Page 14 of JoJo

“Well, you can always call and invite him to your place for conversation, or cock, whatever. I don’t think I’ll need you for anything for a while. Keys has a lot of work to do first.” Legs offered.

“Yeah, I would do that, but we didn’t get to the awkward morning after exchange of phone numbers, because again – conversation blocked.”

Keys sighed deeply while her fingers flew frantically over her cell phone. No doubt she was relaying everything to her man. That made me angry. “I’m going home, and unless Legs needs my help, I don’t want to be disturbed. Not by anyone.” I looked pointed in Keys’ direction. We’d never had a fight before so this was strange and disheartening for me.

She snorted, then started to speak up, but I cut her off. “No. You especially. It’s obvious where your loyalty lies now, and it sure as shit isn’t with the women of your club. The fact that you even tried to take up for him knowing what was at stake for me, Gah! That said it all. Thanks for your unwavering support though.” The sarcasm hung heavily in the air between us as I surveyed the stunned faces in the room. I was right. I didn’t bother waiting for anyone else to butt in to my drama. I took off out the door and hopped onto my Harley Sportster 1200. I had hoped to get my baby in for the paint job I had planned, but with everything going on, I had to wait. I slicked my hand over the tank, giving a silent promise to my bike that I would take care of her soon. I got her started, walked her back until I could maneuver safely past the other bikes in the lot, and I took off.

The vibration beneath me and the wind blowing across my face were all such familiar things, that I decided not to go directly home. A ride was just what I needed to soothe my soul, and that is how I found myself on the windy mountain road down to Helen, Georgia. I didn’t bother stopping, shopping, or eating while I drove through. Instead, I just turned around on the tail end of the town, and began to wind my way back up the mountain, and towards home. The twists and turns in the road, along with the other idiot drivers, kept my attention focused on the task at hand so my mind didn’t have a chance to drift to everything else it had been so bogged down with lately. By the time I was almost back, I figured I had better stop in at the garage and make sure the guys still had everything covered. Technically, I should have still been in Vegas, but since I was here, I felt obligated. It was my business, after all.

As I pulled up I noticed the old Harley Panhead in the parking lot. It was a classic, and a thing of beauty that would have had my father drooling over it were he still alive. The man may never have gone the route of the MC lifestyle, but he was definitely a born and bred Harley enthusiast. “Whose bike?” I asked John, our young apprentice mechanic as he was headed to his truck. He turned and gave me a squirrely look. “What?” I asked.

He chuckled. “Shouldn’t you know since you’re apparently married to the guy?” His laughter was full on now. “Or did he buy it without permission?” John clapped a hand to his thigh. “I wonder which one of you will throw the other over their knee for a spankin’?”

“Do you like your job?” I deadpanned, which shut him up immediately.

“Sorry, JoJo. I was just teasin’.”

“Yeah, yeah!” I waved him off. “Get out of here before I make you scrub the bays down.” He wasted no time in doing just that. I was kind of glad Steel had shown up because while I was driving back, it occurred to me that he had the only copy of our marriage certificate, and I was going to need that, along with the video, for the lawyers.

I walked into the garage, and I was surprised to see Steel’s Kutte slung over my chair in the office. Then I looked down on the bays and saw his beautifully muscular frame bent over the engine of the 1957 Buick Century Convertible that Chuck had taken in before I left for Vegas. She was a thing of beauty on the outside with a butter-yellow paint job and chrome detailing. Her insides were problematic, at best, though. I wasn’t certain Chuck had the know-how to pull off the repairs, but I promised the owner I would step in and take a look if it wasn’t done before I got back to town. Lucky for me, the owner was a woman, and a Yankee transplant to boot, so she didn’t bat an eye at a female mechanic offering to check the work.

From where I was standing, watching Steel bent over the engine as his muscles flowed against the thin material of the white wife-beater style tank he had on, it appeared he was showing Chuck a thing or two about the classic car’s engine. I dropped my backpack purse in the lockable drawer of my desk, secured it, and hit the stairs to the garage bays below. Both Chuck and Steel turned in my direction as I came down the slightly rusted metal stairs.

