Page 44 of Wait For Me

“Only had my cut back for a few years now. It’s always a worry in the back of my mind though. I’ve wanted Star ever since I saw her turn into an independent woman, rather than the protected club princess she was when you asked me to do that shit. Why do you think I haven’t gone there? She’s been back three fucking months, and I’m still wondering if it’s a smart play, if I’m wasting my time, if I’ll be penalized if I try something with her and it doesn’t work out.”

I sighed as Tripp sat there gaping at me. Then he scrubbed his hands down his face, as if he could wipe away everything I just said.

“Bagger, fuck. I screwed everything up back then.”

I waved off his attempt at owning that shit and continued with what I wanted to say instead. “When I finished prospecting the first time, never thought I’d lose my cut. Never dreamed the fuck up that would cost me it would be about a woman I wasn’t even involved with either. So, getting the club’s money involved with my business venture never sat right with me. What if tomorrow, you took it all away because of some perceived fuck up on my part?”

“Shit.” Tripp groaned. “When I fucked up, I really put all of you in it.” He slung his phone my way. “Read that.” He shook his head as I read through the texts that Kip sent to his father. “Wasn’t just you that I fucked up with that bullshit. I tore my own kids apart, because I couldn’t think of a better way to make sure we all stayed together. I’m gonna fix this shit, Bag.”

KIP: Star showed up. It was ugly. Don’t count on that situation ever being fixed. Ash doesn’t want her around. Star doesn’t even want to know me anymore. Might want to check to be sure she isn’t running, because she’s pretty pissed at everyone else too for keeping my family a secret.

I glanced back up at Tripp as he started speaking again. “I don’t know how to fix this shit between them. It’s my fault that they’re broken. Kim would fucking have my ass if she knew what a mess I’d made of our family since she’s been gone.” He picked up the picture of his family that sat on his desk for years. It was one of Tripp, Kim, Mack, Vivian, and Kip and Star when they were really young. “Now, I have to fix the lack of faith I put in your heart about your club. You’re right. It wasn’t fair of me to put that on you. I knew better. Hell, I outright told you to cheat on my daughter. I’m surprised Kim didn’t resurrect herself to come take me the fuck out when I spouted that shit. Mack damn near did the job for her after you left the office that day.” He shook his head again and put the picture frame back on his desk.

“You want my daughter, you go make her fall in love with you all over again, but you better love her back just as well. If you fail her, it won’t be your cut you have to worry about. It’ll be your ass getting kicked from one man to another. The club won’t get involved, but I’m still her father.”

“Understood.” I thought I heard something outside the office and got up to check it out. “We done here?”

“We’re done.”

The office door was cracked and standing just outside was the woman we had just been talking about. Even though her face was tear-stained, no doubt from whatever went down with her brother and Ash, she was still the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen. Instinct told me to pull her into my arms and give the comfort she needed, but I hesitated just long enough for Tripp to get up and come to see who I was staring at.

“Baby girl,” he groaned. “Come here.” Instead of being wrapped in my arms the way I’d envisioned moments ago, her father took her into his. I stood there for a minute, trying to decide how to get around them so they could have their moment, but the minute I tried to move, Star’s hand shot out and grabbed my wrist. She shook her head, indicating that she didn’t want me to go, and I had to wonder how much she had overheard before I discovered her standing outside that door.

17

Star

Between what I’d just learned at my brother’s house and the conversation I accidentally overheard coming from my father’s office, I wasn’t sure how to process any of it. Instead, I let my father hold and comfort me for the first time in years.

As Bagger attempted to go around and allow my father and I time together, I took hold of his wrist and shook my head. That was the catalyst that broke my father’s hug and when he stepped back to take me in, he noticed that I was hanging on to Bagger.

“What was it you came here for, Star?” My father asked.

“Can we go inside and talk with the door shut? The things I have to say aren’t for people to overhear.”

“Neither were the things you probably overheard,” he announced, as he shut the door to his office and turned a radio on that sat on the desk by the door. It was low enough that we could comfortably talk on the other side of the room, but loud enough that any eavesdroppers in the hallway wouldn’t hear.

“You need to stay,” I told Bagger as I took a seat. He only nodded and sat beside me, as if it was his natural place. My world felt like it had been turned inside out after I woke up and set out to try to handle business.

“You stopped by to see Kip,” my dad said, getting us started off.

“I did, and you obviously already know how well that went.”

“Listen, baby girl, you need to just get over things and…”

“Stop. I’m not the one with a grudge here. Granted, I could give two fucks about that traitorous tramp my brother’s shacked up with, but…”

“That traitorous tramp is your brother’s wife,” my dad growled back at me.

“That doesn’t change facts.”

Bagger snorted beside me as he attempted to hold in his laughter.

“Isn’t he just as big a traitor?”

I glared at my father. “No, he’s not. Bagger was never anything to me, but the dream of a girl who was too stupid to see reality. Ashlynn was my best friend, she knew how I felt, and yet in choosing to hurt my brother she chose to hurt me too. That was something she did, in plain sight at the clubhouse. My house. Where I lived. There was no question that it wouldn’t get back to me. That was what Bagger was banking on, after all. A quick and harsh way to make sure I’d never agree to his silly proposal.”

“You don’t think you have it in you to forgive the girl? She was still just a girl, Star. She made a mistake when she thought her own heart had been broken.”

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