The fifteen-minute drive home and Izzy’s wise words settle me. The company is fine, and if we could expand, great, and if Graham Pierce could help us do that, fine again, and if he couldn’t, we’d find another route.
Graham Pierce, kind of a douchey name, but who am I to be judgy about names? I’d walked around for most of my life with my mother’s last name ‘cause she was scared shitless of my father’s mob legacy catching up with me.
Tonight, I’d enjoy Portia’s concert, and hopefully watching our little girl would get Nick in the holiday spirit. Maybe after Portia went to bed, Nick and I could sit outside, light the firepit and enjoy a glass of wine.
He hardly ever took a night off anymore, and since wejust got back together, I don’t want to miss a minute. Probably why I’ve been so manic about this holiday.
4
NICK
Later that day, Joker, the VP of the Serpents MC, saunters into my office.
“What are you doin’ here in the middle of the day?” I meet him halfway across the room, and we bump fists. “I thought badass bikers only came out at night.”
“Very fuckin’ funny.” He narrows his eyes. “I’m picking up the stuff for the club’s annual toy drive.”
“Right, right. I’ve been slammed with almost back-to-back parties this week and getting ready for the ones next week.”
“Yeah, busy time of the year, for sure,” Joker agrees.
Samson enters the office, and he and Joker do the man-back-slap thing. “You here for the toys?”
“At least you remembered,” Joker teases.
Samson waves his hand at me. “If it was up to this fucker, Christmas would be cancelled. He makes Scrooge look like a philanthropist.”
I roll my eyes. “Where the fuck did you learn that six-dollar word?”
“From you,” Samson deadpans.
“Don’t listen to him,” I say.
“Even wants me to work on Christmas Eve and Christmas,” Samson adds.
“Shit, you really are like Scrooge,” Joker agrees around a laugh.
“You won’t be laughing when you see the money we haul in on both those nights. Un-fuckin-believable.”
“Don’t you know you’re supposed to be home with your family on those days?” Joker says.
“Tell that to the bank.”
“Fuck the bank.” Joker laughs around his words.
I fling my hand at Joker. “Before you hooked up with Daisy and started pumping out kids, you spent both days sitting your ass at the bar in the Gold Mine.”
“Different times, brother, different times.”
“I got the toys all packed up for you in the garage downstairs,” Samson says, then jerks his thumb at me. “You don’t have any problems with giving kids toys at Christmas, do you?"
“Fuck you,” I call after them. “I care about the kids.”
They’re still making jokes on their way out of my office, but I ignore them.
Every year, we join the Serpents in a toy drive for needy kids. It’s good publicity for the club and is the fuckin’ right thing to do. I clearly remember the Christmases I went without ‘cause my deadbeat father drank away the money for presents.
Joker turns when he gets to the door. “Stop by the clubhouse later tonight, and we’ll have a drink for the holidays.”
