CHAPTER EIGHT
Chris
A week went by and we all seemed to find a routine. I had to admit that we all worked well together. When I wasn’t working, I was hanging out with Ingram. In a way, I was kind of bringing her into the real world. She caught on quickly and even in just the little amount of time she’d been here, I could tell that she was adapting pretty well.
We cooked together at least once a day. It didn’t escape me that Ky was always awake when I came back from spending my mornings out on the water. Then one of us would cook breakfast and the others would clean up after.
I noticed Ingram had a tendency to try and do everything. If she cooked, she tried to clean up too. She was constantly straightening things or cleaning something. It wasn’t like my house was spotless, but I kept it pretty clean. I hit the floor regularly with the broom or vacuum because living at the beach meant sand got tracked in constantly. There was simply nothing you could do to stop it. No matter how much I rinsed off after I’d come back from surfing, or stomped my shoes on the bristle rugs outside of the doors, I always managed to bring in half the sand on the beach with me. It was a small price to pay, though. And I dusted once a week. I liked to keep on top of things but I didn’t over do it.
I didn’t take offense to her cleaning. I had an idea that it was something ingrained in her and that it might be a hard habit to break. I was slowly trying, though. I figured it was good to start small. Like I made sure she didn’t clean up if she cooked. I didn’t say anything when she took her dirty plate to the sink, but I did step in when she tried to wash it. It was almost comical. I wasn’t mean about it or made her feel bad. In fact, every time she shook her head and smiled at me.
I hadn’t sat down and talked to Ky like Ingram had asked me to. I wasn’t usually a procrastinator, but I was when it came to this. He was still being a bit standoffish, but I could tell he was trying. It could have been he was doing it for Ingram. I noticed that he was still tense around her, but he’d stepped into the big brother roll without hesitation. He looked out for her. Made sure she didn’t eat anything she wasn’t supposed to. Always made her sit down and rest if he noticed she was doing too much. He even went as far as changing the channel to make sure she didn’t see something he deemed inappropriate. Though she was seventeen, she wasn’t like most of the girls her age.
On the other hand, I tried not to baby her. I could tell that she might be able to handle more than people gave her credit for. Maybe between Ky and me, we were the perfect balance of what she needed at the time. I sure hoped so, anyway.
“I think, maybe, Ingram could use a change of scenery,” I said slyly as I washed the dishes. He was putting away all the ingredients that Ingram had used to make breakfast. I didn’t look at him directly, but out of the corner of my eye, I saw him pause for a beat. “I know it may not be my place, but she’s basically been cooped up here for a week. Brand said something about grilling out tonight at the compound. I was thinking that maybe you could take her there for a little bit.”
I was trying to be suggestive but not pushy. I didn’t want him to feel like I was trying to suggest that he was doing things all wrong.
“Shit,” he breathed out and his head hung down. “I’m not very good at this, am I? The truth is, I have no idea what to do, or what she needs.”
“I know,” I stated simply. “I know you didn’t ask for my advice, and you can choose not to listen, but I feel like I need to say something. You need to sit down and talk to her. I think she’s waiting for you to initiate the big conversation that you’ve been avoiding. It’s been a week, Ky, and I think we both know that it’s time.”
“Yeah, you’re right. I just…have no idea what to even say to her, you know?”
“You could start by asking her how she’s feeling.”
His head lifted to look at me, his beautiful hazel eyes looked sad. I’d never seen that in them before and I almost had the urge to touch him if not just to lend a bit of comfort. I held back though, scared that he’d clam up on me.
“Take her by the compound tonight. You’ll be there to watch over her and I’ll stop by after I get off at six. Introduce her to your brothers, show her that side of your life and how you have people to watch your back. Let them meet her and I have no doubts that they will embrace her too. She needs all the comfort and support she can get right now. You don’t have to stay all that late and if she looks uncomfortable then you can bring her back here.”
I hoped that something in what I’d said had gotten through to him.
“Alright,” he said and then we finished cleaning up the kitchen in silence.
Baby steps. That was what it was going to take with Ky. I wasn’t sure why I hadn’t thought of that before.
“I promised my parents I’d call them before I head into work. I’ll see you later tonight,” I said and turned to head up to my room without giving him a chance to say anything else.
My parents were pretty fucking awesome. I knew I was lucky and I never took it for granted. I may have been a grown boy, but I still talked to them once a week. I hated that we were so far away from each other but I understood their need to take off, and besides, they deserved it.
I learned about my uncle after he’d died. It was kind of crappy but after hearing the story, I got it. It was hard for my parents and my grandma. I couldn’t imagine that it was easy to try and wipe someone out of your existence when they’d been there all your life. But that was what they’d done. I wanted to hate them because it was a pretty shitty thing to do to family, but after understanding the whole situation, I realized that they didn’t have much choice.
