“Andy is Dagger’s woman.Delilah is around her somewhere too, have you seen her?”Taylynn asked Andy.
“In the kitchen, last I saw.”
“I should have known.”Taylynn shook her head.“Can you invite her?This will be a great chance for all the old ladies to get to know each other.”
“Sounds good,” Andy said with a nod.She hurried away, leaving Tania staring after her.
“Come on, I want to get out there and get warm.”She headed down the hall where Raven’s office was, and that other room with the huge table.She passed those doors and went to the solid metal door at the end, the one that had a push bar.Tania had assumed that went outside and hadn’t messed with it.
When Taylynn pushed the door open, a blast of cold air made Tania shiver.Did they really want to go out in that, especially dressed like this?Why had Taylynn said they were going to get warm?Tania forced herself to take a deep breath and continue following the other woman.Smokey seemed to trust her so Tania would too, at least until she couldn’t.
Tania shivered, resisting the urge to unfold the towel she carried and wrap it around herself, she looked around.It didn’t take long to realize they weren’t outside, like she’d thought, but in some kind of glassed-in room.The glass let them see the outlines of the mountains around them since it was almost dark.In the center of the room sat a huge hot tub.She felt her eyes go wide and she was frozen in place as Taylynn folded back the cover and set it aside before turning the knob to start the jets.
“What are you waiting for?”Taylynn asked as she climbed the steps built along one side and stepped inside.“You can hang your clothes there,” she pointed to a row of hooks on the wall.“You can put your towel there too, but I like to keep mine a little closer.”She waved one hand toward where she’d set hers on a chair a few feet away.Tania draped hers over the back of the same chair, then hurried up the stairs and into the steaming water.
“Oh.”Tania sighed as she moved to the far end and took the seat next to Taylynn, “This feels so good.I had no clue it was here.I can’t thank you enough for this.”The heat relaxed her muscles, easing away some of the soreness from the bruises still covering her.
“It’s still new.I’ve been asking Raven for one for a few weeks.None of the rooms have tubs, only those showers.It’s fine for the guys but I like to soak.Plus, as the weather started to cool, my aches got worse.I’m told they’ll get better for a while, as in they won’t hurt so bad, but if I get to live to old age, then they’ll start hurting again.I guess it’s the universe’s way of reminding me of all I’ve been through.”
Tania didn’t know what to say.She didn’t know anything about the other woman’s injuries and was afraid to ask for fear of bringing up a trauma.Instead, she leaned her head back against the edge of the tub.
“I’m glad you were able to convince him.though I didn’t know they came this big.”The two of them were on one end, and there were seats for seven more.She’d counted on her way to sit next to Taylynn.
“I didn’t either, but when Freud backed me up that the hot water would help me hurt less, he decided to try it.We had a couple of trips where we stayed in a hotel, they had a hot tub and he decided to try it.The heat helped him enough that he decided it would likely help some of the other brothers too.”Taylynn looked away.“We just got it done a week or so ago because things stopped completely for a while when Spider got hurt.Once they realized that a hot tub might help him once he'd recovered enough to come home, they got back to work on it.Now it’s ready for him whenever he can come home.And we can enjoy it any time as well.”She looked back at Tania.
“This is nice, but I’m really going to miss having a tub inside.Carter’s a bit big to bathe in the sink, and while Smokey’s fine with showering with him now, that’s going to get old quick.I need to come up with another solution.”
Taylynn watched her for a few moments and Tania wondered what she was thinking.
“That is a problem.Let me think about it a bit and see what I can come up with.”
Tania nodded.There was more she’d have to figure out, but she was so tired, she didn’t want to even think about it right now.
Chapter Seventeen
“We need an easier wayto do this, buddy,” Smokey told Carter as they showered together again.He could have wiped the baby down with a wipe or a cloth, but there would have still been bits of potato, or at least that’s what Smokey thought it was, in the kid’s hair.He couldn’t leave that there all night.He wouldn’t be comfortable and he couldn’t leave his kid like that.
