“Hey, Halloween is my favorite holiday. I always go all out,” she says giving me a wink.
“Come here,” I demand wanting her close.
She tilts her head to the side as she comes to me.
“I don’t care how long we’ve been apart, when we get together the first thing you should always do is kiss me.” Before she can reply, I’m fusing my mouth to hers.
When she pulls back from me, I almost don’t want to let her go. “I love the way you kiss,” she says breathily. “I would love to continue this, but my dad is inside and he’s getting stabby.”
“Why?” I ask her.
“Because the pumpkin isn’t to his liking, so he’s pissed off.” She laughs.
“Don’t be telling stories, Justine. You got me a shitty pumpkin!” I hear her dad shout from the kitchen. He comes around the corner before we make it there and puts one hand out. A knife in the other. “Harry Reid.”
“Carson Lewis,” I tell him, shaking his hand.
“Hope you’re better at carving pumpkins than Justine here. She ruins them every time.” Actually, I didn’t realize we’d be carving pumpkins at all; this is definitely new to me.
I chuckle and go to the table, where there are at least nine pumpkins maybe ten, laid out. I raise a brow and look at Justine.
“What? I love Halloween.”
“Listen, Carson, this is Justine’s favourite time of year, if Halloween could happen every month, she’d still be in love with it. She hates Christmas, though, just pointing that out to ya. So, if I was you, I’d smile and pretend that carving pumpkins is your life’s work.”
I laugh at that, I guess I better grab a carver and get carving some pumpkins. I take off my cut and hang it over a chair and get to work.
“Why so many pumpkins?” I ask, as I scoop out some gunk.
“Because she puts them on the railing of her front porch.”
“Wouldn’t they just fall over?” I ask him confused.
“She rigs them up, so they don’t. Don’t ask, just let her have her pumpkin party.”
Shaking my head, I get to work, I think this is something Emily would like, even my grandkids. It’s something I’ll be doing soon, as much as I think this is silly as fuck. “What do you do for work, Harry?” I ask him, even though I already know.
“Oil field, I travel to Alberta most of the time for it, but when I’m on my days off I’m here with my girl.” He makes a face as he starts scooping out pumpkin gunk from his second pumpkin. “What about you? I know you have the club, but what do you do for work?”
That’s an easy enough question, while we dabble in illegal shit, we have many above the board businesses, too. “I own a chain of salons and spas. A couple strip clubs and the only bar downtown.”
Harry looks at me, impressed. “What made you get into that line of work? The clubs and bar I can see you doing, but the salons and spas? Doesn’t seem very ‘biker’ to me.”
He’s right, “A lot of the girls in the club always getting their hair done and shit, so we looked into it and they are pretty decent at turning a profit.”
I look around the kitchen to find Justine nowhere in sight. “Where’d Justine go?”
“Oh, she’s probably decorating her tree.” He waves me off.
“Wait, what? Her tree?” I’m so beyond confused right now.
“Yeah, she has a black Halloween tree that doubles as her Christmas tree. It’s black, with horror-themed ornaments on it.” He starts carving his pumpkin and I haven’t even started yet; I’m still scooping out the guts. “Don’t diss her tree, trust me. Every year, I try to get her to be normal, but she doesn’t listen.”
“My tree is done, care to see the amazingness that it is?” Justine asks, coming into the kitchen.
Harry and I clean our hands off and go to her living room, “Ta-da. Isn’t it beautiful?”
I take the tree in, black with purple lights, and there are, indeed, only horror-themed decorations on it. “Do you change out the decorations when it’s Christmas?” I ask her.
Her face scrunches up. “Fuck, no. Christmas is stupid and too damn jolly for my liking. Halloween tree stays up until January first.”
“Alright then,” I say and turn away from her, so I don’t piss her off. She’s going to have to get used to the jolliness of the season because Emily and my grandkids love Christmas, and Justine is going to be a part of it.
“Anyway, I just ordered pizza and Chinese, wasn’t sure what everyone wanted, it should be here in about thirty minutes. I’ll help scoop out the pumpkins, so you guys can carve them. Oh, and Tomas should be here soon, too.”
“Pansy-assed dick-head,” Harry grumbles.
I look at him in surprise. “Why do you say that?”
“Boy has always screamed gay to me since the day I met him. Turns out he is, indeed, gay but strung my daughter around all these years anyway.”
That’s news to me. Justine didn’t say anything, but then again, we never really talked about her relationship with Tomas. They seem to still be on good terms so, obviously, the breakup didn’t damage either of them. If anything, they are acting like it never happened. It will be interesting to see their dynamic tonight.
I just hope everyone leaves at a decent time so I can take Justine to her bed and fuck her until she can’t breathe.
Chapter Twenty-four
Justine
I lay my head on Carson’s chest. “Thanks for tonight. I know it’s not very manly or bikerish, but it meant a lot to me. Especially getting to know my dad.”
“Think nothing of it, babe. I told you, I’m into you, you’re mine. So, if that means we do family time once in a while, then so be it.”
“And Tomas, you were totally cool with him tonight, and that was epic.”
“What’s the deal with that anyway? One day, you’re together, the next, you’re not and you’re riding my cock.”
I let out a snort, he makes it sound so dirty. “We just realized we were better off as friends; our relationship wasn’t normal. We had other people in our bed, we’d go to swing parties, sex clubs, stuff like that. He revealed to me recently, though, that he’s bisexual but leans more towards men. So, that’s good for him, finally living his truth.”
Carson’s body tenses up. “You were in an open relationship?” he asks, sounding shocked.
“Yeah, it’s no big deal, it’s what we established about two years into our relationship, and it worked for us. But that’s the thing, we talked about it. Now if he had gone out and slept with someone and I didn’t know or wasn’t okay with it, it would have been a big, fucking deal. I don’t do cheaters,” I tell him harshly.
He gives me a squeeze on my hip. “You ready to tell me about your past?”
I sigh and roll over to my back. “It’s not pretty, but I’ll tell you. My earliest memory is my mother picking me up by the hair and throwing me down the stairs.” His body tenses. “I was only four.” Fuck, this shit is hard. “I won’t tell you more, but it was like that until the day I was seventeen and could start fighting her back. Our relationship changed then, she might not have been able to physically hurt me anymore, but she did everything she could to get in my head. Hell, for some reason when I became an adult, she randomly thought of herself as my best friend. Trying to go on dates with Tomas and I, or if we didn’t include her, she’d go off on a tangent. Hell, she would even punish me by not talking to me for a week over not watching a movie with her.” Carson starts rubbing circles on my hip as he gets up on an elbow and looks down at me. His face is hard, angry. “Then it came out that she had been cheating on dad, and that was it, this move couldn’t have happened at a better time, honestly. We all cut her off, and that was that. Although it doesn’t stop her from trying to get in touch sometimes. But I never take her calls or reply to her emails.”