Page 7 of Walker

“Never said you couldn’t be,” I argued glumly.

“Yeah, not with that mouth of yours, but your actions speak just as loudly as everyone else’s inactions. You’re still on the outside looking in and wondering if you even fit anymore. You fit man. You’re club. Always have been. Those stumbling blocks need to be put away so we can all get back on track with one another. It doesn’t do anyone any good to have club members who feel like outsiders, especially when they’re sitting in the middle of the clubhouse feeling like that.”

It was almost uncanny how much he understood what I’d been feeling for far too long. “Why now?”

“Told you already. You chatting up Reesa made me see Walker again. Not the deeds of your past, but the man you used to be before everything else. The one who helped us build this chapter from the ground up. The one who has been keeping himself in limbo, afraid to screw it all up again. You have to put that fear away, brother. Wondering when the other shoe is gonna drop is no way to live. Doubting your worth to everyone around you isn’t a good look either.”

I only gave him a nod in acknowledgment because the words were lost in a swirl of confusing thoughts. Quickshot stood and patted me on the shoulder before he headed back to the clubhouse.

“For what it’s worth, Keys didn’t think it was a bad thing that you were chatting up Reesa. She thinks the two of you might just be good for one another.” He turned toward the door again, but hesitated. “Just don’t fuck it up and make her rethink shit. Fuck knows I don’t need that kind of naggin’ about other people’s problems when I go home at night.”

Part of me wanted to tell my VP that I didn’t give two shits about the problems he might face at home. Fuck Keys and all the other bitches of S.H.E. MC. They needed to take responsibility for their own inactions. Poppy wasn’t even mad that they didn’t tell her about me cheating on her. She felt betrayed by them because they never once even checked in to make sure she was doing okay after everyone knew that she found out. That wasn’t on me.

Me being a cheating, insecure prick because I couldn’t give my woman the one thing she wanted so desperately was my only problem. That was all shit from the past anyway. It had been years since my divorce went through and because of everyone else’s bullshit, it still felt like it was hanging over my head.

I glanced back up into the darkness where those taillights disappeared long ago and wondered if it would be worth pursuing the interest that flared between Reesa and me. For all I knew, she wasn’t really interested and just used me to kill time while waiting on her friend.

There was no use speculating, since I didn’t think we’d see one another again. I wouldn’t go out of my way to start shit with a woman, especially one closely associated with the S.H.E. MC females.

3 - A Little Humanity

“Mom!” Ariel called out as she rolled her eyes at her brother. “Make him stop! I just saw Griffon in the other aisle.”

“Ariel, honestly!” I blew out a frustrated breath and pushed the hairs back out of my face that had escaped my messy bun. “Can you just focus on the important stuff and grab me that box of tissues so we can go?”

My poor boy was grabbing at his ears, and I knew what that meant without needing an expensive trip to the doctor to confirm. He probably had another ear infection, as he was prone to them. My head pounded with the headache that started to set in long before we got to the store and with little Josh’s wailing, it wouldn’t get better any time soon.

Ariel threw a box of tissues into the cart and rolled her pretty green eyes as she defiantly stomped a foot at me. “Are we done now?” She sassed.

“God, give me strength!” I prayed out loud.

“God should have given you birth control,” Ariel snapped and when I turned my angry mom glare on her, she was staring at her brother, as if she wished wholeheartedly that he didn’t exist.

“We are going to have a chat when we get home, young lady.”

“Whatever,” she sniped just as Josh Jr. started wailing even louder. I put my wrist up to his forehead and lamented the fact that his fever was back. I needed him to hold out one more day, so the doctor’s office would be open because an emergency room visit would cost us more money than I had to spare.

Just as we were about to head to the checkout, someone stepped around the corner and stopped right in front of my cart. “Everything good here?” He asked in that smokey voice that made me remember every single word he’d spoken to me when I was at the clubhouse.

“Hi. Um, yeah. It’s just one of those days.” Walker’s eyes roamed over me, taking in every inch of my yoga pants, wrinkled shirt, falling down bun, and exhausted self. Great. Meanwhile, he looked like he just sauntered off a sexy biker magazine that was meant to recruit club girls as well as men who wished they could be him.

“You feeling bad, little man?” Walker asked my son, after his assessing eyes narrowed on my daughter and passed to my crying boy. Great. So not only did he see me looking like complete ass, but he heard my daughter at her finest level of teenage attitude. Yeah, we were one hell of a package that couldn’t even be sold in the discount bin today.

“He’s not feeling well.”

“Got that much.”

My face grew heated with embarrassment, since the whole darn store had been listening to my son crying for the last fifteen minutes.

“Griffon!” Aril squeaked the boy’s name as he came around the corner carrying some beach towels. The boy glanced up and smiled at my daughter before he took in the scene and frowned at my son.

“You headed to the lake?” Ariel asked as she twirled her dirty blonde hair around her finger and stuck a hip out in what would have been a comical stance, if it hadn’t been for her brother who chose that moment to ramp up his theatrics, not that I blamed him. My poor boy just wanted to be in the comfort of his own home while he felt like crap.

“God, Mom! Get him under control. Y’all are embarrassing,” my daughter snapped.

It is illegal to throw your children away.

It is illegal to throw your children away.

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