As they all greeted her, Tess could see they were scoping out her injuries. None of them being subtle about it at all.
She didn’t care. She hadn’t even tried to cover any of her bruises with makeup this morning. She’d need fifty layers of foundation to even begin to cover the dark purple bruise that had bloomed across her cheek and stopped just shy of her right eye.
“How are you feeling?” Crys asked.
“Like I got thrown from a sled,” Tess answered, trying to add some humor to her tone but failing miserably.
“You look like shit,” Angel announced.
“Angel!” Amber scolded.
Angel shrugged. “What?” She turned wide blue eyes toward Tessa. “Did you want me to lie?”
Tessa shook her head. “No. I’ve seen myself in the mirror. I feel the same as I look, too.”
“Aww.” Angel added an exaggerated pout onto the end of that.
Tessa walked through their little gathering, shook open the reusable shopping bag she brought with her and began to search the fridge for cheese along with the items Jemma wanted. Though, her main priority was the cheese.
She was actually surprised to find any sweet butts around since it was the middle of the day in the middle of the week. “What are you all doing here?”
“Angel and Amber were cleaning the bathrooms and took a break. I’m taking a break from your nephew.”
“Who’s watching him? Stella or Trip?” Maybe if Trip was alone up at the house, she’d attempt to talk to him and smooth things over. Maybe even beg for mercy for Easy. She wasn’t sure if her brother would listen, but she could at least try because she hated this helpless feeling that was drowning her.
She’d felt helpless and ignored while growing up. When she arrived in Manning Grove, she thought that would be over. That she’d be seen and heard no matter what.
But with her brother freezing her out right now…
She got it. She really did. He was pissed over the situation and he was trying to temper his anger before dealing with Easy or Tessa, but it still hurt.
“Stella. Trip’s doing a repo all the way in Wilkes-Barre.”
“That’s a drive,” Tessa murmured, poking her head deeper inside the large, packed fridge and moving things this way and that in her search.
“He said he’ll take whatever he can get to try to recover from the fee that team of hot man-meat charged the club.”
Trip was the hardest working man Tessa knew. Of course, he would go out of his way to get the club financially sound again. She had no doubt since he’d done it before, he’d do it again. He was nothing if not dedicated and determined.
The club and his family meant everything to him.
Though, it would be a little easier this time for him since he wasn’t doing it alone. Proof that Trip meant a lot to his brothers and their families, too.
That spoke volumes about how they respected the Fury president. They would sacrifice and support him, which helped make a good, solid foundation for an MC. Unlike the Originals falling apart because the foundation had been cracked and crumbling.
The saying, “Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” was why Tessa doubted anyone would ever challenge her brother for the club’s top spot. Trip remembered only too well what happened with the original Fury and would never let anyone else forget, either.
“He talks to you about that kind of stuff?” Tessa frowned, surprised Trip would talk club business with a sweet butt. Wrong, Crystal was no longer a sweet butt. She was now a house mouse the same as Tessa.
Though, in the Fury, a house mouse was only a step above the sweet butts.
“No, but I overheard him talking about it to Stella.”
Tessa wondered what she heard about her and Easy. If she asked, Crys might tell her, but Tessa wasn’t sure she wanted to hear it right now. Anything Trip currently had to say about them most likely wasn’t good. Both the crash and his discovery about her and Easy were still too fresh.
“So, you and Easy, huh?” Angel’s question pulled her attention back to the women.
Tessa carefully schooled her face.
“No wonder he was avoiding us!” Amber exclaimed. “For a while there we thought he turned gay.”
Angel piped up next with, “I could see him being gay.”
“Or at least bi,” Crys added.
Tessa fought the roll of her eyes and also the urge to tell them that Easy was definitely not gay. Plus, it was annoying they talked as if “turning” gay was an actual thing. It wasn’t. Either someone was gay or they weren’t. They didn’t just wake up one morning and decide they were attracted to the same sex. They always had been and were most likely denying their true self.
But she wasn’t explaining that to the ladies. It wasn’t worth the time or mental energy it would take.