Chapter Thirty-Three
Isabel
Rem, Jordan, and Hawk left Tuesday night for a run. I’d come to learn that these “runs” where random and I could never expect Rem to give me a schedule. At first, it had bothered my control-freak sensibility, but I learned to think of him as firefighter. If the bell rang, he had to go. Even though, I was sure the mission wasn’t saving lives.
He said he would be gone for a few days. On the second evening, I was bored as hell so I went looking for some distraction.
I found Amy at the picnic tables outside.
“Hey,” I said as I sat down next to her. She had been texting but quickly put her phone away.
“Who were you texting?”
“No one,” she said a little too quickly.
“Come on. Is it a guy? Maybe a guy outside the club?”
“Maybe.” She blushed and looked away.
“Well, tell me about him,” I said, excited to have something new to talk about.
She shook her head. “Not yet. I’m not sure if it will go anywhere so I don’t want to make a big deal out of it.”
I shrugged. “Okay.” I was a little hurt that she didn’t want to involve me, but she obviously wanted to keep some things private.
“So if we’re not going to gush about boys, do you want to come to the grocery store with me?” I asked. Rem had given me permission to leave the compound as long as a patched member escorted me. It still chafed that I needed his permission for everything. It felt demeaning sometimes, but I knew, in this case, it was for my protection.
“Sure.” Her mouth said “sure”, but her body did a weird slouching thing, as if going with me was depressing.
“I won’t be mad if you don’t want to,” I offered. This conversation was getting weird.
“No, I want to go,” she said but still didn’t look at me.
“Is something wrong?” I asked, unconvinced. “You’ve been acting a little down lately.”
“No, nothing’s wrong.” She sat up a little straighter, but I kept staring at her because I was sick of playing this game.
She slumped again under the pressure of my gaze. “I’m just trying to figure out my life, I guess.”
I nodded. “Are you thinking of leaving the Aces? Or do you want a new job?”
“I don’t know.” Amy had probably realized that being a Heart was not a career. And I imagined casual sex could get old after a while.
“Maybe if you talk to Greyson about it he can find you something. Or maybe he can help pay for you to go back to school.”
She just stared forward. “Yeah. Maybe.”
I decided to stay silent after that since my suggestions didn’t seem to be working.
After a minute, she looked at me as if she forgot I was there. “I’m sorry. Maybe I just need to stop thinking about it. How about we see a movie before going to the store?”
“Yeah.” That sounded like fun since I hadn’t been to the movies in a couple months.
Duncan went to the movie with us. Of course, he complained the entire time at the store. I felt like one of those mothers with a fussy child. Instead of handing him a toy, I pointed out how cute the checkout girl was, and Duncan promptly left us alone to investigate her age.
After the grocery store, we came back to the clubhouse to find Max and Donny at the bar. Mac was drinking a beer while Donny spoke on the phone.
By the time we were done unpacking the groceries, Donny was off the phone and complaining. “I swear, what did I do to deserve twin daughters?”
“Rough day?” I inquired. I went behind the bar, grabbing myself a Coke and Duncan a beer. Amy went up the stairs without a goodbye.
“Both the girls are failing math so we said they couldn’t go to the Potato Festival this weekend. Now they are acting like little nightmares.”
“And you are hiding out here while Lydia deals with them, right?” Max said, trying to shame his friend.
“Lydia told me to stay away,” Donny said. “She knows I cave whenever there are tears.”
I gave him a sympathetic smile and asked, “What’s the Potato Festival?”
“It’s Clayton’s town fair that they have every summer,” Max explained. “There is a carnival and events all weekend.”
Max didn’t seem enthusiastic, but I was loving the idea of a carnival, something fun to do that didn’t involve sex or drinking. “Do you think I could go?”
“You know I don’t make that decision. Convince your old man.” He took his beer and headed toward the stairs.
Duncan slid in front of me. “If Rem won’t take you, I will.”
I just rolled my eyes because we both knew that wasn’t going to happen.
“Do you have a death wish?” Donny said to Duncan.
I headed for the stairs as they started arguing about Duncan’s ability to fight Rem.
“Goodnight, boys.” I had a Kindle calling my name.