Page 109 of The Fates We Tame
Rae shakes her head. “Absolutely not.”
“Why not?” Ari grins. “It sounds like fun.”
“Well, I’m sureDaddyHalo will play pillow fights with you when he picks you up tomorrow,” Vi says.
Ari blushes. “You honestly don’t want to know what Halo does to me.”
“No. We don’t,” Catalina says as she shoulder checks her gently. “Could you imagine Colton’s face if I called him ‘Daddy’? He wouldn’t let me out of bed for a week.”
“Or King? I think he’d jump on me for sure,” Rae says.
Briar chuckles. “Saint would just think I’m making fun of our age gap.”
I love how easy these women are to be around. They have a genuinely kind and teasing relationship with each other. And they love their men in an unapologetic way.
“Thank you,” I say. “For being so…welcoming.”
Rae glances up at me. “You’re one of us now.”
“I just realized; you use your men’s road names more than their real names. I only ever call Theo…‘Theo.’ Should I be calling him ‘Switch’ because I think I only used it a couple of times?”
“For me it depends on the context,” Gwen says. “Like, around the clubhouse, he’s Clutch. But at home, I’m more likely to call him ‘Landon.’”
“It’s easier to use their road names,” Ari says. “It’s how everyone else refers to them.”
“And their names have just become an extension of their personalities,” Catalina says. “Like, the concept of a birth name is pretty weird when you think about it. Your parents kinda guess what name might suit you. It’s usually gendered too, forcing you into a box. With road names, at least they mean something.”
Gwen laughs. “Yeah, but you haven’t heard some of the road names. Two weeks ago, Clutch met up with a friend from the Vegas chapter called Twinkle Toes.”
“Hey, Cat,” Briar says. “Why is Niro called ‘Niro’?”
Catalina grins. “Because of a typo.”
“What?” I ask.
“Shortly after Niro saved Camelot, he went into ADHD hyperfocus about Emperor Nero. Started quoting him about poisonous mushrooms and fiddling while Rome burned. Camelot chose his name and got the patch made without bothering to check the spelling.”
“And he never pointed it out to Camelot?” Gwen asks.
Catalina shakes her head, a soft smile on her face. “He’s worn a misspelled patch for as long as he’s been with the club because he loved Camelot too much to embarrass him by pointing it out.”
“That’s Niro,” Rae says.
“Isn’t it?” Iris agrees.
The fire crackles, and the candles I’ve lit create a soft but tiring light. My eyes start to droop. “I may head to bed.”
“Me, too,” Vi says, climbing to her feet. “It’s so lovely that Avery has friends. And really convenient for nights like this when I can get her a sleepover.”
“I love having Lola, but I’m also really grateful she can sleep like the dead once I put her down for the night,” Ari says, glancing upstairs where Lola is sleeping and Joules, the babysitter, is keeping watch. “It was thoughtful for Halo to get a sitter for tonight so I could just hang out with you all.”
Briar stands and reaches for Iris’s hand to help tug her out of her seat. “You get to sleep with me.”
Iris chuckles. “We should tell the boys we’re having a threesome. You, me, and the baby.”
Briar grimaces. “Let’s not do that. It sounds weird.”
“I’ll share with Rae,” Gwen says. “And I’m totally telling my brother that I’m sleeping with his old lady to squick him out.”
