Page 67 of Frisco

“Thanks.” She sent me a warm smile, before a wondering look replaced it. “I gotta say, it’s a really big deal that Ghost and his club are here. Did you travel with them?”

“Uh.” Oh, man. She was asking questions, and I didn’t know how Shane wanted them to be answered. “No. I know Sha—Ghost from where I grew up. My sister followed the club out here and well…” It sounded ridiculous, now that I was saying it to a total stranger. “I came to get my sister.”

“Is she young?” Shelly lowered her voice, pausing halfway to the house. “If she’s eighteen, they’re not going to like you sticking your nose in their business. Eighteen and up is fair game to these guys. Since you’re with Ghost, maybe rules are different, but—”

“No.” I started laughing because at this point, how could I not? “I’m sorry.” Still laughing. This whole situation was messed up. I waved a hand, feeling some tears building.

Shelly looked at me like I’d lost my head, but that made it all the funnier.

She was warning me about the guys wanting my sister here. It was so the other way around.

“It’s not like that. At all. At. All. My sister is–” Wheeze. Now I was laughing at myself laughing.

Shelly cracked, starting to laugh with me.

My delirium wasn’t just about Claudia. It was about me. Foley. The divorce. Me working at a grocery store. The road trip. Everything—and being told if my sister was eighteen, I should leave it alone.

Finally, after I calmed down and could get some air, I shook my head. “You clearly haven’t met my sister yet.”

Shelly’s eyebrows pitched high in her forehead, and she laughed harder. “Oh. It’s like that?”

I nodded, wiping a few tears away. “Sorry. Just—so not the situation, and yeah.”

“You’re such a bitch.”

I gasped, whirling around.

Claudia stood not far from the main house’s porch. She walked my way, her arms crossed over her chest, and she looked annoyed. She also looked dressed the same way Shelly and her daughter were.

Was that the uniform for women in this world? Claudia had chosen shorts that barely covered her ass.

I looked down. I wasn’t too far off. I had the jeans, but I wore a white, v-neck shirt. It was simple, but stylish. Or I’d thought so. Now I was tempted to tie it in a knot behind me, just so I didn’t feel too old.

“Good Lord.” Claudia rolled her eyes. She turned to Shelly. “Look at her. She’s worried she’s not going to fit in because her clothes aren’t skin tight, and totally not realizing how fucking more gorgeous she is than the rest of us.”

Shelly’s eyes widened as she looked between the two of us. “Guessing you’re the sister?”

I narrowed my eyes. “What are you doing here?” This was sober Claudia. Not fun drunk Claudia.

I ignored the way my question confused Shelly, considering our whole laughing fit, and the fact that Claudia and I looked nothing alike.

“Didn’t you come to get me?” she asked. “Where else would I be?”

“Shane said you were gone—like, away.”

“Right.” Claudia’s eyes narrowed, turning speculative. “Let’s talk about you and Mr. VP.” She came forward, linking our elbows and nudged me away from Shelly. “Excuse us for a minute,” she called back over her shoulder. “We sisters need to have a little heart to heart right about now.”

Shelly tracked us as we went back to the barn we’d just left, and when we got inside, the two bikers sitting there took one look at Claudia and left.

She grunted as they went, closing the door behind them. “Nice to see I’ve got a reputation around these parts.”

I unlinked our elbows and moved aside. “Don’t get pissy that they got smart.”

She huffed, rolling her eyes. “More like your man told everyone I was off-limits.”

I wasn’t going to argue with that. That sounded like something Shane would do. But he had not told me she was here. “Shane talked to you?”

She was looking in the rooms, making sure the ones with closed doors were empty inside. When she got to the kitchen, she turned back, doing the same on the other side of the hall. “Talk to me about what? Why don’t you tell me what Ghost would’ve talked to me about?” There was a bite to her voice.

---