Page 61 of Brother to Brother

“Backgammon, cribbage, Chinese checkers; hell, I’ve seen him make a wooden battleship board and he was still building a Monopoly board, he was just trying to figure out how to get the cards and money to match the classier wood setup.”

I laughed, “Seems like it’s an awfully expensive use of wood.”

“Most of this was made from scraps, believe it or not. He doesn’t let anything go to waste and he has a lot of wood in his shop that he literally just went out into the woods and picked up random chunks and fallen limbs to make shit out of.”

I shook my head, “He’s wasted as a mechanic,” I murmured, “He should be making a living at his woodcraft.”

“I’ve said the same thing, but you know Rush.” Archer lifted a shoulder in a shrug and I nodded.

I smiled, a lot of the rest of the gifts were things that belonged in a house, not the small one bedroom apartment we were in. From Ghost and Shelly, we’d received a beautiful full set for a bathroom. Shower curtain, bath mats, towels, soap dispensers, toothbrush holder – you name it. It was all very beautifully done in varying shades of purple and lavender and I couldn’t wait to have a place to put them all. For now, I simply piled them neatly on top of one of the bins that had things in it Noah and I weren’t using daily.

“Oh hey, this one is from Nox to you.”

I opened it to find a beautiful little box, maybe twelve by fourteen or sixteen inches. Nox did some woodcraft with his twin, but I could tell. This may have come from Nox’s mind but it was Rush’s execution and more than made up for the honeymoon gift. It had little pockets and places and they were for things like Noah’s first tooth along with jewelry or what have you. There were places for other, subsequent children’s milestones and the whole thing was a bit overwhelming to me. I set it down in my lap and Archer rubbed a gentle hand up and down my shin.

“You okay?”

“Your brothers certainly know how to do it, don’t they?”

“Yeah, yeah they do.”

“Okay, I don’t know that I should do anymore tonight, I’m gonna cry for real if I do.”

Archer chuckled, “You’re tired. You get more emotional when you’re tired, I’ve noticed that about you.”

I nodded, I couldn’t be mad at him for making astute and accurate observations. Even if the way he said it did come off as just a little bit sexist.

We went to bed, and even though it wasn’t our first night sharing the bedroom in the apartment, it still felt strange. I was so used to sleeping in this bed alone. I had to admit, though; I felt a million times safer and slept at least one hundred times better wrapped in Archer’s arms.

There was something to be said about that safe, protected feeling I got from being with a man. I know, I guess I could be sexist too, but that didn’t stop it from being any less true.

Chapter 26

Archer

Dealing with my old chapter had been tough for a number of reasons, one of which had been the loss of all respect for my former chapter’s president. A dude, I had erroneously, but seriously looked up to before my time spent with Dragon’s chapter. After a little more than a year under Dragon’s roof, I’d picked up pretty hard that the old AZ chapter had been doing a few things wrong.

In the beginning, I hadn’t thought anything of it, chalking it up to being a dog eat dog world and the fact that we’d all pretty much been raised in a shitty environment. Running guns across the Mexican border didn’t make no never mind, and under Dom, we’d taken his version of ‘no women, no children’ to mean something vastly different than what the original charter now did.

We’d figured it’d just meantleave the women and children of our enemies out of it.Now I knew different; after that whole mess with Dani, I’d been schooled in the actual meaning. Still, it wasn’t until Melody that I fully came to appreciate and understand it.

Dom hadn’t been too happy when we’d showed up. He’d been even unhappier when he’d come out of a closed door conversation with Dragon, Trigger, and Data. It’d been agreed upon, with my personal stake on all sides, that even as Road Captain for the first SHMC chapter, I needed to wait this one out.

When they’d come out of the room, Dom had looked pissed, his steely gaze falling right on me.

“You fuckin’ serious, bro?” he demanded.

“Yeah,” I answered him grimly.

“You went and married that snatch, and now it’s a big fuckin’ issue how we do things? Shit, she’s just a goddamned club whore! Whatever happened to ‘bro’s before ho’s’?” he demanded. Dragon made a disgusted noise and Trigger looked like he’d just plain smelled something bad. Data remained stone-faced.

I felt my blood start to simmer and took a slow deep breath, letting it out and counting to ten like they’d made me learn in some anger management class I’d been ordered to take after an assault charge some years back. What I really wanted to do, was punch Dom in the face, but there were some things that were supposed to be left to the SAA. Throwing punches was one of ‘em. I wasn’t SAA, either here or back in my new home. Dom was disrespecting me, sure, but he was also hot headed and not thinkin’ too straight right about now.

“I’m gonna let that slide, but Dom, I’m telling you right now, that’s thelasttime you talk about my wife an’ Ol’ Lady that way. You get me?” I shook my head, “Mel deserved a hell of a lot better that what you fuckwits gave her. Did you even know she had a kid?” I demanded.

“What the fuck are you talking about?” Dom demanded.

I pulled out my phone and lit up the screen to a picture of Melody and my son, Noah, playing on a picnic blanket in the park. We’d gone right before I’d left and I’d been calling her every day, surprised to find how much I missed them both.

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