Page 179 of Patching Over

“Moira!” Belle exclaims, pushing through everyone to reach my woman’s side. “I’ve been so worried.”

“I’m sorry,” Moira quietly replies. “I owe you the biggest apology, Belle. It’s all my fault we were taken.”

Belle adamantly shakes her head, then argues, “No, I should’ve had Tony check further.”

“No, you don’t understand. They would’ve gotten me one way or another,” Moira states. Her nose scrunches and her lips twist as she adds, “Apparently, I was part of their ‘bigger plan’ orsomething like that.” She uses air quotes and looks crestfallen as she gazes at her best friend.

“So was I,” Selah says, having come up to our huddle. “Moira, I’m so glad you found your voice again. I didn’t get a chance to tell you that in Texas with everything else going on.”

I watch as my woman moves from Belle’s embrace, to Selah’s, then I hear her say, “Your sweet Hannah helped me with that, Lah.”

Selah smiles then retorts, “Seems she’s been roaming around at night, too, from what she tells me.”

Moira giggles while nodding. “Your girl is something else. Trust me, she kept me calm the last time, in Mississippi. So, thank you for that.”

“Can we get inside?” I question since no one seems to be moving. “We have to get Timmy and Sushi up to my room and settled in.”

Her face lights up and she smiles. “Wait until y’all meet them. They’re so sweet!” she exclaims.

CHAPTER

TWENTY-ONE

Moira

“They’re so cute!” Rory says, watching the two kittens scamper through Kracken’s room. “I remember when Sassy was this little.”

Or, should I say,ourroom, something he made very clear when we got home earlier. Right now, all of the patched members are in church, so Rory, Ryleigh, Selah, Belle, Harper, and the girls are with me as we talk. Ryleigh’s little girl is currently sound asleep in the playpen that Brick brought into our room before he left to hold church.

“Calvin and Hobbes were so tiny I was worried they wouldn’t survive,” Ryleigh admits. “Now, they laze around the common room as if they own the place.”

“They don’t try to get out?” I ask. “That’s a huge fear of mine, to be honest.”

“They’ve never tried,” Ryleigh says. “Has Sassy?” she asks Rory.

Rory stops to think about it before answering, “Nope, not once.”

“I can’t believe none of y’all have any dogs,” Selah states, giggling. “It’s hard to comprehend that a group of badass bikers don’t have big, growly dogs roaming the property, y’know?”

We all start laughing because she’s not wrong. In fact, when I was here before, I saw many of the men going out of their way to play with the cats.

“Well, that’s probably because cats are far more low maintenance than dogs are,” Harper finally says. “These guys are always going off on runs and shit, and it’s not been too many years that either of our chapters had ol’ ladies, so it makes sense to me. Granted, they could’ve had prospects caring for a dog, but all of these men underneath this roof have a bit too much testosterone to allow someone else to train ‘their’ dog.”

Once again, we’re all laughing hysterically as we try to picture the men we know letting someone else take care of their dog for them. “Yeah, Butcher’s a little too hands on to allow that,” Selah advises through a snort.

“Mama, Daddy Butcher would let us help him, right?” Hannah asks.

“Probably so, sweetie, but right now, I think we’ve got our hands full with four kids. Adding a pet to the mix might just put him over the top,” she replies.

“My thought process was along the lines of if we can take care of these two kittens, we might have a shot when it comes to raising kids,” I state.

“You’ve talked about kids?” Belle whispers.

She looks a bit shell-shocked, but we really haven’t had a lot of alone time to talk about everything that’s happened since she and I last saw each other.

Nodding, I say, “Yeah, Belle, we have, and we want to be a couple for a little while first.”

“You’ve got so much ‘splainin’ to do, Lucy,” she retorts in a horrible imitation of Ricky Ricardo.

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