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Andrea
TWO THINGS I KNEW FOR sure, it was morning, and I felt sticky in an unfamiliar way. I opened my eyes to see Liar lying curled toward me, and last night came rushing back into my mind. If we did that again, I’d have to start buying larger bottles of oil. It was hard for me to believe I hadn’t ever thought to try that before because it was great. He rode me with ease normally, but adding the oil gave both of us a slickness resulting in a fuck that was smooth on the inside and on the outside.
I had to stop thinking about last night before I worked myself up. A smile played at my lips because having him next to me first thing in the morning was like a dream come true. It sounded hokey in my mind, but it was the truth. His copper stubble was beautiful on his angular face. His arm was draped on my hip, lightly claiming me even in sleep. While I hadn’t liked him calling me ‘what was his’ last night, I absolutely loved the idea of being claimed by him.
Watching his muscular chest rise and fall with his breathing, I thought about him saying he was falling for me on Monday. His comment about my excitement at that prospect prevented me from telling him I was falling for him too. Though, the truth of the matter was I wasn’t falling for him at all. I fell hard for him the day he walked inside my shop. Insisting that feeling was lust speaking was a self-imposed delusion. My falling only stopped when we got to know one another. So, no, I wasn’t falling for Liar because I was in love with him. Plain and simple.
My lips were pressed together as I thought about whether or not I should just tell him I loved him. Part of me thought it was a complete no-brainer, but another part of me knew it was the ultimate form of putting myself out there. If he didn’t return that, then what? The thought made me uncomfortable, and I shifted slightly.
Shifting my legs woke Liar up. Those liquid brown eyes caught mine and I had a difficult time breathing. I sharply exhaled a silent chuckle as I got myself together, but he was onto me, and the edges of his lips tipped up.
“You strugglin’ with somethin’ Andi?” Liar asked me with a joking tone.
My eyes examined his pillowcase. “Nope. No struggles here, man. How about you?”
He chuckled, and I thought that would be that, but his fingers swiped at my chin. “I’m fine, but you’re a lousy liar.”
It was downright reflexive when my eyes went to the left and then back to him again. “Whatever, Liar.”
He rolled on top of me. “What’s on the agenda for today? You got clients?”
I shook my head. “No, even if it’s ‘shop local’ Saturday today, it’s typically one of my slowest days. Most people are out of town or with their families, so getting pampered isn’t on their list of things to do.”
His lips puckered as he pondered what I said. “That’s a bummer for you.”
“Not really. It’s more of the calm before the storm because next week is a killer. People get stressy with family visitors and stuff. Besides, Jackie’s shower is later today anyway.”
“Speaking of showers, babe, I’m thinking we both need one of our own. I’m sticky, so I can only imagine how you’re feeling.”
I giggled and nodded. He grinned. His head dipped, and he kissed me hard but with closed lips.
“You’re up first, Andi,” he said and rolled off of me.
***
LIAR WALKED UP BEHIND me, fresh from his shower. “So, you’re the one who made those green appetizers.”
I was scattering chopped bell pepper onto the baked crescent roll dough which already had a layer of cream cheese spread all over it. “Yeah. The abundance of green from the broccoli and the bell pepper tends to put some people off. I should’ve opted for a yellow bell pepper, but I didn’t think about it when I was the grocery store. At the holidays I do a red bell pepper, but—”
“Babe. Once we all had one of those jokers, not one of my brothers shied away from them. They’re fuckin’ good.”
Well, that made me feel good. I smiled up at him. “Doesn’t change the fact that people eat with their eyes first.”
His eyes heated. “Yeah. I eat with my eyes first, that’s for damn sure.”
I dipped my chin toward my neck. “You’ve got to stop taking our conversations straight to the gutter.”
He chuckled. “I didn’t say anything to put this conversation in the gutter. Thinkin’ you’re the one who goes there. Not that I have a problem with that at all, Andi.”
“How was your Thanksgiving? Did your Gran enjoy having you and your cousin there?”
His expression faltered. “I think she enjoyed it, but I also think she was happy to see us leave too. My Uncle Delmas was there, even though he wasn’t supposed to be down there until after next week. Hate to say it, but it was clear this was probably her last Thanksgiving. She seemed weaker than when Beast and I went to see her earlier in the month. I just hope she’s around for Christmas.”
I frowned. There wasn’t much I could say to that, but I gave him a sympathetic look. “I hope she is too.”
“Yeah,” Liar whispered. Then he asked, “So, how was your Thanksgiving?”
“Good. Jackie had me and Cal and Mallory over for it. Volt fries a mean turkey.”
A wry grin lit his face. “You can tell the turkey was mean when you eat it, huh?”
