Page 17 of Jester

I’m not sure what will happen when Jester fully meets my interest with his own. It’s possible I might run away. I can also see myself crying and needing more time.

As we drive through the Sanctuary’s front gates, I’m still riding high on Jester’s intoxicating vibe. I want to deny the problems awaiting us back home.

The first issue being Jester refuses to get out of the SUV once we arrive at his townhome. He stares at the dashboard and scratches absentmindedly at his bearded chin.

Papa Bear leaves the SUV and knocks on my window to get me to follow him. I hesitate, thinking I should soothe the edgy beast in the front seat. Papa Bear taps on the window again and wiggles his finger at me. I finally obey since I’m getting a “club founder” vibe from him.

“Let him be,” Papa Bear tells me once I stand next to him. “You know what it’s like to feel trapped and then set free.”

Frowning, I rub my stomach scar through my shirt. “You mean when I was tied down to the hospital bed? Why mention that now?”

“No, I meant when Zoey and Evie locked you in the attic closet,” Papa Bear says with complete seriousness before breaking under the strain of his amusement. I roll my eyes while he chuckles. “You were in there for an hour because you refused to call anyone for help.”

I still can’t believe my evil nieces tricked me into that closet during my babysitting duty. I could have suffocated from my rage, or they could have burned down the house. Well, Scout is a little Miss Goody Two-Shoes, so she wouldn’t have let that happen. But she did listen to me pound on the door for an hour before Jules arrived home to free me.

“I’m not laughing at you,” Jules said that day despite giggling so hard she was literally fucking crying.

“Ground them!” I demanded of my nieces who dared to stand nearby, looking adorably innocent. “Take away their toys for a year!”

“I can’t even with you. Quit bitching, ya cranky-ass fool,” Zoey said, having totally ripped off what I often say to her father.

That day was not one of my prouder moments. Like Jester right now, I refused to seek help when I was trapped by two demon children.

Papa Bear finally opens Jester’s door and explains, “Tonight’s welcome home party is low-key. We’ll save the wild shit for when you’ve settled in and the rest of the members are back.”

Jester glances at Papa Bear without moving his impressively masculine body. He seems stuck in the SUV.

“What happens next?” Jester finally asks.

Papa Bear holds open the door and explains, “You go inside your place and get your head on straight. In an hour, we walk over to HQ and get dinner. We’ll stick you at a table and have people come by to say hello. If you want to stay longer and have drinks, that’s fine. If you want to come back here, that’s also fine. The world isn’t changing tomorrow. Take your time.”

Jester shoots a dirty look at my dad. He doesn’t like having anyone talk to him like he’s a stupid kid.

But in all honesty, Jester requires everything to be dumbed down. When I said I was prospecting for the club years ago, he acted like he simply couldn’t figure out what the hell I was talking about. I was forced to explain how prospecting worked. Of course, he knew the truth, yet he demanded for me to put the pieces together for him.

Right now, Jester feels out of sorts. Nothing makes sense. Everyone feels wrong. He probably feels wrong, too. Jester can fuss all he wants, but Papa Bear knows how to handle him.

Jester finally gets his muscled body out of the damn SUV and walks to the townhome’s front door.

“It’s just like you left it,” I promise him. “I was here every time the cleaning lady came by. Made sure she didn’t move anything.”

His gray-blue eyes find me, and something shifts in his stance. He isn’t tense about coming home. He doesn’t feel out of place. He’s gotten that very specific male aura oozing from his every pore. I’ve never seen him behave this way before.

“Sister Sass and I need to check on the Texas thing and make sure everything is solid here,” Papa Bear says and pats Jester’s shoulder. “We’ll be back in an hour to get you.”

Feeling bad over ditching him, I offer Jester a warm smile. He responds by cocking his right eyebrow as if I’m challenging him and he’s about to tackle me.

Papa Bear nudges me toward the SUV. Once we’re inside, I stare out the window as Jester watches us disappear.

“I should have stayed with him.”

“That wouldn’t have been a smart plan.”

“What, do you think we’d fuck?”

“Yes,” Papa Bear says and parks the SUV in his garage next to his favorite Harley and my little sister Kat’s bicycle.

Frowning at my father’s tone, I consider Jester alone in his townhome.

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