Jenna smiled back, because she was lucky enough to be one of the rare few who got to see his smile regularly. Jack wanted to give her back her dream, not realizing that she’d never lost it.Hewas her dream. Jack, their kids, the club… Jenna had her dream. The rest? It was all just icing on the cake.
Shaw would soon learn that it would not be so easy to make them crack. He would get pissed off and he would make a mistake, and when he did, Jack and the VDMC would be there to catch him. Pretty soon, Griffin Shaw would be nothing more than a name, but Jenna would still have her dream.
“You’d thinkI’d be used to this by now.”
Steel raised an eyebrow. “Four kids, four passing driver’s tests, and three successful first solo drives, about to be four? Yeah, one would think.”
Jenna lifted her hand to slap the back against him. Because she was sitting and he was standing, she almost got his dick but ended up at his navel. Too bad they weren’t alone, or he’d do something else to make her reach for him—only this time, he’d better her aim.
In the weeks since Little Shoes had been destroyed, Steel had been keeping a closer eye on Jenna than normal. Regardless of the fact that she said she didn’t want to rebuild, that store had been her dream since before Carter had been born. It was hardto believe she was just ready to let it go so easily. But she’d had no relapses. Other than increased fatigue, her symptoms were not progressing.
Cleanup was still underway. Insurance had been a big holdup, and then the weather. As February turned into March, the snow lessened and the days gradually got warmer. Cage’s construction crew put off starting work on Keys’ new building to help the town clean up before the tourist season started in the spring.
As a trade, Keys and Tom were taking over several of the open apartments in the clubhouse. Master Key Security Solutions was now officially open, and they were taking applicants. An active duty Navy SEAL Lucky and Bear had met inDisney Worldthe previous year was coming in for an interview soon, and he was bringing his two old former SEAL brothers with him.
Steel did not allow Jenna to return to Little Shoes, or the space where Little Shoes had been. Every day someone from the club would bring totes of things they found in the rubble to Jenna and Steel’s house for Jenna and the ol’ ladies to go through. Anything they thought was able to be kept and donated went into a pile to be washed or cleaned. Everything else went into a dumpster Steel had rented to help dispose of the large amount of trash. They catalogued what they could against Jenna’s last recorded inventory to help with the insurance claim.
With Steel’s accusation against Griffin Shaw, Carlos was able to put a BOLO out for him as a person of interest. However, there was no proof. None of the cameras in town showed any clear image of the culprit. Just some shadowy images and one of a man in a mask carrying a guitar case. As far as records went, though, Griffin Shaw was presumed dead over thirty years ago. When he’d joined the CIA, his records and identity ceased to exist. The military had him marked for an execution thatdidn’t happen. If it had, it would have been the first US military execution of a service member since 1961. Carlos’s resources were limited when hunting a man whose history stopped in 1996.
Keys’ methods were proving just as inadequate, but the Tech was determined. He swore if he could find Scar’s records after his presumed death, he could find Shaw’s too. The biggest difference was that Scar didn’t have the CIA running his life for over a decade. He’d only been with Primis for two years, and they’d never created a fake identity for him.
Scar’s head wound was completely healed, and Tally was planning ways to get Scar to the altar. In truth, Steel was a bit surprised the two had not eloped, but it was their wedding. Tally’s mom was pushing her to have a large ceremony, which clearly meant she had no respect for her future son-in-law or knew a damn thing about him. Tally liked what Lucky and Harper had done with having their ceremony outside on the clubhouse back lawn. Scar would give Tally whatever she wanted, but she was also trying to be conscientious of what Scar could or could not do, and crowds was something Scar could not do.
But their wedding wasn’t the current priority. Ollie becoming a licensed driver was. He was beyond excited and was taking Aaron out on a date in Cottonville to celebrate.
