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“He was,” Torin responds. “We’ll be in touch soon after we run numbers and take votes.”
“Great, thank you, sir.”
“Thank you for calling with something positive instead of yet another disaster,” he says before he ends the call.
“Well, that went even better than I hoped,” I remark, flashing Lyla a smile. She looks happy, too, but also a little confused.
“Congrats,” Remy says, giving me an actual pat on the back.
“Thanks. I guess we’ll leave you to running the motel.”
“We’re gonna talk more about this later,” he says, jerking his chin toward Lyla as we walk out the office door.
Ignoring his threat, I turn to her when we get to my bike. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m so excited for you,” she says. “I’m just a little surprised at how different your club seems compared to my dad’s.”
“What do you mean?”
“The Savage Kings really do want to do good things, help people. Sometimes I think my dad and his guys only want to fatten their pockets by taking shortcuts, getting into illegal ventures.”
“If that’s true, then maybe they’re doing it for their families and not for themselves.”
“Maybe…”
“There used to be a lot of factory work in Clayton years ago before they all shut down, right? People lost their jobs, struggled. Some of those men probably ended up in the MC doing whatever it takes to get money to put a roof over their heads and their families.”
“I know thousands were left unemployed fifteen, twenty years ago, but why didn’t they just move, leave town to find other opportunities?” she asks.
“I don’t know. Maybe they couldn’t afford it. Or maybe they have too many local ties – kids in school here, all their friends and family.”
“I never thought about that,” she replies softly. “God, I’m an entitled brat, aren’t I? Complaining about how my father makes money when I grew up with everything I wanted or needed because of him.”
“I hate to say it, but maybe you should give your dad the benefit of the doubt.”
“Ugh, I think you may be right.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Lyla
After meeting Remy, Bear invites me to Greer’s bar that night to meet the rest of his family and friends.
I end up at a table with the other women – Avery, who is Remy’s fiancée; Josie, who is Colt’s girlfriend; and Everly, who is Hugo’s soon-to-be wife. All three women have been incredibly nice to me, not catty in the least like most of the pretty girls my sister was friends with. I feel welcome here, like we all have things in common, even though they’re at least ten years older than me.
“I’ve never seen Bear look so happy,” Avery remarks as we watch our guys play a game of pool.
“He’s like a different man, right?” Josie says with a chuckle. “That man is crazy about you, Lyla.”
“Oh, I don’t know about all of that. It’s probably just all the sex. That makes men happy, right?”
The women exchange a look before Avery scoffs. “Just the sex for him, she says. But what about you?”
“What about me?”
“Honey, we all know that women fall in love way before men get a clue,” Everly explains. “You’re a smitten kitten, aren’t you?”
Sighing as I watch Bear lean over the green felt to take his shot, I tell him, “I’ve been in love with that man since I was a teenager.”
