Page 36 of The MC's Surprise
“Relax. I just volunteer. I’m not qualified to run into burnin’ buildings. I do the front desk work.”
Relief flooded through all of us, and I heard a collection of relived sighs pass through the group. I leaned a little more into Sierra, trying to banish the picture of Tank running into a burning building out of my brain. That would scare the shit out of me. She looked amused, shaking her head at Tank.
“And you couldn’t drive on your own to come here? You knew what they’d all think.”
“That’s what makes it so fun,” he replied with a wink.
“I’m going to hurt you,” Prez growled. “You almost gave me a heart attack thinking about my sixty-five-year-old dad running into burning buildings.”
True. Yes, it was rare to have a fire in a town as small as this one, but that didn’t mean they didn’t happen. And Tank was way too old to be playing firefighter.
“Don’t be a baby, Wyatt. I can’t spend all day watchin’ tv. I’ll die of boredom. I volunteer at the hospital too. Gotta keep myself active, ya know?”
That probably shouldn’t have surprised me. Tank was a pretty active guy up until his retirement. He founded and ran the MC, raised two kids on his own, and worked full time. He wasalways talking about it with the older guys. Going from that to nothing must’ve been tough.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Prez demanded
“You got your own shit to handle, boy. Don’t you be worryin’ about me. I know how to keep busy.” He gave his attention to Sierra, effectively dismissing him. “So, you’re the one in charge of all this, right?” He tipped his head toward the park, where the crew was guiding the dumpster into a suitable spot and Kennedy was setting up her camera in the shade of a tree. We’d need to get started soon.
Sierra smiled brightly, bobbing her head. “Yep. I used to be an event planner, so setting up this kind of thing is what I’m good at. ”
“Well, I’m glad you’re here. I put this crew together and I always hated hearing what people thought about us. You’re an angel, sweetheart.”
“It’s a team effort,” Sierra argued, waving her hands. “We are all part of it. I–”
“She’s being modest,” Skylar interrupted as she came to join us. “Most of the planning is done by her and the park clean up was her idea.”
While it was all praise being directed in her direction, I felt Sierra stiffen and her face twitched like she was fighting back a grimace. I wasn’t sure why she was so against taking credit, but I didn’t have time to ask. Someone from the fire station approached us, clapping my dad on the shoulder as he stepped up beside him, his attention on Prez. He was wearing the fire station polo, his smile friendly and not judgmental about a bunch of bikers hanging around.
“Are you Wyatt?”
Offering him a hand, Prez replied, “Wyatt Lawson. Thanks for coming out.”
“No problem. I’m Aaron Masters. Tank told us what you guys were doing today, and we had some free time. We’ll have to run if we get a call, but it's not that common around here and this place needs all hands on deck.”
“We appreciate it. I’m sure Kennedy wants us to talk to her first, but after that we can get started, so we don’t take up too much of your time.”
His brow furrowed in confusion until Sierra pointed out the reporter nearby. Then his eyebrows shot up almost into his hairline. “You’ve got a reporter on this? Damn, I’m jealous. Our outreach events never catch this much attention.”
That caught Sierra’s attention and diverted her away from her conversation with Tank. “What kind of outreach events?”
While she and Aaron talked about the community outreach the fire station did, Tank followed me and Prez to where Kennedy was waiting. He dropped his voice, leaning in to whisper to me.
“You got a hellion on your side, son. Don’t do somethin’ stupid and run her off.”
Giving him a mock salute, I grinned at him. “Aye aye, Captain.”
He rolled his eyes at me but there was no venom to it. He knew how his old crew acted. He was the one who took me on as a prospect, even though I was a troublemaker and he said I was one of the reasons he had white hair. We all loved Tank.
After watching Prez do a quick interview with Kennedy on the goals of the project and making a quick mention of the charity event we’d be doing in the future to earn money for new park equipment, we got the ball rolling on clean up. Skylar and Sierra handed out gloves, so no one touched shit they wouldn’t want to, and the dumpster was quickly filling up with all the big items we pulled out of the knee high grass.
We were about halfway done when I took a break. Sierra was in the thick of it, getting her hands dirty, but no one wanted her doing any heavy lifting, so after a while, she was moved to being in charge of the water station. She wasn’t happy about it, said she could handle the clean up, but with some pouting on my part, she finally backed down with a laugh.
“You’re too old to be making faces like that,” she complained, a smile pulling at her lips.
I shrugged innocently. “Zoey taught me. That girl can make even Prez melt. I took the lessons to heart.”
She pointed a finger at me, trying to look stern. “No more pouting to get what you want. Or I’ll use that look on you.”
