Chapter Twenty-Nine
Monday morning dawned bright and early. Roni wasn’t sure if she was ready for it, but she also knew that there was a ton of work to do at the shop. She also had a question to ask her brother. In the past, she never would have gotten herself involved in club business, but this was a different matter altogether. This was her business, whether they knew it or not. She had to know if there was a shot. Since she’d spoken the words a few days ago at their swimming hole, she hadn’t been able to forget about wearing Rooster’s property patch. It was important to her, as someone who had grown up the way she had. Pulling into the shop, she was excited to see that Liam was already there. Parking, she got out and walked straight over to the bay.
“What are you doing here so early?” she asked, trying not to startle him.
“Drew’s gotta be at school early today. The guidance counselor wants to talk to him about what happened, so after his workout with Tyler, we went ahead and came this way.”
Bowling Green’s rumor mill had been going at ninety miles an hour for the past week. Word broke of the coach being arrested, of the dead woman found in his house, and the amount of drugs he had.
“He’s out back moving tires as we speak.” He looked at his watch. “Why are you here this early?”
“I’m always here early, but I wanted to talk to you about something today,” she started, worried that he would see right through her and cut her off at the pass.
“Good, because I wanted to talk to you about something, too,” Liam told her, running a hand over his face. “Meredith found out that the woman who was in the house didn’t have family. They ran her DNA against the national database for missing persons and nobody has reported her missing. Everything points to the fact that this girl had probably been with the coach for a long time. I don’t know if that means they were related or what. He’s not talkin’…he’s invoked his right to silence on anything and everything. I talked to Denise about it last night, and we want to move ahead, claim the body, and pay for the funeral. Can you do that on behalf of the club? I’m sure Rooster can help with what needs to be done regarding the county.”
She nodded, making some notes on her cell phone in case she got busy later. When she finished, she sighed, running a hand through her hair.
The sigh didn’t escape Liam, and he cut his eyes over to her. “You okay?” He wiped his hands on a rag and stood to give her his full attention. “Everything good with Rooster?”
“Yeah, I’m fine.” She pushed her hair back behind her ears. “Everything’s great with Rooster. That’s kind of what I wanted to talk to you about.”
He was confused, but he would listen to anything his sister had to say. “Okay, shoot. What’s going on?”
“I don’t want you to think I’m stepping on your toes. In fact, if you get that vibe from me, I want you tell me to mind my own. I love you and I respect my place in your life, so I seriously don’t want to piss you off,” she started.
“I’m intrigued, and worried.”
“When are you going to stop making Rooster do all your shit work and bring him in as a member? There’s one thing I’ve wanted to do my whole life, and that’s wear his property patch,” she blurted out, watching closely for signs of pissing him off.
“You’re right, it’s not your place to ask me that, and if it were anybody besides you, I would tell them to mind their own business and leave me the fuck alone, but since it’s you and you’ve taken care of me my whole life—I’ll cut you some slack. I want to bring it up at the meeting tomorrow. Whatever bullshit he and Layne had going on seems to have cleared up and everybody else likes him. Hell, he and Tyler have gotten to be somewhat friends. I don’t have to tell you how hard that’s been. I appreciate everything he’s done for us, and he would only make us stronger. We’re starting runs next week, so we definitely need another person that could ride. I think Rooster would be an amazing asset and I think everyone else does too.” He told her all the things that he’d been thinking. This had already been at the back of his mind, but with everything that had been going on, it was one more thing that had been pushed to the backburner.
Drew had come up behind them while they had been talking. “I like Rooster a lot,” Drew piped up. “He could have been a real dick to me, but he wasn’t, he told me straight, and I know it was him that kept my name out of everything when Coach Thistle was arrested. I wasn’t one of the ones dragged in, and I know he had a hand in that. I think if it’s what Aunt Roni wants, she should get it.”
Liam grinned over at Drew, putting his arm around his son and bringing him close to his side. “You think so, huh? You think you have a say-so in this?”
Drew grinned back. “In most things, no, but where Rooster is concerned—maybe. You have to admit, had he not figured out what I was doing, I’d be a million times worse off by now. I can already feel a huge difference in my life, in the way my body feels and the way I carry myself. I’m thankful to him.”
“We are too,” Roni agreed. “It wasn’t easy to hear, and none of us wanted to believe it because none of us ever thought you’d do something like that, but I’m glad that we got it taken care of.”
“It’s not easy and it won’t be for a while,” Liam cautioned the two of them. “But we’ll be here for you, no matter what. Speaking of which,” he glanced at his watch again, “I gotta be getting him to school. The counselor wanted to meet with him and Charity. They asked for either me or Denise to be there and Jasmine. I got the short straw.”
Drew’s cheeks blushed a furious red color. “I don’t know if I wanna see her, Dad. I was awful to her; I said and did some things that I’m downright ashamed of.”
“You weren’t yourself,” Roni told him. “If you’re honest with her and explain what was going on and if you still want her to be in your life, then I think she’d be more than willing to be with you. You can’t float by on your charm, good looks, and apologies forever though. You’ve got to mean what you say and follow through with it.”
“I know, but I feel like I keep making the wrong decisions where she’s concerned.”
“You’re in high school,” she reminded him. “Either it’ll work out or it won’t. Twelve years from now, we’ll see where you are.”
As they left, Roni walked towards the office, excited about the changes that would be coming into her life. For once, she was finally getting everything that she’d wanted and she wasn’t having to sacrifice her whole life for it either. For once she was getting to have her cake and eat it too.
Unbeknownst to Rooster, she’d had her own session with Doc Jones the day before, and she was also excited to talk to him about that.
“I think I want to try and have another baby,” Roni whispered to the doctor as she squirmed on the couch.
“Is this something you’ve thought of before or something that’s come to you since Rooster’s been back in your life?”
“Since Rooster’s been back in my life. There were one or two men after Rooster that I could have seen myself with, but none of them ever made me feel the way he did. I never got that catch in my breath, that skip of my heart, when they touched me I never got goose bumps. You know what I mean?”
“I do know what you mean.” Doc Jones smiled and it was a little sad.
“I couldn’t give myself to those men because I knew that there was someone out there that could give me those things. I’m concerned that I’m trying to fix the wrongs though, and I don’t want to fuck this up.” She pushed her hair back from her face.
“Do you and Rooster have a good relationship?”
“I think so. I mean, we’ve been together for a short amount of time, but it’s like we didn’t even have that break. I feel comfortable with him, as much as I did back then and even in newer ways. He knows everything now, and he’s willing to accept me no matter what. That gives me such confidence in the two of us and it makes me want to be with him. I just don’t want to feel like I’m replacing one life with another, you know?”
“There are lots of women who have miscarriages that get pregnant right afterwards and they have that same fear, Roni. You’ve waited seventeen years to have the life you’ve dreamed of. Will there be issues that pop up? I’m sure. There are always issues no matter how steady the relationship is. Will you and Rooster need to come see me again? Probably, but that doesn’t mean that you’re fucked up or that you’ve made a mistake. It’s life sometimes. I say you should do what you want to do. Talk it over with Rooster, don’t just have unprotected sex with him, get pregnant, and then tell him that was the plan all along. Be honest. Be open. Plan and want this together.”
She hoped and prayed that once she carried his patch, he would be as open to the idea of having a child as she was. A little baby that looked like the both of them. Someone to love that she could offer a good childhood to. Roni couldn’t wait, she just hoped that he wouldn’t break her heart and say no. She had to bide her time and wait for the right moment to ask him.