Page 47 of Patching Over

“Jesus fucking Christ,” he manages to say. “Fucking phenomenal, babe.”

“I concur,” I reply, adopting a British accent from a show we’ve been binge watching at night. “Most delightful.”

He starts laughing and I soon join in as Calvin and Hobbes, curious about why their humans are frolicking on the floor, jump from the bed and come over to investigate.

Brick

We stay cuddled on the floor for quite some time, talking about the upcoming Christmas festivities. I know she mentioned she has more Christmas shopping left to do, but the wrapped boxes and bags underneath the tree suggest otherwise.

However, with this being the first-ever Christmas that she has any semblance of control over, I refuse to take that immense joy away from her. If she wants to overbuy and overspend, well, I’m the man blessed with enough money to provide so she can do that without any worries over how to fund her shopping spree.

She lightly shivers so I tell her, “Let’s get cleaned up, sweetheart, then get some shuteye. We’ve got lots of stuff to do in the upcoming weeks.”

Grinning, she lets me help her onto her feet, then we spend a long time cleaning up, which may or may not have involved getting down and dirty all over again.

“Pres, you need to call Church,” Hawg suggests when I walk into the common room the next morning.

“What the fuck for? We just had Church,” I ask through a clenched jaw.

“Found some follow up information on the remaining survivors of the Devil Demon Douches,” he supplies.

Looking around the area, I see that most of the guys aren’t here and accounted for, which means they’ve already left and are at work.

“Okay, send out a mass text stating that we’ll have it when work is done.” He nods his agreement, so I head into the kitchen, looking for some coffee.

I hate that I missed eating breakfast with Rayleigh, but despite her position as my ol’ lady, she still insists on working at the club businesses like she was so she ‘has her own money’ to spend or some shit. Since I love how feisty she’s become, I don’t push the issue, I just hate waking up on my own, which is somewhat ironic considering I’ve been single a long-ass time. Not only that, but even when I had longer relationships in the past, I never, not once, spent the night and for sure, no one ever spent it here with me. I wasn’t about to let a potential patch chaser sink her claws into me or get any ideas in her head that there was more than fucking.

Spotting Banshee, I make a mug of coffee and a plate of breakfast since it looks like either Stormy or Layce cooked, then head over to where he’s sitting, chowing down on his own breakfast.

“What’s that?” I ask, pointing to a mismatched stack of DVD disks and VCR tapes. Fuck, I can’t remember the last time I saw a VCR.

“Old home movies.” His eyes are black rimmed as if he didn’t sleep, but there’s a light there now that’s been missing for a very long time. “Found them in my mom’s old memento box at the house and thought maybe she’d want to watch them.”

I stare at my best friend while I process what he’s said. “Shit, you don’t think that would be too much for her, do you?”

“Not sure, but she deserves to know how much she was wanted before she was born, and how much she was loved as well as treasured by all of us once she got here, don’t you think?”he asks. “I mean, believe it or not, the VCR at my folks’ place still works.”

While he stayed with us after his parents died, we kept his family home up, as we tend to do for fallen brothers, doing maintenance and shit so when he came of age, he’d have his own place. I’m sure the memories there are painful and the reason why he still mostly stays at the clubhouse, but it’s good that he has somewhere to take Rayleigh so she can learn about her past.

“Run it by her, brother. She may be my ol’ lady, but she’s your sister and not only that, but she’s also capable of making that kind of decision for herself. If you think I should be there with y’all, you know I’ve got your back.”

“Thanks, Brick. I think it would be a good idea, don’t you? She’s a lot stronger than I thought she’d be considering what you’ve told me about when she was first found.”

“She’s fucking phenomenal, Ban. Not gonna lie, wasn’t sure she’d ever decide to become my ol’ lady because I gave her that choice, but she finally did. She’s always been the one, I just had no fucking clue, you know? Not only that, but her experiences while being on her own showed her what she wanted from life and not only that, but who she was as a person. She has her own identity now.”

“Do you think she’s going to want to keep being called Rayleigh or will she ever go back to being Ryleigh?” My friend asks with a frown marring his face.

“No clue. Guess I’ll add that to the list of things I need to do, huh? You let me know when you’re going to do the movie night and I’ll be there. If any are club events, we can always show them to everyone, but she gets the first look because I’m positive it’s going to be emotional as hell.”

“You got it.”

Once the workday is over and we’re all making our way into Church, I look over my shoulder at the twins, our latest prospects, and state, “Grab a few bottles, some shot glasses, and beers then bring them on in.”

“Got it, Pres,” Jaydn replies. Of course, it could be Haydn for all I know because the fuckers are practically identical. Maybe I should just call them Thing One and Thing Two… something to ponder.

The brothers are basically bullshitting while we wait for the drinks to be brought into us when I hear, “Do y’all just sit around like this all day long?”

Glancing at the door, I see Murder, the President of the Charleston, West Virginia chapter standing there, smirking. “Don’t block the doorway, brother, get the fuck in here,” I order.

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