Page 18 of Speed

Chapter Seven

Sami

“Damn, girl, you looka little rough around the edges.” I stepped back as Carly walked through the door. It was seven in the morning on a Sunday, my off day. Her insistent knocking was what pulled me out of bed.

“I closed last night like I’ve closed every Saturday since I took over the management at Soft Tails. Why are you here this early anyway? Didn’t you say the other day that you were going to be off today too? Did I dream that shit or what?” I was bitchy because I hadn’t crawled into bed until three a.m. The club closed at two a.m., by the time I got home, watched to make sure Sue got into her place next door, locked the house up, checked on Ally again, I’d fallen on my bed like a rock. It’d been a restless sleep too due to the invading dreams of one man.

“I am off, thought I’d stop by, have coffee and breakfast with you and Spider, then maybe we could take her to the park or the movies. I even stopped and picked up donuts from Claire’s Bakery.” Carly sat the box down that I hadn’t even noticed she had carried in.

“Was Bailey working this morning at the bakery?” I fixed the coffee pot and turned it on.

“Uh huh. She looked tired, Sami. I wish there were more we could do for her.” Bailey Tolson had dropped out of college to come home when her mom, Claire, had been diagnosed with lung cancer.

“Only thing we can do is be her friend and listen. Help when we can. Bailey will get through it, she’s strong.” I’d been seven years old when my mother died from breast cancer, it was a loss I wouldn’t wish on anyone. My dad was devastated, but he never failed to show me love even in his pain. We’d become closer through it all; even with the demand of the club, he never wavered in spending time with me. As I grew older and ventured more on my own or with friends, we’d schedule time to spend together: movie night or even just the simplest thing as taking a walk through the woods behind the club. He helped me with homework, my hair when I was still too young to do it myself, even the boy talk, though I have to admit it was more of a ‘boys are evil, they only want one thing, and I have no problem killing one if he hurts you’ discussion. Which could be the reason when I announced being pregnant, I wouldn’t tell him who the father was.

“Yeah, I remember when your mom died, we were young, you and I. And your brother, Reed, was a teenager then. Do you remember when we’d sit on each side of her on the bed and read to her? My own mother stayed so stoned that most days she’d forget I was even there. I’d sometimes pretend that we were real sisters and your mom was mine too.” I walked to the table and sat the coffee mugs down and hugged my best friend.

“Yes, and how she’d laugh when we’d make up words to replace the ones we didn’t know.” We both chuckled.

“Reading romance books at seven.”

“Mom would stop us, take the book, and tell us she was tired and needed to nap. You know it was because we were going to hit a racy piece in the book,” I shook my head, “I think I was like fourteen when I thought about that one day when I came across one of those books in the back of a closet and took it to my room to read. Between what we witnessed on occasion in the club and the books, it was like having a visual sex ed class.” As we reminisced about my mom, Carly opened the box of donuts, and we dug in. Laughing at some of the good times we had, frowning at some of the bad. But at the end of the day, the club was family, no matter what went on. And there was plenty.

“Not like we would have known then what most of the words meant. We were still young enough that the men and women sheltered us from it. The day your dad caught us reading when he’d come to check on your mom, and she was asleep, but we were still reading the book out loud. I thought he was mad at us because his face was puckered up and he was biting his lip when he took the book from us, but no, you’d just read “his hand held her breast” before he’d walked in. Then you asked him if the man was holding the lady’s boobies so she could put on her bra.” Carly lifted her cup to her mouth and smiled before taking a drink.

“Uh huh, and then he burst out laughing when you said it was nice for men to do that,” I laughed, remembering.

“Yeah, but he stopped laughing when I said I was going to have a boyfriend that like to do that too.” I watched Carly’s smile turn into a frown as she looked down to the table. When she raised her head back up to look at me, she smiled, but it looked as if she had to fight to keep the smile.

“What?”

“Just thinking how Wallace liked to help a lot of women put their bras on. And my mom slept with anyone who’d give her a toke. What a pair, exactly alike, no wonder they couldn’t get along for more than five minutes. You know, his hands probably touched more breasts than a worker’s at one of Tyson’s chicken plants.”

“That was a bad affinity,” I brought my hands to my face and muffled the laughter. Carly’s dad had always been a piece of work.

“Please. It’s the truth, the man was a dog, and he should be put out of his misery.” I stopped laughing and looked at her.

“Are you ever going to tell me why you hate the man so much?” Her eyes met mine, and she shook her head.

“He’s not worth the breath. I hope wherever he is, it’s hot, it will prepare him for when he dies and spends eternity in hell.” Carly pushed her chair back and stepped to the coffee pot for a refill. Her way of letting me know that she was done with the subject. We’d been friends a long time; she’d tell me when she was ready. We each held secrets—hers about Stone—mine about Ally’s dad. It’d been three days since I saw him. I knew I wouldn’t be lucky enough for that to last, our town wasn’t tiny, but it wasn’t the big city either. Eventually, my luck would run out. I just needed to figure out if/or how I was going to tell him. And wondered if he’d care he had a daughter. Then, my dad, that was going to be fun. Which reminded me.

“Hey, Dad’s coming the week after next for his usual visit.”

“Wild Bill coming by himself this time or is one of the others riding with him? He shouldn’t be riding by himself, Sami.”

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