“Heard all that?”
“Yes, I was waiting for you to finish your business with your brothers before I came in. And then I—”
“Heard about the sweet butt.”
She tipped her head. Fuck, she heard about the sweet butt. No wonder why she was insisting on taking care of him. “If that’s the only reason you’re doin’ this...”
“It isn’t. Now, I’m done talking about it. Make sure they bring you to my house.” She leaned in, brushed her lips across his, then pressed their foreheads together lightly. “I’m just glad you’re okay.” She squeezed his hand. “I can’t wait to hear how this happened.”
Shit.
She sat up and her brown eyes locked with his. “By the time you get to my house, you should’ve had time to make up a good story.”
Chapter Nineteen
Shade’s fingertips skimmed over the closed laptop Chelle had tucked next to his hip on the bed. She told him to use it to watch movies or to work on some reading lessons, if and when he felt up to it.
Right now, he didn’t feel up to shit. His stitched-up head throbbed like a motherfucker, his eyes were sensitive to light and he was still in a fog. Had to be the pain meds. They were probably the only thing making his injuries bearable.
It wasn’t like he wasn’t used to pain. He’d lived a third of his life with a lot of it. However, a baseball bat to the head was a first and the doctor told him the bone bruise was much more serious than it sounded. His knee and surrounding area looked ugly as fuck. All shades of purple and swollen.
Once he was discharged, Easy and Rook had brought him from the hospital directly to Chelle’s house like she ordered.
Both of them wore smartass smirks as she bossed them around on where to put him and the shit Easy had picked up from his room in the bunkhouse. Things he needed. Unlike his cut. Shade didn’t think it was smart to have it there with him, but Chelle waved that concern away. According to her, it was time to let the girls in on who he was. At least with his being a part of the Blood Fury MC. She said they weren’t stupid and they might see him around town wearing it, anyway.
As for him fucking their mother, he figured Chelle wanted to still keep that on the D.L. since she directed Easy and Rook to set him up in a spare bedroom on the opposite end of the house from the master bedroom. Though he hadn’t seen it yet, Chelle said her room took up the whole floor over the garage and it was her favorite space in her house besides her backyard.
While he’d prefer to be in her bed, he’d respect whatever decision she made in regard to her daughters. She was raising them right and he wouldn’t be the one to fuck that up.
By the time he’d been discharged and transported to Chelle’s late Saturday afternoon, both girls were already gone. He had no clue if they were at work or where, not that it mattered. Chelle had already given them the heads up he’d be staying with them for at least a week, most likely two. He could only imagine how that conversation went since they tended to ask as many questions as their mother.
Those apples didn’t fall far from that curvy tree.
He leaned his head back on the pillows and closed his eyes, running what happened last night through his mind again.
He had fucked up, plain and simple. He should’ve been paying the fuck attention on that mountain but, instead, let his brain fill up with shit that shouldn’t have mattered in the middle of dealing with the Shirleys.
That clan was fucking crazy and dangerous, and even desperate, now that their men were getting picked off at a good clip.
Shade hadn’t gotten a chance to give Trip and Judge an update on what happened, but he had a feeling they’d want to hear about it sooner than later. He just had to decide if he would admit it was a young Shirley spawn who took him out. His ass might get ridden long and hard for that one.
Maybe he’d skirt around the facts and just say it was a Shirley male. No one needed to know it was a pint-sized one.
In the meantime, while he was on Trip-ordered recuperation, someone else might need to take over their Clan Plan until Shade was back on his feet and before the mountain no longer provided cover due to the oncoming winter.
He’d need to mention that, too, and see what they thought. If anyone was going to take his place, even temporarily, Shade expected it to be Rook. Rook wouldn’t think twice about taking out one or more of those Shirleys, especially after they kidnapped his niece.