12. 11 - Back to the Clubhouse

11 - Back to the Clubhouse

I got a call from Shaina after we all received word that Paramour was shutting its doors for a couple days. In fact, all of the S.H.E. MC businesses were closed for the next couple days, and no one knew why.

“What’s up?” I asked.

“We’re going to the clubhouse tonight.”

“Okay,” I hummed. I wondered if Walker would be okay with me showing up there. We didn’t really talk about what we were to one another. Were we dating now, boyfriend and girlfriend, just casual? Was it okay for me to show up there? What if I saw him with someone else? We hadn’t talked about exclusivity, so it was possible I’d show up and see him with someone else.

“I have it on good authority that your man will probably need you there for him tonight.”

“Why?”

“A whole bunch of drama went down at the clubhouse yesterday. I think the President got tossed out or something. Who knows? Anyway, there’s a bunch of members down from the mother chapter in Cedar Falls.”

“That’s where his ex-wife went.”

“Yeah, pretty sure she’s here, too.”

“Oh, shit.”

“Yeah, girl. So, we’re gonna doll you up and let you be there to support your man.”

“Maybe I should call him and make sure he wants me there, first.”

“Nope. Don’t you dare. He probably thinks you’re working tonight, since you were supposed to until they closed the doors. Otherwise, I bet he would have invited you.”

“Shaina, what if he doesn’t want me there?”

“Then I guess he’ll have to tell you that to your face.”

“Fine. Tillie is supposed to babysit anyway. I’ll just pay her a little extra to be okay with it being so I can go out instead of working.”

“That sister of yours is a pain in the ass, sometimes.”

“No, she just needs a life of her own and her no-good husband isn’t helping with that.”

“You ladies sure did get the raw end of the stick in the love department.” Shaina huffed out a frustrated breath. “Hopefully, Walker will change that for you.”

“You seem to have a lot of faith in him.”

“Girl, if he had even looked at me sideways before I met my man, I would have climbed that biker like a damn tree. No, I would have ridden him like he rides his Harley – fast and care-fucking-free!”

I laughed so hard I almost pissed my pants.

“I mean have you seen all that gorgeous hair?” Shaina went on to gush.

“It sounds like you have a crush on the man I’m dating.”

“Lord girl, every woman with a heartbeat has a crush on that asshole. You’re the lucky one he decided to gift all that handsomeness to, though.”

“We haven’t had a talk about our future yet. We had the one date and a few other run-ins.”

I could almost hear Shaina roll her eyes, she went at it so hard. “Please, everyone has noticed how much happier he seems in just the short time the two of you have been talking. Plus, he brought your kids flowers and toys when he took you on a date. If that doesn’t say, ‘I’m serious about you’, then I don’t know what does.”

“What should I wear tonight?” I asked as a way to change the subject. There was a lesson I had learned in life, and it was not to speculate. Once Walker and I had a conversation about where we were going or what we were to one another, then I’d feel better about things. He called me his woman on our date and was possessive as hell when another man stepped in and tried to get my attention. Then again, he left me on my doorstep after a steamy kiss that felt like it was leading to more. The problem was probably all mine because I hadn’t really ever dated. Josh had been my one and only boyfriend, then my husband.

“I think you should wear a skirt and maybe a tube top. Pair it with those black bootie things you have with the silver zippers.”

“You are ridiculous. I don’t think the man wants me because I dress like the women who whore themselves out to the club.”

“True, but then again, the sexy biker bitch aesthetic would look great on you.”

“Okay, well, I’m nixing that idea, and I think I’ll call Trinity for advice on what to wear instead. Is she coming tonight or is she still boycotting the club because of the boys she grew up with?”

“I don’t think Trouble will be there, so she might come.”

“Okay, well whenever you two want to fill me in on all the finer details of Trouble and Trinity’s hate-fest, I’m all ears. She still refuses to tell me anything.”

“That story needs to come from her, but if she knows he won’t be there, she’ll show up.”

“Okay then, hurry up and get here.”

Shaina showed up about twenty minutes later and I immediately started to worry again that maybe it wasn’t right to show up at the clubhouse uninvited by the man I was dating. Surely, he would have called if he wanted me there.

“If Walker gets mad about me showing up, I’m going to blame you.”

