“So’s his spraying,” I added, and Grease shrugged.
“I’m still not liking the cunt, so it is what it is, right?”
Micro cursed, getting up and pacing. “This is what I’m talking about though! Nobody’s fucking gelling together here. It’s like a bunch of individuals, who mostly don’t seem to like each other, and I don’t know how to fix that.”
I glared at Grease as he opened his mouth, and spoke before he could come out with some snarky comment.
“I think the rebuild will help with this, Pres. We’ll have to come together as a community to facilitate it. A demo party will give us an occasion to work together, and then we’ll have the rebuild work. I’ve been going through some of the guys’ details, and I can see we have pretty much every trade covered. If they can’t do the work, they’ll have contacts we can hire in.”
Grease frowned at me. “You’re doing the legwork? That’s my job. I was already fucking doing it.”
Micro slammed a palm against the desk and glared at both of us. What now? What’d I do?
“If even you two are arguing, what fucking chance do I have of making this work? I swear, the longer I’m here, the more impossible this fucking seems!”
He dropped heavily into his seat and grabbed his head in his hands.
“Okay, Pres, just breathe. I swear, we’re just fucking around. It’s cool if Harley wants to bogart my job. I have plenty of other stuff I can get done. On the subject of that, it’ll be best if we plan out the new camera positions and things on the new buildings when we’re at the design stage. Then we can route all the cabling through inside the walls and shit.”
Micro groaned and rested his forehead against the desk with a soft thud, and I exchanged a worried frown with Grease.
“What’s going on, Pres. You’re usually pretty uh… well, not like this, I mean,” I fumbled for the right words, but it wasn’t easy to ask without sounding like a nosy prick, “Uh… is Soph okay?”
He sighed heavily, sitting up again, rubbing his forehead lightly.
“She’s good. I’m the fucking waste of space here. I can’t bring together a bunch of adults, so how the fuck am I supposed to not mess up the kid? I mean, my dad was a fucking monster, so how do I not end up like him?”
Grease and I eyed each other again, and I nodded at him, taking point for the moment.
“Have you talked over this with Lissa? I know she’s helping you with stuff, and uh… this sounds like something you need to talk out with someone who’ll know how to help. I mean, I don’t see why you think you’re failing with the club. Sure, we’re not tight like the other chapter yet, but we’ll get there. I bet the other club took a while too, right?”
Micro shrugged. “It was tight by the time I was there, so I don’t know.”
“Okay, well, I’m sure if there were concerns from Reacher and Stitch, about how long it’s taking, they’d have said. And you know what? The fact that you’re worried about messing up the dad thing tells me you’re gonna do the best fucking job you can.”
He stared at his hands. “Maybe. You can’t know that though. I mean, I’m just a fucking mess.”
I glanced at both of them, and sighed heavily. “Okay, I’m about to tell you guys something, and just like the secrets you’ve both shared with me, this is fucking top secret, and doesn’t go on the record anywhere, got it?”
They both fixed wide eyed stares on me, but I waited until they both nodded their agreement.
“Jesus. Okay, as a father myself, I can tell you, how good a dad you are is completely in your control. And the fact that you’reworried sick just means you’re going to do your best. The dads that don’t care at this stage? They’re the ones who fuck up.”
They both stared at me open-mouthed, and I rolled my eyes, sighing again.
“Yeah, I’m a dad. I have a daughter, and if that information leaves this room, I’ll know one of you let it slip. The only guy in the club who knows is Rocket, and he has way too much to lose to tell anyone.”
“How old is she?”
I couldn’t help glaring at Micro, even though I knew, KNEW, that he wasn’t asking so he could hit on her.
“She’s seventeen, and she’s not coming anywhere near the fucking club. Rocket only knows because she popped in to see me at the shop.”
They both still looked stunned.
“I was sixteen and stupid, okay? I learned from my mistake, I’m not with her mother, never really have been, but I’ve been in her life. I’ve been a dad. So I know. I know it’s terrifying. Try doing it at sixteen, for fuck’s sake.”
“Damn,” Grease murmured, side-eyeing Micro, “I get why you didn’t tell them in the old club, but this is a very different place, man. You can trust us, and maybe in time, you’ll trust the others. Your secret’s safe with us though.”
