Chapter Twenty-Seven
Ian
I spent the rest of the weekend with Eliza. On Saturday, we woke up late, and I took out to what I thought was the best café in town. There I introduced her to chocolate dipped croissants and perfectly brewed cappuccinos. After that, I took her for another ride on the bike, and then took her to an empty lot to teach her how to ride. I had her fully kitted up from the shop so that if she fell, she wouldn’t hurt herself. She looked slightly ridiculous and incredibly cute. She was terrible, but she tried. And afterward she declared that she was more of a backseat rider. I didn’t mind. I liked having her arms wrapped around me. We bumped into Chris later that day, who raised his eyebrows when he saw us together. I knew that he was wondering what was going on between us, and I still didn’t have an answer. For someone that wasn’t my girlfriend, I sure was spending a lot of time with her. But I wasn’t about to just leave her with her crazy ex-boyfriend on the loose. That night, we stayed up late watching movies and eating popcorn. There was no sex involved, and yet I felt closer to her than ever before.
That morning I woke up early and decided to make Eliza breakfast. I eventually settled on peanut butter on toast and coffee. She seemed delighted, and I counted my lucky stars that she was the sort of girl that liked pretty much anything when it came to food.
“I love peanut butter!” she exclaimed as she took a bite. “And I haven’t had this for breakfast in ages. I’m so going to buy myself a jar later. When I was a little girl, my mom caught me so many times with my finger in the jar. I was constantly getting into trouble for that.”
I chuckled at the thought of her as a little kid stealing peanut butter, and then laughed even more when I looked at what she was wearing. She had on one of my t-shirts and a pair of her own bright yellow socks, and just seeing her dressed like that while eating toast made me laugh.
“Are you laughing at my outfit?” she said between mouthfuls.
I nodded. “Who on earth owns such bright socks?”
“I do,” she said without shame. I liked that. I once had a girlfriend who decided that she was going to dress like some sort of punk rocker just to match my style. It didn’t suit her at all, and I hated how uncomfortable she was in her own skin. It didn’t matter what a person wore or what they did, as long as they were true to themselves. And Eliza was very true to herself. She never wavered.
“I only have black and white socks in my closet.”
“You only have black and white everything in your closet,” she stated.
“That’s true.”
“Isn’t today the day of your first club meeting?” she asked.
“Yeah. It is. I have a whole list of things that I need to run through with everyone. I only hope that they listen to me. My father and I are very different people. You’ve met him. You know what I mean. He’s . . . well, let’s just say he’s a people person, and I’m definitely not.”
“Nah, you’ll be great,” she said.
“I hope so. Unfortunately, I’m not going to be able to see you tonight. I’ll be back after the meeting, but I’m going to be gone for most of the evening. Is that okay? Do you want to just hang out here? I’d feel safer knowing you are here than at your own place.” I thought of inviting her to the meeting, but it had always been members only, and I wasn’t sure that the other members would take kindly to me breaking the rules on the first day of being in charge. Also, if I messed up, I didn’t want her to see it happen.
“No problem at all. I’ll be fine on my own. And I can definitely hang out here. I think that’s actually a great idea. I’m just going to go home quickly and get a few things. I’ll be back a bit later. Although, I warn you, your jar of peanut butter might be empty when you get back. That’s just the payment you get for leaving me alone.” She licked her lips, and I wasn’t sure what was more delicious—her or the peanut butter.
Eliza came back a few hours later, and I was relieved to see her. I almost wished that her ex-boyfriend would just come so that we could finally face up to him. I hated the fact that I got nervous every time she was on her own. It killed me to think that anything could happen to her. I sometimes considered going to find him first, but I knew that would be a bad idea. Usually, that would be exactly the sort of thing I would do. But I was different with Eliza. I wanted to do what she wanted, not just what I wanted.
“You’ve got this!” she said and kissed me before I left for the club.
I had been to every single club meeting since I was a member, but today felt different from every other day. For the first time since I was old enough to join, I was going to be standing up in front of everyone to talk. This pretty much went against everything I knew I was good at. I arrived early and saw that Patriot was there. What was up with him these days? He was always around. I looked around for some of my other brothers or cousins but saw none of them. I shook my head.
“Gunner! Why are you shaking your head?” Patriot asked. I hadn’t seen him walk up to me.
“Ah, I was just looking around for the other guys.”
“Who?”
“Our family! Our brothers, our cousins. Why are they even a part of this club?”
Patriot shrugged. “Who knows? I guess life got in the way.”
“Yeah, well I’m thinking of making a rule that if you don’t come to at least half the meetings, you get kicked out the club. It’s supposed to be a community of people who work together.”
Patriot smiled. “It’s not a bad idea, Gunner. So, how you feeling?”
“Honestly? Nervous as hell. Do I really have to do this?”
“You’ll be fine. You have nothing to worry about. You’re already making some good executive decisions. Pop would never kick out his own family members, but you realize the core reason for this group.”
“Well, he’s a lot softer than me.”
Patriot grinned. He looked like he was about to say something but he didn’t get a chance because the room was filling up and a lot of the members were coming up to greet me. I wasn’t used to getting so much attention. I wondered if they thought that my father was an idiot for giving the job to me. Were they looking at me with admiration or with annoyance? I couldn’t figure it out. But the meeting was about to start, and I didn’t have the time to think about it anymore. I saw that everyone was in place, and I spotted one of the guys at the back close the door. The meeting was about to commence.
I made my way to the front of the room and looked around at all the faces I knew so well. I was nervous at first, and I could feel my hands shaking. But then someone smiled at me, and I realized that these were people that I had grown up with. They liked the same things as me, and they were there for the same reason as me. So I cleared my throat and began to talk.
“Due to a very poor decision by my father, you guys are now stuck with me. I apologize in advance,” I said, and everyone laughed. The laughter helped to take away the nervousness, and even my hands stopped shaking. “Okay, I have a lot of things that I want to get through today. But I also want a chance to go for a ride after this. That’s something we haven’t done together as a group in a long time. So, how about we get this meeting over with, and then we all take a ride together?”
The room erupted in applause, and I knew that I had said the right thing. I started to talk, and the more I spoke, the more I could hear my father inside of me. It was like it was him standing in front of the club and not me. I wondered if that was how he had felt when he had first taken over from his own father. I’d never asked him that.
I was surprised at how well the meeting went, and how easy it was to stand up and talk in front of so many people. And most of all, I was surprised that they had all listened to me. I had expected them to ignore me, or worse, to laugh at me. But they’d all listened. I even saw one guy taking notes. Perhaps they were humoring me for the sake of my father, or maybe they had really enjoyed listening to me. Either way, I was glad that I hadn’t made a fool of myself when I walked off.
“Well, that’s it for today. I think we covered a lot of ground. Thanks for listening to me. I know I’m not as well-spoken as my father, so I appreciate you hearing me out today. Now, let’s go ride! I’ll meet you all out front in fifteen minutes.”
I gathered my things and started walking out when Patriot stopped me.
“You did well,” he said.
“Really? Was I not too nervous up there? Public speaking is not exactly something I thrive on.”
Patriot laughed. “Same here. Although to be honest, I think it’s the one thing that most people hate. But you did very well. I knew you would. But, Gunner, you did better than I thought you would. Everyone loved you up there. It was weird; it was like it was Pop up there and not you.”
“Oh yeah? Well, thanks, man.”
“Pop would be proud.”
I didn’t say anything, but as I walked toward my bike, I could feel my lips turn into a smile. For the first time in my whole life, I thought he might be right.