Chapter 34
Nikki
Seven Days Later
“Holy crap. This place is huge.”
I set the box of dishes on the counter and looked at Alice who was carrying a pile of blankets in her arms. “You couldn’t carry anything heavier?” I laughed.
She tossed them on the couch that was in the middle of the living room and shook her head. “Someone had to take them. No reason why that someone shouldn’t have been me.”
Karmen walked through the front door with a pillow under one arm and a bottle of water in the other. “Nickel has banished me from carrying anything. He said I’m just supposed to direct.” She plopped down on the sofa and kicked her feet up. “I still can’t believe your luck with getting this house. It’s a mile from the clubhouse, and the rent is dirt cheap.”
Alice sat down and put her arm around Karmen’s shoulders. “And there’s an extra bedroom for the weekends I decide I want to party with the Fallen Lords.”
“I see you’ve forgotten last time when you were a walking zombie the day after.”
Alice scoffed. “It really wasn’t that bad. Besides, I don’t know when my next weekend off is going to be since a waitress quit on us with no notice.”
I rolled my eyes and started unpacking dishes. “I told Bos that I would stay on until he found someone else, but he insisted that you guys would be fine.”
“He feels guilty about Richard.”
“What? Why on Earth would he feel guilty about that?”
“Because he said he would have done something about him years ago, but everyone just swept it under the rug.”
“The whack job is the only one responsible for his actions,” Karmen pointed out. “Thankfully, Pipe was there, otherwise, who knows what would have happened. I’m three months pregnant and so not up to looking for a new best friend.”
I grabbed a stack of plates and put them in the cabinet. “I’m so glad you’re worried about my well-being, Karmen. I’m sure it would have been a chore to find a new best friend.”
“You have no idea,” she sighed.
“Are Cora and Wren coming over?” Alice asked.
“Cora texted that she was on the way over, but not Wren. Something about she knocked, but Wren didn’t answer,” Karmen answered.
“I hope everything is okay with Wren. I really liked hanging out with her,” I mused.
“She had to be fine. I told Cora that Wren is officially part of the Girl Gang so she can’t keep skipping out on meetings anymore.”
“Wait,” I turned around and looked at Karmen. “What meetings?”
“The one we’re having right now.”
Alice looked at me and tilted her head. “Does that make me a Girl Gang Nomad because I live an hour away.”
Karmen squealed. “Oh, my God, it totally does! You’re the first Girl Gang Nomad!”
“What the hell is all the screaming about in here?” Pipe asked. He was carrying three boxes in his arms, and Nickel was behind him carrying the same.
“Just Girl Gang stuff.”
Nickel rolled his eyes and set the boxes next to the couch. “You’re a nut, woman. You think since I’m part of an MC you need to have your own group too?” he chuckled.
Karmen shrugged. “Hey, I can have a little fun too.”
“Is that what they’re calling crazy these days, fun?” Pipe asked. Karmen threw a pillow at him, and he caught it mid-air. “Nice try, darlin’.”
She flipped him off and crossed her arms over her chest. “Be thankful I’m pregnant, or I’d totally take you down right now, dick.”
Alice and Karmen high-fived and tossed another pillow at Pipe. This one hit him squarely in the back, because he was headed straight for me and didn’t stop ‘til he wrapped me in his arms. “Your girls are crazy, sugar.”
“Yeah, they are,” I agreed. I wrapped my arms around his waist and looked around our house. “I still can’t believe we got this place.”
“Perfect timing, sugar.”
I leaned back and looked up at him. “I guess you’re right. When we first met, we didn’t have the timing thing right, but now we got it just right.”
He pressed a kiss to my lips and smiled. “All it took was for me to pull my head out of my ass and realize what was right in front of me. I love you, Nikki.”
“I love you too, Pipe, because you are the only person I know who can make me swoon by talking about pulling their head out of their ass.”
“What can I say, you bring it out of me, sugar.”
I leaned my head against his shoulder and sighed.
It may have taken moving to a new town and running from the man I loved, but it all worked out in the end.
Pipe loved me, and that was all I could ask for.
*