To shorten the story down to next to nothing, my uncle and my dad were in love with the same person. Yep, that person happened to be my mom. My dad and his brother were only two years apart. It seemed that my mom was maybe a bit wild in her youth and ended up dating the two brothers at the same time. Both of them knew about it of course, and my dad even half-joked that they had a ‘may the best man win’ kind of thing going on. In the end, it was my dad that won by stealing her heart. I couldn’t even be mad a little bit because as selfish as it might have seemed, if my dad hadn’t been the man she chose, then I wouldn’t be here. And I rather liked being here.
So after she chose my dad, my uncle’s pride was damaged too much and he cut all ties with my family, and from the way my grandma told it, the whole thing wasn’t very nice.
Who knew that he’d spend his days full of regret and drowning in his own hate and well, pride? He never apologized or even tried to reach out for the rest of his life. After his death, we each received a letter from him. He, unfortunately, had cancer and knew his time was coming. He also happened to be a billionaire. Who would have thought? I mean, my parents weren’t poor, but we weren’t rolling in the dough. We had a comfortable life and honestly, I wouldn’t have wanted it differently.
So with the newfound zeros in their bank account, my parents took off to live the old retired people life in Florida and they were loving it.
We honored my uncle, burying him next to my grandpa in the family plot and having a long, involved talk of my parents and my grandma remembering him as a boy. It made me feel closer to him and I wouldn’t ever forget that. Every time I walked into my house, every buck I spent, I thought of him and how all that money hadn’t made him happy. I never wanted to live like that. I tried my hardest to be there for the people that mattered to me, no matter what happened.
Maybe that was why I was still trying with Ky even though he treated me a tad bit crappy and did his best to push me away. I kept thinking that if I could get to the root of the problem, get him to open up to me, then all would be alright. That said, it was a lot easier to have that as a plan than to execute it.
“Chris!” my mom squealed through the phone like a drunk sorority girl. And she might have been, drunk that was. “I miss you, my sweet baby boy.”
And there went the eye roll.
“Miss you too, Mom. How is the hot Florida weather treating you two?”
“It’s lovely. You know your dad, he’s so cold all the time, so this is perfect weather for him. He’s wearing shorts. Shorts, Chris. I mean, he still has his sweater on, but still.”
I laughed because I could just see it, my dad sitting out by their pool, drinking water through a straw and lounging around in swim shorts and his old man cardigan that made him look like a stuffy professor.
“You should come and visit,” she said and I could hear the softness in her tone. She really did miss me.
I knew my choice to move away from Moon Hill was going to be hard. Not just for me but for my family. I had a good idea that it was the same for my parents with their decision. It seemed so weird that we were all spread out now. If you’d asked me four years ago if I thought I’d ever leave Moon Hill, I would have told you no with confidence. Sometimes it was still strange to me to wake up and be able to look out my window as see the ocean. I might have picked this house because it reminded me of the one that I had back there. The fact that my bedroom took up the top floor like the one back home, wasn’t lost on me for a second.
“I’ll make time to come down there soon. Maybe after the summer when the tourist leave, yeah?” I really meant it.
“Okay. You have someone special to bring with you?”
Typical mom type question, always wanting to know when I was going to find my one and settle down. You’d think that I had plenty of options considering that I didn’t limit myself to one sex, but that was not the case. So far, I hadn’t found anyone I really wanted to spend a month with, let alone a lifetime.
“Not yet, Mom. Maybe by the time I get down there. We’ll see.” Even as I said that I had my doubts.
“Oh, your dad is getting in the pool. I need to go watch him and make sure he doesn’t over do it. I love you, Chris.”
“Love you too. Tell Dad I said hey.”
We hung up and I got ready to go to work.
My shift wasn’t very exciting but I was glad to have the semi-quiet time. I got the bar situated and ready for the weekend. One less thing that I’d have to worry about tomorrow. You just never knew with this place. Sometimes it would be packed at lunchtime with people that had already said ‘fuck it’ to the day. And then other times it was like this, a few guys hanging around doing some slow afternoon drinking. There was no rhyme or reason to any of it, but then again, it was bikers I was talking about. They didn’t exactly scream schedule and predictability to me.
“Alright, I’m out,” I called out to Tiffany and Brent who were taking the closing shift.
The smell of burgers on the grill hit my nose the moment the compound came into view. My mouth watered and I realized that I hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast. Damn. I was always getting on Brand for ‘forgetting to eat’ and here I was doing the same thing. I figured I’d better keep that tidbit to myself because I didn’t need to give him something else to razz me about.
“Chris.” Ingram’s eyes lit up with recognition as soon as she saw me. I chuckled thinking that she had just seen me this morning, but I also imagined that being surrounded by people she didn’t know would have been frightening for her. “A man named Mouse said he would get a burger for me,” she said as I walked up to where she was sitting.
“Oh, nice. Mouse is a cool dude,” I said noticing the strain in her tone as I plopped down on the chair beside her. “Where’s Ky?”
“Oh, he went to look at something in the garage, I think.”
“You hangin’ in there?” I asked her.
“Yes, I am doing alright,” she added then rolled her lips between her teeth and nodded a few times. “I have met a lot of Ky’s, um, brothers.”