I put the last bits of chopped carrots on top of the bell peppers and broccoli and gave Liar a skeptical look. “No. You know what I mean. It was great, and frankly, nice of him to do since Jackie shouldn’t be hauling a ten-pound turkey out of her oven, even if she does have a gourmet set-up.”
***
“YOU KNOW, PEOPLE LIKE you drive me crazy,” Abby said to Jackie.
Jackie gave her a questioning look.
“You want to be surprised about the baby’s gender. It makes me sick. The technology is there, Jackie, you should embrace it. I couldn’t look for cute girlie clothes or bad-ass baby boy biker outfits.”
Jackie’s chin dipped at Abby. “So sorry to ruin things for you, Abs.”
Abby shook her head. “I’m lookin’ out for you, woman. What are you gonna do about names? A good name is hard to come up with.”
Jackie was chewing a cracker, and once she swallowed, she pointed a finger at Abby. “That I’ve got covered. Simone if it’s a girl and Callous Henry if it’s a boy.”
Mallory’s eyes went big, and she looked at Jackie. “Does Cal know about this plan of yours?”
“Heaven’s, Volt doesn’t even know,” Jackie said smiling but gave Mallory a serious look. “And if you don’t mind, I’d appreciate it if you kept it to yourself for now.”
Forty-five minutes later, Jackie had unwrapped gifts, and I served the cake. I sat down on the floor in my living room with a slice of cake. I noticed a woman named Trixie stand up and grab her phone off the coffee table. She leaned toward Jackie to give her an awkward hug. “Good luck with the baby. I wish you the best.”
“Why does this sound like a permanent goodbye, Trixie?” Jackie asked.
Trixie crossed her arms defensively. She shook her head and I admired her ash blonde hair with purple tips. “Don’t go makin’ this harder than it is.”
“She isn’t,” Mallory said.
“Listen, Prissy Pants, I may have come to like you—”
“Prissy Pants? What is that all about?” Mallory demanded.
“Trixie, there is no reason you can’t—” Tennille started.
“Don’t you start up now, NeNe.”
“Don’t call me, NeNe, Patricka.”
“Wish I could be called ‘NeNe,’” Frankie put in.
Tennille shot her a sideways glare. “Like you need another damn nickname. Hell, when we first met, I didn’t know what to call you sometimes. Frankie, Lorraine, Rainey, and Lo-lo. Of all people, you got the nicknames covered.”
Frankie shrugged. “Whatever. Trixie, what is going on?”
Trixie sighed. “I’ve been takin’ myself out of Riot. If you girls are all hangin’ without any chance of any of the brothers bein’ around, I’ll swing by. Assumin,’ I’m not workin’ my ass off, but otherwise, it’s time for me to move on. Only so much a chick can take, if you know what I mean.”
Abby sauntered back in from the kitchen with a piece of cake in tow. “Don’t you dare think Blood and I aren’t gonna hunt you down and take you to lunch with us like we always have. Cause that date’s a standing one, even if we’ve never declared it as just that.”
Trixie’s head tilted slightly to the side. “Fine. But don’t you dare let him bring anyone else along. I mean it.”
Janie stood up from the armchair. “Much as I don’t want to, I think I’m gonna get rolling too, Andi. It was bad enough dealing with Trent beforehand, I don’t want to court him being a jackass when I get home too. But I won’t bore y’all with that. This was tons of fun. It was great to meet all of you Riot ladies. Jackie, congratulations again.”
I put my cake on the coffee table and stood up to walk both ladies to the door. “I’m so glad you both came. Trixie, it was great to meet you. I hope to see you again.”
Trixie shot a smile my way. “Yeah, well, if I ever get a promotion, I might need to come by your place for a massage, so who knows.”
“Sounds like a plan,” I said as I gave her a light hug.
I held the door open, and Trixie walked out. Janie was fast on her heels, but I stopped her with a hand on her bicep. “If you need to stay here or if Trent gets out of hand—”
She cut me off. “No, honey. He’s a pain in my ass, but much like Trixie, I’m moving on. Papers should be served to him soon, and then, well at that point I might need some help. We’ll see though. Just listening to me is definitely support enough, Andi.”
I smiled at her, but I didn’t feel like I was giving her ‘support enough’ at all. “Okay, girl. We’ll do lunch again soon, right?”
“You betcha! Might switch up my pastrami sandwich for a Firehouse Hook ‘n’ Ladder instead.”
I giggled and closed the door after her.
Liar
Liar followed Volt down to the parking lot and helped load in all the baby gifts. He couldn’t believe all the shit new parents needed.
Volt closed the hatch on the Liberty and turned to Liar. “You tell Andrea what’s goin’ on?”
Liar took in a deep breath. For the most part, brothers left each other alone about how they handled their personal problems, but he wasn’t sure Volt would approve of Liar’s plan. “No. I don’t intend to let her know either.”
