"Oh what?"
"I forgot to tell you. Cyrus asked me to make a stir-fry tonight. I, ah, agreed. I know you don't want me to cook for you, but I don't want all the veggies to go to waste. It's just..."
"It's fine, Rey. Cook your stir fry."
I knew that, eventually, I had to get over that issue. If we were going to spend a life together, I was going to have to see her cooking. And because it would be asinine for her to cook for herself while I ordered pizza, I would need to be okay with her cooking for me.
It would take time, like all things.
Luckily, we had more than enough of that ahead of us.EPILOGUERey - 1 week"Get over here ya fluffy fucking hellbeast," Adler hissed from out in the common room. I was elbow-deep in chopping up some veggies to sneak into the lasagne, on a one-woman mission to get something other than meat and cheese into these bikers. Especially now that most of them couldn't go home and have healthy meals with their wives and kids. "You're gonna fucking... yep. Told you. Oh, quit your mewling. You're fine. Gotta toughen up lil cat-man. Yer head hurt?" he asked, voice softer.
I wiped my hands on a towel, going out to make sure nothing horrible had happened, finding Adler holding the kitten to his chest, scratching Ford's head who, luckily seemed no worse for the wear.
"Lil idiot fell off the fucking couch. Thought he could jump from it to the coffee table. Forget that he's still sucking on the plastic tit and not big enough for that shit yet."
He talked a big talk, but he was cuddling the kitten, clearly feeling bad that he couldn't catch him in time.
It was a funny thing, bringing a hoard of animals into a club of supposedly ferocious outlaw bikers.
Hardly a day went by when I didn't find at least one of them hanging out in the animal room, bribing Charlie to dance, trying to get Bing and Frank to talk to them, putting Ford on Gandalf's back and taking pictures to send their kids. They played fetch and tug-of-war with the dogs.
It really brought out their soft sides.
Though they would likely balk if they heard me say they even had any soft sides.
"He's fine. Kittens are always falling off of things."
"Got a package in the mail today. Big ole' box he can practice his cat-ing in. Reeve said this cat needs to live like a king."
"He did?" I asked, surprised. That was an odd comment.
"Yep. Said this little hellion brought ya two together, so he has to have a good cat life. Sappy fuck, that one," he added, giving me a warm smile. "Though, if I got to call ya mine, figure I might end up a sappy fuck too."
"Think you already might be," I said with a smile.
"Whatcha making for us today?"
"Lasagne."
His eyes danced at that. "Then what's with all the chopping?" he asked, always a keen observer. "Trying to sneak some healthy shit into us, aren't ya? Maybe we like eating meat and cheese. Have some real plans to get a nice case of scurvy, all of us."
"Not on my watch," I told him with a smile as I made my way back to the kitchen, spreading the crushed cauliflower over a layer of ricotta which I had already laced with spinach. And the red sauce got some extra carrots, peppers, and mushrooms thrown in.
Cooking for this group was a lesson for me.
Namely because I grossly underestimated how much over a dozen big, strong, hungry bikers ate.
So I had three tins of lasagne for dinner. Only two could go in the oven at once. I decided that, if anyone asked someday, I would tell them they needed a set of double ovens. I knew that Repo, Lazarus, and Edison would be on my side about it, given that we all took turns cooking lunch and dinner since we got mostly locked in.
Mostly.
We could leave, Reign said.
I just... I didn't want to.
I was liking this little oasis that was created here, getting to spend so much time with Reeve because no outside force demanded our time. Except for his turns at doing guard which were usually in the early morning, when I was already hanging out with the animals for a while. Or making bath stuff for my website, fixing the perfectly good dresser Pagan had been ready to throw away.
There had only been one animal drop-off at my house, which was promptly brought in by one of Lo's men. It was a cute little Pitbull, maybe only eight months or so, who had a bit of food aggression which was likely why they were getting rid of him instead of trying to train him. I didn't keep him though. Not because I wouldn't, but because the guard got a soft spot for him and said that Hailstorm could always use another set of four legs around. And, since they had a ton of people there to care for him, and huge, sprawling grounds for him to run around, I let them take him.