“I got a job in the backroom of a grocery store, doing inventory and shit. After we got paid that first week, the other people I worked with were like, ‘let’s go to the park and stuff our faces and eat hot dogs.’” She flicked me that embarrassed glance again and it was very hard not to reach out and squeeze her hand. “I was about to say, no, I’m not allowed when it hit me that hey, I was free now. I could go to the park if I wanted. I could buy a hot dog if I wanted. I had my own cash even.” She grinned at him, “It was the first time I realized that I was truly free.”
So I was wrong about this story. It definitely lived up to the buildup. Hell, the lump in my throat said it surpassed it. I couldn’t speak for a while. Thankfully, she seemed to understand.
She took a deep breath, blinking away the moisture from her own eyes. “The fact that I bought my first hot dog from Miguel and that he was so nice to me, even told me that the first one was free…as if he knew that it was my first hot dog…” she shook her head briefly, dropping her head and swallowing.
I gave in to my own urges and reached out for her hand, squeezing it hard. “Yeah, you got out. You’re free.” If my voice sounded a bit raspy, it was because I hadn’t spoken in a while, nothing else.
She nodded, took a deep breath, and looked back up at me with a smile. She didn’t let go of my hand though. “So that’s my sob story. Fair’s fair, what’s yours?”
My lips twisted. “My mother’s an addict and my dad was a whore and an alcoholic. I was supporting my household by the time I was fourteen.”
“That’s the vastly abridged version, huh?” She smiled wryly.
I shrugged. I didn’t figure she wanted to hear about bikers at the moment. Then a thought occurred to me. “Hey, look at us getting along and everything!” I grinned happily at her.
Weirdly, that made her face fall and she blushed, lashes sweeping down to hide her eyes again. “Uh, about that. I wanted to say sorry about the other night. I did something stupid and you had to bail me out.”
“Yeah, that sure was stupid, going with that man, but I’m guessing you had your reasons?”
Her eyes widened in surprise. “Well, to be honest, I have an aversion to being told what to do, especially in the way that you did it, but also I was upset and not dealing with it well, even before that.”
“Mind telling me what upset you?”
She moved her shoulder in sort of a sulky shrug. “My supervisor told me the grant’s going to the other girl.”
I cocked my eyebrows. “The name girl?”
Her lips twisted as if she was trying to stop herself from laughing. “Yeah, the name girl.” She huffed, looking supremely amused. “Why is everyone calling her that?”
“I guess because you wanted to marry me for my name.” I narrowed my eyes at her. “Do you still?”
She looked away from me, eyes far away and thoughtful. “I mean, I guess so. Just judging from how differently my colleagues treated me walking down the hall with you, it might make a difference.”
“Hey and you know I can make a hefty donation too.” I do not even know why I offered to do that.
She smiled. “That would be nice, I guess.”
“You guess?”
She turned to face me. “I suppose it would help. Thank you.”
“You’re very welcome. And congratulations on getting wise to working the system to your advantage.” I clapped for her sincerely, even though she watched me with suspicion. “I mean it.”
“Yeah, well…” She shrugged, clearly embarrassed. “I’d like to have been diabolical about it, but really it was just that I read too much fan fiction.”
I laughed. I’m sorry, I just couldn’t help it. “Whatever works, I guess.” I clapped my hands to call the meeting back to order. “So about this marriage thing, are you in?”
“Yeah, I guess I am.”
“Great. And about those guys last night, don’t worry about it. It’s taken care of.”
“What happened after I left? Morgan wouldn’t tell me.”
I sighed, debating on what to tell her. “Well, obviously your guy was kinda mad that you threw a stool at him and bolted. People tend to take that kind of thing personally.” I hesitated, wondering if I should tell her the next part. She leaned into me, her scent washing over me as she peered into my eyes, hypnotizing me.
“Then what happened.”
“Well, he drew a gun.”
She gasped, like I knew she would, and paled. “God!” she whispered.
“Naturally, Morgan and I got between him and you, as he tried to get past us to kill you. Morgan was forced to break his wrist while I kicked his knees out from under him. We thought we might have to fight our way out.”
Her eyes were so wide, it was like they took up her whole face. I hesitated but she waved at me. “Go on.”
“The club president put a stop to all of it. He got between us and your guy-”
“Don’t call him that. He’s not my guy. His name’s Rooster.”
I chortled with amusement and she shrugged to show that yeah, she got it was extremely lame. “Anyway, Rooster was down for the count and it was just everyone else we had to deal with.”
She blinked anxiously at me. “But the club president stopped it.”
“Yeah. He knew who I was, but not that I was club affiliated. He had two guys kind of restrain us – though I’m pretty sure we could have broken loose. But even if we did, we’d have to fight our way out. So I said we should resolve matters club to club. We never gave up our membership of the Lost Boys, after all; we just left town.”
“So you’re saying they’re gonna demand some
