Page 106 of Smooth Sailing

Playing footsie.

See?

He was totally cute under all that big, strong, burly, whiskered man.

“So do you have a minimum rating on the hotness scale to allow bikers into your brotherhood?” I asked.

He blinked once, fast, and chuckling, asked back, “What?”

“Dutch is amazing-looking.”

Yes, I’d met Dutch.

And Eight had dragged Core and Linus along with the rest of them, so my table was so full, I’d had to borrow chairs from my neighbor. Although Madison didn’t natter away with all the boys, in her cocoon with me, Pete, Hugger, Eight and Muzzle at one end of the table, she did open up.

Core was Hollywood handsome. Linus not far away from that, but he was younger and hadn’t grown into his good looks yet, that being, exuding the confidence that Core did.

And Dutch was what I said.

Amazing.

There was just something really beautiful in his eyes, like a universal empathy with all the woes a human could face. It was a sight to behold.

“You think Dutch is hot?” Hugger asked, like he thought Dutch was the dictionary definition of fugly.

“You don’t?”

“Can say we don’t have a minimum rating because we don’t notice that shit.”

“It’s hard to miss. I mean, I’m scared to meet Jagger and Roscoe when they get here. My retinas might burn out.”

Another chuckle and, “Get ready. Jagger is Dutch’s younger brother. You think Dutch is hot, they look alike, so there you go. I don’t got a vagina, so no clue what women think of Coe. Though, can say he’s got no problem with getting himself some.”

“I’ll let you know when I meet him,” I offered.

“I’ll be waitin’ with bated breath for that, babe,” he teased.

“So Dutch is very married, considering how big and shiny his wedding band is,” I noted as a prompt to get him talking about his brothers.

“Yeah, Georgie. She’s the shit. Jag’s hitched too, to Archie. She’s also the shit, but in a different way. Georgie is a journalist. Archie owns her own store, and I don’t shop, but it’s pretty kickass.”

“Two brothers are married to two women with men’s names?”

“It just happened that way.”

A good reminder that life could offer some fun surprises sometimes.

“Dutch seems…” I didn’t know how to describe it. “Like he’s super-tuned into what’s going on. Almost more than Big Petey is with his age and experience and wisdom.”

“Dutch’s dad was murdered when he was a little kid.”

My body froze and I stared.

“I met his dad when I was a lot younger,” Hugger continued. “Too young to be able to form an impression outside of knowing I dug him. He liked kids.”

“Ugh. I hate that for Dutch.”

“You experience something like that, watch your mom grieve your dad’s death for two decades, it informs you on tragedy. We do what we do with Resurrection in part because of Dutch. Men were gettin’ antsy, that was a thing, but Dutch knew the Club just as good as any brother who’d had their patch for decades. He was restless, others were too. Now we wade in, if we want.”

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