Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 100628 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 503(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 335(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 100628 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 503(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 335(@300wpm)
“Shit.”
He looked over at me. “Your mom hit him in the balls and he’d dropped his joint.”
I pictured the scenario and started laughing. “Yeah, that tracks.”
“Right?” he murmured in amusement, shaking his head.
“I wonder if that girlfriend of your brother’s is gonna give him any trouble,” he mused.
I shot him a look of disbelief. “Something like disappearing for three years and coming back with his kid? Oh, I don’t know. Maybe.”
Uncle Casper waved his hand dismissively. “They were young,” he said easily. “Circumstances and bullshit was the cause of all that.”
“Yeah.” I thought about Emilia. “I doubt she’ll be dancing on any tables or hittin’ Micky in the nuts. Emilia’s pretty mellow.”
“Guess it’s up to you to carry on the crazy.” He slapped me on the back again.
“Fuck that,” I responded instantly.
“You’re more like Tommy than any of your brothers.”
“Well, that’s offensive,” I replied cheerfully.
Casper laughed. “Sorry, kid,” he said sympathetically. “It’s true. Someday you’re gonna be chasin’ your drunk woman around this clubhouse.”
“Not gonna happen.” I ignored the image of drunk Nova chasing me around the clubhouse.
“Bullshit.”
“Fine,” I conceded, pointing at him with my beer. “Not gonna happen until I’m like forty.”
Uncle Casper grinned at me. “Sometimes I forget what it’s like to be young and stupid. Thanks for the reminder, prospect.”
I jerked dramatically, throwing my hand up at my chest like he’d shot me. “Ouch.”
“Not a prospect for much longer though, yeah?”
“You tell me,” I muttered. “No rush, though. I fuckin’ love workin’ the gate and cleanin’ up puke, and changin’ oil.”
“Quit bitchin’.”
“Who’s bitchin’?” I asked in mock surprise, looking around me. “Not me!”
“All the boys gotta pay their dues,” he reminded me. “Even the pretty ones like you.”
“And you,” I reminded him. I’d seen photos of when Uncle Casper got his cut, and he was my uncle and I wasn’t into dudes, but the man had been ridiculously good looking.
“Me more than most,” he said ruefully. “I got shot.”
Fuck, I’d forgotten that, and now I felt like a complete asshole.
Uncle Casper caught a look at my face and started laughing, the sound filling the room.
“I’m just fuckin’ with ya, kid.”
“You did get shot.”
“Eh.” He brushed it off with a flick of his fingers. “I’d do it again.”
“Auntie Brenna’s ex, right?” I asked. Brenna wasn’t technically my aunt, but she may as well have been.
“Gave her time to send Trix out the window,” he said softly, his eyes unfocused. He snapped out of it almost instantly. “Old news, bud. Not worth replayin’.”
“Hey Daddio?” my cousin Lily called, poking her head in the door. When she saw us at the bar, she strode inside. “I sent Mom home with CeeCee. There was no way she could’ve sat on the back of your bike.”
“That bad, huh?” Uncle Casper joked.
“It was nothing compared to Molly,” Lily replied with a snort. “I don’t know how that woman is still such a lightweight after so many years.”
“You guys have fun, Lilybug?”
“It was a blast,” she said, leaning against him as she wrapped her arm around his waist. “Sometimes you just have to sit around and bitch for a while.”
“Funny,” he said, kissing her head. “That’s what Rumi’s been doin’.”
“You should’ve come over, Rumi.”
“I haven’t been bitchin’,” I said, exasperated. “Man, next time I’m drinkin’ at home.”
“Not sure drinking in an empty clubhouse is much better,” Lily said with a laugh.
“Uncle Will was here earlier,” I pointed out. “And so were your husband and son.”
“I’m just teasing you,” she said sweetly, reaching out to ruffle my hair. “I’m out of here.”
“I am too,” Uncle Casper said. “You need a ride?”
“Lily doesn’t wanna drive me home,” I murmured. I knew for a fact he wasn’t offering to bring me home riding bitch on the back of his bike.
“I don’t mind driving you home, bud,” Lily countered. “You ready?”
I took a deep breath and sighed. I wasn’t ready to go home, but I also knew that I wasn’t driving anywhere and after she was gone, I’d be stuck sleeping at the club.
“Yeah,” I replied, finishing off my beer. “I’m ready.”
Even though Lily had made it seem like no big deal, I still felt like a shit for asking her to drive me home. We lived on opposite sides of town and she was going completely out of her way.
“You’re pretty quiet tonight,” she said, glancing at me.
“Just tired,” I lied with a sigh. “Sorry you had to drive me home.”
“I didn’t have to drive you,” she reminded me. “Don’t worry about it. I don’t mind. I’d like to think that if my son was having girl troubles and got hammered at the club one of his aunties would drive him home if I wasn’t there.”
“I’m not having girl troubles.”
Lily laughed. “Okay, honey.”
“I’m not.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Damn, you’re irritating.”
Lily snorted and laughed again. “Rumi, I have literally never seen you drink alone,” she said, raising her eyebrows at me. “Tonight, you were sitting all by yourself in the deserted club house, drinking beer and feeling sorry for yourself. It has to be a woman.”