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Stephanie
WHILE HAR AND HIS MOTHER did God-knew-what in the kitchen, Corinna sat on the opposite end of the couch from me.
I smiled at her, but it felt strained so I let it drop. It wasn’t lost on me she’d evaded my question about what she was up to these days. Something about her struck me as being rather proper, so I didn’t press the small talk.
Problem was, I could never withstand lengthy silences, so I said, “I feel I owe it to Sammy and to you to speak up.”
The surprise on her face was so strong her head moved as if I’d smacked her. “Sammy? Me? What do you mean?”
I shook my head lightly. “He’s as headstrong as they come.”
Her lips twisted. “He still did everything Michael did. Everything. Including joining that motorcycle club.”
I couldn’t hold back my smile. Sandy had talked my ear off that first night at the clubhouse when she was supposed to protect me from Layla. She’d shared plenty of history about the men of the Biloxi Riot MC chapter. “You’re wrong. Sammy joined before Michael did.”
She thought it over. “You’re right, but it wasn’t long before my brother joined, too.”
“My point is that he doesn’t do anything because your brother does it, or vice versa. They both have strong opinions about what should be done and how to do it.”
“Right,” she mumbled.
I sighed. Deep down I knew I only had one shot to plant a seed of acceptance in her mind. I had to make it count. “You blame your brother for something that was Sammy’s idea.”
I was lying. It was the biggest bluff I ever attempted, but at the same time, having lived with Sammy during his teenage years, I knew he could be persuasive. Especially with someone he cared about.
Corinna glared at me. “What do you even know about it?”
“Michael told me about it. All about it. He never knew you had such a crush on his best friend. So he never understood why you were so angry, or why you would blame him for it.”
She sat straighter. “And I suppose you explained it to him?”
I shook my head. “No. I mentioned your crush, and it was like a light bulb went off. He understood where you were coming from, even though Sammy never followed Michael like a mindless sheep.”
Corinna didn’t have Har’s green eyes. Her eyes were a light brown and she leveled them on me. “I think you’ve put my brother on a pedestal.”
I shook my head. “I really haven’t. If he were still doing that sort of thing, believe me, I wouldn’t be sitting here right now. But, I don’t hold it against him that he did it at one time – assuming the woman was willing.”
“She was willing, all right,” Corinna muttered, and she threw me a look like she couldn’t believe the words came out of her mouth.
I didn’t know if it was the tension, the outlandish expression on Corinna’s face, or some random side effect of my antibiotic, but laughter overtook me and I threw my head back giving into the release.
As my laugher quieted, I heard Corinna laughing, too. Only her laughter wasn’t a release, it sounded like the mounting laughter of realization.
When she pulled herself together she touched my arm. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have let myself go like that.”
And that was the very reason Sammy had never given her a second glance.
Lucky for me, my poker face and ability to keep quiet stopped me from oversharing. Instead I smiled.
“Don’t be sorry, Corinna. Everyone needs to let themselves go, especially if we’re talking about laughter.”
She smiled. “You’re right. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” I said in a low voice.
After a moment, I pushed, “Do you still blame him for it? I mean, seeing as she was willing, do you really blame him?”
Her face went stony with her discomfort. She shook her head and sighed. “I guess not. Though after so many years I should get over it. I mean, my life has pulled me in a drastically different direction from either of my brothers, let alone Sammy.”
My brows furrowed. “How do you mean?”
She huffed out a breath. “I’m too strait-laced to ever fit in with him, now that he’s Brute. Some part of me will always love him, but that love is for a man I don’t really know, or who I’ve imagined.”
“Can you forgive your brother?”
Her smile was wan. “I hope so. I want to, but like you said, he’s headstrong, to say the least.”
I nodded. “It sounds like you’re willing to try, and that’s as good a start as any.”
She gave me an assessing look. “You were injured recently. What happened?”
My grin was half-hearted. “I should probably sugar-coat this, but I’m gonna be blunt. I was stabbed last night.”
Her eyes widened. “What? Stabbed? You’re kidding.”
“I have a decent sense of humor, but stabbing isn’t something I’d joke about, Corinna.”
“God, when did it happen?”
I grimaced. “Last night.”
Her face lit with surprise for a moment before it dimmed to seriousness. “And Mother invited you two to dinner, but Michael had no idea I’d be here.”
I nodded.
She glared in the direction of the kitchen.
I reached out and touched her arm. “Don’t be mad.”
Her expression said I was crazy. “That’s easy for you to say. But I won’t cause a scene. Besides, that’s absolutely why Michael went to the kitchen with her.”
My man sauntered out of the kitchen. As he moved, I could see the tension leaving his body. I moved to stand up, but he shook his head at me.
He sat between Corinna and me, but extended an arm along my shoulders. “You good?”
I nodded.
He looked at his sister. “Corinna. It’s nice to see you.”
