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Daisy watched the downtown area give way to warehouses. “Maria said it was a bomb.”
“Took out half their unit,” Abby explained. “And they were all pretty close. They’re the only ones left so they decided to stick together.”
Daisy nodded to herself. “Like a family.”
“It is a family. They think of themselves as brothers, which means they support each other through everything.” She sighed. “Of course, it also means they fight like brothers, too. And they don’t pull punches, literally or figuratively.”
“Are they violent?” Daisy asked cautiously. She’d seen some one percenters get into it at Sturgis. Some of them were ex-military; all of them were pretty much crazy.
“No,” Abby assured her. “Only with each other. And not seriously. No one’s ever gotten hurt.”
They pulled into a large circular driveway, and Abby parked in front of the log cabin style house. “Wow,” Daisy muttered, taking in the view of the place. Her whole trailer could fit in the garage.
“It’s great, isn’t it?” Abby replied. “They love it.”
“It’s beautiful out here,” Daisy commented looking at the wooded areas surrounding the house.
Abby rounded the car and headed up the front steps. “South Dakota isn’t anything like the desert,” she told Daisy, “but it has its own kind of beauty.”
“Better than Nebraska,” Daisy pointed out. “It’s just corn and cows.”
Abby opened the front door and ushered Daisy inside. The living room was two stories high with a large fireplace and not a stitch of shag carpeting to be seen.
“Hey!” Tildy gushed and swept Daisy into a hug.
Tildy’s man sat on the couch, nursing a beer, and nodded to her. Daisy could totally see why even a girl as bambi eyed as Tildy would want a tattoo that reminded her of him. Lord, she thought, and wondered if he was that big all over and how a girl as small as Tildy managed to take it.
There were two she didn’t recognize seated in chairs across the room. “I’m Chris,” one of them told her. “This is my place.”
He looked slightly older than the others, but it looked good on him. So did his jeans. Daisy was beginning to wonder if she wasn’t quite out of her dry spell yet, because every man in here was mouth-wateringly delicious looking.
Tex, whom she hadn’t officially met but recognized because Abby had pointed him out, gave her a warm smile as he leaned up against the wall. Daisy smiled back. She figured the dark, broody one might be Caleb, the cop, and only gave him a cursory nod before looking away quickly. He didn’t seem all that interested in her anyway, which could only be a good thing.
“Something sure smells good,” Daisy declared.
“I’m trying to help Sarah in the kitchen,” Tildy replied.
“Well, I don’t cook,” Daisy announced. “But I can wash dishes. If-”
At that moment, Easy rounded the corner. Daisy had known she’d run into him here, but apparently her indignant brain had made her mental image of him uglier and far less attractive than RealEasy, who stood out as the hottest guy in a room chock full of them. The imaginary punch to the gut nearly knocked the wind out of her.
Then she realized he was holding the baby Sarah had brought into the bar earlier. Hope was snuggled against Easy’s chest, taking up real estate that Daisy found herself wanting to occupy, despite it being a very, very bad idea.
“What is she doing here?” he demanded, dispelling any idea Daisy had of Round Two.
She narrowed her eyes at him, feeling a little embarrassed that she’d let herself fantasize, however briefly, about him. It hadn’t taken long for him to remind her why it was never going to work in the first place.
Easy was an asshole.
“I was invited,” Daisy shot back. “They like me.” She indicated Abby and Tildy. “Probably because, you know, they got to know me. Don’t worry,” she sneered. “I’m not here because of us.”
Easy bristled and shifted the baby a little in his arms. “There is no ‘us’,” he growled.
Daisy laughed. “Oh, you’re right about that. It isn’t a relationship by anyone’s standards. Not even mine,” she added, because she could practically hear him judging her.
It irritated her that he’d called her out like he couldn’t just forget it happened and move on. He had to point out that she wasn’t good enough, not only for him, but to even join their circle of friends.
“She should leave,” he declared.
“She has a name,” Daisy replied.
He sneered at her. “Yeah, sorry. I didn’t care then, and I don’t care now.”
“Jimmy!” Abby scolded.
He shrugged. “It’s not like she asked me for my name, either.”
“Well, I tried,” Daisy pointed out. “Earlier, if you remember. But you were too busy acting like an asshole to notice.”
Easy snorted. “So, you just bone assholes on a regular basis?” he asked, trying to shift the focus back to Daisy.
