CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

-:- MACKENZIE -:-

“What...The...Heck... What time is it?”

“It’s six-fifteen in the morning on a beautiful day. Come on, let’s have breakfast together before I have to leave. Some of us have jobs to go to, you know,” Jig sounds like he’s high on something, he’s so hyper.

“Why are you so full of beans this morning? You kept me up till one and now you’re hopping about like the Energizer bunny.” I swear I’m going to kill him if he doesn’t leave me alone at this ungodly hour.

“I think you got that the wrong way around. It was you that kept me up til one. Come on, I’ve got breakfast cooking, don’t let it go to waste. That’s the second time I’ve said that to you in less than 8 hours.”

“Remember when I said don’t be surprised if I call you an arsehole one day? Well, carry on and this could well be the day.” Suddenly the duvet disappears and I’m naked on the damn bed, and that’s the last straw. Jumping up, I lash out at his head, but he grabs me and pulls me to him for a kiss. Pinning my arms, he takes the kiss and then hands me panties, sports bra, joggers and a tee.

“You are serious about having breakfast at this hour, aren’t you?” He has clean clothes ready for me at this hour? “Okay, I’ll play along. Give me five minutes and I’ll be down.” Brushing my teeth first, I get dressed as I notice BigDog is already gone, I bet he was bribed by the smell of bacon that’s wafting up the stairs. Why has he closed the kitchen door to the hall? I’ve never seen that closed before, opening it, I step into the kitchen and my jaw drops open. A few seconds pass while I take it all in and then tears well up. Sitting at the kitchen table, with breakfast food laid out as if it was an everyday occurrence, are Flynn, Kayla, Lynx and Phoenix. Jig stands by the stove with a smile as wide as the Grand Canyon.

Lynx and Phoenix break the spell as they rush to give me hugs. The floodgates open and tears just roll down my cheeks. Flynn and Kayla let the kids have their time, then they too give me a hug.

“Hi, Sis. Not used to being up early? You look like you’ve been up all night.”

Blushing furiously, I glare at Jig, thinking he’s had something to say about that, I’m sure.

Flynn and Kayla both catch the look and burst out laughing. Flynn comes to my rescue when he tells me they are here until Friday.

“Oh, that’s wonderful. I have nothing planned, so we can spend time catching up and maybe do something.”

“Don’t forget, you’re at the clubhouse shooting range tomorrow morning. That was organized through Pres, so you don’t want to be dropping out of that,” Jig reminds me.

“Shooting range? What are you doing at a shooting range?” Flynn looks at me puzzled.

“Target practice, of course,” Sometimes I don’t think his elevator goes all the way to the penthouse.

“Target practice? Target practice with what?” Flynn asks still looking shocked at where the conversation has headed.

“What are you, a freaking parrot? Is there something in the water in Florida that’s killing off your brain cells? A gun, a weapon, a revolver, a pistol, a firearm. Mine is called a Glock, though I’m thinking of a Ruger Blackhawk for the future.”

“When did you become interested in guns?” Flynn looks totally amazed that I would have any interest whatsoever in weapons training.

“I am a born natural according to my trainers, and I’ll have you know, one of them is an American military trained sniper that has seen action all over the world.”

Kayla is nodding as though this is the most natural thing in the world. “I used to love going to the range with my Pop. We used to go every Saturday. I was good with a pistol too, though better with a rifle. I can’t remember why we stopped.” Pointing two fingers, she makes out it’s a pistol and blows the smoke away from the barrel. She looks at Flynn and he’s staring at her as though she has two heads.

“Unfortunately, some of us have work to do, I’ll catch up with you guys later when I’m done. We should go eat at the clubhouse tonight. Best food in town and you can meet some of the brothers and other Ol’ Ladies.” Lifting me off my feet, he gives me a kiss, pets BigDog and leaves.

Taking a seat at the table finally, I pour a coffee from the pot on the countertop beside me, and look round at everyone as though I’m making sure this is all real. Grabbing some bacon and eggs from the table, I make a sandwich with them.

“What do you think of BigDog? Isn’t he gorgeous?” Stroking him under his chin as he sits leaning against me.