She snorted. “Is it? I’m sorry, don’t answer that. Stephanie said you were just as surprised as me.”
With an arched eyebrow, he speared me with a look before he turned back to his sister. “Yeah. Though in a way I should’ve seen it coming. She’s adamant we —”
“I’ll try if you do,” Corinna said.
“Really?”
“Yes. Stephanie pointed somethings out.”
Mrs. Walcott came into the room. “It’s time to eat.”
***
Har
ALL THROUGH DINNER, Har wanted to get Stephanie away from his family and not just because of her injury. He was dying to know what she pointed out to his sister to make her so amenable to patching up their differences. Stephanie only had the bare bones of the story from him. How could she bring Corinna around in a mere ten minutes? Then again, he and Corinna were like oil and water growing up, which hadn’t changed as they became adults.
His mother had dragged things out as she served slices of pecan pie, and he recognized she was lonely. Respecting other people’s privacy was ingrained in members of the Riot MC. He realized he treated his mother the same way, but he shouldn’t.
“Mom. You hear from Ben lately?”
She glanced from her pie to him. “No. He should be in his last semester, I think. Once he took out those loans, he stopped calling.”
He made a mental note to call his brother. And if that didn’t work, maybe he’d drag Stephanie out to Spokane to work her magic. Better yet, they could ride up there. He glanced at Corinna, who looked remorseful.
“This might not be my business, Mom, but have you thought about dating?”
All the women’s eyes whipped to him. Then the women spoke at the same time.
“Honey,” Stephanie drawled.
“Are you serious?” Corinna asked.
“What are you talking about?” his mom asked.
He closed his eyes and shook his head before he focused on his mother. “Mom, you’re only fifty-six. You never dated after dad—”
Her fork clattered on her plate. “I never dated after your father because he was it for me. Period.” She turned her head away and huffed out a breath. “Jesus, if I had a dollar for every time one of his buddies came by and offered to set me up with a man. Hell, I’d have been able to put Ben through college.”
His chest burned hearing the pain in her voice. He knew Dad’s friends had come around occasionally to be decent influences on Ben, but he’d never known they’d discussed her dating again.
In a quiet voice, Corinna said, “I think Mike’s right, Mother. You’re lonely. I feel selfish for not seeing that.”
His mother sighed. “This is not what I had envisioned for this evening.”
“Now you know how we feel,” Corinna muttered.
Stephanie choked on a chuckle. “I’m sorry. I think my antibiotics have me feeling a little loopy. Really, I didn’t mean to laugh.”
His mother pointed her fork at her. “You can’t blame that on drugs. You did it, you should own it. And, frankly, I’m glad you laughed. Something needed to cut the tension in this room.”
Har put the last bite of his pie in his mouth and chewed.
When he swallowed, his Mom spoke. “I’ll think about getting back out there. But I won’t do any online dating. I’d rather meet someone the old-fashioned way.”
***
IN THE MORNING, HAR woke up next to a dead-to-the-world Stephanie. He wanted to wake her up because he’d never gotten the chance to ask her what she said to Corinna. By the time they were in his truck, she was prattling on about how his mother might enjoy online dating. When they had walked into the clubhouse, Suzy was still there with Turk and he didn’t want to stand in the way of their sister time. Block pulled him aside, and by the time Har got to his room, Stephanie was sleeping.
He still didn’t have the heart to wake her up, so he trudged into the bathroom to shower. While he stood at the sink with a towel wrapped around his waist, after his shower, a bleary-eyed Stephanie wandered into the bathroom. He had shaving cream on his cheeks and the razor at his face when she gasped.
“You better not shave your goatee, mister.”
He dragged the blade down his cheek before he looked at her. “And if I am?”
Her eyes turned fiery. “It’ll piss me right the hell off.”
He grinned. “Good to know. But I’m not shaving the goatee, just my cheeks, babe.”
She gave a curt nod. “I’ll allow it.”
He laughed. “You’ll allow it. You’re crazy if you think that’s how shit’s gonna work.”
Her head tilted and he knew she was going to lay on the drama. “Maybe I’ll go blonde. Is that going to fly with you?”
The thought of her as a blonde did not sit well with him, but he wouldn’t let her know that. “Your hair, Steph. Do what you want with it.”
She chuckled. “You’re so full of shit. I saw you grimace.”
He turned back to the mirror and finished the left side of his face. Her rapt gaze on every stroke of his razor was cute.
“You gonna take a long time?” she asked.
He tapped the razor against the basin. “Shouldn’t be much longer, why?”
“I need to use the bathroom. Needed to go when you got out of bed, but figured I’d wait until you were done in the shower. I had no idea you shaved every morning.”
He grunted with humor. “Not everyday, but if I don’t, I’ll have a beard. Not a goatee.”
A look of speculation took over her face. Then she shrugged. “Whatever floats your boat.”
