“Have fun, baby. Make sure you eat something, yeah?”
I nodded, grabbing my jacket, and I watched as he leaned closer to V.
“I know you understand Caroline, and wouldn’t force her to sit inside the place, but we have a favourite table there. I’m sure she’ll show you.”
V frowned at me as I stepped between them. I wasn’t trying to be possessive, but they were both between me and the door, and to be honest, seeing them leaning close together like that definitely made me feel something. Not jealousy as such, but definitely like I should be the one standing closer to him.
“We should go. I’ll be back soon,” I said to Harley, turning to smile at him as I reached the door.
“I’ll be waiting,” he said lightly, stepping back behind his counter, and picking up the phone, “your stuff will all be safe while you’re gone.” It was like he could feel my wariness about leaving my laptop behind, still switched on, although I’d locked the screen. Everything was on that thing, but I trusted him. I loved him. There was no way he’d let anything happen to it.
V was impatiently dragging me outside, her fingers locked around my sleeve, until we were on the path, with the door closed behind me.
“He’s pretty possessive, huh?” What? I glanced back at the glass shop front, seeing Harley lift a hand to wave at me.
“He’s… he’s not possessive. What the hell are you on about?” She was taking large, angry strides, and I had to hurry to keep up with her. She was more than a foot taller than me, closer to Harley’s height, and my legs couldn’t match her pace.
“Wait, dammit! You know I’m too short to keep up!”
V suddenly laughed, and stopped, turning to wait for me by the curb.
“Forgot you’re such a short-arse, woman. Your man’s my height. Do you have to stand on a little step to kiss him?”
I had the sudden urge to flip her off, even as I was giggling at her sass. Harley and his brothers might not have been the best influence on me, because I didn’t really swear or do any of those things. Of course, before the last few days, I hadn’t ever had sex either, so maybe I was just changing. Evolving. Devolving.Whatever.
“He’s really sweet, you know. He looks after me. He steps between me and anyone who might even look at me wrong. He punched Rocket earlier because he touched me. He didn’t even hesitate.”
“So he has a hair trigger temper, and he’s prone to violence?”
I glared at her, and marched straight toward the door of the coffee shop, taking a deep breath and shoving it open, so I couldmarch right on inside too. I took the next place in the queue, and V caught up with me.
“I’m sorry. I’m not trying to be an asshole, only I thought I married the best guy too, and he turned out to be a cheating, asshole bastard of a man.”
I felt myself softening toward her, because she couldn’t help it if her impression of men had changed after an experience like that. I just didn’t like her making assumptions about character flaws Harley didn’t even have.
“He supports me, in my work, in my dreams. Did you know he even wants me to work on a project with him. Rebuilding an entire compound from the ground up.”
I was at the front of the queue already, so I placed my order, my usual coffee and usual toasted sandwich, and V added her order.
“He wants me to design it for him. I’m so excited about it, because I never really get to use that side of my brain enough. I trained for so long, and then ended up changing careers. This is my chance to design an entire compound, do you get how amazing that is?”
We paid, and moved to the waiting point, and I watched V fighting with herself before she responded. I knew she wanted to denounce this upcoming project, purely because it was Harley’s idea, but she finally sighed, shaking her head slowly.
“No, I don’t really understand what it entails, but good. I think you’ll be amazing at that. What… what’s the compound, you keep calling it that? It’s not a building?”
Our drinks were suddenly in front of us, and the little table number to take away with us, so we made our way back outside to the table Harley and I usually sat at, and it was only when the noise was finally silenced that I realised I’d barely noticed it for once. I’d been so focused on defending my man, so caught up inmy anger and frustration with V, that I’d missed the one thing that normally sent me right into the flight side of fight or flight.
“This is our usual table,” I said lamely as we sat down, and V pushed the table number to the edge for the servers to see.
“Tell me about this ‘compound’, cuz.”
I wasn’t sure how much Harley would want her to know, but at the same time, I didn’t want to have to hide what might end up being an important part of my life too.
“Harley’s the VP of the local motorcycle club. He wants to redesign their entire clubhouse compound. Knock it all down, and custom build the entire place.”
Her eyes widened and she leaned down on her elbows.
“Wow, that’s huge. Tell me more about this ‘club’ though. You mean like Sons of Anarchy bad boys? I don’t think that’s wise, cuz. You need someone decent, stable. Someone who isn’t caught up in some violent men’s club.”
