“Sure.”
Mickayla watched him pull a bottle of beer from a cooler. “Are you over your snit?”
Ryan put my beer down in front of me. “Not a snit. Like I said, I don’t trust her.”
“How come?” Alexandra asked.
Ryan rested both hands on the bar at an angle and leaned forward. “Instinct. She’s my age, maybe a little younger. A woman like her shouldn’t be strolling in here, asking about Lark.”
“Why not?” Alexandra asked.
“Lex,” I warned.
Alexandra turned to me. “It’s a valid question. Why can’t anyone come in here and ask to talk to Lark?”
“Why couldn’t she tell me what she wanted with him?” Ryan asked.
Alexandra turned her hands up. “I’m just saying, it’s a daunting task to go anywhere looking for someone. It’s even worse when it’s a biker bar and youaren’tpart of our culture. I didn’t hear what she said, but from the way she held herself - I don’t think she’s ever met a biker.”
Ryan leaned back and crossed his arms on his chest. “That might be true, but even if this were a mom-and-pop shop, and someone askedwhyshe was looking for someone, saying it’s private isn’t going to cut it.”
Mickayla shook her head. “I don’t know about that, but where is Lark? Did you tell him about this?”
Ryan shook his head. “No. I went to the keg room to cool off. I don’t know why that woman made me mad, but she did. You can let Lark know that a woman who’s probably thirty years younger than him is looking for him.”
Mickayla narrowed her eyes at Ryan. “She’s not thirty years younger than him. She looks like she’s twenty-one, maybe twenty-two, and Lark is early forties, tops.”
Ryan wiped down the bar to the left of us, then locked eyes with his sister. “Nope, Lark will be forty-nine next week. That puts twenty-eight years between them.”
Mickayla stepped closer to the bar. “Okay, but why do you sound angrier?”
Ryan dipped his chin. “What he does in his free time is his business, but he loves attention from younger women. She said the reason she wanted to see him was ‘private’. What else am I supposed to make of that?”
I shook my head. “That seems like a stretch, Ry.”
Mickayla spoke before he could respond. “He doesn’t act on any attention he gets from younger women, Ryan. But you said it yourself, it’s ‘his business,’ so maybe you shouldn’t jump to conclusions here.”
He took a deep breath, then leaned toward his sister. “I’ll do that. But like you said to her, if she comes back she’s still gotta tell one of us what she wants before she’ll get to Lark.”
“Why are you three his keeper?” Alexandra asked.
Mickayla hustled behind the bar before she said, “Part of proving ourselves to him.”
Ryan shot me a dry look. “I thought it was bullshit until now.”
“Maybe she was a plant,” Alexandra suggested.
Mickayla laughed. “Honey, Lark doesn’t have the time to plan something like that.”
Ryan stared into space for a beat. “No, but I could see another brother doing that to fuck with us.”
Mickayla shrugged. “Whatever. Time will tell. If she even comes back.”
Alexandra’s head bobbed in a couple of short nods, then she looked at Ryan. “Yeah, and maybe you won’t be here when she does.”
“Fat chance. We get no days off here if we want part ownership,” Ryan said.
“Really?” Alexandra asked.
