Page 246 of Smooth Sailing

Should I?

I watched Hugger throw back a shot of tequila.

He had a beer on more than the rare occasion, but he wasn’t a big drinker.

He’d barely put the glass down before Shy filled it.

And Shy had barely filled it before Hugger threw it back again.

Shy didn’t bother with a glass, he just took his slugs direct from the bottle.

Fuck.

I had to make a decision.

A decision for my man.

I made it.

I walked to my guy, my pumps sounding loud in the solemn quiet.

Some of the men watched me coming, but I couldn’t tell if I was doing wrong or right by the expressions on their faces.

Even so, I kept going.

And when I got to him, I put my hand on Hugger’s back.

He twisted to me.

“Hey, honey,” I whispered.

I barely got the second word out before he turned fully to me, pulled me so forcefully between his spread knees and into his arms, my breath clean left me, and he buried his face in my neck.

I not only heard but felt the powerful hitch in his breath.

I fisted my hand in his hair, wrapped my other arm around him and shoved my face in his neck too.

I sensed all the other women finding their men as I held on to my own.

I didn’t know how long I stood there with my guy, my sisters with theirs, before I heard Elvira say, “Fuck this. Enough. Petey would be so over this shit, he’d spit.”

I peeked out from Hugger’s neck and saw her man, another gorgeous one (which seemed all that Chaos attracted, even if Malik wasn’t Chaos) was setting a Bluetooth speaker on the bar, and she was queuing something up on her phone.

Within moments, some piano notes and drumbeats filled the room.

By the time Bob Seger’s voice could be heard, Hop was singing with him.

It barely got to the second line before Tack, Boz and Hound had joined in, and they were doing it loud.

It wasn’t even the next verse before High, Snap and Shy joined in.

Everyone in the Compound gathered around the bar then, and we all sang it (though I didn’t know all the words, I’d heard the song, so I did my best), and with each word, we were singing it louder, a Chaos and Friends chorus of Seger’s “Roll Me Away.”

Some arms were linked, some thrown over shoulders, some curved around waists, but all of us were in some way connected so there was a circle of love around that bar, shouting out rock poetry.

Singing Big Petey off on his last ride.

Halfway through the song, people were smiling, eyes were lighting, breath was being breathed back into a loving family who’d lost their cornerstone and hadn’t known what to do.

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