Page 38 of The Biker Needs A Nanny

“Drop it. It’s handled.”

“Why you gotta be like that? You’re always carrying shit around and not sharing. We’re your brothers.”

“Speak for yourself,” Pipe says with a grin. “He shared with me.”

“Fuck off. Me and VP are like this.” He holds up his crossed fingers.

I reach over and flip on some music to drown him out.

“Ha ha. Very funny!” Brick yells.

I grin and drive, enjoying the music with no goddamn conversation.

When I get home, I trudge up the steps and into the kitchen and spy the clock. It’s half-past one. Then I notice a plate of cookies and snag one, recognizing they’re gingersnaps. My favorite. I imagine the girls must have told Grace.

Taking a bite, I find them still warm from the oven.

“Grace?” I call out, but I’m met with silence. Stepping into the family room, I glance out the windows toward the bay and see her at the end of the dock. It looks likes she hanging Christmas lights. “God, that woman isn’t going to stop until she blows every fuse in the damn house.”

I stroll out there, the dock shaking with my footsteps.

She turns.

“What are you doing?” I ask.

“Putting up lights.”

I’m munching on the gingersnap. “Did the girls tell you I liked these?”

She nods.

“I take it these were for me, then?”

She nods again and looks away. “Mildred said there’s a boat parade on the fourteenth.”

“Yeah. They come right past here.”

“Will you be in it?” She gestures to my small boat.

“I’ve got to get a new prop on it.”

“Prop?”

“Propellor.”

“Oh.” There’s a distant look in her eyes. “I bet the girls love it, don’t they?”

“We didn’t do it last year.”

“You weren’t planning to this year either, I take it?”

“Just need to find the time to fix it.” I realize it sounds like a lame excuse, even to my ears.

“Is it a big job?”

“Probably take me less than five minutes.”

She doesn’t say anything.

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