Lynx and Phoenix both ask if they can play ball with him in the garden. “It’s a bit too early yet, guys. You can try later, though.” Pointing to a bag in one corner of the kitchen, “I’ve never played ball with him, but I got him a few things from the pet store the other day that I haven’t had time to give him. There’s a rope pull toy in there, and you could try playing with him in the living room.”

Seeing the rope toy BigDog looks at me, and I swear I see his eyes light up. “Go play, and be gentle with the little people.” Watching him walk away with Lynx and Phoenix, I have no worries whatsoever that he’ll be good with them.

“I thought you told me that you had a dog, I must have misheard when you said donkey. He’s enormous,” Flynn comments.

“I had something smaller and more lap size in mind, too. I never would have you down as taking on something so large,” Kayla shakes her head but is smiling all the same.

“He has hardly left my side since I got him,” then I relate the story of him being with the asshole on Saturday at the book signing.

“I don’t recognize my sister in any of this stuff, guns, knives, thugs with dogs. I should never have left you alone to become this kick-ass Black Widow, Harley Quinn, Wonder Woman...”

“Mention She-Hulk and I’ll show you how I kick ass, brother.”

“I was going to say Black Widow, Harley Quinn, Wonder Woman mash-up.”

“Of course you were. You’re just trying to save your ass,” Smiling, I’m so happy that they’re here and I get to spend a couple of days with them all.

We spend the rest of the day at home, apart from a visit to Bitty’s to introduce her to my family. She takes to Lynx and Phoenix straight away, and fills them up with her cupcakes and doughnuts that she usually takes to the clubhouse.

Back at home, I make fresh coffee and feed BigDog. Since the vet said he could do with some more weight I’ve been giving him a small meal or some treats in the afternoon. When my phone beeps I see a message.

Mia: Girl gang wedding planning tonight. 7 pm. Make sure to bring your sister-in-law.

Me: Sure thing. How did you know Kayla was here?

Mia: I’m the First Lady. I know everything. {Winking emoji}

“Flynn, you and the kids are with the brothers tonight for an hour or so. Kayla and I are with the girl gang.”

“Gang...” Flynn blusters and I think, oh no, I’m not going through more of this.

“Don’t start with the parrot impressions again. It’s just a meeting at the clubhouse with a bunch of women from the club or close associates of the club.” Winking at Kayla, I whisper, “You’ll love them. They’re all batshit crazy.”

I hear Jig come in the front door, and I realize the time. Today has flown by, I should have known sooner, because BigDog had gone to the living room door and was watching both me and the door.

Jig greets everyone, kisses me and runs upstairs to shower and change. Once he’s back downstairs, we head out to the vehicles. Seeing me with the keys to the Jeep, Flynn raises his eyebrows, but I shut him up immediately. “Yes, the Jeep is mine. She’s been lovingly painted and mechanically repaired to factory settings by club businesses. She drives as good as she looks, looks better than when I bought her and Jig has been amazing with his tinkering of her poorly bits. There isn’t a thing that I would change on her.”

I open the door while BigDog waits for permission to jump in. Once he’s settled, I walk round to the driver's side and climb in. Jig waits for me to start her up and grins at the rumble of the V8 engine, climbs in and we wait for the others to get in their rental.

Once at the clubhouse, we make the introductions of my family to the brothers that are here. There’s still a few missing but, hey, they don’t all come for the evening meal. During the meal, Lynx is talking a hundred miles an hour about bikes to anyone who will listen, or chat with him.

Phoenix, for some reason, has latched onto the one they call Wings. He's the biggest man I’ve ever seen, in fact I think he’s the biggest anything I’ve ever seen. She’s sitting on his lap like a tiny China doll, His arm is around her protectively, and anytime someone says hello to her, he makes it perfectly clear that she’s not going anywhere else.

Flynn and Jig are chatting with a group near the end of the bar. Mia appears and starts to round up the girl gang when more brothers arrive. One of them is laughing at something as he walks in, but stops as he looks toward the bar. Looking toward Jig, he opens his mouth and roars, “Flynn! Flynn Howard!” Launching himself across the room, he grabs Flynn in a bear hug and lifts him clear off the floor. Flynn looks terrified and with his arms pinned, can’t do a damn thing to protect himself.