Aaron was waiting at the bottom of the stairs for Ollie to come down. Needing to make a grand entrance, Ollie was descending by riding Jenna’s chair lift. Jenna and Steel were in the living room. Jenna looked like she wasn’t sure if she wanted to laugh or cringe at her son’s flamboyance. Steel was concentrating more on Aaron than he was Ollie. It hadn’t escaped his notice the way Aaron stared at Ollie, like he’d never seen a more beautiful sight in the world.
Maybe it was time to give Aaron another talking to. Man, it sucked that he liked Aaron and thought he was a good kid. Melanie hadn’t dated much in Mount Grove, so Steel had rarely gotten the opportunity to threaten any boys on her behalf. And now Ollie had found agoodman, one that Steel respected? He felt gypped as a father. With any luck, Melanie would bring home some college boy that Steel absolutely hated.
Aaron and Ollie had celebrated their one-year anniversary last October. It really did seem like the two of them were going to go the distance, but changes were definitely coming. Jenna was already trying to subtly prepare Ollie for what it was going to be like when Aaron went off to basic training.
As Ollie reached the bottom, Steel’s eyebrows went up. He wholeheartedly supported Ollie in whatever his son wanted to do or wear or be, so long as he was respectful to those around him. However, Steel thought Ollie’s fashion sense left something to be desired. Jenna and the ol’ ladies talked of Ollie’s outfits like they were high fashion and so coordinated they were envious. Steel would never understand, but that didn’t mean he didn’t support Ollie. It just meant he’d never be caught dead wearing one of Ollie’s outfits.
And it wasn’t like Ollie’s outfits would fit him anyway. His son was all bones, tall and lanky. There wasn’t an ounce of fat and barely any muscle on him.
Aaron was exactly the opposite, tall and broad like Cage. They even had the same Greek features that had women calling both father and son Adonises.
Holding out his hand, Aaron helped Ollie stand from the chair lift. Ollie was wearing a very sparkly, very silver suit jacket with some meshy, flared skirt that hung off the bottom. He was wearing pants too so Steel was pretty sure the mesh whatever-it-was was attached to the jacket. Very tight, very pink pants with apair of combat boots that had buckles instead of laces. He had on heavy eyeliner and glitter. It was over his hair and cheeks.
“When did our son get his ears pierced?” Steel asked Jenna in a whisper.
“Last summer. Remember, you said you liked it.”
He was sure he had. Steel would never flat-out lie to his children, but he figured pretending that he’d noticed Melanie’s new haircut or that he liked Ollie’s earrings was along the same lines as telling a kid Santa Claus was responsible for the presents under the tree each year. When Jenna used to take the kids clothes shopping for the new school year, she’d put on a fashion show of sorts for Steel to see. Sometimes it was over video call when he was overseas and other times he got to be home for it. But he never really noticed or cared. Jeans and a t-shirt were the extent of his fashion knowledge. Carter and Jordan were each over the fashion shows by the time they were ten or so, but Melanie continued them into her early teens.
There were only so many times Steel could claim a dress was the prettiest and mean it. After a while, they honestly all looked the same.
Jenna shook her head, hiding her smile behind her hand. She knewexactlywhat Steel was thinking, because she’d caught on to his opinion of the fashion shows a lot quicker than their kids had.
Aaron bent to kiss Ollie’s cheek, getting glitter all over himself too. The young man didn’t seem to notice.
Ollie skipped into the living room, dragging Aaron behind him. He dropped Aaron’s hand to do a twirl for Jenna. Steel coughed and had to wave his hand in front of his face to disperse the glitter flying off his son. Jenna just laughed, holding up her hands like she was catching snowflakes.
“You look beautiful, baby,” she told him as Ollie struck a pose.
When his vision cleared of sparkling dust, Steel was able to confirm that the mesh was like a tutu looking thing that was attached to the jacket. What he couldn’t confirm was if Ollie was wearing a shirt under the jacket. Or maybe it wasn’t a jacket. Maybe the silver sparkly material was his shirt.
Fuck if Steel knew or was going to ask.
