Page 19 of Bee

I'll have my family at Eve's Fury, I'll have my sister, Free, but I already know that life without Rye is going to be much harder than I want it to be.

8

Bee

"Ahhhh Eeeee" Glenn comes speeding in my direction. His little legs moving faster than his body can keep up with.

I drop to my knees and crawl to him.

I've only been gone a week, but I swear it feels like this little tyke has grown half a foot since I last saw him.

I love me some Glenn and he loves me. We always have the best time.

"Ahhh Eeee!" He slaps his hands on my face, probably much harder than he intended to. I laugh at his exuberance. He's not saying many words yet, but I like to think those vowel sounds translate to "Auntie" and it makes my heart swell every time I hear it.

"Hey, Buddy! How've you been? You been a good boy?" I squeeze him tight to my chest and watch as both Addison and Hardy come out of the back room. He's putting his shirt back in. I'm sure my arrival interrupted a good time. I can't help but smile.

It's not the best feeling having a cop coming in and out of the clubhouse, but Hardy is so good to Addison, all of us overlook it. On top of that, Hardy is one of the good ones. After all that shit went down with Riggs, he stood by us. It's nice to know that we've got back up with the big gang. That's all the local PD is, one big lawful gang.

"He's been a menace." Addison hisses, but her face breaks out into a wide smile. No one could ever say that she doesn't love this little boy, and I see the same proud look on Hardy's face. He may not have been here from the beginning, but there's no denying that man loves this little boy.

"That's what I'm talking about, Glenn! Make them work for it." I tickle his little Buddha belly, and he squeals in my arms.

The hug time is over, Glenn wiggles out of my grasp and takes off for another area of the house. Hardy chases after him, leaving Addison with me.

I stand up to my full height and look at Addison, just to gauge how she's feeling about me at the moment. I've done a lot of fucked up shit, and just because I'm on the straight and narrow now doesn't mean she isn't still upset about what went down.

I should've known.

Her face breaks into a full smile, and she rushes to pull me into a hug. "I'm so happy you're home!" She squeezes me almost as tight as Glenn did.

"Yeah, had to get myself together." I nod and pull away.

"Vexx was freaking out."

I cringe and shove my hands into my pockets. Addison isn't the first one to tell me that Vexx was mad. I did the one thing that could probably get under everyone in this club's skin. I disappeared. While I was at Rye's house, I was so focused on getting through the withdrawals that I didn't think to call anyone to let them know where I was. Then when I was through the worst of it I was too embarrassed to make the call. I kneweventually I'd have to deal with the girls, I just kept pushing it off.

"I'm sorry."

"No, don't be sorry. You did what you needed to do. From the looks of it, it was the right thing." She reaches up and pushes some of my hair out of my face.

"Yeah?"

"Are you kidding me. I can see the old Bumblebee in there now. You look fresh...healthy." She nods, and I take that as the compliment she meant it as. Although there's a part of me that wonders what I looked like before. I'm sure I was a mess.

That's the past.

"So, what's been going on?" The last time I saw any of the girls was two days ago at the farmer's market.

I spent the night with Rye again, but I couldn't keep staying there in his space. Not because he didn't make things comfortable for me, but it honestly felt like I was getting too comfortable. Like I was seeing his place as my forever home instead of just a place for me to get back on my feet. I don't want Rye to only see me as someone he has to take care of. Even if nothing more comes from our time together, I don't want to be his burden.

"Actually, things have been rather quiet. We got a lot of donations from the last farmer's market. Vexx should be calling church soon to discuss how we're going to get it to them."

It feels good to get back into the swing of things here. Like I'm taking the steps to get my life going in the right direction.

"Okay, I'll be-" My words cut off as Vexx swings the door to her room open and glares at me.

"Bee." She states.

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