CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

-:- JIG -:-

Following Kenzie, I was surprised how quickly she took to the controls and handling of her trike. She obviously liked the speed of it because I don’t think she was under, or even at the speed limit, the whole time we were out. BigDog certainly enjoyed it, he didn’t even have to stick his head out of a window to get the wind in his face.

Once we were back at the clubhouse, I spent time with Kenzie and then made an excuse to slip out for an hour. Heading into town, my next stop, the jewelry store, as I need to get a ring on Kenzie’s finger as soon as possible. I can’t rock up to the altar and put an engagement ring on her finger at the same time as a wedding band.

I remember one of the brothers telling me about his visit to the same store for his rings and how he was looked down on by a male assistant until he paid a large sum for what he wanted. I won’t be standing for any of that shit, that’s for sure.

Arriving at the jewelers, I park my hog, hang my helmet on the handlebars and spend a moment window shopping. As I look at the trays of rings in the window, I see a sneering face looking back at me, and it isn’t my reflection.

Walking into the store, I see a male and a female assistant waiting for customers. The female looks over and gives me a genuine lovely smile while the man keeps the sneer firmly locked in place. Walking over to them, I smile my weakest smile and ask if the man could help me with something that I’d seen in the window. Asking him to walk outside with me, we walk over to the door. As we get there, I gesture for him to go out first, and as soon as he does, I close the door and turn the lock. Ignoring him banging on it to be let back in, I walk over to the female, ask her to show me her best feminine engagement rings and in a burst of ingenuity ask for red stones if she has them. All this time, the male assistant is banging and shouting.

The female assistant gives me a knowing smile as she ignores the banging on the door. “About time someone put him in his place,” she comments as she again smiles at me.

There aren’t many red stone engagement rings, but I see one that catches my eye. It looks petite and feminine, but certainly not small and cheap. Giving her Kenzie’s size, she checks the ring, and I’m amazed when it’s the right size. Putting it to one side, we are just starting to look at wedding rings when we hear sirens outside and see flashing lights.

The banging stops and is replaced with a gentle tapping on the glass door. We both look over and see the Sheriff standing there pointing at the door lock. Walking across the room, I smile at him and point at the salesman by his side, I shake my head. Opening the door, the Sheriff slips inside and doesn’t allow the salesman in.

“Hi, Forest. Something we can help you with?”

“I don’t know, Jig. What’s going on in here?” He looks at the female assistant and she shrugs her shoulders.

“This gentleman is doing some jewelry shopping, Sheriff. Is that illegal?” She has a syrupy sweet voice as she says this.

“Well, your associate out there,” he says, jerking his thumb over his shoulder, “called to report a robbery in progress.”

“I don’t know why he’d think that, Sheriff. This gentleman has certainly made no demands that would cause him to think that. Oh, wait. I think I know what’s happened here. When this customer walked in, my associate was in such a hurry to be helpful, he must have locked himself out when he went to look at something in the window. I was so busy fetching rings, offering insight that I didn’t notice. When we heard banging, we thought he was pretending to be locked out. Now we know what’s happened, it will be my pleasure to let him back in once the transaction is completed.”

“Very well. If you’re sure there’s nothing I can help you with, I’ll be on my way. I’ll disperse the crowd outside first and explain the misunderstanding to your colleague.” Forest gives me a stern look before leaving the store and dragging the salesman over to his cruiser. I’m guessing for some stern words about wasting police time.

The female assistant casually walks over to the door, locks it again, turns to me and says, “Now… Where were we?”

Choosing a pair of matching gold bands with hearts etched around them, she totals the bill and I pass her my card. “I hope your colleague won’t give you a hard time when he gets back inside. He doesn’t seem very pleased.”

“He can kiss my ass. I’m sick and tired of his attitude towards customers. He’s either all smarmy and nauseously over the top nice, or he’s a condescending asshole. As I’m the new manager, today’s performance gives me the opportunity to fire his ass.” Returning my card with a bag containing my receipt and purchases, she again gives me that genuine smile and we head to the door.

As she unlocks the door, it pushes open almost knocking her off her feet. Watching the jerk force his way in, I wait for his next move. Standing in front of me, he prods me in the chest with a finger while spouting some bullshit about getting him in trouble with the Sheriff. Looking over at the manager, I apologize.

“What for?” she asks, frowning.

