I stood. “We’re in front of a bar, let’s see if I can rustle up something drinkable to make this experience a little more enjoyable.” I jumped over the bar and inspected what I had to work with.
“Cosmos?” Amy asked hopefully, head in her hands.
“No such luck, but we do have tequila,” I said holding up the bottle.
“Margaritas?” she asked with a smile creeping onto her face.
I gave her a look. “We are in a biker clubhouse Amy, I doubt the big rough alpha males have margarita mix.”
Her face fell.
“We’re just going to have to strap on our balls and drink it straight,” I declared solemnly pouring us some glasses.
At that point the door burst open and in walked Rosie, Lucy and Ashley, closely followed by Evie, Lizzie and to my surprise more than a few Sweetbutts, arms laden with groceries. Rosie’s eyes lit up when she saw us, and even more when she spotted the bottle in my hand.
“Tequila! I love you girls, Jose is one of my best friends in lockdowns, and I brought margarita mix.” She held up a paper bag.
Amy leapt off her bar stool and hugged her. “I love you,” she told her sincerely.
I gave everyone smiles as they approached, Rosie detangled herself from Amy and hugged me across the bar.
“Holy shit, Gwen, I heard what happened. Are you okay?” Her face was scrunched with worry.
“I’m fine now and will be even better with the help of tequila,” I reassured her, telling myself not to twitch at the memory of insects crawling up my arms.
“You are one strong bitch.” She winked at me. “I’ll dump the groceries and dig around for our drink mix so we can get this party started.” She strolled towards the kitchen where the Sweetbutts had disappeared.
Lizzie walked up to me and gave my hand a light squeeze, eyes kind. “How you going Gwen?” she asked softly.
“I’m okay thanks Liz,” I smiled at her, introducing her to Amy before noticing two little humans hiding behind her legs. I rounded the bar and crouched down in front of them.
“Why who have we got here?” I asked playfully, sneaking a grin at the two kids who were peeking at me shyly.
A boy and a girl, both with jet black hair and both gorgeous. The girl was about five, with shoulder length ringlets and a cheeky smile. The boy was a bit older, standing more confidently at his mother’s side.
“I’m Jack.” The boy held out his hand to shake, I held back a laugh at the child’s manly demeanor.
I tried to fight visions of little children with Cade’s steely grey eyes. Not the time to get clucky. I gave his hand a shake. “Well, it’s a pleasure to meet you Jack, what’s your sister’s name?”
He stepped around his mother to stand in front of me. “You sound weird, are you from another planet or something?” he asked seriously and I couldn’t hold back my laugh this time, I heard Lizzie giggling.
“Jack,” she scolded, “that wasn’t polite.”
He gazed up at his mother, confused.
I straightened up and ruffled his hair. “I sound different because I’m from a country way on the other side of the world called New Zealand,” I explained.
“That’s weird,” he said before running off to play with a couple of other kids I hadn’t noticed arrive.
“Sorry about that,” Lizzie said while scooping up the little beauty beside her.
“Don’t even apologize, he’s hilarious,” I told her.
She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, sometimes I want to scream at the little shit though, he’s too much like his father it’s scary.”
I laughed, happy to see the obvious love in her eyes. I lightly pulled on her little girl’s curl. “What’s your name then?”
“This is Lily,” Lizzie replied when the little girl burrowed her face in her shoulder. “She’s a bit shy,” she explained.
I chatted with Lizzie for a bit until she had to go and put Lily down for a nap. I was about to turn and sit back with Amy who had already downed two shots when Evie approached and hugged me. I gingerly hugged her back, surprised at the hard woman’s show of tenderness. She released me and stroked my face, reminding me of something my mother would do.
“You all good honey?” she asked and I nodded. “Good, don’t worry, the men will take care of those animals, finally. That’s the last time they go near our women.” Her voice was filled with anger, but her eyes seemed to water. She must’ve been thinking about Laurie, this incident bringing horrible memories to the surface. I gave her hands a squeeze and she smiled at me.
“Enough talking, let’s get down to business. I’ll get the Sweetbutts on cleaning this dump up and making food. I’ll find places for everyone to sleep, you want to be in charge of the most important thing?”
“What’s that?” I asked.
“Booze,” she replied.
“Only if that includes me drinking some.”
The rest of the day passed in a blur of activity and cocktails. I was surprised at the number of people, although Cade said there wasn’t many Old Ladies, that didn’t mean there wasn’t a heck of a lot of women involved with the club. There was also a good amount of children, most of whom belonged to club members, results of divorce or one night stands. Everyone was banding together, helping out with food and getting along really well. It was interesting seeing the people behind the men, people connected to the club in some way or another, people who could potentially be in danger. They didn’t seem too worried about the possible threat; the atmosphere was light, with only a couple of worried faces. I asked Lizzie if lockdown was a regular occurrence. She assured me it wasn’t, telling me that danger from the club rarely touched its extended family. I wanted to believe her, but with what happened today I was finding it hard and was feeling very conflicted.
Tequila helped me with that, by the time my head hit the pillow, I was feeling pleasantly buzzed. But no amount of alcohol could stop me worrying about Cade who I hadn’t heard from all day. I lay staring at the ceiling for I don’t know how long until I heard heavy footsteps ascending the stairs and the door opening quietly. I sat up and watched Cade as he closed the door behind him.