“You’re going down,” Belle said as soon as I looked at her. Her eyes narrowed as she placed one of her cupcakes on each plate next to the store-bought ones I’d gotten.
“What the fuck are they?” I pointed at the chocolate cupcakes iced with white buttercream to perfection. There was no way in hell she’d made them.
“My cupcakes.” She grinned, looking mighty pleased with herself, but I would not be fooled by the show she was putting on. “Made them from scratch.”
“You?” I pointed at her and stared in disbelief. “You made those from scratch?”
“Yep. I also had a little help from one of Leo’s friends.”
I shook my head and crossed my arms. “I don’t believe you.”
She shrugged, grabbed two of the plates, and taunted, “Ask Leo if you don’t believe me. I still have raw yolk in my hair from yesterday.” I followed after her with the other two plates, still not believing she’d made them. “You have to score each cupcake out of five,” Belle stated, standing in front of everyone in the living room. I halted next to her as she continued, “Highest-scoring cupcake wins.”
We both handed the plates out and watched as they all ate and critiqued the cupcakes, and I didn’t even need to wait to hear the scores to know Belle had won. She’d cheated. Somehow she’d managed to cheat. Maybe she used a box mix? Or maybe Ford had really made them? Either way, she hadn’t followed the rules because the sister who I’d known my entire life had not once made a cupcake rise.
The final scores came in, and I stomped my foot like a four-year-old kid who’d been told he couldn’t have another cookie. “You cheated,” I accused, spinning around on the spot.
Belle slowly looked up at me, a shit-eating grin on her face. “Nope. I made them in my own house. Ask Leo.”
“She did,” Leo said from behind her, nodding. “My friend helped with the recipe, but Mom actually baked them.” Even he looked surprised.
“So, you had help.” I shook my head in disappointment. “That wasn’t in the rules.”
Belle patted me on the chest. “You didn’t say it wasn’t allowed either, little bro.”
Neither of us looked away as we got caught in a stare-off. She was right, I hadn’t specified if she could get help, but I hadn’t thought there would be anyone who could help her. I should have planned for the unknown. It was my mistake. A mistake I would never repeat.
“You may have beaten me this round, Belle, but you’ll never be the winner.”
“Oh yeah?” She raised her brow, her lips lifting in that challenge kind of way. “Name your next bet, little bro.”
“You and me.” I paused, not knowing what the next challenge could be. We’d done so many things over the years. We’d raced down the street, had spelling contests, thumb wars, stare competitions. We were competitive, and neither of us would surrender, no matter how old we got. “Who can eat the most pizza in twenty minutes.”
She laughed. “You’re gonna go down,” Belle warned, pointing at the floor and then twirling around. She headed toward Ford, who had his arms wide open for her, but I continued to stare, knowing she’d bested me this time, but no one—I mean no one—could eat pizza as fast as I could. I was practically a professional.
A ringtone ricocheted throughout the mostly empty room, and I whipped my head up, recognizing the ringtone as Jax’s. His gaze met mine, then flicked down to his cell. “I gotta take this,” he announced, but I was the only one listening. His shoulders were tense, and his eyes narrowed as he placed the cell next to his ear, and I knew something was going down. He’d been on edge since he’d arrived, and although I wanted to ask if everything was good, I knew he couldn’t answer the question if it was club business, so I’d wait for him to—
“I gotta go,” Jax grunted as he walked back into the living room. “Can you give me a lift, Ash? I don’t wanna ride in this weather.”
I frowned and turned to look out of the window. It was raining, but it had been all day. He’d ridden in way worse weather than this, but his stance told me it wasn’t about the weather but something else entirely.
“Sure,” I said, trying to act easy so no one would get suspicious, but I was now on edge too. We were at my parents’ house, a house that a retired DEA agent lived in. Dad was always on guard, and I was hoping to hell Jax hadn’t brought shit to his door. I fished my keys out of my front pocket, said my goodbyes, and left the house without another word to Jax. His bike sat to the side of the driveway, and he bypassed it right for my truck. “What’s going on?” I asked when we were in the cab and the engine was running.
Jax huffed out a breath and leaned his elbow on the door. “Club business.” I opened my mouth, about to tell him I understood, but he continued, “Not safe to be alone on our bikes. We gotta ride in pairs.”
I reversed out of the drive. “Gotcha. You need me to take you somewhere?”
I spotted Jax’s fingers flying over the screen of his cell, and two seconds later he grunted, “Strip club. Dad and Al are meeting me there.”
My stomach jolted at the thought of going to the strip club. It had only been a few days since I’d been there tattooing Al’s back, but even I couldn’t deny I’d been looking for an excuse to go back so I could see Lotus again. She’d been on my mind more than I liked to admit, and yet we’d only had one proper conversation.
I kept all my thoughts to myself as I drove to the club. Jax was preoccupied with his cell, and from his whispered cursing, I knew whatever was going down was bad.
The lot was jam-packed with bikes, and as soon as I rolled toward the main doors, Jax said, “Park here.” I did as he said and left the engine running, wondering if it was a good idea to go inside. You didn’t need to be a genius to work out the entire club was here, and if I were honest, I wasn’t sure how I would react if I saw Lotus. I’d built it up in my mind, but that was the problem, it was all in my mind. I was overthinking, and I had no idea why I couldn’t act normal, but there was something damn enticing about her. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but it was there, calling to me.
“Coming in?” Jax asked, opening the passenger door.
“I…” I glanced around, pretending like I was looking when, in reality, I was trying to spot her car. If she wasn’t here, then maybe I could go home or back to the studio and act like we’d never met. But as soon as her car came into view, I switched my engine off. “Yeah.”