Drawing a deep breath, I forced my eyes open. The deserted bunkhouse was still there, but something felt different, and goosebumps tingled on my skin.
Someone’s in here.
I spun around, expecting one of the prospects who cleaned up around the compound, but I was still alone. The door was still shut. The only thing different was the clean T-shirt folded on the bench behind me.
It wasn’t mine, though it was worn enough, the cotton soft and faded to the colour of stonewashed denim. It smelled of fresh air. Of the sea and something else that stirred my belly, a deeper memory I couldn’t quite reach.
I tugged the T-shirt on. It clung too tight at my shoulders, but I didn’t care. I shut my locker and walked away.
Outside, the late afternoon sun was warm against my face. Bright and happy, like Ivy.
I skulked away from it and stomped inside. It was too early for beer, but I went to the bar anyway, too caught up to notice the music filtering from the speakers until I walked into Rubi’s feet.
He was doing yoga and listening to ABBA.
Of course he was.
He sent me an upside-down smile between his newly flexible legs, then straightened up. “Deeky-pie. How goes it?”
It wasn’t in me to lie. I shrugged and stepped over him to get behind the bar and check the rota, half expecting Rubi to leave me alone. I’d seen him do yoga before. The man was committed. But a split second before I put a hand to the staff file, the music dipped and he appeared in my eyeline again.
“Where’s my little queen?”
“Not here.”
“Can see that, mate. Thought you were off to the sleepover too? Or did Cruella let her go on her own in the end?”
“I never asked. Figured I’d just kip on the couch.”
“Saves hassle, eh?”
“Yep.” I opened the binder that held the stock sheets and rotas. Found the prospect due to work the night and pulled out my phone to bin him off.
Rubi plucked my phone from my hand. “What happened?”
“When?”
“Now. Yesterday. Tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow?”
“Depends what realm we’re living in, brother.”
Rubi smiled and it suited him. Before River had come back to the club, I’d never realised how unhappy he’d been. But it was plain as day now. The change in him. The light.
The love.
My heart twisted. I snapped the binder shut. Maybe it wasn’t too early for a beer after all.
Rubi watched me crack a bottle of Red Stripe while he lit a joint and blew smoke over his shoulder. “I was joking about the time travel, Deeks. But the fact that you’re here and Ivy ain’t is making me nervous.”
“My ex-wife scare you?”
“Anything that puts that look on a brother’s face scares me. What happened?”
There was more authority in his voice this time, and I felt it. Rubi wasn’t my president or even my VP, but he was as senior in the club as it was possible to be without either of those titles. “Ivy wasn’t at school when I went to get her. Lauren took her out early.”
“Why?”
