Page 17 of Patch's Bride
“Absolutely. Go and have your meeting. I’ll be fine. I’m getting the hang of navigating the clubhouse and you introduced me to everyone already.”
I’m surprised when he pulls me close and gives me a long, lingering kiss, which confuses me for a second. Then I remember we’re supposed to be selling the relationship. When he pulls back, I force myself to smile up at him because he really should have warned me before throwing a lip lock on me that way in public. I decide we’ll definitely be talking about that later. I watch him wander off, just as Sharon makes it to the bar.
Her boys begin jumping up and down, tugging on her shirt. “Can we go out back? Evan said he’d take us riding in ten years. Only ten years. Can you believe it?”
“Ten years,” the other echoes, making a zooming motion with his hand, like he’s already on a motorcycle.
Sharon laughs, shaking her head. “I don’t know how long you think ten years is, but it won’t be tonight.” Turning to me, she announces, “These are our mini-prospects, Scout and Chase. In case you can’t tell, they take after their dad.”
“Hi,” I say, bending down to shake their hands. They grin at me, and one says, “You’re for Patch, right?”
I nod and get ready to explain that we’re getting married but the other boy cuts me off. “Are you a doctor too?”
The other one shoves him, frowning. “Don’t be stupid. She’s a nurse, like Ladybug.”
I open my mouth to tell them neither, but the first one pulls up his sleeve. “I broke my arm and Patch fixed it. You can’t even tell. See?”
When I glance up at Sharon, she tells me proudly, “Crow swears they’ll try to join the Legion the second they’re old enough to join the club’s junior prospecting program, which is coincidentally in ten years.”
Crow walks up behind her. He’s much taller than I thought he’d be. He has broad shoulders and his bulging muscles seem to be trying to pop out of his T-shirt. He hooks his arm around Sharon’s waist and tells her, “I’m gonna take the boys off your hands so you can have some me time.”
“That’ll be a neat trick, since you’ve got church and they’re not allowed in the meeting room,” Sharon says.
Crow calls out, without taking his eyes off her, “Evan! Levi!” When a couple of teens come running over, Crow instructs them, “Take these two badass bikers out to the patio and get them burgers. They’ve been looking for some wrestle-mania action. Wear them out.”
The boys cheer, jumping up and down again, enough to make me tired just watching them. The two prospects happily cart the boys off, seemingly thrilled with their new assignment.
I just stare at Sharon with new eyes. “How do you live?”
She just chuckles. “It’s a team effort, really. That’s the only way to survive when your kids have twice our energy and four times our sneakiness. Come on, let’s sit while the men do their meeting.”
With all the brothers gone, the bar is like a ghost town, with only a few club girls and old ladies wandering around. We find a swing on the side of the front porch, where it’s cool and we park our asses. I finally feel like I can breathe. I relax back into the cushions.
Sharon nudges me with her elbow. “It gets easier. Meetings are always chaotic because there are so many people in and around the clubhouse at the same time. You eventually get used to it.”
“I don’t mind,” I lie. “Tonight was difficult because there were so many new faces and names to remember.”
For a moment, we watch her boys play in the side yard. They’re zooming around with burgers in their hands, eating as they play. The prospects are chasing along behind them, trying to get them to sit down to eat.
Sharon wonders out loud, rubbing her baby bump. “I can’t help but wonder if this one’s going to be rowdy too,” she says softly. “You know, whether the boys got their rough-and-tumble attitude from Crow or their bio mom. It’s something I don’t feel comfortable talking to Crow about, she was a bit of a wild one.”
Her honesty surprises me. She could have kept our conversation light and superficial, but she decided to talk about something real.
“Do you know what their mother was like?”
“Not really,” she admits. “Crow just mentioned that she turned to drugs after the boys were born and he couldn’t save her, no matter what he did.”
I nod, turning the situation over in my mind. “Crow doesn’t seem particularly hyper.”
She leans back, still rubbing her baby bump. “Maybe it’s something he grew out of.”
“Then again it might just be that they’re boys and twins.”
Before she has a chance to comment on that, Sharon lurches forward as Scout and Chase get into a real fight. “Sorry, I gotta handle this myself. I’ll be right back,” she says over her shoulder.
That’s when a club girl steps out the front door. I immediately become tense. I know her name is Roxy because she’s made herself the center of attention all evening.
She’s tall, with long dark hair that falls straight down her back. She’s wearing booty shorts and a halter top designed to show as much skin as possible without being obscene. She moves with grace and confidence.
