“I know.” He grinned, handing me a glass of water. “Drink. How was Sunday School?”
“What’s that?” I asked, hoping I sounded convincing before taking a sip of water.
He raised an eyebrow as he lifted the lid of the crockpot and stirred the chili. “Sweetness, do you really think I don’t know what Ronnie and her band of lady killers do the second and fourth Sunday of every month?”
I sighed. “Are you gonna be a dick about me andmylady killers doing the same?”
He set the lid back on the crockpot and faced me. “Depends...”
“Jesus, I knew you were gonna do this,” I hissed. “This patriarchal gang of—”
“Liv, settle.”
I crossed my arms and glared at him.
“You’re the matriarch of this club, Liv, which means you’ll automatically be seen as the leader. You’ve been looked at this way since the second we began. You know this.”
Ididknow this. It was the conclusion I’d come to at Ronnie’s place. I’d tried to run from it, but it didn’t make a difference, the club women looked to me for answers if and when Doc wasn’t around. Even when he was around, I was often the buffer.
“I swear to—”
“That does not mean,” he interrupted, “I think meeting with the old ladies is a bad idea.”
“Oh.” I relaxed a little. “I was expecting a fight.”
“Yeah, I picked up on that,” he said, grinning.
I rolled my eyes. “Well, Doom totally flipped out on Lyric when she met with Tammy, so you can understand my confusion.”
He frowned. “If you’d met with any of the Spiders’ old ladies, baby, we’d be having a completely different conversation.”
“Tris—”
“But, meeting with our women or the Burning Saints’ old ladies is good. I’d prefer you don’t share anything with their old ladies, keep our club business proprietary, but it’s good to stay friendly.”
“Why the sudden change of heart?”
“There’s nothing sudden about it,” he countered. “We’re married to some of the smartest women on the planet and we know that. I have always valued your input into my decisions, and I know Alamo and Doom feel the same way about Jasmine and Lyric. Dash and Badger are younger, so I’m not as hip to what the millennials are into these days, but they respect their women. If they didn’t, I’d have something to say about it. We might not divulge much in the way of club business, but you know I share more with you than most men do with their old ladies.”
“Yeah, why is that?”
“Because I trust you. You’ve never repeated anything I’ve told you. You don’t freak out, and you often have insanely wise insight I don’t. You’re the best partner I’ve ever had.”
“Wow, that’s high praise, considering Alamo’s your ride or die.”
He chuckled, pulling me against him. “Baby,you’remy ride or die.”
I slid my hands under his T-shirt and up his back. “Back atya.”
“You pissed?”
“No.”
“Damn.”
I leaned back and met his eyes. “Why?”
“Want you freaky horny.”