One of Volt’s eyes squinted at him momentarily. “You really think that’s wise? You know she walks to work many days?”
“Yeah. I am gonna get her to cut that shit out. She needs to use her wheels. I don’t want her to know, and I know that’s a little fucked up.”
“Not necessarily. If your gut’s tellin’ you that keepin’ her carefree is the way to go, it might be right. I just know Jackie’d lose her ever-lovin’ mind if I kept her in the dark.”
Jackie and Andrea were two very different women. Liar didn’t want to worry Andrea unnecessarily, and he wasn’t certain how she’d react if she did know what was going down at the pawn shop. What he had with her was really fuckin’ good, but he still felt like she might bolt if things got dangerous. He was falling for her and even if it was selfish, he wasn’t going to do anything that might force her out of his life. She looked at him like he was her hero, and it felt damn good. No, he wasn’t going to jeopardize that.
“Andrea doesn’t have quite the same attitude as Jackie,” Liar muttered.
Volt chuckled and led the way back to the stairs. “Yeah, she does. You can’t tell me you’ve forgotten her ranting about the WD40.”
Liar chuckled. “Nope. You’re semi-right. She’s got attitude, but it’s all about protecting Mother Earth.”
At the top of the landing, Volt faced Liar. “She’d want to protect you, too, you know.”
One of Liar’s eyebrows lifted. “Ain’t how shit works in my world, Prez.”
Volt’s chin dipped down. “Maybe it should.”
They walked back into the apartment, and Mallory’s head was thrown back as she belly-laughed loudly. When she was under control, she looked at Andrea. “You are a hoot and a half. I had never seen biodegradable disposable bamboo forks and spoons before today, but seriously? You attended a condo board meeting to talk them into starting a compost heap?”
Andrea crossed her arms, shoving her tits up and Liar felt his cock twitch. He seriously loved watching her when she was getting riled up.
“Yes. I think they would’ve gone along until a bitch who lives in another building mentioned that staring a compost requires worms. She went out of her way to be graphic and turned them off on the whole idea.”
Mallory nodded but pointed a finger at Andrea. “You could sell this place and rent my house. I wouldn’t care if you started a compost heap in my back yard. It’s overrun with dollar weeds any damn way. It’d probably be an improvement.”
Andrea gave Mallory a sympathetic look. “I’ve got a pretty good set up here, Mallory—”
“Just think about it. Otherwise, I’m gonna have to put the house on the market, even though Cal’s trying to talk me into renting it out. I just don’t want to go through that hassle, but if someone I know and like was living there, that’d be different.”
The conversation petered out, but Liar decided he’d have a word with Cal about that. It was a good idea, and if things kept on being as good as they were, there was no way he’d be moving into this place with her. He liked space, and while her apartment was nice it was only a two bedroom. Yeah, he’d definitely find out how much Cal was thinking the rent ought to be on Mal’s place. He didn’t need to go see it because Cal had called on him as a prospect to do some work at Mallory’s place back in February.
***
LIAR’S PHONE VIBRATING on the nightstand woke him. He was in his bed alone. It would’ve been nice to have Andi with him, but he’d spent Saturday and Sunday nights with her, and there wasn’t much sleeping going on. Monday, he spent half his day with her, did a few hours at Hock, took Andi to dinner, but they both needed to rest up for their week ahead.
Grabbing his cell, the display indicated it was 2:43 in the morning and his father was calling.
“Yeah,” he answered with a croaky voice.
“Jim, you and your cousin need to get down here if you want to see your Gran one last time.”
He sat up and swung his legs to the floor. “Shit. Seriously? We were just there last week, how did she—”
“Cancer ain’t the only health issue she’s got, and it seems her heart’s failin’ her. She’d filled out a DNR before she even told me about the cancer comin’ back. Cause of the DNR—”
“What’s a DNR?” Liar interrupted.
“Do not resuscitate form. Anyway, because of that, she’s in hospice care now. I wouldn’t call you if it weren’t serious.”
“Got it. I’ll get Beast. We’ll leave soon.”
He disconnected, pulled on jeans and walked to Beast’s door. Knowing that Beast probably still had a girl in his room because he could hear them loud and clear just before midnight, Liar pounded on the door three times. No sounds could be heard on the other side of the door, so he pounded again only harder.
“Jesus Christ,” he heard Beast saying. Before the door opened, he heard Rage’s door behind him open.
“Christ Almighty! What is with you assholes? Not even three in the fuckin’ mornin’ and you’re raising an unholy racket.”
Liar shot the man a glare, but Beast’s door finally opened.
“What the fuck?”
“It’s Gran,” Liar said, and he watched the fury seep out of Beast’s face. “It’s bad. I’m leavin’ in ten.”
