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Jenna watched her go, a smile playing across her lips, “Would you look at that.”
Talon growled, “Been watching that for some months now. Every time I turn around, the little bastard is knocking on the door.”
Jenna rolled her eyes and reached for the door, “He’s a good kid. You love him, and Gate would kill him if he did anything stupid.”
Talon got around the truck and to Jenna’s door before she got too far.
“Told you to let me help,” he said, lifting her out of the truck to the ground.
“Well, if you hadn’t bought a monster truck….” Jenna started.
“Give it up, princess. You like me and you like my truck,” Talon grinned, throwing an arm around her shoulders and pulling her close.
“I love you, and your truck is growing on me,” Jenna laughed.
“Think of it like a big pet,” Talon said, leading her toward the side yard where the party was already underway.
Jenna watched while Nine stopped by Cassie’s spot sitting on top of a picnic table, gave her a hug that spoke greater volumes than words ever could, and then made his way to the makeshift bar.
“He doing okay?” Jenna asked.
Nine was so private, so quiet, than even when the surface of him looked smooth as glass, Jenna was never sure of what was going on in the depths underneath. And she was around the club enough to see that his body had healed from his military service, but it was his mind that she worried about.
“Getting there,” Talon answered.
About five seconds of salsa played over the speakers, and just as Tank yelled, “Let’s dance, sexy gringa!”, Tex, sitting with a leg propped, switched the playlist to Southern rock, and the argument that took place after that coup was as loud as it was hilarious.
And Jenna was wiping tears of laughter from her eyes when she saw Layla and Gabby walking over from the lot at the same time that Talon hit one knee in front of her.
And about the time Cassie bounced over with her phone flashing pictures, Talon pulled a rock from his pocket and looked up at her with an ocean of love in his eyes, and she cried even more when she held out her hand and let him slide a ring on her finger.
Then the party got even louder, and the liquor flowed even freer, and Talon held his princess who held their baby while she swayed in his arms to music that he did not give the first fuck about, but she did, so he held her and took the kisses on the cheek from the women and slaps on the back from his brothers.
Then Cassie cut in and managed to keep him on the dance floor even longer, and as soon as she did, Jenna teared up again, but when Layla and Gabby came out to get their groove on, Jenna danced through her tears, and Talon’s heart had never glowed so bright.
Deuce studied Sweet’s friends, especially the tall, artsy one with the legs, but she was straight money and class, and was attached to Talon’s woman at the hip, so even though she looked like a hell of a ride, Deuce went another way and snagged a tatted up blonde. But when he saw Anna pull up, hand off a sweater to Stella, and pass by Gate on her way back to her car, he paid closer attention.
“Sorry, Gate,” Anna said, “heading right back out. Didn’t mean to interrupt. Stella called looking for a sweater, and she’d left it in my car.”
Gate looked down at the woman who’d haunted his dreams for fifteen years, “You know you’re welcome here.”
Anna looked around the party, taking in the fire pit, the games, the dancing, and an expression somewhere between melancholy and nostalgia crossed her face. “Thanks, but I should head home.”
A brunette sidled up to Gate, passed him a beer, and eyed Anna with cold disdain.
Gate threw his arms around the girl’s shoulders, but his gaze held Anna’s as long as she’d let him.
“You know any day of the week I wish it was you,” Gate called to Anna’s back when she turned for her car.
“I know,” she said over her shoulder. Her words were almost swallowed by the music, but Gate caught them, and the emotion that squeezed his chest nearly killed him.
Then he did what he always did. He watched his woman walk away again. Then he turned back to a girl that he didn’t want at a party that he didn’t feel, even though he was happy that his best friend had finally found it.
So Gate didn’t see when Anna slid into the driver’s seat of her car. And he didn’t see when she dropped her face to the steering wheel and cried.
But Deuce did.
And Deuce also watched while Anna pulled herself together, straightened her face, and drove out of the lot without looking back.
