She grinned and whispered, “Just keeping you on your toes.”
I shook my head and promised on a whisper-hiss, “I’m gonna take that out on your ass later.”
“Havoc!” someone yelled out, interrupting us.
I turned at the familiar voice.
King.
He grinned as he approached. “Good to see you up and about, brother. I’ve got shit for you to do in Sydney. When do you think you can get back down there?” His gaze landed on Carla and his grin grew. “You must be the woman I’ve been hearing about. I’m King.”
She cocked her head. “What exactly have you been hearing?”
“Only good things, I promise. But I’ve gotta say, I’ve never seen Havoc look as fucking relaxed as he does right now. He’s usually wound so tight that even I would hesitate to take him on. Whatever you’re doing, keep it up.”
“I’m glad to hear that but I’m fucking exhausted by his demands, King. Maybe you could take him off my hands for a little while,” she quipped. The sexy smile I loved lit her face as she spoke. “I’m Carla by the way, nice to meet you.”
King laughed before raising his brows at me. “I see why you look so damn relaxed.” Giving his gaze back to Carla, he said, “I’ll leave him with you for awhile longer, but I’ll need him in a couple of weeks.”
I eyed Nash while King spoke with Carla. He watched her with a look I couldn’t place. The scowl had disappeared and in its place sat a pensive stare. I had no clue what his thoughts were except he still held his grudge towards our relationship. He’d made that clear over the last month.
King slapped me on the back. “I’ve gotta go see Marcus, but I’ll catch up with you later for a drink.”
After he left, Velvet and Carla took over the conversation, discussing a girls’ night out they had coming up. J entered the room and I excused myself to go talk with him.
“Hey, brother,” he greeted me with a jerk of the chin.
“Madison not coming tonight?”
“Yeah, she got stuck talking with some of the girls. She’ll be in soon. How are you doing? Did the doc clear you to ride?”
I nodded. “He did. I headed out for a couple of hours today, down to the Coast. It’s been too fuckin’ long.”
He reached for the beer Harlow passed him on her way through the crowd and thanked her before turning back to me. “So are you thinking of sticking around or are you itching to get back on the road?”
“Not sure yet.”
He watched me thoughtfully. “Would you be more sure if Carla wasn’t around?”
I looked over at where she stood laughing with Velvet and Nash. “Yeah.” Shiftin
g my gaze back to J, I shared the thoughts I’d been keeping to myself for weeks. “I want to make a life with her but I’m not sure how to do that. She’s just getting started in a new job and it’s going well. I won’t ruin that for her by asking her to come on the road with me.”
“So what, you’ll do the long distance thing with her and just see her every couple of weeks?”
I raked my fingers through my hair. “Fuck, I don’t know. I’m still figuring shit out. I’ve also got Dad to consider in all this. He’s doing better but I want to keep an eye on him for awhile longer.”
He took a swig of his beer. “Life’s never fucking easy, is it?”
I eyed Kelly on the other side of the room.
Fuck.
No, life was far from fucking easy some days.
She was the last person I needed to run into. I hadn’t heard from her since the day I’d slammed the door in her face and I didn’t want to hear from her again.
J followed my gaze. “Shit, she still harassing you?”