Page 27 of Reckless
Chapter Fourteen
Carly
"Let's go," Jess shouts, and I roll my eyes, grabbing my purse.
"Jeez, I was coming. You act like you’re my wife or something." I laugh as I walk past her.
“You wish, I’d be an awesome lesbian.” She nudges my shoulder as she catches up.
We take the elevator down, and I see Izzy standing outside our door. There is a black SUV parked behind her on the street and the guy who gave me a ride home the other night standing by it.
"You ready for a much-needed girl’s day?" she raises an eyebrow at me.
"Hell yes!" Jess exclaims. She looks over at me.
“Yeah, let’s get it done.” I force a smile, really missing talking to Jax. Seeing Izzy and Mikey only makes me think about the fact that we can’t be together.
"Well, that was enthusiastic, Carly. Whatever, by the end of the day, you'll thank us." She walks toward the car and opens the door. Jess breaks out into an almost run as I trail behind her.
It's not that I don't appreciate them wanting to do this for me, I do. I guess I'm just not in the break-up stage where I'm ready to be cheered up. I'm still in the stage where I want to sit in my pajamas and watch Nicholas Sparks movies.
They have the music blaring during the ride, singing along and acting like fools pretending to serenade me. Their method works, and by the time we pull up to our first stop, I'm smiling and already thankful that they decided to force me into this. We are outside a Mexican restaurant, and the hostess seems to recognize Izzy when we walk up.
“The other girls joining you guys too?”
"Not today, just us three." Izzy smiles at her as she starts to walk back to the table. We sit down, and she lets us know the waitress will be with us in a minute. "All of us come here every Monday, they usually have a big table ready for us in the back. We call it Margarita Mondays." She laughs.
For a minute, I'm upset because I know if the rules weren't different I might be able to be a part of that. They aren't different though, and they won't be, so now I need to find a new dream and accept my new reality.
"Anyway, their loaded nachos are amazing and so is the guac. That's my usual here, then of course margaritas but obviously, I'll have to leave that to you girls." Her hand finds her stomach.
"How are you feeling?" I ask. I haven't really had a chance to talk to her since they announced it the other night.
"Eh, I'm okay. I've been a little sick, but nothing like Lucy was. That girl would hurl at the sight or smell of any food she didn't ask for." She shakes her head. "Don't ever talk to Lucy if you plan on having kids. She'll scar you and make it your worst nightmare."
The waitress comes by, and Izzy orders the usual for us. I hope that with everything, I can keep in touch with her, she seems like a really great person, and besides Jess, I really don't have many girlfriends. Tony cut me off from most of the people I liked hanging out with. My friends got sick of me canceling on them because of him, or the fact that whenever I was out of the house, he would call me so many times that it wasn't even worth going out. Plus, whenever I would actually go out, we would fight about whatever money I spent when I was gone.
“So I know Pres is your brother. Is that how you got involved with the club and with Lady?” I laugh, saying his name.
“Actually no.” She rolls her eyes. “I honestly can’t believe that Nikki stuck him with that damn name.”
“Nikki gave it to him?” Jess interrupts. I didn’t think the old ladies were that involved in the club details. “I have to hear that story.”
"Well, to make a long story short, I didn't know who I was when I came to the club. Our mom had given me up for adoption." She pauses, and I can tell she's remembering whatever happened. "A lot of crap happened in between but it eventually worked out, and now I have a bigger family than I ever imagined I would."
“I’ve never had a big family.” I shrug. I haven’t talked to my mom much after everything happened with Tony.
Izzy and Jess both look at me with almost pity in their eyes. "Maybe someday you'll be part of ours." Izzy gives me a smile, but we both know the chances of it happening are almost nothing.
Thank God the food gets dropped off at that minute, breaking the awkward silence that had settled in. The rest of lunch is fun, we laugh, and Izzy tells us stories about the guys that they'd probably kill her for repeating.
Jess mentions Brick, and I can tell she likes him from the way her face lights up. I want to tell her how he feels about her but I don't want her going through the same thing I am right now. It's torture knowing that you're in love with someone, they love you, but you have to stay away from each other.
The sound of motorcycles sound and all of us look toward the street seeing a bunch of them talking to Mikey. Wrench is there, and his eyes immediately find me. Both of us are frozen in some crazy staring contest until one of the other guys hits him on the arm, breaking our connection. He shakes himself out of the daze before turning his head to Mikey. Whatever they're talking about, no one seems happy.
Lady walks into the restaurant. “We need to head back to the clubhouse, babe.”
Izzy doesn’t move to get up. “I’ll be there when we’re done. I told you I was having girl’s day today.”