“Hey, hey, Cynthia-Jo! I hear congratulations are in order, girly!” Chuck beamed a bright, genuine smile my way. “If I’d known you were headed to Vegas to get hitched, I would have sprung for the trip too.” He looked beyond serious then when he added, “I could have stood up for you since your daddy isn’t here to do it.”

Holy Hell! That man. This is why my dad kept him around so long, and I was loathe to let him go. He was such a good soul. I sniffed back the emotion that threatened to overflow from me in embarrassing ways, and smiled over at him. “Sorry, Chuck! My girl’s weekend got hijacked, and shit happened. I would have invited you if it was planned.” Probably. Okay, I felt like a real asshole in my head, because I never would have thought about it, considering the reason for the marriage. Thankfully, he seemed placated by my words so I didn’t have to feel too horrible for the unintentional oversight.

“Your daddy would be proud, knowing you settled down with a man who knows what he’s doing under the hood.” Okay, Chuck was totally talking cars, but I was sporting a furious blush as I remembered how it felt to have Steel under my hood last night, revving my motor. The smirk plastered across his smug face told me he knew why I was blushing too. Chuck caught on and laughed. “Well, now, I was talking cars young lady!” He fake admonished me for my dirty thoughts. “Your man here just solved the puzzle of this engine’s sputtering for me though. Damn fine job.”

“Great! Can we fix it and call Mrs. Dumas then?”

He shook his head. “Not yet. I have to special order parts since she’s a classic. If I can’t find what we need, we need to think about fabricating something from the original parts we have.” Chuck was back under the hood as his sentence trailed off. Great! This was why we didn’t take on a lot of the classics, even though I would love to work on nothing but. They were generally huge time sinks when we needed the steady up-front money from normal repairs and maintenance.

Steel moved away from the Buick towards me. “Can we go somewhere to talk?” He asked as he picked up a red and black and flannel shirt off a nearby work bench and slung it over his shoulder.

“Sure, let’s go up to the office.” I told him before projecting my voice out to Chuck. “Why don’t you knock off for today, Chuck? John’s already gone and the Buick will keep until tomorrow.”

“Sure thing, sweetheart.” Chuck intoned kindly as he carefully lowered the Buick’s hood. Steel bristled a little at the endearment Chuck used, and I took note of it.

“You’re in the south now, Steel. Every woman is sweetheart, sugar, honey, or darlin’.” He just smiled and shook his head as I led the way to the stairs.

“Oh, hey, Cynthia-Jo?” Chuck called out. I turned half way up the stairs and caught Steel’s gaze locked on my ass. It was my turn to smirk before Chuck’s words ruined the moment. “CJ is in town, and he was looking for you. I think he intended to try to push the takeover now while he’s between shows.” Chuck laughed. “I guess the joke will be on him once he finds out.” Chuck motioned between Steel and I.

“Yeah, well, let’s not spread the word just yet. I’d rather Mr. Alexander tell him the happy news.” With that Chuck ‘yes ma’amed’ me and took off while Steel and I finished our ascent to the office.

“I’m sorry about Quickshot pulling that shit today.” Steel offered up the apology before the door was even shut. “We had words about his bullshit interference. I told him if he continued to try that shit on this I would give up my Aces High Kutte and see about joining your club.” He said the last with a wink.

“You did not!”

“I assure you, I did. I’m a grown man. My decisions are just that. Mine. Marrying you only benefits the club, because I have access to the garage as long as you’re willing to share. I’ll still pay a percentage of repair bills over to you for use of the space, of course.

“I don’t see a problem with that,” I offered honestly.

“So who is this CJ that Chuck just mentioned? Did I have competition?” He laughed then. “Other than Chuck…”

“Christ,” I muttered. “Who told you about Chuck?” I didn’t think he’d caught on to the fact that Chuck had actually offered to marry me the last time Steel was in the garage.

“He did, of course. The man was mighty disappointed he wouldn’t get to marry you himself.” We both laughed at that.

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