“That’s fine. I can take the heat. Besides, I’ll look like a bad bitch doing it.” She pointed down at her feet where she was wearing five-inch tall, spiked stilettos. They were all black except that spike of heel. That looked to be silver or chrome or some shiny metal that was bound to pick up the light and reflect it like a disco ball. Shaina’s blonde hair was set in chunky curls down her back and even those strands of hers appeared glossier than should be normal.

“You look amazing and I’m a bit jealous because I don’t think I can compare, no matter what I wear.” I glanced up when Shaina didn’t respond and noticed she was staring out the window.

“What’s going on?”

“There’s a man out there in one of those ancient cop cars. You know, back when they used the Impalas? He’s been sitting there since I arrived. No telling how long he was there before I pulled up.”

“Maybe he’s waiting for someone,” I suggested.

“Who? Mrs. Meyerson who never leaves her home? We live in the mountains where neighbors are sparse. Most of the houses on this street are vacation rentals and it isn’t exactly peak season.”

“Maybe he’s waiting for his GPS to update his location, you know how the signal is around here?” When she shrugged, I tried again. “He might have lost his key to a vacation rental and he’s waiting on the property manager to bring him another one?”

Out of curiosity, I moved to the window to check it out. I picked my phone up and snapped a picture of the car and then zoomed in as well as I could to see if I could get a clear shot of his face. All I could really see was that he had a fairly full beard, and it appeared darker than the rest of him.

“Now you have me paranoid and I’m not sure if I should go. What if he’s waiting for me to leave so that he can kidnap my kids?”

Shaina laughed. “Of all the things. You think some rando sitting in his pathetic car is out to steal your kids?”

“Seems more plausible than him sitting there because he lost his keys.”

Headlights glared on the man and his car as my sister pulled up to the house. It was then that the man took off. “Maybe he thought three women in the home was a crowd?” Shaina asked.

“Maybe.” When my sister came inside, I told her about the man and asked her to stay vigilant and text me immediately if he showed up again.

I finished getting dressed, gave my kids a hug and kiss, reminded my sister to keep watch, and then Shaina and I headed out. Something about the man who had been parked outside of my house didn’t sit right with me.

“Please, tell me that is not Wash over there!” Shaina shouted two minutes after we entered the clubhouse. Wash was in my line of sight as well, but then again, so was the nearly naked woman who was crawling all over him. I shook my head knowing that Shaina would undoubtedly make a scene. It made me remember the date I’d had with Walker when he had banished those two women from the club just for hanging out with the third. Suddenly, I wondered if I would be kicked out and banished along with Shaina if she did something stupid.

“You look a little lost,” an adorably pregnant woman said to me. I turned to see her smile as she tugged on my arm to pull me off to the side, so that I wasn’t standing there like a lump in front of the door.

“Where are all the men?” I asked when realization set in that Wash and a few others were the only men in the open bar area of the clubhouse. The rest were all women who either appeared to be bored out of their minds or they were stuck to one of the available men like glue. I winced as Shaina pulled the club girl off Wash and then started to lay into him about how he allowed that bullshit to happen.

“It’s not like that for everyone,” the woman who had pulled me to the side suggested. “My old man would never allow that to happen. He’s in the back handling club business with everyone else.”

“Oh. I’m Reesa, by the way.”

“Reesa? That’s unusual.”

“Theresa, but everyone has called me Reesa or Ree for so long that I sometimes won’t even answer if someone uses my full government name,” I joked.

“That’s cool. I like it. Did you come with your friend, or do you have a man that you’re waiting on?”

“I-We…” I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “We only just went out on our first date, and he didn’t exactly invite me tonight.”

“Truth be told, this is an impromptu party because one of the other chapters paid a surprise visit. If your man is one of the ones back there in their little boy’s club meeting, then he probably hasn’t had time to tell you about it.”

“I guess. Still, what if he didn’t want me here? My friend dragged me along because she heard his ex was going to be here. There’s some bad blood between them because of shit he did. He fully admitted his past to me, and it isn’t pretty, but he isn’t that same man. You know?”

There was a weird twinkle in the woman’s eyes as I spoke. “Did he abuse his ex?”

“No. I’d never be with a man who had a history of that, no matter how much he claimed to have changed.”

“Well, then I don’t think you have anything to worry about. Who did you say you were dating?”

“Walker.”