The entire room has gone silent and is staring at the pair, waiting to see what happens next, I’m sure. Running over to them, I shriek at the brother, “Put my brother down this instant.”

Looking at me, he drops Flynn, bends down to my eye level and then amazes me with his words.

“Squirt? Is that you?”

Only one person has ever called me Squirt. Our second cousin who used to visit us a couple of times a year when our parents used to get together.

“Leon? Is that you?” I look at him in amazement. Flynn is looking from me to Leon and back again. After today, I’m beginning to wonder why I always looked up to him, he’s so slow to catch on to what’s going on.

Suddenly I’m in the air and spinning around. Childhood memories of being spun around until I’m dizzy, puking, and can’t stand up come flooding back.

“Leon Howard! It is you… Now put me down before I puke on you, again.”

Placing me on my feet, he keeps hold of me until the room stops spinning. Flynn gets a grip of himself and after pumping Leon's hand we stare at each other. It has to be over ten years, likely fifteen since we saw each other.

“So you’re the Kenzie that’s Jig’s old lady? Sweet. Hey Jig, you’re up shit creek without a paddle now, brother. Marrying Kenzie makes you a member of my fucking family.”

Jig has joined us to find out what the fuss was about. “You’re related to this ape? His side of the family slept in fertilizer bags or something?”

Mia gathers all the women and marches us off to the meeting. Once we’re all settled Mia introduces Kayla to the gang, and the excitement of a wedding starts to fill the room. Mia explains to the group that Mav is my second cousin, and that we haven’t seen each other for years, they are all happy that Mav has family again.

Without waiting to see what sort of wedding I’d like, Mia starts a brainstorming session for everyone to throw their ideas in the pot. There are sticky note pads and pens on the table for all present to write their thoughts. Once that’s done, Mia scoops them up and starts to go through them, but Kayla has other ideas.

“Excuse me. Mia, isn’t it? I think that’s for Kenzie and me to do, we might like something you discard, or vice versa.” Holding her hands out, she takes the notes and puts them on the table in front of me. Reading through them, there are some weird and wonderful suggestions. One has BigDog as the ring bearer, so I put that on my plus pile. One has me arriving on the back of a bike and that is the first of my not in a million years pile. White wedding dress, biker style clothes, various wedding venues, clubhouse reception. The ideas range from traditional to way out there.

Mia disappears from the room only to reappear dragging one of those big tripods with an enormous paper pad on it. The type of thing they use for presentations and stuff in businesses. Taking my pile of plus notes, she transfers the ideas to different sections of the board. It’s divided up into wedding clothes, evening clothes, venue, reception, bridesmaids, maid of honor, and transport to and from. Kayla stands up and approaches Mia again. Smirking, Mia surrenders her pen and sits by me and gives me a wink.

Kayla turns to the board and begins to add things. Well, we think she is, but until she’s finished, we can’t see what it is she’s doing. Stepping away from the board, we all smile.

Maid of honor-Kayla, bridesmaids-Winter, Raven, Cora, Page boys-all club boys, Flower girls-all club girls, any babies to be carried by bridesmaids. Performing the ceremony-Axel. Hen night-TJs.

Mia looks like she’s tearing up, “What is it, Mia?” Putting my arm across her shoulder, she looks at the board.

“You’re including everyone, even the kids. Axel marrying you both, too, he’ll be so proud when he finds out.”

“He already knows, Mia. I asked him as soon as I found out he was qualified.” Kayla looks around the room as the same thought comes to mind. How did she find out? “As soon as Kenzie asked me to be maid of honor, I spoke to Jig and made some enquiries. Some things are in place and currently it’s a need-to-know basis, I’m afraid.”

Taking down the paper with all the details, Kayla folds it neatly and claps her hands. “Time for a drink, ladies. Let’s move the men and hit the bar.”

Amid foot stomps and cheering, we all go for a much-needed drink.