Even King had come out for a burger and beer and was sitting at a shaded table with some of his officers. Hudson was with a few of the other guys near the grill. It was odd to see him laughing and enjoying himself. Whatever the lead was they went after yesterday, had them all happy. No one would tell me what, obviously.
I looked at Hudson more than a few times as day turned to night, trying to catch if he was doing the same, like those women implied. He’d always been sexy, but the years had been good to him.
It was scary how well he wore his t-shirt and basketball shorts. I enjoyed looking at him, but it also made me sad to think about what could have been if everything hadn’t gone to shit.
Connor had been with me since the men joined the party. We’d talked some yesterday about his relationship with my brother while we walked around the lake in the compound. Connor told me their ‘thing’ had been going on for about eight years, but they’d seriously accepted they were exclusively committed to each other about four years ago.
Connor had a house away from the club, which was where they hung out.
“And it’s not all fucking, all the time,” he had told me, with the most serious look on his face. Seeing my brother screwing the man he loved one time was enough for me, thank you very much, and I’d told ConnorI didn’t need any details about their sex life. He’d laughed then as he told me they talk, watch TV, do the things that normal people do.
It made me sad to hear him think of them as only being normal when they were hidden away from the club.
Right now he was cracking jokes, keeping everyone laughing as two other guys lit a small bonfire to keep us warm. After a while, Warren gravitated over to us, where we sat on our own picnic bench. I’d borrowed a top from Connor as a bikini cover up and he’d snagged a blanket from somewhere for my legs.
Warren handed me a beer and Connor a soda. He frowned at it, but he took it without argument. Warren was on my side, but I noticed he had pressed his ankle into Connor’s under the table. I had a soft smile on my face, knowing my brother had someone who cared for him the way Connor did. They were good at hiding it behind their friendship.
“You’re being obvious.”
I jumped at the voice by my ear. Hudson moved to sit down next to Connor and drank half of his beer, keeping an eye on me. Warren acknowledged his arrival with a nod, but continued his conversation with Connor about a show they were watching on Hulu.
I lowered my gaze to my beer and cringed. He was right. I was staring at them and needed to be more careful. They had kept this secret for years. I couldn’t ruin it for them.
After a while, Hudson called for more beers and a prospect came running over, handing them out. Connor and Warren were still wrapped up in their discussion, which had now moved on to football.
“So, that bar we found you at? You run it?”
I looked up in surprise. I wasn’t expecting Hudson to ask me anything, given he’d sat at the table for fifteen minutes without a word, as I had one ear on the boys while watching my dad.
“Yeah, I’m the manager.”
“Seemed like a good place. Good band.”
“They are, yeah. Declan manages them.”
“Declan,” he said it as if he tasted something foul on his tongue. “That’s the guy, your…”
“Boyfriend?” I asked sweetly.
He rolled his eyes. “I’m fucking trying, okay?”
I bit my lip and looked at him in surprise. I wasn’t expecting that, not even after Warren told him to cool it with me yesterday. I ran a hand through my hair, it had dried in crazy waves down my back.
“Yeah, he’s…we’re dating. I help him out booking the bands he manages.”
Hudson nodded, looking over my head for a second. “You’ve done well. It looked like things worked out for you.”
“They have. Thank you,” I murmured peeling at the label on my bottle.
“God it’s like Chinese water torture,” Connor piped up, leaning towards us. “Next you’ll be asking about the weather.”
Hudson shoved him so hard he almost fell off the bench.
“Bro, your flirting skills need work.”
“I am not flirting,” Hudson gritted out through his teeth, watching Connor claw his way back up onto the bench. “So shut the fuck up unless you want a fist to the face.”
“Hit him and I’ll mess you up,” Warren drawled, a finger and thumb around the neck of his bottle as he lazily sipped from it.