Five minutes later, Liar was in the kitchen fully dressed, and the coffee had finished brewing. As he poured his first cup, he heard Beast getting rid of the woman who had been in his bed.
Beast walked into the kitchen area grousing. “Bitches, I tell you. Some of them can never take a fuckin’ hint.”
“You need a travel mug?” Liar asked lifting the pot of coffee.
He groaned. “No, not all of us have fancy-ass touring bikes like you do. Got no cup holder. I’ll have to scald my fuckin’ throat and then get a 5-Hour Energy when we stop for gas or some shit.”
The upside to leaving at three in the morning was that traffic was light, but the downside was that they also hit Tampa around six in the morning and were in the thick of the morning rush hour. Beast gave him a signal to split the lanes of traffic, but Liar shook his head at him. It wasn’t worth getting a ticket or worse getting sideswiped in an effort to shave an extra twenty to thirty minutes from their drive.
They parked their bikes and sauntered up to Gran’s condo at a quarter to eight in the morning. Liar had just pulled open the storm door when his Uncle Delmas opened the front door.
“You boys must’ve hauled serious ass to get down here so early.”
They both walked into the small apartment, but there was no sign of his Grandmere. His father was sitting in a recliner watching the morning news.
Beast looked between the two other men. “Where’s she at? Liar didn’t tell me anything except it’s bad.”
Uncle Delmas sighed clapping a hand on Beast’s shoulder. “She’s at the local hospice facility. Should’ve insisted she downsize from that king bed a long-ass time ago, but there’s not enough room in here to bring in a hospital bed like she needs right now. They don’t expect her to make it through the day. Yesterday was rough, to say the least. She isn’t lucid all the time, but when she is, it’s like she knows her mind’s comin’ and goin’ and she does not like that one bit.”
Moving past his uncle, Liar brewed a cup of coffee in his Gran’s fancy single cup coffee machine. He noticed there was a plate of bacon sitting on the counter. Even though he didn’t have much of an appetite, he decided he should probably eat something.
“Want some eggs, Beast? There’s five rashers of bacon sittin’ over here to go with it.”
“Sure, if you’re cookin’,” Beast said.
While Liar and Beast ate, his father and Uncle took turns in the bathroom to get ready. By ten o’clock, they were waiting in the lobby of the hospice care center. A volunteer took them back to Gran’s private room. What Liar expected was not the room he walked into. It was a spacious, yet small, living room area and French doors led to a small patio. The only other door led to a bedroom where Gran was resting in a hospital bed.
The volunteer went into Gran’s room and spoke brightly to her. “Mrs. Huntley, you got yourself not two but four fine men here to see you. Are you ready for that?”
His father and uncle were holding themselves stiffly. His father pinned his eyes to Liar’s. “You head in there first, Jim. Me and Del said most everything we had to say last night. If she’s lucid, you and David need to talk to her.”
The volunteer returned to their huddle. “She seems to be all there. Likely the morphine is wearing off, and once she gets another dose of that, she tends to not be all there.”
Jim lifted his chin at the woman and felt a harsh sting at the back of his nose. He took in a deep breath and willed himself not to cry. Gently, he closed the door to Gran’s room behind him. There was a folding chair near her bed, and Liar sat in it as he took Gran’s hand in his. She looked at him and smiled wanly.
“Look so much like your daddy,” she whispered.
Clenching his jaw, he fought the tears. “Gran,” he croaked and cleared his throat. “You sure you can’t hang in there a little longer. I met a woman, and I think you’d love her as much as I do.”
The smile on her lips now was not as bright as she could muster. “Hang on to her. Knew something was different last week.”
Liar returned her smile. “Yeah,” he whispered.
“Her name?”
“What,” Liar asked, but then put it together. “What’s her name? Andrea Paglia.”
Her hand gave his a light squeeze. “That’s a pretty name. I love you boys, don’t you forget that.”
Liar couldn’t fight the tears any longer and felt one slip down his cheek. “No, Grandmere. I’ll never forget that. You’ve always been the best woman in my life.”
“Glad you found yourself a woman, Jim. I’ll tell your momma you love her when I see her.”
“Gran,” he whispered as another tear slid down the other side of his face.
“Send in Davy before they give me more drugs, honey.”
***
HIS GRAN’S FRAIL BODY was only able to tolerate two more rounds of morphine before she passed away during the afternoon. Helplessness was never a feeling Liar dealt with very well. When he really pondered it, he was surprised he wasn’t more accustomed to being helpless. He’d been dealing with it since childhood.
“You need us to call anybody, Dad?” Beast asked.
His uncle shook his head. “No. She had all her affairs in order and swore us to not having a funeral. One thing she did ask for was that you boys stick around for the reading of her will. I’ve contacted the lawyer, but the earliest appointment is next Tuesday.”
