She tipped some oil in her palm, twisted the cap back on, coated her hands in slick and then put them to Jag’s back.
“Babe,” he murmured.
“You’re tense, it’s a heavy day, we need to release some of that, so just go with it,” she murmured back, using the apples of her palms to press and stroke upward on each side of his spine until she got to his broad shoulders, where she spread the pressure out.
Jag was quiet as she kept this up, Archie seated on his ass, putting her weight into it when needed. Her hands were heated by his skin and the oil that not only offered ease to her ministrations, but warmth to his muscles.
“You good?” she asked after a bit, digging her thumbs in where his neck met his shoulders, a place she found was often super tight.
“Yeah, baby,” he said quietly. “You have that oil, or did you buy it for me?”
“I bought it for you.”
A beat then, “Don’t relax me too much I can’t fuck you.”
Archie grinned and kept massaging.
And replied, “Don’t worry. I’d never do that.”
* * * *
They weren’t going to be able to carry out their plan to take the kids to Jagger’s motorcycle club hangout that afternoon.
This was because that afternoon, they were sitting in a church, listening to people sharing what a lovely woman Danielle Middleton, Mal’s grandmother, was.
It was a nice service. The flowers were very pretty. And Jagger looked incredibly handsome in his dark suit.
They were in a pew with Joany, Fabe and Lafayette (they’d closed the store) mid-way back on Mal and Shanta’s side. There were a lot of people there (more testimony Danielle was an awesome lady).
But when it was done, Mal didn’t miss catching first Archie’s, then Jagger’s eyes and giving them a boy-man chin lift as he walked out with his mom and aunt.
They waited their turn as folks left the church, and as they headed down the aisle, Archie looked up at her man and asked, “Do you want to go to the gravesite with the procession, or head out?”
Jagger didn’t look at her, his eyes were aimed to the exit, and she knew where his head was at even before he answered, “We’re there all the way for Mal.”
“Okay, honey,” she murmured, glanced behind them, and got a nod from Fabe, which meant he heard, and they were in too.
When they exited the church, the first thing she saw was Mal, who was standing at the bottom of the steps looking off in the distance and seeming frozen in place.
It was then she noticed a lot of people were staring in the same direction.
Archie looked that way.
And she saw, around the entrance to the parking lot of the church, there was a slew of men on motorcycles. They were wearing black, long-sleeved, button-down shirts, jeans, and had sunglasses over their eyes to shield them against the bright Denver sun.
When she turned her gaze to Jagger, he was looking at Mal.
He also headed to Mal, and since he had her hand tucked into his elbow, Archie went with him.
“Sorry,” he said when they arrived, and Shanta moved her gaze from Jagger’s brothers to Jag. “I didn’t know. But I should have guessed because Mal claimed me, and since I’m his, they weren’t gonna let this pass. So they’re here to provide an honor guard escort for your mom. I can tell them to go if it’s—”
He shut up because Shanta ducked her face and turned it away, lifting a hand with a hanky in it to touch under the sunglasses she was wearing.
“Don’t tell them to go,” Mal decided for his family.
Shanta cleared her throat, turned again to Jagger, and her voice came soft when she added, “Please, don’t. Momma could be theatrical.”
The sister snorted and said under her breath, “To say the least.”
“She’d love a biker honor guard,” Shanta finished.
Jagger nodded and started to move them away, but Mal tagged the sleeve of his suit jacket, so he stopped.
“You do that too?” he asked.
Jag and Archie looked where Mal tipped his head and they saw Gina, Martin, Colby, Dex, Tracee and Mia standing off to the side with a couple of the parents who were obviously their rides.
She hadn’t noticed them in the church.
But there they were.
Archie’s head came back around when she heard Jag answer, “Yeah.”
She didn’t know he did this.
Then again, he’d asked to use her laptop on Sunday, so she didn’t have to play super-sleuth to figure it out.
She didn’t wonder why he didn’t tell her.
Her man was not wrong when he said Mal had claimed him and Jagger was his. They now had an even bigger thing than they’d been growing before, and that was not about Archie.
It was theirs.
And Archie had no issue whatsoever sitting back and letting them have it.
Mal’s gaze wandered through his friends from group and Jagger’s brothers before it came back to Jag.
“So that’s brotherhood? Showing at some lady’s funeral you don’t know?” he asked Jag.
“It’s brotherhood, it’s community, that on one of the worst days you’ll have in your life, or any day of your life, they do things that state clear in a way you can’t mistake that you matter.”
Mal took that in.
He then cracked a smile. “Thinking now it’s pretty awesome that I stole that gamer thing.”
“You did what?” Shanta asked, her last word rising several octaves.
Archie watched Jagger smile back.
They let Mal deal with his mother’s reaction to his remark and Jagger took her to his truck.
But along the way, she made certain to wave in the general direction of the Chaos brotherhood.
She got some all-man chin lifts and only one wave, which was mostly a flick of a hand.
That was Dutch.
Jag helped her in his truck and shut her door for her, rounded the hood and got in himself.
“Boyfriend,” she called.
“Right here,” he said, sliding his glasses on his nose.
He then commenced scanning the area, undoubtedly watching for the convoy to start to take them to the cemetery.
“Don’t freak out.”
At her words, he turned those sunglasses to her.
“What?” he asked.
“Don’t freak out,” she repeated.
“About what?”
“About the fact that I’m telling you right now that I’m really, stupidly, crazily, totally head over heels in love with you.”
Jag said nothing.
Not a word. Not a sound.
He didn’t move.
He just stared at her through his kickass KD sunglasses.
Then he grunted, “Same.”
She couldn’t stop her grin.
Or pushing across the cab to kiss him.
Both she did.
The first big.
The second…
Hard.
* * * *
It was hours later.
She was in the Chaos Compound watching another reason why she was in love with Jagger Black happen at the pool table.
Fabe and Lafayette were playing pool with Dutch and Joker while Joany, Georgie and Joker’s wife Carissa looked on (but mostly, the women were giving them shit and trying to make them mess up shots, though this was not succeeding very well).