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“Coming.”
“Storm and Tawk?”
“Both coming, we got a little Prospect challenge set up for them.” Jessie winks across at me.
“So you're leaving us here, with no prospects and no one who can cook.” Suddenly a wedding in Utah doesn't seem so bad after all.
“I’m sure you’ll survive,” Alex smiles.
The sound of a phone ringing comes from the back of Jessie’s car, and Maddy takes the call.
“That was Grace. Her and Brax have just left, they’ll meet us on the bottom road in five.”
“Guess that’s our cue. Breaker one-nine. We got us here a convoy,” Jessie calls over to Troj.
“Roger that, Rubber Duck,” he responds, starting up his engine.
“What the fuck you on about?” I stare between them, confused.
“If you don’t know, I ain’t telling ya.” Jessie shakes his head like I’ve let him down.
“Stay out of trouble,” he winks before dropping into the driver seat and slamming his palm into the horn to get Grimm moving.
My brother shows his face out on our porch, nodding a goodbye, while Grimm marches out his cabin toward the car, a cigarette balanced between his lips as he pulls on his cut. He gets in the front beside Jessie, and with a much more chirpy toot of the horn, they head off.
“Looks like it’s gonna be a quiet few days around here.” I turn and face Alex. “I got a few jobs I promised Rogue I’d see to at the garage, but if you wanted, you could come by the club later and knock a few back with me and Screw?” Alex has been working hard lately, it’d do her good to relax. I’ve barely got round to seeing her since she started working with Maddy.
“Sorry, no can do. I start my shift in about an hour. I should go home and change.” She looks down at the casual clothes she turned up in this morning.
“Just you and me then ey, Screw.” I look over to the porch where my brother’s standing and he shrugs in response.
The club doesn’t have the same atmosphere without the boys here; it’s far too quiet. So me and Screw get straight to work on the job list that Rogue left behind.
“So, you and the deputy?” Screw asks, not bothering to look up from the hood of the car he’s working on.
“It’s only a thing while she’s in town,” I tell him, placing a mug of coffee on the framework for him.
“And when all this shit with Hawker is over, you think she’s gonna stick around?” He looks up at me.
“How am I supposed to know?” I shrug, trying not to sound bothered. Truth is, I do know, and I ain’t prepared to face up to it.
“Women like Alex don’t stick around in small towns like this one.” I take a sip of my coffee. It tastes like shit, bitter and lukewarm, kinda the way this conversation’s going.
“Since when did you start understanding women?” My brother stares at me blankly, and I pass him the size 9 wrench I know he’ll be needing next.
“Since I figured out that I care about one,” I admit, if you can’t be honest with the person you shared a womb with, who can you be honest with?
I need justification. I’ve never had feelings like this before, and I don’t understand them. Not that I expect my brother to understand, neither of us is wired that way. I’ve always sworn me and him have that twin connection thing you hear about. I feel when he’s mad, and I know when he’s hurting. I wonder if he feels what’s happening inside me?
“Be careful,” he warns me, snatching the wrench from my hand and getting back to work.
“Everything okay?” I answer the phone on its first ring when Ella's name flashes up.
“We’re all good, just checking in?” That cute laugh of hers follows her words.
“I’ve just finished off a back piece, now I’m doing some sketching in the back room.” I look down at the picture on the pad in front of me and smile to myself. I’ve sketched myself beneath the tree I used to sit under when I was posing as a high schooler to watch over Ella. Only now I’m not alone, I got her tucked under my arm and our son cradled in my lap. The pencil strokes are darker on the deep, strong roots of the tree beneath us.
Like this tree, me and Ella are planting roots. We’re a family unit now, and as stressed out as I’ve been while she’s carrying my kid, I already know this one won’t be our last. Ella was born to be a mom. The way she looks at Dylan and will do anything to make him laugh proves it. She’s smiling in every picture she sends me of them when we can’t be together. And I was born to keep that smile on her face.
