words away.
“I know, I know,” she says. “So you guys are estranged. But if there’s one thing I know aboutallof the Lords of Carnage, it’s this: when they fall in love, they fall hard and deep. Unless you’re a Grade-A lying, thieving, cheating bitch, he’s still in love with you deep down.” She peers at me. “Are you a Grade-A lying, thieving, cheating bitch?”
I gulp. “No.”
She nods and sits back in her chair, satisfied. “So there you go. I don’t know what happened between you, but I do know Rogue has never looked at any woman twice except as, shall we say,a serviceable body. I mean, the man has needs, after all. But that’s ‘cause you haven’t been around.”
This is unbelievable. This chick is acting like it’s a done deal that Rogue and I should be back together. I hardly know what to think.
“So, look, let’s all of us tell Rory more about us. And then she can tell us how she met Rogue.” Tori continues on and says she’s a reporter for the local paper, and that she is twenty weeks pregnant with their first child. “It’s amazing Dante even lets me out of his sight at this point,” she chuckles. “I’ve got a heart condition. It’s totally under control with medication, but lord, he worries so much about me. And of course, with this little one inside me” — she rubs a hand on her belly — “he’s twice as nervous. Like a cat in a room full of rocking chairs, isn’t that the saying?”
The other women laugh and agree. Eden is next. She says that in addition to being a mother to a five-year-old boy, and the MC president’s wife — “which sometimes feel like two full-time jobs in themselves,” — she also owns a yoga and massage place in Ironwood. “You should come to a yoga class,” she suggests. “All of these ladies come to the Monday night one, and usually the Saturday morning one.”
“Well,” I say dubiously, “Maybe. I mean, I don’t really know that much about yoga. And right now I’m kind of low on cash.”
“No worries,” Eden says brightly. “I own the place, after all. Come on in and I’ll give you a month pass.”
“Come on, Rory, it’ll be fun!” Laney enthuses. “You need a social life while you’re here. Eden’s classes are very popular, and fun. Even Jessie comes!” Her eyes flit to the woman behind the bar.
