“That there’s a good woman,” Doc announced later that morning after Avery left.
We were kicked back on the porch, the old man on my case as usual. Same way he’d been since I was a curious little shit trying to figure out what was with the weird guy next door with the badass bike.
Before she’d left, Avery had made the fucking thrilling statement—in private—that she’d let me have her again.
I didn’t frequently dip back in for seconds, but some things were sweet enough to make it worth it. Fact was, getting Avery in bed was like living out every promise her body made on that stage. If the men who frequented the shop—or even the fuckers coming in for the first time—knew just how that performance could transfer over to the bedroom, we’d never have an empty seat.
Still, I felt a bit proprietary over that knowledge. She wasn’t mine. That wasn’t what either of us was about. And she could feed Doc all the bullshit she wanted, I fucking rocked her world.
Not that she didn’t return the favor—repeatedly.
“Yeah,” I muttered back to Doc.
“A smart man recognizes one of those when she’s in front of him,” the asshole kept at it.
“Is this the part where you play my mom, try to get me to settle down and pop out some fuckin’ kids?” I shot back.
He uncapped a beer and threw the top at me. “Never said shit about you bein’ a smart man. That brother of yours got the brains. Found himself a beautiful woman who thinks the sun shines out his ass, put a ring on her finger, and knocked her up. Now he’s got that in his life 'til the end. Meanwhile, you’ll be chasing easy pussy ’til you’re too old to get it.”
“Says the old fucker who still gets it fine,” I muttered.
“Tell it to you straight,” Doc said as he stared out at the yard. “If I had picked right instead of putting my ring on the finger of a bitch who thought it was okay to still take another man’s cock, I’d be sittin’ here perfectly fuckin’ content to have one woman for whatever time I’ve got left.”
Doc calling a woman a bitch said a lot. I’d seen him lay out men half his age on more than one occasion for disrespecting women. I also had to bail his cranky ass out of jail more than one of those times. Fact was, his ex-wife was a bitch. As far as he could figure after the fact, she’d been fucking at least one other man the entire time they were married. She just wanted Doc because he was a doctor and made more than the guy she was getting it from on the side. When Doc had enough of losing kids on the table and gave up the life-saving gig, she was gone before he could fucking blink.
“Your crotchety ass is gonna live forever anyway.”
“Keep tellin’ yourself that, boy,” Doc said as he downed a beer. Before noon. At sixty-five.
Evidence was suggesting either of us might be right. He was going to drop any day, or the reaper himself wasn’t going to be able to take the dude down.
“You’re going to outlive us all. Me, Joel. Hell, you might outlive all the little ones running around here.”
“Nothing appealing about outliving everyone you love,” Doc put in sagely. Fuckin’ biker guru he was.
I didn’t say anything else. When Doc dropped knowledge like that, I found it was best to let him have his moment. Instead, I just sipped my drink beside him, letting him know I really heard what he was saying by not running my mouth back.
With all the man had done for me over the years, I could give him that.
A week later, I would remember those words from Doc.
I was at the clubhouse, killing time before church. Stone had called us all in. What the hell it was about was anyone’s guess. Based on past experience, it could have been anything from basic shop talk to someone being fuckin’ kidnapped.
What it wasn’t was optional. When we got the call, our asses were there, no questions asked.
Most of the brothers were already assembled, sitting around in the lounge and shooting the shit. We had a room for these meetings, one that was locked at all times unless we were making our way in or out. Next to the doors, Doc was getting his little basket out. No phones in church was a hard and fast rule, and he took it upon himself to enforce it. That meant we all filed in and turned our phones over to him like good little children.
When Stone turned the corner and unlocked the doors, I did the task I’d taken it upon myself to do before we met each time.
“Time for church, you fuckin’ heathens!” I hollered through the room.
A couple brothers gave me looks, shaking their heads at my unnecessary announcement, but some things were tradition and you didn’t fuck with them.
I was nearly at the door, waiting behind Ham as he typed some shit out on his phone, when mine started buzzing. I didn’t recognize the number, so that was a big fuck no. I didn’t hand out my number much, but that didn’t mean some of the chicks I’d taken to bed couldn’t get their hands on it. As far as I was concerned, there was no good reason on God’s green earth to answer a phone in the twenty-first century when you didn't know who was on the other end.
Fuck that.
Clicking “ignore,” I brought my attention back up. Ham was still holding shit up, the big motherfucker blocking the doorway.
“Do you ever stop fuckin’ texting your woman? Damn. What, has she got your balls in her pocket and gives 'em a squeeze when you don’t respond?”
“Shut the fuck up, asshole,” Ham shot back.
“Original. Witty. That’s some high-quality comeback material right there.”
He didn’t respond. He was too focused on the screen. At that point, I was actually concerned. Some of the brothers opted not to engage when I gave them shit, but not Ham. He was as quick with a jab as I was.
“Seriously, brother, what gives?”
His phone buzzed once, and he focused on it for a second before pinching the bridge of his nose, then tossed it in the basket.
“Fuckin’ Christ,” he muttered. “We need to get through this shit fast. I need some damn booze.”
Throwing my phone in after his and following him, I pressed, “What the fuck’s that about?”
He looked around, making sure the brothers were all focused on their own shit before saying low, “Max thought she was pregnant. False alarm, but she was freaking the fuck out. Not that I was much better. Last thing either of us is ready for is to have a damn kid. She decided five minutes ago to take the test instead of waiting until I got home like I told her to.”
Jesus. No wonder he wasn’t himself. I’d be shitting a brick too if I thought I might have knocked a woman up. Sure, he was with Max in a way I’d never committed to any woman, but that didn’t mean it was time for her to start popping out babies.
“Shit. Just a false alarm, though?”
He collapsed his big body into a chair that groaned beneath him. “Yeah. Thank fuck.”
A couple minutes passed, and everyone was in and seated around the big table waiting for Stone to start, except Doc. The old timer was still standing outside the open door.
“Doc,” Tank called, but got no response.
There was the muted sound of Doc’s voice in the distance, but nothing that could be made out from inside the room. Then, there wasn’t quiet at all. There was a crash, and Doc’s voice cursing so loud, it went hoarse.
Instinct had me on my feet, the rest of the guys all jumping up just as fast. There was a horrifying thirty seconds of assuming the worst. Doc had a heart attack or some shit. That sound was him falling. We were going to fucking lose him.
But then he was there, standing in the door.
The relief at seeing him upright and seemingly fine was so profound, I didn’t notice, not for a long moment, what was off. I didn’t see the expression on his face, not until his head swung my way and he rasped out my name.
Then, I couldn’t unsee it.
He looked tortured, pale, like he’d taken a blow there was no recovering from.
Not knowing what was coming, not even beginning to process it, I took a step back, trying to retreat from whatever it was he was about to unleash on me.
At some level, I knew what it had to be.
Then, Doc was talking, and as much as I wanted to, I couldn’t block out all the words.
Tried to call you.
Next of kin.
There was an accident.
Those fucking words. Those ones hit hard. It was like a blow right to the chest. I wanted to yell, to scream for him to stop. I didn’t want to hear it, because it couldn’t be true.
Then, there was nothing but the pain—nothing but the excruciating agony when he said the words I couldn’t fucking bear:
Joel didn’t make it.