Page 231 of Smooth Sailing

He looked at the man and thought, maybe he was wrong.

Maybe it wasn’t Tack who orchestrated this.

Maybe it was Big Petey.

Or both.

But in the end, it was all of them.

So it didn’t matter whose idea it was.

“Man’s dead and buried,” Hugger stated.

The room went quiet again, like everyone was taking his pulse, trying to get a bead, trying to make certain that the words that came out of his mouth were words he believed deep into his soul.

The quiet ended when Dog clapped him staunchly on the back.

“We done?” Rush asked.

There was a chorus of “ayes,” and Rush slammed down the gavel.

All the men got up, preparing to leave the room, go home to their old ladies, go to the common room to shoot the shit and have a beer, get on with life like they didn’t just change Hugger’s in a way he’d never be able to repay.

But he didn’t have to.

Because…

Goddamn.

This was family.

He started to move but didn’t get very far when Snapper was up in his space.

Hugger stiffened, but it didn’t stop Snap from wrapping an arm around him, bumping chests, pounding him in the back with the side of his fist, and stepping away.

But once Snapper stepped away, he didn’t move away. He immediately made eye contact, and it felt like Hugger’s body emptied, becoming a shell, and then filled up again with what that contact was saying.

Hugger’s bio-dad had called a hit on Snap. If that had succeeded, Snap wouldn’t be there, Rosie wouldn’t be happy, living with the man she adored, and they wouldn’t be making babies.

And Snap was saying that had nothing to do with Hugger.

“Yeah?” Snapper asked if he got it.

“Yeah,” Hugger confirmed.

Only then did Snap fully step away.

Rush came in next and did much of the same thing.

Hugger’s bio-dad had done the worst thing he could do to Rush’s mom, and it wasn’t just that he held her at gunpoint. Rush wasn’t tight with her, she was a tough woman to love, but she was still his mom, and no woman deserved what his biological father did to her.

Rush ended it by thumping him on the shoulder with his fist three times, his gaze locked to Hugger’s, and he didn’t move until Hugger jerked up his chin.

Dog came in next and did much the same thing, without the eye contact at the end.

Jagger followed Dog, Roscoe followed Jag, Dutch followed Roscoe.

They all came in for a hug, except Hound, who took him by the side of the neck and swayed him forward and back before slapping him there, letting go and walking out of the room.

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