I chuckled and patted her knee.
“They’re good guys, I promise. He wouldn’t have brought you here if he didn’t think it would be okay.”
“They take care of him?” Her tone was a mix of worry and concern. Even though they’d been apart a long time, I could tell that she’d thought about him the whole time. She wanted to know that he was doing good with his life.
I still didn’t know the specifics of everything. I had caught onto things here and there but it was more confusing than anything. I wanted to know, but I had a feeling that maybe I didn’t at the same time.
“Yes,” I answered, my eyes scanning the lot between the two buildings that made up the compound. “They all look out for one another. They pretty much consider each and every one of their brothers as family. I’ve been around this club long enough to know that when something happens to one of them, they all feel a part of it, no matter how small it is.”
“And you are not part of this?”
“Um, I don’t do the whole motorcycle thing. Honestly, they terrify me,” I said as I laughed.
“That is like their thing, huh?”
“Kinda has to be when you’re a motorcycle club.” I smiled at her to let her know I was joking around.
“Oh, yeah,” she giggled as her cheeks heated with embarrassment. “That was my bad. That means like my mistake, right?”
“Yes. I don’t think people say it that much anymore, but you’re very much spot on with it.”
“That guy over there,” she said as she pointed. “The skinny one with all the tattoos that likes to openly ogle women, I heard him say it when he knocked the drink out of the handsome one’s hand.”
It was hard not to laugh. I mean, not at her but because she was so adorable and cute. The world was new to her, for whatever reason, and she was trying her best to watch and pick up on things she didn’t quite understand.
“The skinny one is Sketch. I like to call him Sketchy-boy just to make him mad. The, um, handsome one is Charming.”
“Here ya go, Ingram,” Mouse said as he handed her a plate loaded to the point of overflowing with food.
“Thank you, Mr. Mouse,” Ingram said as she took the plate.
“Um.” Mouse cleared his throat to hide his laugh. “It’s just Mouse. And no problem.”
He pulled a chair around so he could sit and talk to both of us.
“So why did your parents name you Mouse. Is that like a normal name? It seems strange to be named after a rodent… and something you do on paper… and a charismatic trait. Is that another requirement to be in your club?”
Mouse and I barked out a laugh.
“No,” I said trying to think of the best way to describe it. “Mouse is like his road name in a way. They sometimes give each other nicknames and it’s like a sign of respect to call them that.” I turned my attention to Mouse. “You grew up in the club though, right? And somehow got your name as a kid?”
“Yeah,” he said as he nodded and put his burger down on his plate. “There’s a chapter in Gray Fort, Tennessee, and my dad belongs there. I used to be really shy as a kid. Everyone started calling me Mouse and it kind of stuck.” He gave Ingram his attention as he explained it all.
“Could be worse,” I cut in. “Poor Grass, man. When he grows up he has no choice but to be stuck with that name.”
“True. Poor little guy. Damn, last time I was back there I couldn’t believe how big he’d gotten. Time is flying by.” Mouse’s eyes looked off into the distance and the corner of his lips tipped down the tiniest bit.
“And they call him Charming because with his hair and face the guys say he looks like a prince in a fairytale. Knight, over there, well that’s his real name. His dad is also part of the club in Gray Fort. But I think you get the point.” I winked at Ingram and she giggled as she nodded like she was starting to catch on.
B-ry came over and Brand and Cami showed up a little bit later. We all sat around talking, trying to get Ingram to come out of her shell a little and feel more relaxed here. She seemed to enjoy the banter we all had going on and it was good to see her laughing. I tried my best not to think about where the hell Ky was, and as the sun started to set, I wondered if I should go looking for him.
“You ready to go?” I asked Ingram, noticing that she was looking a little pale and worn out. She gave me a tiny nod and I got to my feet. “I’ll take you home, let me just find Ky and let him know.”
Why I just didn’t text him, I had no idea. Maybe I was a little pissed that he’d just left Ingram like that and part of me wanted to give him a piece of my mind.
“Ky,” I said as I ducked under the half-open bay door on the back of the garage. “The fuck, man?”
I found him bent over his latest rebuild, shop light hanging from the propped open hood.
“Shit,” he mumbled as he pulled his head out. “Sorry, I didn’t realize it was so late. I didn’t mean to be up here this long.”
“I’m taking Ingram home. Just don’t worry about it. Stay and do whatever the fuck you gotta do,” I said and I wasn’t sure where the anger that shook my voice was coming from.
I turned on my heels and stomped off.
“Chris!” Ky called out just before I ducked back under the door. “Fuck, wait.”
“There’s something going on with you. Has been for a while now. You can’t tell me that it completely has to do with Ingram coming back into your life, so please, don’t even try to lie to me. Whatever you’re avoiding, it isn’t going to go away. So deal with it, move on, be the great guy that I once saw you as, and take care of your sister…because she doesn’t have anyone else.”
I was done. I didn’t wait for a reply. By the fallen look that overtook his face, I wondered if he even had one. I left him there, hoping that at least something that I’d said took root in his angry brain.