I waited for her to start throwing warnings at me, but she didn’t. Instead, she smiled warmly at me and nodded her head. “I can see it.”

I leaned back, surprised by her statement. “No warnings about how he’s a cheater and no good for anything more than a one-night stand?”

She shook her head. “Obviously you don’t feel that way about him.”

I shook my head. “No. Honestly, I can’t even picture him being the type of person he had to be when he broke himself and his ex the way he did. He’s been nothing but kind, attentive, and he even brought flowers for my daughter and a toy for my son when he picked me up for our date. That doesn’t scream cheating womanizer to me. Then again, I’ve been fooled before.”

“Your gut is telling you that he’s genuine, though, right?”

“Yeah,” I whispered. “It really is.”

“That’s all that matters. For what it’s worth, I think Walker learned valuable lessons from the past. He’s a good man. He was back then, too. He was just lost for a long while and that wasn’t all his fault.”

“You knew him when he was married before?”

She laughed. “Yeah, kind of hard not to know the person I was married to.”

My eyes rounded out like giant saucers. Holy freaking shit. I sat there waxing poetic about the man who had cheated on her and she smiled and listened like it was the best thing she’d ever heard. “Wow. I don’t know what to say.”

“How about, nice to meet you?”

“Yeah, well obviously. You’re the most normal person here to talk to, and I’m including my best friend in that short list.” I pointed to where Shaina and Wash were in full-on verbal combat on the other side of the room.

“They won’t make it. If I can be so bold,” she offered, and I nodded in response again. “Your friend likes the lifestyle, but she’s not in love with the man. Wash hasn’t grown up yet. He’s still in the early days with the club where he thinks he needs to experience all the perks – that includes the club whores.” Poppy shook her head as if she pitied him. “Damn shame too, because he obviously has feelings for her. He’s going to lose out on your friend because he is too busy listening to his idiot club brothers about not settling down too soon.”

“You got all that from that little argument?”

“I people watch.”

“Me too.” Poppy grinned at my admission.

“I can see that, too. Don’t let my history with Walker overshadow your present. Despite how things ended with us, I want the best for him.”

“Really? Most women who are cheated on want the man to get nothing but the karma they feel he deserves.”

“He has had more than his fair share of karma hit him since we split up. Some of it deserved, some not.” She sighed. “The thing is, I loved that man for a long time. We basically grew into adulthood together. He did something shitty and unforgivable to me, but in his own way, he also set me free to find my true happiness. When you start out loving someone, it takes a lot longer to clue in to the fact that maybe you weren’t meant to be a forever couple. We weren’t. We were meant to be a steppingstone to better things. I already found my better man. It’s Walker’s turn to find his perfect match too.” She winked at me as my stomach flipped.

“I do know a little something about starting out one way and ending up realizing there needs to be an end.”

“I figured, since you mentioned having kids. How old?”

“My girl is 15 and my boy is 4.”

“Oh wow, that’s quite the gap.”

“Yeah, I wasn’t sure if I wanted another one. I had my daughter young, had just turned 18 and she was born two weeks later.”

“You married your high school sweetheart?”

“I did, and we were happy for a time, until we weren’t.”

“That’s the way things go. Is he also your son’s father?”

“Yeah. He died when my son was two. Part of my grief was feeling guilty because I was ready to leave him before it happened.”

“Was he cheating?”

“I didn’t know it at the time, but some things have come out since that indicate he may have been. His mistress – the one I knew about – was his gambling addiction. Come to find out, he may have been gambling to try to double his money because he had another woman and possibly another child to care for.”

“That’s rough. I’m surprised, knowing that, that you would go for a man who was known to be a cheater.” There was no bitterness in her question, just curiosity.

“Walker is the one who informed me of the whole situation with my husband’s possible infidelity. I was already interested in him before it all came to light.” Poppy seemed taken aback by that. “Walker is close to Griffon, who goes to my daughter’s school. The teenage daughter of the woman my husband supposedly had an affair with approached my daughter with that news and instead of telling me about it she had been acting out. Griffon finally told Walker, who insisted that I should know. He was really sweet when he came to break the news to me and explained that he was worried about my daughter and what keeping that secret was doing to her.”

Poppy smiled widely. “I always knew he’d make a good dad. We’ve been hearing a lot about how he looks after Spike’s son.” She nodded as if she knew all along that he really was a good man.