He focused on the right side and she fidgeted. “I’m not stopping you, babe.”
Her eyes slid to the side. “I’ll come back.”
He chuckled, but hurried with his task. Once he dried his face, he dragged on his underwear, hung his towel, and left the bathroom. “It’s all yours, Miss Priss.”
She rolled her eyes as she passed him and he grabbed her hand. “You can’t take a leak in front of me, I’d say that’s reason enough to call you prissy.”
“We haven’t been together that long.”
“I don’t care. Go.”
When she came out of the bathroom, he had tugged a black Foo Fighters t-shirt over his head.
“Did you go to one of their shows?” she asked.
He nodded. “Long time ago, but yeah.”
“Lucky,” she said, all petulant.
“That I am. Cause I got you. Seems you’re a miracle worker after last night. What exactly did you point out to my sister?”
She smirked and came closer to him. “That Sammy doesn’t follow you blindly like she might have thought he does. And it didn’t hurt that Sandy had filled me in on a fair amount of history, and I reminded Corinna that Sammy joined before you did.”
“And that’s all it took?”
She stroked her hand up and down his chest. “She’d come to her own realizations that Sammy wasn’t meant for her. I was in the right place at the right time, I guess.”
He grabbed her hand. “If you were at a hundred percent, you’d damn sure be in the right place at the right time now, but you can’t turn me on first thing in the morning when I can’t fuck you.”
She smirked. “I recall you getting me off and not getting off yourself. No reason that can’t be reversed. I can go down on you, honey—”
“No. Not that I don’t like the idea, but you aren’t doin’ that on your knees and I don’t want you laying on your stomach until you see Doc again. You do that soon, right?”
“Um, next week. The nurse texted me with the details.”
“Right. I’ll be fine in the interim. You want me to bring you some breakfast?”
Her eyes softened. “I can wait for Suzy to get here. Maybe I’ll have her bring me an Egg McMuffin.”
He dipped his chin. “Can send a prospect instead, Steph.”
Her lips twisted, after a moment she said, “Okay, fine. But I hate making someone go out of their way.”
He laughed. “That’s a fuckin’ cake walk compared to what the rest of us make them do. So forget about it.”
A knock on the door interrupted them.
“Yeah,” he called out.
Brute poked his head inside. “Everyone’s here, man. You ready?”
He lifted his chin and Brute closed the door.
Stephanie backed up a step. “What’s going on?”
He shook his head. “Church, honey. No worries, right?”
She took in a deep breath.
“Right,” she said, reluctantly.
“I’ll have Sandy bring your food when the prospect comes back. Don’t shower on your own. Wait for your sister.”
She rolled her eyes. “Okay, Mr. Bossy.”
He gave her a look. “Next time you roll your eyes at me, you’re gonna pay for it.”
Her smirk returned. “Will I though? Pretty sure you’ll pay just as much since I haven’t seen the doctor yet.”
That forced a smile from him, and he lightly swatted the side of her upper thigh. “Just you wait, Combes. Now, kiss me.”
***
WALKING INTO CHURCH, he felt the somber mood like a punch to his gut. Two of their brothers were dead, and it had finally sunk in for all of them.
“I know this shit’s hard, brothers. But, we have to live in the now. And right now, we gotta figure out how we’re gonna bring more money into the chapter.”
Gamble lifted his hand to speak and Har nodded. “I was thinking, Prez, when things went sideways, it was Block’s security set-up that saved our ass. What if we went into security? I know mainstream alarm companies offer cameras with their home monitoring and shit, but there are people out there who don’t trust big corporations. And some of those people might get off, so to speak, on having a motorcycle club doing their security.”
“That’s decent thinking, but you’re right. The larger outfits can offer prices we couldn’t compete with.”
Gamble shook his head. “Yeah, but that’s the kicker. Wreck came in and destroyed Block’s hardware and rerouted shit or whatever he did, but we were still able to get around his sabotage.”
Block nodded. “You’re right, but that was more because of the IT firm in Jacksonville. Not so much because of me.”
Even though Gamble’s suggestion wasn’t likely to fly for them, it spurred others to throw out their own ideas. By the end of church ninety minutes later, there were four decent prospects for businesses to generate revenue streams for the chapter.
Har and Cynic walked toward the common room.
Cynic muttered, “Cryin’ shame we can’t take over an existing strip club like the Jacksonville brothers did. Nobody would bellyache about working there.”
“Ever occur to you, that might be the reason not to do that? Everybody’s so eager to see the free show they’d lose sight of the actual business.”
Cynic sighed while shooting a finger gun at him. “That’s why you’re in charge, man. Later.”
Har stopped in the middle of the common room while Cynic walked out the back door. Not a moment after the back door closed, the front door opened and Layla’s sister Callie walked inside.
“Just the motherfucker I’m looking for.”