Page 35 of Brother to Brother

The look on my face must have said it all, because she scoffed, “Gah! You’re such ajackass!”Shelly cried and Ghost went to her, gripping her by the arm and giving her a flat and unfriendly look.

“Shells, I’m not going to have you disrespect a brother, not now not ever, you need to cool it right the fuck now,” he said, consternation in his tone.

“Me? Oh that’s rich, Ghost. That’s real rich! What abouthim?You’re all freaking unbelievable!”

“Shut it, woman! Does she even want a wedding?”

“You didn’t even ask, so how would you know shedoesn’t!?”

By now women were filtering out into the hall, apparently Shelly’s harpy call had brought the rest of them out of the media room. Melody was among them, Noah on Hayden’s hip looked on curiously, but my eyes were on Mel whose eyes glinted with tears.

“Archer, I think the reason Shelly is so upset, is because when we’re little girls, it’s all about the day when we grow up that we get married. It’s supposed to be our one special day. Every little girl dreams about the day that her perfect knight in shining armor gets down on one knee and asks her to be his forever. It’s so much a part of the very fiber of our being… while she gets thewhyof it, the how is really hard to understand.” Red said gently, and I looked back to Mel where Everett hugged her gently into her side, her one hand stroking up and down Mel’s shoulder in a comforting gesture.

I didn’t physically roll my eyes, but it was a very near thing. I sighed out and used the best argument I had in my defense, “Weddings are expensive as shit, and I ain’t got that kind of money. Nor do I want to waste a whole bunch of fuckin’ time on this either.” Mel very nearly flinched and I kicked myself again. I was batting a thousand with my mouth with these bitches. All I wanted to do was get shit taken care of where she and Noah were concerned. Take on the burden that dulled her sparkle so damn much. She used to laugh, and smile back when she was with Grind and it made her beautiful. In the months she’d been here I could count on one hand the number of times she’d smiled and have fingers left over. None of those smiles had been what they once were, either.

Dragon hadn’t had much luck getting the full meal deal out of her about what had fucked her shit up back in AZ, just that it hadn’t all been the club to do it. I remember Grind had said that her mamma and step-daddy were a piece of work, so I’d surmised that whatever it was had more to do with them. She didn’t trust me or anyone here enough to open up about it, and I had a feeling that had a lot more to do with them and the AZ chapter both than it did with any of us.

I sighed, and looked at the shine in Mel’s eyes, the fear radiating out of her and as ever, Ashton to the fuckin’ rescue.

“Give me a week, a week and a half,” the diminutive woman piped up. All eyes drifted in her direction. “I love a good wedding, and I’d be happy to pay for it, that’s your only stumbling block isn’t it? Affordability?”

Trigger was positively beaming at his woman and he was a good brother so I gave a sharp nod, “If I want to get us out of that shithole apartment and into something more suitable for a family, yeah, it is.”

“Good! Then it’s settled, you work on that, we’ll work on the wedding, and everyone can be happy,” Shelly said and I couldn’t disagree without looking like even more of an asshole than I already did. I caught Dani giving me a meaningful look from the back and I scowled. She cocked her head and raised an eyebrow, and when she was sure no one was looking, gave me the finger… her ring finger that is. I did roll my eyes at that point. I hadn’t exactlyplannedto ask Mel like I did. I’d thought about it, sure, but it’d sort of slipped out in the heat of the moment. Looking at her and the kid laying there all busted up and exhausted. I’d just wanted to make things better and here I was, so it seemed, just making everything worse… again.Fuck I sucked ass at these things.

“Fine, sure, yeah, do whatever the fuck you want. You have two weeks. Make you happy? I just want this shit done and over with by Friday week after next. Think you can handle that?”

“Does the Pope shit in the woods?” Reaver asked, “These women can handle anything.”

“Love you, Baby,” Hayden called and Reaver grinned.

“Right, let’s all stop hanging out in the hallway with our dicks in our hands and get this church outta the way. Leave these girls to it,” Dragon grunted.

“Best fuckin’ idea I’ve heard all morning,” I grated and followed my Pres back out into the main room. Rush slipped behind the bar and poured a line of shots for everyone.

“The fuck, boy? It ain’t even noon,” Dragon laughed.

“The fuck, man. Archer’sgetting married,”my jackass little brother said and Nox started laughing silently, his shoulders shaking. “Might as well be the fucking apocalypse, surprised there ain’t blood raining out of the sky and shit…”

“Alright, knock it the fuck off!” I griped.

“Rush is right, I need a fuckin’ drink. Can’t believe you’re getting married before me,” Trig said, and Reaver grinned.

“I beat all of y’all motherfuckers to that finish line,” Reave said, beaming proudly and Ghost looked a bit stormy.

“After that little display, I’m not sure if that’s worthy of any kind of bragging rights,” he said picking up a shot. We all downed one in agreement.

“Could have been worse,” Rev said, and Ghost coughed a bit, looking dubious.

“Don’t I know it?”

I closed my eyes, the tequila going down smooth and tried not to let the ribbing get to me, I hadn’t exactly pictured this going down for me either… like at all. I’d actually been caught off guard when she’d agreed. Fuck me swingin’.

“Right, congratulations Brother Archer, now let’s get this shit started and out of the way,” Dragon said. Anything to get the attention off of me, I was all for it.

“Let’s,” I agreed under my breath and Reaver started laughing his ass off at me.

Duracell and Blue came through the front door and Cell asked, “What’s so funny?”

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