Page 8 of Two Weddings and a Shoot Out

“Okay, on to the incident. I’ve discussed some with Scoop and Sarah. They’re going to do some digging on the land and make sure it hasn’t changed hands. After dark, a couple of us will sneak out there and place some cameras to see if we can get a little more intel. Any volunteers?” War asked.

“I will. I could use some excitement,” Dex said.

“This is strictly placing cameras. No engaging unless you see something that can’t wait,” War reiterated.

“Obviously, I’ll need to go to place the cameras,” Scoop said.

“Yeah, it has nothing to do with you wanting a little space from your wife, who you made cry,” Roam mentioned.

“You made Sarah cry?” Locks growled.

Compass could see this was not going to be good.

“Listen, get off my back, old man. No one warned me that anything I said while she is pregnant could be used against me. She asked if I thought she should have the caramel iced cake doughnut or a smoothie, then she freaking mumbled the last part. And she asked this while I was in the middle of tracing something. I answered the smoothie would probably be better because Stella said that Sarah didn’t have gestational diabetes but had been close enough that she might want to watch her sugar intake,” Scoop said, then shook his head.

“What did she mumble?” Locks asked with a smirk.

“She mumbled so her butt doesn’t get any bigger, but I didn’t know that until she yelled it at me and threw the smoothie mix at my head. Thank goodness her aim’s a little off with the big belly, and if any of you assholes tell her what I said, I will screw up your bank accounts so much that you’ll never find your money.”

Compass chuckled along with the rest of the boys. His Lucille had only been pregnant once with their boy, but she’d been a mess of hormones. There were days he loved being with the brotherhood and other days when he wondered why he outlived his wife and his son. Their little one had gone to sleep one night at six months old and never woken up. Lucille had refused to ever try again because she couldn’t handle losing another one.

“Why don’t I go grab some caramel iced donuts along with supper for you all from the diner, and you can say you asked me to do it to make her day better?” Compass asked.

Scoop nodded. “Thanks, I would really appreciate it. I’d love it if she didn’t want to kill me by bedtime. Otherwise, I might offer to stay overnight in the clubhouse and help with the sleepover.”

“Pussy,” Dex said quietly into his hand.

“You wait until you have a woman who is pregnant, who believes it’s all your fault your spawn is doing these things to her body. Yesterday, I heard all about how it was my genes that caused our kid to give her heartburn. I did refrain from saying it might have been the six slices of pepperoni and jalapeño pizza she’d eaten at eight p.m.”

Compass chuckled along with everyone else. Scoop would survive, and their relationship would be stronger for it.

Compass envied them starting a family. Even if Maureen felt about him like he felt about her, they were well past having children. Maybe Lexi and Booker could get a move on with grandkids. He was getting ahead of himself. Maureen didn’t want to marry him. He didn’t know the reason, but he didn’t have to. He wasn’t sure, though, how much longer he could spend time sleeping beside her if they weren’t going to get married.

He’d wait until after the commemoration to decide if he’d head back to Logan Falls or go out on the road again for a couple months.

Chapter Six

Maureenthoughtthroughherplan again and then decided it was the one she had, and she was going with it. It was the perfect time because they were helping with the kids’ sleepover tonight, and she’d already offered to sleep out front with the kids.

But that didn’t mean she couldn’t rev up Compass a little to give him something to think about when he went to sleep. She had discussed her plan with Hope. Hope had enlisted Faith’s help in forcing Compass and Maureen apart for the rest of the evening after Maureen made her moves.

Maureen respected Compass’s beliefs, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t going to let the man know how much she wanted him. She’d tell the big lug she loved him and wanted to marry him at a later point. She had a whole plan she was sticking to. Maureen had learned many things from her late husband, and the ability to prepare a well-thought-out scheme and then execute the plan was one of them.

This was the most important plan that Maureen had come up with since her husband passed. She wasn’t willing to go through the rest of her life without Compass, and if marriage was what he needed to be hers, then so be it.

She helped prep the homemade pizza crusts. The kids would be putting their own sauce and toppings on them, and then they’d cook them. Faith and Regina had put together the perfect end-of-school party. Some of the guys were in charge of the video game tournament portion. Faith also had three tables of crafts for any kids that didn’t want to participate in the tournament.

She caught the deep tones of Compass’ voice in the room with the kids. She brought out the crusts and got ready to initiate phase one ofThe Courtship of Compass.

“Hey guys, wash your hands, then you can prepare your pizzas,” she called to be heard over the noise of the kids and adults.

The stampede to the bathroom was humorous. Compass walked over close to her.

“Are we making our own pizzas too, or did Regina take pity on us and just throw some together?” he asked.

His tone had her smiling, but Roam behind him with a pleading look was too funny.

“She has six full sheet cake pans of pizza. Two of them are supreme. Two are meat lovers. One is cheese only, and one is half ham and pineapple and half black olive and beef.”

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