“Honestly, I hurt pretty bad. Aside from Tink, he was my first friend in the clubhouse,” I tell her.
“He was a good kid. He would have been a perfect addition to the MC.”
“He was so excited to get patched in. The club was his life.” My eyes well with tears.
“It’s not the way any of us wanted him to get his patch, but he without a doubt earned it.” She pauses for a beat. “We should start a memorial wall in the clubhouse. A wall with pictures of fallen brothers.”
“I think that’s a great idea,” I say.
“We can talk to Prez about it when we go home.”
“If he’s your dad, why do you call him Prez?”
She shrugs her shoulders. “I grew up around the club, with everyone always calling him Prez. It became a habit calling him that. I usually only call him Pops when no one else is around.”
“That makes sense. What was it like growing up around all of it?”
“It was like having tons of brothers and uncles around all the time. For the longest time, Rivet and I were the only girls around. We could have gotten away with murder around all those men.” Minx laughs. “The MC has always been one big family and that always showed.”
“That’s about the complete opposite of my childhood,” I admit.
“What was yours like?”
“It was always just me and my mom. We lived in California my whole life, but moved around quite a bit. She worked two or three jobs just for us to get by, but always managed to be there for class parties and field trips,” I tell her.
“Your dad wasn’t around?”
“Up until recently, I didn’t know who my dad was.”
“Until recently?” Her eyebrows furrow.
“Apparently, Niko knew my mom way back when and he thinks he’s my father.”
“Niko, as in the Sovietnik of the Orlov Bratva?”
“Yup, that’s the one,” I deadpan.
“Wow, didn’t see that coming.”
“Neither did I.” I let out a humorless laugh. We fall into a silence after that.
“Knock, knock,” Rascal says from behind us. I turn around to him standing in the doorway. “You ladies doin’ alright?”
“Great.” I smile. “Just having some girl time.”
“That’s good to hear. Raze said something about a Fall Festival with a carnival happening this weekend,” Rascal tells us.
“Oh! We saw flyers for it when we went into town the other day. It looks like a lot of fun,” Minx says.
“I’ve never been to a carnival before,” I admit.
“What?” Rascal and Minx say in unison.
“We need to change that,” Minx insists.
“It started today. Why don’t y’all do what you need to get ready and we’ll go,” Rascal says.
“Really? We don’t have to worry about anyone finding us,” I ask.
“Nah, it’s safe and it can be our first official date,” he tells me.
“Our first . . . what? Are you being serious right now?” I fight back a grin.
He pushes off the doorway, taking a couple steps to close the distance between us. “Hell yeah, I am. I told you before I want us to be more. I plan on doing everything I can do to show you I mean it.”
I lose the battle and smile at him. Standing, I move in front of him and he wraps his arms around my waist. I reach up on my tippy toes and plant a kiss on his lips.
“What was that for,” he asks when I pull away.
“Just because.” I wink at him. “Come on Minx, let’s go get ready!”
“I’ll meet you in your room. I’m going to grab a few things from mine real quick,” she says as we walk into the house.
“Are we going to the festival?” Raze says from the couch. He’s flipping through channels on the TV.
“Hell yeah, we are,” Minx replies. I giggle, walking into my room. Our first official date.
“What do I even wear to a festival?” I say to myself. I look through my closet at the clothes I brought. I settle on an oversized army green sweater with a pair of my fleece lined leggings. It’s not super cold out, but I know once the sun goes down, it’ll be even colder. I finish the look with a pair of brown cowboy boots. There’s a knock on my door as I’m pulling my boots on.
“Come in,” I call out. Minx walks in looking sexy as always.
“Oh, girl! Look at you!” She’s grinning from ear to ear. “Ras won’t be able to keep his hands to himself when he sees you.”
I let out a nervous giggle. “This isn’t anything special. He’s used to seeing half naked women.”
“Which makes your outfit even better. You got skin tight pants on, but your ass will be playing peek-a-boo with that top. From what I’ve noticed, he’s got a thing for your ass.” She winks at me.
“Thanks for the confidence boost.” I laugh. I head into the bathroom to do my make-up, sticking with a more natural look.
When I walk out of the bathroom, Minx does a cat call. “I stand by my previous statement.”
I shake my head with a smile as we walk out of my room to the guys.
“Well, hey there, hot stuff.” A smile breaks out across Rascal’s face. He grabs my hand and twirls me. “You look gorgeous.”
Heat rises in my cheeks. “Thank you.”
“You are so welcome.” He kisses my forehead. “You ready to go?”
“Let’s do this!” Excitement courses through my body.
27
Marley
We get to the festival around two in the afternoon. We walk up to the entrance, stopping at the ticket booth to pay our entry fee. There are booths upon booths of different craft vendors. So many of them have Thanksgiving and Christmas things.
“Hi! Entrance is eight dollars for adults. You can buy tickets for rides here or at a booth inside. Games take cash and there are ATMs scattered through out the festival,” the woman working the ticket booth states.
“Can we get unlimited ride passes,” Rascal asks her.
“Of course! It’s five dollars per wrist band.”
“We’ll take two, please.” He hands her two twenties. She counts out his change before putting our wrist bands on.
“Thank you and have fun!” She hands us a map of the festival and we step aside so Raze and Minx can get their tickets. Once they’re done, we start our trek through the vendor booths.
“I hope you’re hungry,” Rascal says to me.
“Why is that?”
“Because you’re gonna be tryin’ a ton of carnival foods.” He smirks.
“Bring it on.” I wink at him.
“There are so many cute things here,” Minx says. “We should come back tomorrow to buy some things.”
“That would be awesome. I wouldn’t mind getting some Christmas decorations for my room at the clubhouse,” I add.
“We’ll see,” Raze tells Minx.
We come to a booth where they sell homemade candles.
“Oh! I love candles.” I walk up to the table and check out what they have. I pick one up labeled Calm. The description says cedarwood and orange. Taking the lid off, I inhale the scent. “Mmm, this one smells fantastic!”