CHAPTER TWO
Brand
The shop was oddly quiet. This day had been a bust so far, and I wasn’t expecting it to get any better. I had come to find out that Thursdays were the worst day of the week for business. I’d been toying with the idea to close up the place on Thursdays from now on, but for some reason, I kept showing up to open the shop every week.
“I got you the special,” Sketch said as he plopped the white paper bag on the countertop beside me.
“What is it?” I asked as I dropped my pencil without a care where it landed and began to unroll the top of the bag. I looked up to see him giving me a ‘fuck if I know’ shrug.
“Uh, there’s three different cheeses on there, I know that much.”
“She suggested it, huh?” I raised a brow at him. I didn’t even need him to answer to know the truth. “This is the third time this week, man.”
With a sigh, I peeled back the wrapping that held the mystery sandwich. I had no doubt that whatever it was wouldn’t be that bad, but it just wasn’t what I wanted. I’d been craving the number three from the deli two blocks away, but it seemed that sending Sketch to make the hike to get the food was the wrong move. He came back with something that wasn’t number three every damn time.
I had an idea that it had something to do with the cute girl that took the orders at the counter. For some reason, she suggested the special of the day to him every time, and the asshole never turned it down. Even though he wouldn’t ever eat it. No, that special always ended up in front of me, and on my dime too. Meanwhile, he got whatever he wanted, extra meat and all.
“Is this vegetarian?” I asked, pulling up a corner of the sliced bread.
“It might be,” he replied with a careless nod as he all but unhinged his jaw to bite half of his sub.
While I wasn’t some macho, meat only man, the soggy thing I held in my hands was far from the rare roast beef and salami sub I wanted to fill my mouth with.
Not to mention the thing was cut in half on the diagonal. Who did that shit to grown-up sandwiches? And as I picked up one half of it, I imagined myself taking a bite right out of the middle then holding it up to my mouth like some sort of strange sandwich smile. Yes, like I used to do when I was five. Don’t even tell me that I was the only one that did that, I would know you were spouting lies.
The bell on the door jingled and my eyes snap up from the sad soggy mess in front of me. A huge smile threatened to split my face because…well, why wouldn’t it with this guy? It might have been a couple of months at most since I’d seen him, but he seriously felt like my long lost twin.
“What’s up, Chris?” I asked as I hopped off of my stool and round the counter to greet him. We did our usual hand dance—I mean man-slap thing, and then ended with a quick hug and slap on the back. “Why didn’t you tell me you were coming down?”
With a quick shrug, he flopped down on the velvet couch in the front of the shop. Something was up, I could tell by the look in his eyes, only I hadn’t the first clue what it was.
“I missed the beach?” The fact that his voice went up an octave while his face did some sort of weird scrunch thing wasn’t lost on me. “And you. And Lake. And Ky. Oh, missed you too, Sketchy-boy.”
“What did I tell you I would fucking do to you next time you called me that?” Sketch said with a half-joking tone.
“Punch me in the head and tattoo a vagina on my nuts. Yeah, yeah. Deal with it, because I might be here a while and I, for one, think the name is perfect.”
“First, I said pussy. Who the fuck says vagina, anyways?” Sketch rolled his eyes and shook his head. “And two, fuck you.”
A boisterous chorus of laughter bounced off the shop walls. Those two liked to do their best to get under each other’s skin, but it was all meant in good fun.
“Wait,” I said pinning Chris with a hard stare once our laughter died down. “What do you mean a while?”
“So,” he said as he folded forward and rested his forearms on his thighs. “Long story short, I had an uncle I didn’t really know much about. Dad and his brother had a falling out long before I was around and didn’t talk. Well, that brother, my uncle Roy, died and left his inheritance to Dad, my brother, sister, and me.”
I was doing my best to understand where the fuck he was going with this. I’m sure the confused look that overtook my face helped him to move it along.
“My point is, I recently came into enough money to buy a house of my own. I mean, not like I didn’t actually have the one in Moon Hill. But it was sort of like a had to instead of a want to. So, I was thinking about where it would be that I might want a house, and the beach popped up in my head. Loaded up the car with everything I wanted to keep. Sold the rest. And here I am.”
He smiled as he stretched his arms out wide like it was just as simple as that.
“You’re moving here?” I couldn’t even lie, I was pretty damn excited.
“Yep,” he said with a bouncy nod. “Think I can stay at the clubhouse until I find a place?”
“Fuck yeah!” It wasn’t like I had to run it by Iron, Chris was always welcomed there. Matter of fact, he always stayed there whenever he was in town. He hopped up and we shared an excited hug.
We chatted for a little while. He ate half of my sandwich after eyeing me with a look like he was wondering why I’d ordered such a sad thing. All I needed to do was to point at Sketch for him to understand.
“I’m thinking we should go get tacos tonight,” Chris said and he didn’t even have to say where. There was only one place in town to get tacos. No, I didn’t mean it like there was literally only one place. I meant that after these pulled pork tacos there was no other place you’d want to go. Fresh, local ingredients and smoked just right. My mouth watered at the thought.
“Hell, yeah,” I said feeling the need to wipe the invisible drool I imagined slipping past my lips. “Lake, Ky, and B-ry will be down, too. Sketch?” Chris and I looked over at him.
“I’m down,” he said with a quick shrug.
