Page 41 of Wait For Me

“Missy stepped out of line the other night at the cookout, said some shit to Star she had no business saying. Then she lied to me about it. Probably would have believed the lies too, except I was there to hear them.” Trench looked at me funny then, but I didn’t bother to explain.

“Well, from what I hear, our boy Trench took my daughter out last night, so no room for you to be here anyway. Head out in the morning, take care of whatever the hell is slowing those shipments down and then get back here.” He sneered in my direction again, though I ignored the blatant antagonism. Things hadn’t been right between Tripp and me in years. “Spice already has your route worked out and shit so get with him.”

“How long has this been planned?”

Tripp tipped back a shot and then grinned. “Been planned for two weeks now. Was going to send Trench and Spice, but since he’s dating my daughter, he should be here.”

I waited to see if Trench would speak up, he looked like he was going to keep mum on what happened on his so-called date, but then the man blew out a breath and came clean. I wouldn’t have ratted him out. I would have put a boot to his ass when we were alone though if he hadn’t.

“I did take your daughter out last night, Prez, but she don’t want nothing to do with me like that.”

“How in the hell did you manage to fuck that up so quickly?” Tripp asked as both Kip and I laughed at poor Trench’s expense.

“Didn’t do nothing to fuck it up, Prez. She said it was bad timing and shit. Wasn’t ready.”

“You need to learn to man the fuck up, Trench. What you shoulda done was laid one on her and showed her how ready she was.”

I quirked an eyebrow up at the man, knowing if someone had done that to his daughter when she didn’t want it, he would have killed the man.

“Not out to disrespect a woman like that, especially not your daughter, Prez. She turned away, took that for the “No” it was.”

“Fine, you head out with Spice in the morning.” Tripp turned back to me then. “You – don’t be a fucknut this time. You want my daughter – earn her. And all that shit I was gonna let slide before, that’s completely fucking off the table now. You’re old enough to have that shit worked out of your system.”

I didn’t even bother to speak, just nodded and left before the man changed his mind again.

15

Star

Three months went by where I had very little interaction with the club. Trench, thankfully, stopped coming around after that first date. I assumed Bagger went back to his sure thing since I hadn’t seen or heard from him either. My brother was still a ghost somewhere in this tiny town that we shared. Our paths never crossed, and I had to assume that was by design.

Aunt Vivian underwent her final treatment three weeks ago and she started to get her energy back. That meant that she and Uncle Mack were making up for lost time, and let’s just say, it had me doing real estate searches for the area because there was no way I could hear the two of them going at it again without losing my mind. Besides, I thought it would be a nice Christmas present for them to have privacy back.

Christmas was two weeks away, and the one thing Aunt Viv said she wanted more than anything was that we all be able to sit down for a family dinner together. So, that was my goal today as I set aside the real estate listings I’d been combing through and pulled out my phone to text my dad.

STAR: I need Kip’s address.

TRIPP: Why?

STAR: Because I’m trying to make Aunt Viv’s Christmas wish come true and can’t do that unless Kip and I are on speaking terms.

TRIPP: I want you to promise to call if you need me. And talk to someone before you do anything rash if it doesn’t go well.

STAR: Well, that’s encouraging.

TRIPP: Promise!

STAR: I promise.

I left the house and followed the directions on my GPS to the address that my father had given me. It was a cute little ranch style house with a driveway big enough to fit two cars side-by-side in front of a closed two-car garage. I would be parking on the street since there actually were two vehicles taking up the driveway. I wondered who was at my brother’s house, but it didn’t matter. We needed to get our shit straight. I’d been back in town for more than three months, and we’d only spoken that once at the cookout when he accused me of being a freeloader.

I had to stop thinking about that before I got pissed again though. So, I got out of the car, and took my fresh baked banana bread with me. The bread was something I used to make at the clubhouse when we were younger. It was our mother’s recipe, and if I was being honest, she probably got it off the internet or something. Still, Kip used to live for the days when she would make it, and then when I did too after she was gone.

I held my peace offering carefully in one hand and knocked on the door with the other. To my complete surprise, when the door opened, Ashlynn stood there with a worried look on her face. She also looked just as beautiful as she had in high school, though she had filled out a lot more. Her hips were wider, and she was holding more weight all over. Her boobs were also bigger and… leaking.

“I think your tits are leaking,” I told her, and watched as she glanced down and blushed to the tips of her ears.

“Sorry, I need to go take care of this, come on in.”

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