Hadley
I had four hours before I needed to be up with Ryker to get him to karate, and I knew I should be sleeping, but instead, I was standing in the dim light of the fridge stuffing myself with cold Chinese. I had skipped the beer and just grabbed a fork out of the drawer to feed my face.
Two o’clock had come and gone before I had finally been able to leave the club at three. The four guys who had ‘tried’ to start a fight outside had come in and decided they were going to be huge assholes and trash the club. Rick had ultimately managed to get them out the door after threatening to call the cops, but they left destruction in their wake.
“Haddie?”
I spun around with a forkful of food in my mouth. “Ry?” I mumbled, trying to swallow.
He rubbed his eyes and leaned against the counter next to me. “What are you doing?”
I looked down at the container in my hand and realized I could have at least grabbed a plate. “Eating?”
“I can see that. I meant what are you doing up still?”
I snapped the lid closed on the container and stuck it back in the fridge. “I feel like I should be the one asking you that question.”
“I got up to get a drink. Did you just get home?” Ryker grabbed two glasses from the cabinet and filled them with water from the tap. He handed one to me and leaned against the counter sipping his.
“Um, yeah. Work was pretty crazy tonight, and I stayed to help Rick and Vanessa clean up.”
“Everything okay?”
I nodded and took a swig of water. “Yeah, just some ass muffins thinking they could tear apart the club.”
“They didn’t touch you or anything, did they?”
Ryker was looking after me again, when it should be the other way around. I knew he hated me working at the club, but there wasn’t any other choice. “I’m fine. They sat down in Vanessa’s section, and Rick won’t let anything happen to her.”
“But what if they would have sat down in yours? Would Rick have taken as good of care of you?”
I set my glass on the counter and put my arm around Ryker’s shoulders. “Okay, Dad, I think it’s back to bed with you. You need to be rested for your driving lesson tomorrow.”
Ryker laughed. “You’re actually going to go through with it? I figured you would have tried to find a way out of it.”
“Nope. I said we would find a place, and we will, as soon as we wake up.”
We stopped in front of Ryker’s door. “You mean when I get done with classes. I told Master Kellan I would help with the lessons today since he needed the day off.”
“So you’re the only one teaching?” It still blew my mind that Ryker was so responsible that he taught karate classes at only sixteen.
“No, Master Tate and Dante will be there. I’m just there to help.”
I nodded. “Well, that means I can sleep in until you get done.”
Ryker laughed. “I’m done at one. That gives you plenty of time to sleep.”
I leaned against the door as he hopped back into bed and pulled the covers up to his chin. “Do you want me to pick you up?”
“Nah, I’ll walk there in the morning, and then I can walk home. It’s only three blocks away.”
I shrugged. “If that’s what you want. I’ll be ready at one.”
“Night, Aunt Haddie.”
“Night, Ry,” I whispered. I closed his door, the latch clicking into place, and I leaned against it.
Would I ever feel like I wasn’t a failure? I wished I could change everything and go back six months. Before everything changed, and before I start to ruin Ryker’s life. No matter how many times I wished for that to happen, it never did, so that meant I needed to pull up my big girl panties and figure out what the hell to do.
I smothered a yawn with my hand and closed my eyes.
“Tomorrow,” I mumbled.
I was too exhausted to think of anything except falling into my bed and passing out until Ryker came home tomorrow.
Tomorrow, things would change for the better.
At least, that’s what I told myself every night.
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Tate
I dropped my keys on the table next to the door and flipped on the light.
Roman and I had left the club well over two hours ago, but I was just rolling through the door. I made the mistake of driving past Tig’s on the way to Roman’s house, and he had insisted stopping for one last drink. That had turned into shutting the place down and literally carrying him home.
I was hungry, cranky, and ready to fall over from exhaustion. A night out with Roman always turned out the same way. It was no wonder why I was the only one who agreed to go out with him.
The house was quiet, only the sound the ticking of the large clock in the living room greeted me. I had left the TV on when I left, but it had timed out, and the living room was draped in darkness.
I grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and collapsed in the recliner in the corner.
My house had an open floor plan with a huge living room housing a large fireplace on one wall, with a sixty-inch TV hanging above it. A monstrous dark brown suede couch curved into an ‘L’ shape, set the boundaries of the living room which spilled into the kitchen.
I had a house built for a family but I was the only who lived here. The guys didn’t understand why I had built a four-bedroom, three bath house on the outskirts of town with a huge yard, but I knew when I had seen it finished, that it was perfect. It had been a huge piece to my puzzle, although I was still missing the key piece to complete it.
I never told the guys what I really wanted, because I knew I would sound like a damn fool and I would never hear the end of it.
My bed was just up the stairs, but I didn't have the energy to move. I grabbed the remote, turned on the TV to a late night infomercial, and pulled the blanket off the back of the recliner over me. Class started in five hours, and there was no way I could call in.
Kellan had taken a rare weekend off, whisking Molly away to some cabin in the woods, so the studio was left in the hands of Dante, Roman, and me. Roman was going to be a useless pile tomorrow, so it was down to Dante and me to wrangle the kids and take care of private lessons. At least Ryker was coming in to help with classes, so it wouldn’t be complete hell.
It had been a long night, and I had a feeling it was going to be an even longer day.
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