“Why ride behind you when I can ride your front anytime I like?” she teases, before pushing me out the door. “Go on, the quicker you get outta here, the quicker you’ll be home.” She flicks my ass with the rolled up tea towel in her hands and I blow her a reluctant kiss before stepping out onto the deck.
“Come on old man, let's get moving,” Mad Dog says, slapping a hand on my shoulder.
“You just wait. One day you’re gonna be knocked over by the woman meant for you and you’ll be dragging ass too.”
“I already had my woman, I don’t think I get a second go around,” Mad Dog says, in step with me as we head for our rides.
“Bullshit. I had mine too and I still found a great woman happy to put up with my shit,” I grumble.
“I always wonder how you pulled that off,” Tav, the smartass says from behind me.
“With my sexual prowess, that’s how.” I take great glee when he pretends to gag a little, and then even more glee when Blanche backhands him in the gut and shushes him. Saying something about me and Debs being super sweet together.
“Sickly sweet,” Tav whines. “Emphasis on ‘sickly’.”
“Yeah, yeah, just get your ass on the bike.” I narrow my eyes at him. “Why is your woman looking so happy?”
Blanche just grins and winks at me, broad grin on her face.
“She received the first of hermanyValentine’s gifts,” Tav says, dropping a kiss to his Ol Lady’s lips before throwing his leg over his bike.
“He got us a family photo shoot. I’ll be able to have proper, posed, beautiful photos with my babies and my man,” Blanche says, snuggling in.
“Oh! Gus got us one of those too!” Ana says perkily from her spot behind Gus.
“How interesting, I got one of those too,” Vi says, staring at the back of Jules’ head as she sits with her hands wrapped around his waist.
“Did you get a group discount or something?” Blanche asks, suddenly suspicious.
Tav lets out a sigh. “No, but I did suggest it when I found out we’d all gotten the same thing.”
Blanche slaps her hand on his back. “Dammit Tav! If you had better persuasion skills we could have used the money you saved on cute little outfits.”
“No cute outfits!” Gus barks, making us all jump. “No. Cute. Outfits. Ever. The clothes we own are perfectly fine.”
Ana gives him a weird look and I snort a little. “Still not over that photo-” I’m cut off when Gus glares at me, revving his engine to block out my words. I cackle and decide to give the kid a break. For now.
“Chewy!” Vi waves. “Did you get a family photoshoot as well?”
Chewy stares over Vi’s shoulder for a moment. “No. Why?”
“Oh, we all got family photos for Valentine's day.” Ana waves at her and her sisters in law, all on the back of their ol man’s bikes.
“No. We aren't doing gifts,” Chewy says, climbing onto the back of Rhodie’s bike. He stiffens a little. Both because I know he did, in fact, get her a family photo shoot and also because he hates that Chewy is on the back of his bike and pregnant. Unfortunately for him, he claimed my granddaughter, which means not doing what she says is actually much more painful than just doing what she wants.
My grandsons all turn to stare at Rhodie who gives them a sharp, short head shake. I guess he’ll give her her gift at a later date. When we’re not around to give him shit about it.
“DRMC, you know your first stop, let's roll out!” Marx circles his fist in the air and we all roll slowly out of the compound, onto the open road.
I follow my brothers, the wind in my hair and my heart full of love.
Chapter 13
Ana
We cruise through the streets of Rose Grove, the wind blowing over me as I press my face into the leather at my man’s back. I inhale the scent that is all Gus and I snuggle even closer. I loved him when he was a bad ass uptight security man, and I love him even more now that he’s a biker and a father. Somehow being part of the DRMC has given him something he never seemed before. Settled. I guess when you’re the head of a business and always fretting about losing someone close to you, you don’t get to take a breath and just be. That’s what the club gives Gus. He knows that any one of these men would protect his family. It's a safety net, if you will. A safety net of all our closest family and friends, even if they do drive me crazy every now and then.
Gus’s back flexes slightly as he pulls us into our first stop, a little bar just outside of Rose Grove.