“I’ll let Ky and Lake know,” Chris said. “I’m headed over there now. My car started making this weird rattling noise about half a mile before I got to the city limits.”
“Sounds good. I’m gonna close up early. It’s not like there’s a damn thing going on here anyway. Meet you there in a few hours?”
“Yep. I’ll get Ky to look at my car and get settled at the club. Later, Sketchy-boy,” Chris called out over his shoulder just as he hit the threshold to the shop. Then he darted out the door and down the street, laughter following behind him.
“Fucker!” Sketch called out, fist raised in the air. “He better watch his nuts around me.”
“You sound really desperate to see his junk, man,” I said jokingly. “You even openly admitted out loud that you want to fondle his sack.”
“So I can tattoo his balls…not so I can…come the fuck on. You’re such an asshole.” He didn’t sound mad in the least. He knew I was only messing with him and that I didn’t mean it even a little.
A few hours later, we were all taking up the huge table in the front window that had a view of the river. Pitchers of beer and tacos were where it was at. And looking around at my loud and happy brothers, was home. My eyes landed on Chris, who unsurprisingly fit right in with everyone there.
I thought more about what he’d said earlier. I was fucking ecstatic that he was moving here. Things finally seemed to be sliding into place.
Sure, it had been hard for me to leave Moon Hill. Something like that shouldn’t have been easy. I left behind a huge part of myself when I made the decision to come down here. But at the same time, it needed to be done. If I was being honest, I had started to feel a bit trapped there. My soul cried for an escape and a chance to fly. Leaving Moon Hill was like leaving your parents house. It would always hold a huge part of my heart, but there just came a time when a boy turned into a man and went off to find his own way. I had no idea if that even made sense.
While there were people I missed back there, there was one that I absolutely hated to leave behind. This fucker that was sitting across from me right now. The same stupid guy that was here to stay.
So yes, things felt amazing right then.
And I loved how he fit right in with the people in my life. Of course, he knew Lake from Moon Hill, so no big surprise that they got along. But he and Ky had grown close over the last year and a half. Lake and Ky were the brothers that I felt the closest to, but then again, I really knew them before we set up this chapter. I’d met Ky while I’d spent time down in the South Carolina chapter. I needed a little distance from Moon Hill and they were able to use an extra pair of hands at their custom bike shop.
“Chris says he’s hitting the beach first thing in the morning,” Lake said, effectively snapping me out of my thoughts. “Who’s going?”
“Hell, I’ll go just to watch him wipe out on his ass,” Ky said, his head fell back as he laughed.
“What?” Chris said tossing him a confused look. “You hate the beach.”
“I don’t hate it. I just don’t trust the ocean. I’m not a big enough idiot to even try and fight her for control. Unlike some people.” Ky shook his head like Chris was stupid for even trying. “I don’t mind sitting on the sand, surrounded by hot women in bikinis. I can do that all day.”
More laughter and I’m sure there wasn’t one of us that would disagree.
“I can’t wait to wake up every morning, toss on some board shorts, and walk out my back door to the sounds of the waves I’m about to ride.” Chris had a smile on his face that rivaled all the ones of the kids on Christmas morning.
“Hey, I’m not saying I don’t like the ocean,” Ky said, snatching up a chip from the basket in the middle of the table. “I even think it might not be so bad having a house on the beach where I could open my windows and let the lullaby of her crashing waves carry me to sleep every night. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to go in any further than ankle deep in her.”
“You don’t know what you’re missing, man,” Chris said rolling his eyes.
“I’m good with that,” Ky mumbled, shaking his head. “Brand, you in? You and Lake could use some sun.”
“Not all of us can have a natural tan to our skin,” Lake said tossing a balled up napkin at him. “My mom’s Irish and my dad’s Scottish. I’m lucky I didn’t come out a fiery redhead and covered in freckles.”
More laughter. And to be honest, it wasn’t far from the truth. I spent too much time in the shop and my skin was close to ghostly white at this point.
“I’m in, but only till about eleven. I do have a shop to open,” I said finishing the last bite of my fourth taco.
With a relaxed sigh, I sat back and rubbed my belly. It was satisfyingly full. Beer, chips, salsa, and tacos were all having a crowded party in there.
We sat there for another hour or so. Ky talked about his new pet project. Lake went on about how the garage needed someone to run the front so he wouldn’t have to keep finding receipts everywhere. Lake made sure the paperwork was put away neatly but I could tell he’d rather not be that person.
Sketch told his versions about things I really didn’t need to hear considering it was my shop he was talking about those things happening in half the time. I actually cringed internally every time he shared one of his ‘in my room with the door closed’ stories. If I hadn’t caught him a few times wiping his whole station and chair down afterward, I might have had to say something.
B-ry talked about the locals that came into the bar out of curiosity. Most of the time they were respectful but occasionally there were the ones that were clearly there to shake their head at us. Or sometimes, there were the dumb macho ‘I’m more badass than you’ guys that would come in, get fall down drunk, and toss out fighting words in hopes that one of us would take the bait.
I called it an early night, knowing that Chris would be banging on my door before the sun even hit my windowsill. The shop would be open late tomorrow and I didn’t want to be tired while trying to ink people. I respected my work and my clients too much to do that.
The pieces of my life seemed to be fitting together perfectly, the picture much closer to being whole than before. I almost couldn’t believe how great everything was. But I wasn’t about to question any of it.