She also didn’t hang out at bars.
In truth, she didn’t hang anywhere. She went to work and came home. She looked after her girls. The two most important people in her life.
Her brother had tried to set her up a couple of times, but both of those blind dates had been a disaster.
Maybe she wasn’t meant to find anyone.
Maybe Brendan had been the only one for her. Her soulmate.
She’d never know for sure since they didn’t get enough time together.
Shawn held out the paperwork and she took it from him. One item was the invoice, the other an envelope which felt like a card. She assumed it was a sympathy card.
She had read too many of those in her lifetime. She wasn’t sure if she was ready to read another. But it was thoughtful and appreciated, anyhow.
She placed the unopened card on the coffee table and perched on the edge of the couch to fill out the check, relieved payday was just a couple of days away. This unexpected, but necessary, expense had dug into this week’s grocery funds.
“What you gonna do with them?”
“What?” she asked, distracted as she finished signing the check.
“The ashes.”
She glanced up. He still stood by the fireplace, but he was no longer looking at the photos, he watched her, instead. “Oh, I don’t know. Whatever the girls want to do with them.”
“Where are they?”
“Who?”
“Your girls.”
She frowned, wondering again if she should be concerned with his interest in her life. And her daughters. He might be too young for her, but he was too old for them.
Maddie was twenty and, at just seventeen, Josie was only a senior in high school.
“Josie has Spanish Club after school and Maddie has an evening class.”
“Evenin’ class?”
“At Mansfield University.”
He glanced back at the graduation picture. “She’s smart, then.”
“Both my girls do okay,” she kidded with a smile. “I’m not sure who they got their brains from, me or their father.”
“Got their looks from their momma.”
“Yes, sometimes people think the three of us are sisters. It always makes me laugh.”
“True, though. At first, thought you were sisters.”
Chelle always took that as a compliment. “Thank you.”
He shrugged. “Don’t look old enough to have two grown girls.”
“Well, they might look grown, but most of the time they don’t act it. Sometimes they act like my students.”
“Students?”
She rose from the couch and held out the check. “Please tell Cassie thank you.”
He tipped his head.
“Speaking of students, is Daisy Lange related to Cassie?” Now that she thought about it, they looked a lot alike. Both blonde and outgoing. Cut from the same cloth.
“Her girl. How do you know that hell-on-wheels?”
Chelle grinned at the description of the six-year-old girl. She’d only met Daisy a few times so far but she’d left an impression. “I work at Daisy’s school.”
“As a teacher,” he concluded on his own.
“No, the librarian. I saw Daisy’s father dropping her off the other morning. He wore the same vest as you.”
His mouth became tight. “Noticed my vest?”
“Hard to miss it.”
“Ain’t supposed to wear it at customers’ homes.”
“Well... you did.”
“Wasn’t thinkin’ you’d be outside waitin’.”
“It’s a beautiful day. Figured I’d work outside until you arrived.”
“Makes sense.”
“Don’t worry, I won’t tattle,” she kidded him.
His head tilted as he studied her.
The way he looked at her, the questions and comments. The way he spoke. None of it actual flirting. But all of it should disturb her.
It didn’t. It made her curious. The same way he was about her.
Maybe that was just stupid of her. But then again, being near him was making her as irrational as a hormonal teenage girl. And she was far from that.
“Tell me about it,” she urged before she could think better of it. He had the check, she had Pumpkin’s ashes, no reason remained to keep him there.
“About what?”
“The vest.”
He stared at her, his expression cautious. “Shouldn’t have worn it.”
“But you did.”
“Habit.”
“So, now that the cat’s out of the bag—” She grimaced at her choice of idiom. It was bad timing. Not for him but her. “I’m curious. Is it a secret?”
“No.”
“What is it then?”
“A brotherhood.”
“And the vest represents that brotherhood.”
“Yeah. It’s a cut.”
“A cut,” she echoed, finding that a weird name for a leather vest.
“Our club’s colors.”
She frowned. “What do you mean?”
“The colors that represent our club. Our patches.”
“The ones on the back.”
He tipped his head.
“Is your club dangerous?”
He stared at her for a few uncomfortable seconds, his face not only blank but his eyes turned hard and distant. His soft answer was anything but warm. “Only to our enemies.”
“You have enemies?”
“Everybody’s got enemies.”
“Not everyone.”
“Chelle, we all got enemies. Some we see, most we don’t.”
She wasn’t sure if it was the familiar use of her first name or what he said that caused the shiver.
But he noticed it and frowned.
She pushed on. “I was told it disbanded a long time ago.”
“Yeah.”
“But now it’s up and running again?”
A small grunt escaped him.
“Why do you call it a brotherhood?”
“Family.”
“Your family is a part of the MC?”
“They’re my family.” He shifted, looking uncomfortable at her line of questioning.
Her check was now crumpled in his hand.
Shit. Had she pushed him too far?
Chapter Four
Shade needed to fucking leave, but he was having a difficult time walking away from Chelle.
She was like a goddamn magnet and he was steel. The pull toward her was weird. He didn’t understand it besides her being a beautiful woman.
He’d seen a lot of pretty or beautiful women in his life, but none had caught his attention as quickly as her.
She was smart, but too curious.
He had no idea why she was digging.
He fucked up by wearing his cut in her driveway. Yeah, it was habit to wear it whenever he was on his sled, but he should’ve known better. And it was true, he hadn’t expected her to be outside waiting.
But then, nothing about this visit was going as expected.
He thought he’d show up, hand over the box and leave. Not be invited inside.
Even though she now knew he belonged to the Fury, she invited him in, anyway. He first took that as a positive, but now... he realized he was fucking wrong.