He wasn’t wrong.
Still, I shrugged again and muttered, “That’s life.”
He dropped his arm from around my shoulders and turned to me. “Tab, I know you wanna make sure you don’t have a reputation as flighty or trouble at work, but if a bunch of folks are eatin’ this guy’s shit, maybe someone should do something. Maybe you can talk to a few of ’em, strength in numbers, so it isn’t just you swingin’ your ass out there.”
That, actually, wasn’t a bad idea.
So I nodded and replied, “I’ll think about that. I know some of the other nurses are over it, so I’ll talk with a few of them. Test the waters.”
“You do that, honey, but you quit ’cause of things with Shy but also because you couldn’t put up with that asshole anymore. I don’t know if you told them then but even if it rubs you wrong, life’s too short for that bullshit. So if you gotta look for another job, you do it no regrets. If they were loyal to you, they wouldn’t let this guy fuck with your head. So you just be loyal to you, yeah? Find somethin’ that won’t make you quiet when you should be havin’ fun. You with me?” he finished on a gentle question.
“I’m with you, Lan, thanks,” I replied.
He grinned down and me and, seriously, Shy told me he didn’t have a girl and I thought that was miraculous.
Then his eyes wandered over my shoulder and stopped. I looked over my shoulder, saw a big-boobed, full-hipped, big-haired, blonde biker groupie giving Lan the eye, and I knew it wasn’t miraculous.
He was like his brother, chasing tail, enjoying gathering lipstick, but I suspected when he settled, he’d find ways to make his badass man-ness worth it.
“Right, Tab, gonna take you to my brother. I got things to do,” he stated.
Oh yeah, he had things to do.
“Luckily, Shy’s at my place all the time or I foresee I’d need to change his sheets,” I mumbled through a grin as Lan hooked his arm around my shoulders and started us toward my man.
“Absolutely,” he muttered, I looked up at him and gave him my grin.
He looked down at me and smiled.
Then he looked at his brother. “Your girl needs company.”
His arm fell away.
Shy’s replaced it instantly.
Then he pressed his lips to the top of my hair and kissed me.
Seriously. Loved my man.
Lan jerked up his chin, and I encouraged, “Go get her, tiger.”
He shot me another smile, took off, and Shy asked, “What?”
“Landon is about to see if he’s lucky,” I shared.
Shy’s eyes went to his brother and mine followed. The girl was looking under her lashes at him as he approached. Lan was grinning at her.
Something caught the corner of my eye, I turned my head and saw, in the shadows at the edge of the revelry, Hop dragging Lanie toward the Compound. He had her hand in his and was definitely dragging her, but her high-heeled boots were moving double time and she didn’t appear to be struggling.
Quickly, I scanned the crowd and saw Tyra laughing with Big Petey, her back to the Compound. She still had no clue.
But I also saw Dad, and I knew he had a clue seeing as he was following Hop and Lanie with his eyes, his mouth tight. I knew my dad’s looks and that one didn’t say angry, it said impatient.
My gaze went back to the doors of the Compound to see that Hop and Lanie had disappeared inside.
Them keeping things under wraps confused me. They were both consenting adults, and Lanie wasn’t anyone’s daughter.
But in that moment, I found that I hoped like hell that worked out for them, no matter how, on the face of it, it never could, what with Hop being a rough and ready badass biker and Lanie being chic and sophisticated.
I hoped this because, after all that happened to Lanie, she was still Lanie. Crazy. Fun. But there was something off about her that I found troubling, and I knew Ty-Ty worried about it and even Dad did too.
Also, I didn’t think she’d had one single man since she lost Elliott. Not one. And it had been years. For a woman as beautiful, crazy, fun, not to mention sweet as Lanie, that was sad. She deserved a good man in her life that could make her happy.
And Hop was a good man, no matter the ugliness of his break with Mitzi and that business with BeeBee. I’d known him a long time. I knew he would never go there with Lanie, knowing who she was to Ty-Ty, if he didn’t intend to do right by her.
Further, like good women, good men deserved happiness. So Hop deserved all the crazy, fun, sweet, beauty Lanie could give him.
Staring at the Compound door, I sent invisible good vibes to two people I cared about that they’d find happiness together.
And, of course, that what they were doing wouldn’t tick off Dad and Ty-Ty too much.
“He’s lucky,” Shy muttered, taking my mind off Lanie and Hop, and bringing my attention back to Landon and the biker groupie close in each other’s space, and I mentally agreed. Then Shy’s lips came to my ear. “I’m gonna be lucky in about five minutes too.”
All thoughts of Lanie, Hop, Landon, and his groupie fled, a shiver went over my skin but I turned my head and caught his eye. “You are?”
“Time it takes me to walk you to my room, yeah, I am,” he whispered.
Another shiver, then, “But we haven’t even started raisin’ hell.”
“Somethin’s gonna rise but it won’t be hell.”
I knew that.
It would be paradise.
I grinned.
He bent his head and brushed his lips against mine.
Five minutes later, in his room in the Compound, Shy got lucky.
* * *
“At the risk of pissin’ you off, gotta share. More than once in the last five years, laid on my back in this bed, my hand on my dick, thinkin’ of you doin’ what you just did to me.”
That did not, in any way, piss me off.
It turned me on.
I lifted my head from his shoulder and looked down into his green eyes.
“What else did you think of me doin’?” I asked quietly, my legs shifting restlessly.
His eyes went to the ceiling. “Got her off, seconds later, she’s rarin’ to go again.”
“It’s been minutes, Shy,” I pointed out, he aimed his eyes at mine and grinned at me.
Then his grin faded and he declared, “Right, before we tear each other up again, gotta talk to you about something.”
I registered the grin fade, sensed his mood, and therefore melted into him.
“Okay,” I said softly.
“Boys voted. We’re takin’ on the mountains.”
I felt my brows draw together. “Pardon?”
“Expanding Ride, sugar. Boz and Brick went out, scouted locations. Durango or Grand Junction. It’s lookin’ like it’ll probably be Grand Junction. We’re movin’ out of just havin’ places along the Front Range and opening a new shop out west.”
I smiled and cried, “Wow! That’s cool!”
His lips twitched and he replied, “Yeah.”
I studied him. His lips twitched but I got the sense he wasn’t committed to his “yeah.”
So I asked, “What’s on your mind, darlin’?”
Shy didn’t hesitate to share. “Brick, Dog, and Boz are goin’ out next week, makin’ the final decisions on the locations we might buy. They’ll bring the info on the options to the Club, big meeting. All the boys from Fort Fun and C. Springs will come to town, we vote on one, it’s a go. Dog and Brick have already volunteered to up stakes, head out, and oversee start-up. We’ll be findin’ new recruits, gettin’ ’em started, since more boys will be needed when the store is up and running. Bat, Arlo, and Tug have already made it clear they’re good to go out and be part of that team. Leaves us down in numbers, so it’s time to build the Club.”