“You aren’t still angry with him?”

She chuckled lightly and shook her head before her hand rested on her belly. “How can I be? He gave me the out I desperately needed. I’m ridiculously happy with Smoke and our growing family. Honestly,” she said and then looked me in the eyes. “This is my first time being back since I left all those years ago. I came because I was worried about him and how the club has been treating him.”

“That makes sense. The first night we met, he was sitting at the bar drinking water by himself. It was like he was a pAriel. I thought he was security for the night or something because he seemed out of touch with the rest of the partiers.” I shrugged my shoulders. “I guess, after we started talking and hit it off, it never occurred to me that no one really bothered us or came to talk to him.”

Poppy’s mouth turned down in a frown. “I never wanted that for him. No matter what he put me through, I never wanted him to lose the club. They’ve been his family his whole life.”

Commotion across the room caused us all to look up. The men who poured into the open bar area of the clubhouse all looked a little run down and as though they had each received some bad news. “This doesn’t really feel like a celebration,” I whispered to Poppy.

“No, it’s more of a transition period, and those are always tough.”

A handsome man with long dark hair and a thick five o’clock shadow sauntered over and smiled down at the woman beside me. “You making friends, beautiful?”

Aww. The way he said it, you could feel how genuine the sentiment was. Poppy smiled up at him as if he were everything good in this world, and I realized that was exactly what he was for her. No wonder she didn’t carry around bitter resentment for her ex-husband. She moved on to a happier union. There was no room for the past there. Good for her.

“This is Reesa and she’s…”

“Reesa?” Walker sounded surprised as he called out my name. I glanced up and smiled sweetly at him.

“Hey. Shaina dragged me along and said that you might…” Shit. I cut myself off there because I was sitting beside the woman I was supposed to shield him from. I glanced guiltily at Poppy and shrugged my shoulders as she started to laugh.

“It’s okay. I think your beautiful girlfriend here was meant to shield you from my presence, but neither of you should be worried about that.”Smoke winced and glanced between the three of us. “I like her, Walk. Do yourself a favor and don’t screw it up.” She winked at him and then threw her hand out to Smoke. “Help me up. I think my foot fell asleep.”

Smoke chuckled and helped his wife wobble to her feet. “You ready to go?” He asked in that gruff voice of his that skated over your senses and made you feel like a tumble on the rough side was just what you needed.

Poppy chuckled again, as if she could read my thoughts. “He’s a lot to take, I know.” She held her hand out to me and I shook it. “It was really nice to meet you, Reesa. I wish you all the happiness in the world, and I hope your girl is okay. We didn’t get to go into that fiasco, but it wasn’t right that she was told that stuff. If you ever need someone at your back, if anything comes from that, you let me know.” She glanced down at her burgeoning belly. “Well, I might not be much help these days, but I can send my girls down to handle business.”

“Thank you. I appreciate that.”

“I’m happy for you, Walker.” Poppy said as she tapped his shoulder before she and Smoke walked away.

“I’m almost afraid to ask what happened here but considering that was my ex-wife and she was being nice, and her old man hasn’t tried to kill me, I’m not going to.”

He leaned down and picked me off the couch, took my place, and then planted my ass firmly in his lap. As his arms wrapped around me, he leaned in and whispered in my ear. “Thank you for being here. You don’t know how much I appreciate you showing up for me.”

“You can thank Shaina, since she gave me the head’s up. Or maybe thank the S.H.E. MC, since they closed down all their businesses for a week and I got the night off.”

“Damn, they closed their doors?” He was surprised, but also not at the same time.

“Yeah. Do you know what’s going on?”

“There’s a little shakeup in leadership between our two clubs right now. It should all sort itself out soon enough, but there’s a little bit of pushback on the matter. I’m guessing that might be why they shut everything down for a bit.”

“Hopefully, they don’t take too long to figure it out. I can’t go without a job indefinitely.”

“If they don’t get shit up and running in a couple days, you can come work for me. I have to check with Spike, but I don’t think he’d have a problem with it. We need someone to answer phones and do the ordering anyway.”

“Would that be during the day? Like school hours?”

“Yeah, it would.”

“If you really need someone, I’d be willing to do that. I used to work for Adrian’s Auto doing exactly those things years ago. Lost the job because he met a woman who lived across the country and decided to close up shop and follow her there.”

