Am I going to see you soon?
It was the Thursday after his first weekend with Archie.
He’d been blowing his mother off.
Just like he’d done to Tack, canceling the meeting he’d setwith his brother and finding another space to be in when Tack looked like hewas coming into Jag’s.
He was telling himself this was about being with Archie,something he was as much as he could be, when he wasn’t at the garage and sheat the store.
They’d torn the lid off, not only with sex—and they fuckedall the time—but with everything.
In the last three days, he’d spent a good bit of time out onher fire escape, and they’d played a lot of pool at his pad.
He’s also eaten her for lunch in her office the day before.
And she’d met him at his place for a mid-afternoon blowjobthe day before that.
It was not lost on him this uber-togetherness was what Dutchand Georgie did (in the beginning…and now).
It was also not lost on him this was what Hound and his madid (ditto with beginning and now).
Last, it wasn’t lost on him that this was what he’d heardhis dad and mom did.
He didn’t think about this either.
He thought about Archie.Getting to know Archie.Doingthings to Archie and letting her do things to him.
The rest, he’d think about when it was time to think aboutit.
Or not at all.
“Socute.Andbruh,socool of you,” Archie said to Dog as she handed Dog’s phone back tohim after looking at pictures of Dog’s kids, all three of whom were fostered,before Dog and Sheila adopted them.
Arch looked between his girl and his brothers.
This lunch had been a surprise, and not the part of it whereArchie showed out of the blue and his brothers horned in, determined to get toknow her.
If he’d had to guess, he would have expected it would beabout his brothers giving him shit by telling Archie every embarrassing littlekid or clueless teenage boy-man anecdote they had.
And they had a lot of those in their arsenal.
It was not about that.
In fact, it didn’t even come close to that.
And something in that made Jag feel weird.
He couldn’t figure out if it was a good weird, or a badweird.
What he knew was, it was official.
He wasn’t that little kid growing up in Chaos anymore.
You did that shit with a prospect’s girl.You did that shitto harass a boy in a way you’re teaching him to take it like a man.
You didn’t do it when he’s already a man and the woman he’swith was the one you were bringing into the family fold.
“Would take away what they had to go through to get to us,”Dog muttered to Archie, talking about his kids as he pushed his cell back intohis pocket.“Even if it meant they wouldn’t be with us.But that wasn’t the wayit happened.And now we got ’em.”