“This.” Taking the asshole's finger that he’s poking my chest with, I snap it firmly back. His eyes roll up and he passes out on the floor.

“Ooops. My bad.” Stepping over him, I ring Forest as I walk back to my hog and let him know that as I was being assaulted, I broke the guy’s finger. Forest responds with promises to sort it out, and I end the call, then head back to the clubhouse.

I see Kenzie give me a quizzical look when I return to the clubhouse. Walking over, I take her left hand, go down on one knee and slip the ring on her finger, without a word. Watching her tear up as she looks at her ring, I’m confident I made the right choice. In more ways than one.

Kayla jumps up squealing and hugs Kenzie before looking at the ring. “Good choice, Jig. Good choice.”

“I was just thinking the same thing, Kayla, and I don’t mean the ring.”

Jo and Mia walk through from the kitchen and Kayla shouts them over. “Come see what Jig finally bought Kenzie.”

More squealing, I think to myself. I’ve never noticed so much squealing as I have since there were wedding preparations or baby shit going on. Maybe that was because I hadn’t found my woman, so wasn’t in the thick of things. My woman! I was beginning to think I wasn’t destined to share my life with anyone. I certainly was not settling for anything less than the one .

Sitting and talking with Flynn, I’m more than pleased when he tells me how happy he believes Kenzie is now. He doesn’t go into detail, but the impression that he gives is that her previous relationships have not been good to her. Well, I am sure not going to be on that list, I tell him.

“Uncle Jig.”

“Uncle Jig.”

Flynn starts to laugh and I’m not sure at what. “What’s so funny?”

“You are, Uncle Jig. Not used to being called that, are you?”

Realizing that Lynx is standing by me, trying to get my attention, I snap to it. “Sorry, Lynx. That name will take a bit of getting used to. What can I do for you?”

“When I’m old enough, will you teach me to ride and help me choose my first bike, or trike?”

“I think your Pop here might want to play a part in that, don’t you? I’ll be glad to help in any way I can, though.”

“With that trike you just bought Kenzie, and the Jeep, and BigDog, she is just the coolest thing in their world right now,” Flynn laughs. “She always meant a lot to them, but how do you compete with all that? I mean, come on.”

“The trike wasn’t my inspiration if truth be told. I wanted a trike for her but with her aversion to two-wheel anything, I wasn’t sure how to swing it with most trikes looking like a bike from the side. It was a brother called Web who knew what type to get to sway her and Fist, our bike sprayer, came up with the matching paint job. Those guys were fantastic.”

“Well, they sure nailed it. She was smitten from the moment she laid eyes on it. I think the best thing was having BigDog on there. I don’t think she even gave her safety a thought when she saw him sitting there. If he was safe and close by, she was safe. That was the clincher. Whoever thought that up, they were the true genius.” Flynn looks at me expectantly, but I think he already knows the answer and I’m keeping quiet.

Seeing Mav walk in, he heads straight to Kenzie, gives her a big hug and a kiss on the cheek, then heads our way. Flynn stands up to greet him and gets a man-hug with a pat on the back. Me? I get a chin lift.

“I see you put a ring on Squirt's finger at last. Oh, and if she gets hurt riding that contraption out there, you’d best leave town.” Not seeing him smile or smirk, I stare back at him.

“Mav. Don’t come the big I am all of a sudden. Kenzie is my Ol’ Lady and as such, that makes her closer to me than she is a cousin to you. You haven’t seen them in years, didn’t know if they were still alive, so back off.”

“Don’t be so touchy, Jig. I’m just fooling with you.” Mav looks surprised by my response, but I don’t think he was fooling around.

“As long as we both know where we stand then, eh?”

Meat breaks the tension when he shouts from the kitchen, “Barbecue tonight and the first of the food will be ready in ten minutes.”

Mav walks away and I see Kenzie intercept him. Flynn nudges me, “I’ve seen that look before. She’s laying down the law there, brother. When we were kids, a guy was pestering Kenzie for a date and wouldn’t take no for an answer. I caught him at it one day and later on I made sure that he knew exactly where he stood when it came to dating my sister. She found out and read me the riot act. Told me in no uncertain terms that she could look after herself, but if she ever found herself out of her depth, she’d ask for my help. Until then, I was to butt out. That is the same look she’s giving Mav that she gave me that day.”