Page 69 of Brand
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Brand
Cami and I were sitting on one of the couches in the common area of the clubhouse. She never seemed to mind just hanging out and I loved that. But there were times I felt like I should do more. She needed dates and flowers and to go out into the world. The thing that sucked was that at the end of the day we both seemed so worn out and we used the little energy we had for other things. Not that I was complaining. Nope, not at all.
I wanted to give her some sense of normalcy. I mean, my life was far from that. Times like this it felt normal, though. When we were just sitting around, playing with each other’s fingers as a subtle way of showing our affection without being too ‘in your face’ about it, and talking with whatever brother was passing on their way out the door. I wondered if she saw it that way too.
There was still the threat of whoever had shot up the shop. Sure the D13 leader had made it seem like he’d take care of it, but the thing was, we didn’t know if we could really trust him. It wouldn’t have been smart to drop our guard. I felt safe enough, knowing that Cami hadn’t been part of their plan, and that was the only reason I’d let her out of my sights at times. This whole thing played a big part into how we lived right now. We had to watch our backs just a little harder. Something that made me think too many times that maybe I’d only end up pulling Cami down in the end. Those thoughts I tried really hard to shake off every time they popped up. There was a conversation coming, I just wasn’t quite ready to have it yet.
But even with all that, I was pretty much at a ‘fuck it’ level and if I wanted to take my girl out, I was going to do it. There hadn’t been any word or attacks since the single one on my shop. And maybe it was stupid, but I wanted to hope that things had died down for good.
“Want to go watch a movie?” I asked, shifting so I could grab my phone from the arm of the couch to look up showtimes for the nice theater across town. “We could grab some dinner too.”
“Um, maybe?” That ‘maybe’ sounded hesitant.
But despite that, I checked to see what was playing. Truly nothing made me jump up and down inside with excitement. When I mentioned a couple to her that I wouldn’t mind sitting through, all I got was a little shrug letting me know she felt the same way. Sensing it was a no-go, I put my phone back down and tried to think of something else.
“We could go take a walk on the beach,” I suggested. It was too late to do the fun-in-the-sun thing, but that didn’t mean that we couldn’t sit around and talk and enjoy the sounds of the calming waves.
She sat up and eyed me, her lips turned up at the corners in the start of a smile.
“Are you…trying to take me out? Like, get all romantic and stuff?”
“Um,” I scratched the back of my neck maybe just a little embarrassed by the whole thing. Maybe that wasn’t what she wanted. Truth was, I didn’t really know. “Yeah? I just thought maybe you’d want to get out and do something. I don’t want you to get bored with me and well, I didn’t know if you were tired of just sitting around here all the time.”
“That’s, really, um, wow,” she said, her words coming out with tiny shocked pauses in between. “No one has ever really done that for me, or wanted to, I guess.” Her beaming smile was infectious, and no I didn’t miss the quick flick of her eyes to look at my dimples.
“You deserve it,” I said, interlacing my fingers with hers. “And so much more. Also, I’m kind of a date guy, I think. I mean I really like the idea of taking you out, spending time with you doing things.”
“I think I love that idea.” She popped a quick peck on my lips. “But I have to be honest, if we are going to watch a movie, I’d much rather do it in your room where we can watch it naked in bed.”
I laughed. She was so damn cute. I could agree wholeheartedly with that, though.
“Okay, so would you like to do something tonight?” I asked feeling a bit like the whole thing had gotten messed up. But I still wanted to get her out of this place for a bit.
“Yes…”
“But?”
“I can’t think of something I want to do,” she said and her face fell a little like she’d somehow disappointed me with her answer. “I know, I know. I’m lame, I’m sorry.”
“First off, you’re not lame. You are absolutely fucking adorable.” I kissed her simply because I fucking felt like it. “And second, it’s alright. I’ve been sitting here racking my brain trying to come up with something. For the record, I feel like the lame one.”
She giggled, then snuggled back down into my side. Figuring neither one of us could come up with something good, we talked about other things.
She filled me in a little on what it was like growing up ‘a Benson’ and she finally broke down and told me how her family, her mother especially, always treated her art like it was nothing more than a silly hobby. My heart broke for her. My dad had always encouraged me to chase my dreams and try everything even if I failed. I understood little things I’d noticed about her now. Like the way that she had that cute as hell way to avoid cussing. It was a filter, but at the same time, it was her way of sticking it to them. Because it was so obvious that instead of biting her tongue and swallowing down the frustration or whatever she was feeling, she let it out in more of a subtle, almost appropriate way.
“Alright, so the SS is done,” Ky said, flopping down on the couch beside us a little while later. “Need to take it to the strip and test it out. Cami, you up for a little race?” His brows went up as a smile curved the edges of his mouth.
There was an old, private landing strip about a half mile outside of the city limits. Ky had claimed it as his spot and often took his rebuilt masterpieces out there to test them out.
This one was something he’d come across that was for sale. The condition wasn’t all that great and the thing wouldn’t even start when Ky got there to check it out. But he got it towed to the garage, made it his side project, and pretty much, turned it into something new. I hadn’t seen the final product yet but I knew it was nothing short of beautiful. I was half tempted to jump up and go look at it the second he said it was done.
“Yeah, okay,” Cami said surprising me only slightly. I could tell that there was a little gleam of curiosity in her eyes every time he’d mention to her about going out there.
“Yeah?” I asked just to be sure.
“I really want to,” she said not holding back any of the excitement she felt.
