Velvet Fire - Ashby Crime Family Romance

“Thanks for the ride. And the rescue, Virgil.”

“I would say it was my pleasure but that seems like a shitty thing to say.” She laughed again and shook her head, leaning into the window as her hair blew in the early morning breeze.

“I know what you mean. A totally random conversation with a gorgeous stranger in a fancy car. Not a terrible way to finish out my twenty-first birthday. See you around, Virgil.”

I watched the swing of her ass and the sway of her hips as she walked up the stone path that led to a big porch that looked like it wrapped around the whole house. I rolled down the window and called out to her as loud as I could on this residential street in the dead of the night. “Maisie!”

She turned with a smile. “Yeah?”

“Fat Bottom Girls.”

She mouths the word, “Wha–?” Then gave me the stink eye. Wow if looks could kill. . .

“The song!” I shouted out in a light whisper.

It took her a moment but when understanding dawned, her eyes went wide and she smacked a hand over her mouth to hide her smile.

“You’re so funny,” she whispered, waved, and slipped inside the door.

I stayed until the wind carried the sound of her laugh away. I wore a shit eating grin the whole way home, hoping I had a very good reason to run into Maisie again.

Chapter Six

Maisie

“You got home late last night.” Max Ellison. The grumpy old bastard I lived with. Loved him like a father but he was one of my long distance uncles that my brother, Gunnar, knew from his days running with the Reckless Bastards in this area. He was a big ole’ teddy bear, but he had rules. And I think I may have broken one—or two.

I’d met him and his wife Jana over the years during family reunions and summer barbecues, and developed relationships with their boys, Charlie, and Jameson.

I ignored Max’s grumpy tone because that was his default state these days. “I did. Sorry I didn’t call but my battery was almost dead and I wanted to save it for an emergency.” It wasn’t a total lie but if I told Max anything close to the truth, he’d freak out, grab all the Reckless Bastards he could and set Glitz on fire until he found out who spiked my drink. No thanks. That was a headache I didn’t need or want.

Especially now that I was home safe and sound.

“Good mornin’, babe. Morning Maze, did you have a good birthday?” Jana was the bomb. She was beautiful, even for an older woman, with short blonde hair with silver streaks and gorgeous brown eyes that made the scar on her face hardly visible after all these years.

“I had a surprisingly good time. That club, Bullets & Beer, is really fun.” At least what I could remember of the club. “Maybe it’s somewhere you and Aunt Teddy could go on your next girl’s night out?”

Jana tossed her head back and laughed with her whole body and then she rubbed my shoulder. “I love you for thinking that’s anywhere close to my crowd, but wine and painting is more my speed.” She shared a look with Max that was more intimate than any kiss or touch I’d ever seen. “Your Uncle Max didn’t tell you that’s how we met and fell in love?”

“Uncle Max? Painting and wine, seriously?”

He gave a sharp nod, the smile on his lips and the blush staining his cheeks at odd with the thick gray beard and perma-scowl he wore. “You got a problem with that, kid?”

“No! I’m just surprised is all. Gunnar always said y’all would surprise me. And you do.”

“They all will,” Jana assured me. “They’re all big and bad and tough on the outside but on the inside,” she smiled and poked Uncle Max in the beer belly. “Marshmallows.”

“Shut your mouth woman.” He scowled at her but Jana only laughed and pressed an exaggerated kiss on his cheek.

“For the right woman, anyway. Otherwise I wouldn’t fuck with ’em.” She winked, her eyes so filled with love that for the first time in my adult life, I thought love might be something I wanted.

“Amen,” I told her and stood to refill my coffee mug. “You guys need anything today?”

“Nope. We’re hanging out at the clubhouse if you want to come,” Max offered with a smile.

“Nah, I’m gonna head to church with Bonnie and then go for lunch after with her family.”

Max shook his head with a grunt. “I don’t know how a grown ass woman just up and decides to start believing in God and ghosts, but if you’re happy with it then so am I.” He stood and dropped a kiss on my forehead. “Still can’t believe you’re a full on adult. Time flies.”

“God’s not a ghost, silly,” I told him, but honestly, I wasn’t completely sure Jesus or God wasn’t a ghost. Bonnie had convinced me to go to church with her once sophomore year and I agreed because we were friends and I was curious. I liked the sense of community and all that, but I didn’t know all the rules and sometimes the rituals were kind of cheesy.