She reaches over and pats my leg. “I’m proud of you. Personally, I’m still holding out for a rich husband to take care of me.”
“I’d rather take care of myself.”
“When’d you get so bitter?”
“I’m not bitter,” I say with more calm than I actually have in this moment. “I’m realistic.”
“I don’t want to get married now anyway,” she scoffs. “Tonight, I wanna hook up with Ravage, so hands off.”
“He’s all yours.”
“I told you Jigsaw’s been asking about you. He should be there.” She lowers her voice to a wink-wink-nudge-nudge tone and elbows my side.
My lips curve up. While I’m fond of Jiggy, I don’t want to hook up with him. Or anyone.
Except Grayson.
No. He’s my patient. That’s it. No making out, no blow jobs, and definitely no sex tonight. The boycott remains in effect.
And yet, the only reason I agreed to go was to hopefully see him outside of work. Why? His stoic strength? The way I caught him watching me when he thought I wasn’t paying attention?
I just want him to see me when I look nice instead of all gross in my work clothes and no makeup. That’s all.
Oh, God. Am I stalking him? I haven’t even been licensed that long, and I’m already stalking my patients. This is terrible.
“Serena?”
“Huh?”
“The light’s green.”
“Oh. Shit.” I step on the accelerator harder than necessary. My car sputters, then rockets forward.
“Easy. No one was behind us,” Amanda breathes out.
“Sorry.”
“Steer was happy when I told him you were coming with me.”
“Wait.” I frown and glance over at her. “Why’d you call Steer about a party at the upstate clubhouse?”
“Well, I wasn’t about to call Wrath. I don’t need his scary bitch wife kicking my ass.”
“Trinity’s not a bitch.” She is intimidating, though.
“Pfft.” She snorts. “Okay.”
Birch is manning the gate to the property when we arrive. While we’re waiting for him to let the cars ahead of us through, Amanda flips her visor down and fluffs her hair in the mirror.
I slide my window down as Birch approaches. He smiles when he recognizes me. “Serena. It’s been a minute. What’s up?”
Oh, just enjoying a backslide and lapse in judgment by showing up here. “Not much. How’ve you been?”
“Can’t complain.” He gestures toward the driveway. “Full house tonight. Welcome home party for an older brother.”
Amanda leans across the seat, practically crawling in my lap, and wiggles her fingers at him. “We heard. That’s why we’re here.”
“Hey, Amanda.” He lifts his chin at her. “Got a few clubs coming up this weekend. Brothers from different charters.”
A flutter of fear stirs in my belly. Maybe I shouldn’t be here.
“Sounds good.” Amanda winks at him.
“Go on.” Birch waves us through.
“Variety of dick.” Amanda slides back into her seat. “A dick buffet. I like it.”
I choke on a laugh and press my foot to the accelerator, gliding past the gate. “An abundance of dick was never a problem here.”
Amanda snort-giggles and stamps her feet on the floor. “So true.”
“Driveway’s a lot smoother,” I say as I steer the car up the hill. “Keep an eye out for a spot. I don’t want to get boxed in.”
“Don’t park all the way down here and make me walk up the hill,” she whines.
We compromise and I pull into a spot on the grass under a tree near the top of the driveway.
“Ugh. My heel’s stuck,” Amanda shrieks. “Serena!”
“I’m coming.” I hustle around the back of the car and help her pull her foot loose. She huffs and limps her way to solid ground with her hands clutched around my arm.
Music thumps from the clubhouse, and a tingle of the old, familiar excitement runs through me. Followed by fear. Amanda said Shadow wouldn’t be here but what about Sway? Or even worse, Tawny? She’d have no problem announcing to Grayson that I used to be a club whore. Surely they’d make an appearance at a welcome home party?
At the front door, Stash waves us inside with a welcoming smile and enthusiastic greeting.
I step to the side, out of the way of the flow of traffic, and survey the large, crowded space. The lights are low, but it’s bright enough to recognize familiar faces. Rock and his wife circulate through the crowd. Weird. Other girls said they stopped showing up to these parties a while ago. Then again, I guess as president, Rock would need to be here.
“I don’t see Murphy,” Amanda shouts in my ear.
I roll my eyes. “I wasn’t looking for him.” Sometimes I think Amanda had a bigger crush on him than I ever did.
“Too many patched ol’ ladies here tonight.” Amanda checks the room again and pouts. “Not the dirty party I was promised.”
I quickly scan the room. She’s not wrong. Lots of “property of” patches on display. At one time, I swore a property patch would be the ultimate romantic gift. Declaring to all the brothers that this woman was off-limits. It meant that you truly belonged somewhere and to someone.