“Perfect. I’ll talk to Spike.”

“You don’t think it will be awkward to work with someone you’re sort of dating?”

His eyes met mine and I could see the amusement there. “Reesa, let’s get something straight, we aren’t ‘sort of’ dating. We are dating. We are only dating each other, no other people. Monogamous. If there’s another way to say that, then add it in there.” I laughed as he carried on. “And secondly, I figure it probably works better for you with kids in school during that time. That way, you aren’t having to leave them at night to go to work. Might pay less in babysitting too, which will impact your bottom line a bit and maybe make up for the fact that you aren’t getting big tips some weeks.”

“Yeah, I imagine it would equal out.”

“Plus, you won’t have to worry about creeps fucking around at night in that parking lot when you get off work.”

“Speaking of creeps,” I mentioned. “There was a strange man outside my house for the longest time tonight. He only left after my sister pulled up, but Shaina said he was out there when she got to my house, too.”

“You know what he looked like?”

“I took pictures.”

“Good girl. Show me.” I pulled my phone out and showed him the pictures I took. “This is good, baby. I want you to do the same thing if you ever see him, or anyone else, lurking around your place again. Don’t hesitate and then send them to me immediately.”

He took my phone and sent the images to himself and then handed it back. “Good on you and Shaina for noticing and doing what needed to be done. I take it my ex-wife didn’t manage to talk you out of dating me.”

I grinned at him as I shook my head. “She was really nice, Walker. In fact, she encouraged me to be with you because she said you deserved to be happy.”

“She said that?” He asked. There was no mistaken how shocked he was.

“That was the gist of our conversation. She doesn’t wish you any ill will and said you’ve suffered enough for your mistakes anyway.”

“Didn’t think she gave a damn or kept track.”

“You guys spent a decade together, right?” He agreed. “It’s hard to turn off the part of you that cares for another person, even when they do you wrong.” Walker winced at that last bit. “They also know you better than most and can see the changes you’ve made.”

He blew out a breath. “Honestly, never thought we’d all be able to be in the same room, let alone that close, and not have a huge blowout.”

“Would you want her back if she wasn’t with Smoke?”

He shook his head. “No. Our time has well and truly passed. There was a moment, when I regretted everything and tried every way imaginable to win her back, including some underhanded bullshit that blew up in my face.” He chuckled, obviously amused with his past self. “Even then, I knew it wouldn’t have worked, but I had to try anyway for the sake of… I don’t know… Making myself feel better about how I destroyed everything, I guess.”

“I understand that.”

“I don’t still have feelings for her, other than to say she’s a great person and I loved her once. Seeing her tonight, it was like a glimpse of my past and one that belongs as only that. It feels like you got stuck re-living too much of my past with my ex-wife, though. I feel like one of those assholes who keeps bringing it up.”

I laughed. “If that’s true, then we’re both guilty of the same thing. We are older and have baggage. Some of it is on display for various reasons right now and it can’t just be ignored and swept under the rug. I’d rather we don’t make a big deal of it, and just handle what gets thrown at us. It would be worse if, for instance, I hadn’t been here tonight, and you didn’t bring up the fact that Poppy was here at all.”

He shook his head vigorously. “I’ve been in meetings all day with the club about shit that’s going down and we don’t take cell phones in with us. That’s why Poppy was here, in case something happened with her or the baby, so a prospect could knock on the door and get Smoke. I planned to see if you could get here tonight but wasn’t sure about your work schedule. I can promise you this now, I will never keep shit like that from you. I hope you respect me enough to do the same.”

“I wouldn’t keep it from you either. I think it’s better if we deal with things together.” It still felt weird to say that, like we weren’t a real couple yet that should be making those claims. It still felt right at the same time, and I couldn’t for the life of me explain the incongruity or why I felt those opposing things.

“Damn right, baby. I’m going to have Quickshot check into the man who was posted up outside your house. Something isn’t sitting right about that. Have you heard from Tillie or the kids at all since you got here?”

“No.” I glanced down at my phone and there was still nothing.

“Let’s head back to my room, so you have some quiet, and you can check on them before we do anything else.”

“Thank you for thinking of them. I’ve been worried.”

“You don’t ever have to thank me for looking out for your family, baby. They’re a part of you, too.”