“Are you kidding me right now? I’ve never seen him like this with anyone else,” Juliette said.
“Well, I’m pretty sure he’s never been ordered to keep an eye on someone before,” Evonne said.
“No, no.” Juliette shook her head. “It’s so much more than that.”
“What more is there? He’s familiar with me? We spend a lot of time together. Of course it looks different from his other relationships with women,” Evonne said, refusing to give in to Juliette’s train of thought.
“No, not women, biker bunnies. He never saw them as living, breathing people he had an interest in. They were just a hole,” Juliette said.
“T.M.I.” Evonne wrinkled her nose.
“But it’s true and you know it.”
“Yeah, I have no grand illusions when it comes to his past.” Evonne shrugged. “But it doesn’t affect us. I’m not trying to be wifey.”
“Yet, you pretty much are.”
Evonne sighed. “Come on, we mess around and live together.”
“And you ride bitch, while he stares down anyone who halfway shows any interest,” Juliette said.
“Safety,” Evonne said. She could do this all day.
“Bullshit. The murder in his eyes has shit to do with safety and everything to do with possession,” Juliette said.
“So we made a deal that while we’re doing what we’re doing it’s exclusive. No big deal, Jul.”
Juliette’s jaw dropped.
“What?” Evonne asked.
“You don’t even know how big of a deal that is!”
“Why?” Evonne asked.
“Because…it places a restriction on him! All these years in the M.C. and Shooter has never seen him like this. I heard him and Moose talking about it the other day, wondering what he was going to do when shit gets back to normal.”
“What do you mean? We’ll go our own ways,” Evonne replied, ignoring the tightening in her belly and the twinge in her heart.
“You expect me to believe it’d be that easy?”
“Yes, I mean—no. I’m used to living here and spending just about all of my time with him. It’ll be an adjustment, but neither of us came into this with eyes closed.”
“So stubborn,” Juliette muttered. “Look, I can’t tell you what to do, but I think you need to open your eyes and observe what’s going on from an objective point of view.”
“Jul, no, that’s exactly what I don’t need to do. All that overthinking, dissecting things bit by bit and weighing the risks carefully…landed me here. I’m not going back to it. Right now, I’m just living and seeing where the road takes me. You know, the way I used to when I was fun.” The regret over letting fear dictate for so long stung. She dropped her head, ashamed.
“You went through a life-changing event. Of course you changed. The doctor said it was completely normal, given your injuries. Why beat yourself up now?”
“Because in retrospect, I didn’t just change, I stopped living. I’ll never get those years back.”
“No, but look at how much you’ve accomplished. You might’ve shifted your focus, but you didn’t stay in your room with the curtains drawn and languish, by any means. Be proud of that. Maybe it took you time to find your way here, but you’re here now, and you’re putting all the pieces of yourself together. Time well spent is never wasted.”
Evonne laughed. “How do you always manage to do that?”
“Do what?” Juliette asked.
“Make sense out of all our crazy?” Evonne said.