Page 8 of Juno

“I can hang out here and give Saint a ride home if you want to go home. It’s after three in the morning, and you’ve got to be exhausted,” Dave said. She was, but if she left now, how would she get back to her car?

“I’d love to go home, but I drove Saint’s truck here and I’d have to pick up my car,” she admitted without telling him where her car was parked.

“Well, I can run you to your car and pick up Saint’s truck from here in the morning,” he said. “He’s getting his cast on now, according to that very moody woman behind the desk over there,” he nodded to the woman who had cheered for her earlier and couldn’t help her smile.

“I think that she’s nice,” Juno insisted.

“Yeah, well, apparently she either doesn’t like men, or my brother did something to piss that woman off and she’s angry at me for being his brother,” Dare grumbled.

“It might just be something about you and Saint that she doesn’t like,” Juno said.

“Impossible,” he said. “My wife tells me every day that I’m irresistible.” He bobbed his eyebrows at her, and she groaned something about keeping the gross stuff to himself, causing him to laugh. “So, how about I give you a ride before Saint gets released?” She was pretty sure that he wasn’t going to leave her alone about going home. She was going to have to come up with a good lie—and fast.

“Well, I promised Saint that I’d be here for him when he got out and that I’d stay the night with him—you know, take care of him,” she said, bobbing her eyebrows at him. This time it was Dare’s turn to groan in disgust and Juno was pretty sure that she had covered her ass with one darn good lie.

“Okay, I don’t need any more details,” he grumbled. “Do you want me to wait for him to get out? I can keep you company. We haven’t caught up in a long time.” Dare was right. They hadn’t talked a whole lot since he and Vixen got married. They had all seen each other down at Savage Hell, during parties where both the Harlots and Bastards shared the clubhouse. Soon, the Harlots would have their own club, and she knew that all the women would miss hanging out at Savage Hell. At least they would have parties where they could all hang out. And the guys liked to bring their Ol’ladies to the bar to hang out with them on nights that they didn’t have church. But she wasn’t anyone’s Ol’lady and being invited to Savage Hell might not happen for her.

“I’m sure that Vixen will want you home,” she insisted. “No sense in both of us sitting around in these uncomfortable chairs. You go home and tell my friend that I say hi. We can catch up soon at Savage Hell.” She hated that Dare looked a bit disappointed in being dismissed by her, but if she didn’t talk to Saint first to get their stories straight, they might blow the cover story that Saint had come up with for her. Telling Dare to go home was a necessary evil, even if she had hurt his feelings.

“Okay, well, tell my brother that I stopped by and if he needs anything, to just give me a call. That goes for you too. If you need to go to work and don’t want to leave him tomorrow, just let me know and I’ll come babysit him for a while.” She was pretty sure that Saint wouldn’t let either of them take care of him, and no way in hell he’d let them babysit him. Saint was stubborn, and she was sure that he wasn’t used to having anyone take care of him. He usually played the role of caretaker and giving that up would probably be impossible for him.

“Will do,” Juno promised. “Thank you for checking on us,” she said, almost choking on the word, “Us” but if she was going to keep up the ruse that she and Saint were together, she’d have to use words that involved them being a couple—at least until they could fake breakup.

* * *

Juno woke up to someone shaking her and God, her back was killing her. She opened her eyes to find Saint standing over her, and she quickly sat up. “You must have fallen asleep,” he said.

“What time is it?” Juno asked.

“It’s almost four in the morning. I hear that my little brother stopped by to check on me.”

“Who told you that?” she asked. They were the only two people left in the waiting room. He nodded back to the woman behind the desk, and she smiled back at both of them.

“I’m guessing it’s almost the end of her shift because she was really nice to me when I came out,” he said. “Are you still okay with driving me home?” Saint asked. “Or at least, back to your car. I should be able to take it from there.”

“No driving,” the woman called, “doctor’s orders.”

“Snitch,” he grumbled.

“How long before he’ll be able to drive?” Juno asked the woman.

“Two weeks,” she said.

“Two weeks?” Juno repeated. “I thought you just broke your arm.” She had a broken arm her senior year in high school, and she could still drive.

“Apparently, I did more damage than I thought. I can’t use my arm at all for two weeks, and then, I have to be seen by an orthopedist to see if I’m healing correctly. If not, I’ll have to have a little operation.” God, she felt awful.

“I’m so sorry,” she breathed, “if I wasn’t such a klutz, you wouldn’t be in this mess.”

Saint shrugged as though it was no big deal. “Don’t worry about it. I was the one who lost my balance and fell on top of you.” That wasn’t the way that she remembered things. She practically pulled him down to the pavement with her, but for some reason, Saint was trying to make her feel better.

“You don’t have to do that, Saint,” she whispered.

“What am I doing, Juno?” He knew exactly what he was doing and now he was giving her a hard time about it.

“I don’t need you to make me feel better,” she insisted. “I pulled you down when I fell and broke your arm.”

Saint sighed, “Can we talk about this another time? My pain meds are kicking in and I need to get home before I’m out cold. Just drive me to the club—I don’t live far from there.”

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