Page 242 of Smooth Sailing

“Go on, hon,” Nic encouraged, a hand in my back giving me a gentle push. “You need to be with Pete’s family now. We’ll be close, promise.”

I nodded, Dad and Nic let me go, and I woodenly and awkwardly moved across the turf that wasn’t yet frozen in my spike-heeled black pumps.

When I got to Rebel, she curved an arm around my waist and guided me to the chairs set out by the freshly dug grave. There were massive arrays of blood red roses all around the bottom of the casket, hiding the hole in the dirt.

“Hugger needs to be able to lay eyes on you,” Rebel murmured as explanation.

Yes, of course.

And I needed for Hugger to be able to lay eyes on me.

I nodded again.

She took me to the second row of chairs, and Archie, already in the row, held her hand my way.

I shuffled in, Georgie shuffling in after me.

Tyra and Tabby sat in front of us, Lanie beside Tyra, Elvira beside Tabby.

Renae, Pete’s woman (and Rosalie’s mom) sat beside Lanie, Rosalie beside her mother, then Millie, Carrie sitting beside Elvira, with Keely at the other end.

Rebel, the queen bee of Chaos now that her husband Rush was president, sat in our row, along with a woman I’d met the day before, Bev, who used to be married to Boz, but now she was married to someone else whose name in all the introductions I’d had the last couple of days, I’d sadly forgotten.

Then again, I’d noticed that once you were Chaos, if you did them right, they didn’t let you go.

Family was family.

Always.

Obviously, I wasn’t miffed at my placement. I was the newbie. And I saw that was how Rebel had arranged this, because she was a (semi-kinda-not-really-but-in-this-sense) newbie too.

All the women in the front had the most time in with Big Petey.

And the women in our row had their backs.

It was the biker way.

Children were jostled around, pulled into laps, given seats, and I would have had an issue with none of the woman saying anything when all the boys—including Rider and Cutter (Tack and Tyra’s sons), Cody and Nash (Hop’s boy from a previous relationship, and Lanie and Hop’s son—Molly, Hop’s daughter, was sitting scrunched up to Archie), Playboy (Tabby and Shy’s boy—Princess was sitting in Lanie’s lap), Travis and Wyatt (Carrie and Joker’s boys—Dakota was much younger and sitting in his mom’s lap), Wilder (Keely and Hound’s son), Atticus (Rosalie and Snapper’s son—Emmeline, their daughter, was sitting on her Grandma Renae’s lap) and Rhodes (Rebel and Rush’s boy—Ember, their little girl, was with Rebel)—cut away to go stand with the men (that being only the boys had gone), if Raven didn’t go too, along with her older sister Clementine.

Both of them headed right to Joker…and Hugger.

The minute Raven got to my guy, he picked her up and planted her on his hip. The minute she was put where she needed to be, she rested her little cheek on her Uncle Hugger’s chest and wrapped her little hand at the side of his neck.

I felt my throat get scratchy.

And damn, but I loved my man.

Clementine wasn’t a big girl, she wasn’t such a little girl anymore either, but that didn’t stop Joker from doing the same.

Rounding out this kid business, Cleo and Zadie, High’s girls and Millie’s stepdaughters, had taken hold of Wren, Shy and Tabby’s middle girl, and they were tucked in beside Georgie.

Last, I saw what appeared to be someone waving out of the side of my eye, so I focused beyond the chairs, and I felt my chest depress when I saw Maddy, wearing black, standing there, eyes red rimmed, between Elias and Emmylou (the latter whose eyes were red rimmed too).

She looked melancholy, of course, but unbroken (which was so Maddy), and best of all, like she’d gained some weight.

I blew her kiss, and she returned it, adding a sad little smile.

We settled in, a mass of people behind us, and I watched as the bikers in front of us fanned out in an arc around the other side of the casket.

---