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As I watched her interact with Sully and Adelaide, who’d just walked in with her husband, Stone, our club’s VP, I was the one who was startled when Reece whispered near my ear.
“When are you gonna pull the trigger?”
It’d be a waste of time to play dumb. I knew what she referred to.
“He told you?”
“Of course. And I think it’s time. Don’t you?”
“I agree. I just don’t want her to say no again.” I wasn’t comfortable discussing this so close to where Edana stood, although I doubted she could hear a word we said. “Don’t say anything to anyone else.” My eyes swung to hers. “Promise me.”
“I promise.” My sister-in-law squeezed my arm before walking toward the small group of women, leaving me to hope she’d keep her word. The fewer people who knew of my intentions, the better.
I didn’t know how much time passed as I stood there watching her. Laughing. Readjusting her ponytail. Fidgeting with her T-shirt when the left side shifted down her shoulder.
“Is there a problem?” I didn’t have to turn to see who’d spoken. His voice was unmistakable.
“Hey, Prez.” My stare never wavered. “No. No problem.”
“Then why are you staring over there?”
“Just lost in thought.”
“Oh no.” His deep voice dipped even lower. “You? In deep thought? What is the world coming to?” He bumped my shoulder with his, and when I finally did look at him, the tiniest smirk lifted the corners of his mouth. It’d been quite some time since Marek was able to relax enough to joke around. The lightness looked good on him. He’d certainly earned it. We all had.
“Ha ha,” I fake laughed. “I can be deep when I wanna be.”
“In bullshit,” Ryder added, sidling up next to me.
“What is this? Pick on Hawke day?”
“We have to get it all in since we don’t see you all that much anymore.” Ryder slung his arm over my shoulder. “We miss ya. Well, not me specifically, but some of the other guys do.”
“Fuck you,” I jested, nudging him in the side.
“How long you here this time?” he asked as he dropped his arm.
“We’re goin’ back the day after Christmas. Edana only has vacation until then.”
Edana worked at a no-kill animal shelter in Florida, located between our place in Rockledge and her sister’s house in Cape Canaveral. When I asked her why she decided to take that job, she told me she preferred to work with animals instead of humans, and I couldn’t say I was surprised by her response. It was obvious to everyone who knew her before the attack that there had been a major shift in her personality, which was par for the course for someone who’d gone through a traumatic event.
I’d told her repeatedly over the years she didn’t have to work at all because of my finances, to which I had more than enough money from investments I made along with other club members when we were rolling in that shit. Most of our money had initially been made illegally, but the rest was because of the stock market.
So far, she’d refused to stay home, telling me she’d go crazy if she didn’t have anything to do all day long. I told her to volunteer instead of being on a payroll. That way she would have more flexibility for whenever we wanted to come back here to California, or even take an impromptu vacation. But she liked having to be accountable, so she nixed my volunteer suggestion.
So, here we were, having to return to Florida just shy of two weeks. Then I’d be off to our charter in Tennessee, not far from Nashville, for a month before going to Wyoming to help out the charter there for a week. I hadn’t been to Laredo in a while, but I was sure a visit there would be in my future.
“Maybe next time you’re up this way, you can stay longer.” Ryder’s attention veered away from me and toward his wife, Braylen, who’d just walked in with Zoe, Brick’s ol’ lady, and Riley, Stone’s daughter, who also happened to be Kaden’s fiancée.
There was a time I didn’t think Stone would ever move past Kaden messing around with his daughter. They’d hid their relationship for years when they were younger, but once our VP found out about it, he went after Kaden, attacking him and threatening to shoot him, just like what happened to him when Trigger sought retaliation for Stone getting with the ol’ man’s niece, Adelaide.
Thankfully, all issues between the men had been resolved. But I swore I’d catch a sideways look Stone threw Kaden every now and again.
“Yeah, maybe” was the only response I gave since the guy next to me seemed to have checked out of our conversation.
“Just go,” I insisted, smacking Ryder on the back. “You’re not payin’ attention to me anymore.” The jest in my tone told him I wasn’t upset with his lack of focus. He had better things to steal his attention, specifically his wife and daughter.
Ryder’s only response was a grunt as he strolled across the clubhouse floor, huddling up next to his family seconds later. I was man enough to admit I was jealous, even if the feeling only swirled through me momentarily. I didn’t want kids, but I did want a wife, and if fate would finally forgive me for my past indiscretions, and for my inability all those years ago to protect the one woman I loved, I could move forward with my plan to be legally bound to the sexy redhead in my life.
