“Absolutely. She’s looking forward to it,” he tried to reassure her. “And remember. You’re gonna have the whole back of the house to yourself. You won’t even have to lay eyes on her unless you want to.”
“Okay, fine. I’ll give it a try, but if things go south, I’m moving.”
“Deal.”
Once we were certain Gladys was okay with the moving destination, we started carrying all the different boxes and furniture down to the trailer. Thankfully, Gladys had decided to sell most of the furniture with the building, so we only had to wrestle with two recliners, a bed, and a dresser. I was helping Widow with one of the recliners when Lynch came up behind us and taunted, “You girls need a hand?”
“’Bout time your sorry ass showed up,” Widow complained. “Need a fucking alarm clock bolted to your damn head.”
“Didn’t realize we were on the fucking clock.” Lynch turned to Country as he shouted, “Yo, Country! Why didn’t you tell me we were on the fucking clock?”
“’Cause we ain’t on the clock,” Country answered as he made his way over to us. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“Ah, Rafe and Widow are all butt hurt ’cause I’m just now getting here.”
Widow let out a loud, aggravated sigh before snarling, “We’ve been here for over a fucking hour, dickhead.”
“An hour? What the fuck is taking you slow pokes so damn long?”
“You blind? Can’t you see all this shit we gotta get down to the trailer?”
Lynch looked over to Country with a smirk, and I knew he was about to say something to piss me off. “I don’t know about you, but I think these two are getting fucking old. Hell, poor guys can’t even get a damn chair down the stairs.”
Before giving Country a chance to respond, he leaned over and grabbed the arms of the recliner, easily lifting it over his head. Widow and I didn’t say a word. Instead, we just watched as the asshole carried the chair out of the living room and into the hallway. I was still standing there, annoyed as hell, when Widow grumbled, “Cocky motherfucker.”
“Don’t you know it.”
“Hey, Ma and Pa...We could use some help with the boxes in the kitchen.”
“I’ll show you Ma and fucking Pa.”
The second I started charging towards him, Country threw up his hands in surrender. “Hold up, man. I was just fucking with ya!”
“Yeah, that’s what I fucking thought.” I looked over to Widow as I complained, “I’m over this shit already, brother.”
“You and me both.”
Doing our best to suck it up, Widow and I went into the kitchen and started grabbing boxes. After several trips back and forth, we finally managed to get everything loaded up in the trailer. Widow, Lynch, and I followed Country as he drove the truck and trailer over to Ada’s. Her house was nestled in the back corner of the club’s storage lot. Considering the location, it was a really nice place. Viper had made sure of that. There were three large bedrooms, a full living room and spacious kitchen, and there were two full-sized bathrooms, which would come in handy with both Ada and Gladys living there. As soon as we were parked, Ada came scurrying outside in her denim overalls and long-sleeved thermal. She was never one to spend a lot of time fixing up, but she always made you feel welcome.
“Hey there, boys. It’s so good to see ya.” She squinted her eyes as she looked out and asked, “Where’s Gladys?”
“Right here.” Gladys stepped out of Country’s truck and started walking over to the porch. “How’s it going, roomie?”
“Right as rain, darlin’.” She held onto the railings as she made her way down the steps. “Can I give ya a hand with your stuff?”
“We got it,” Country answered. “Just need to know where you want us to put it all.”
“Shotgun came by earlier and we done cleared out that back room.” She motioned her hand over to one of the storage units as she said, “And that there locker is empty and ready for anythings you might wants to puts in there.”
Country turned to Gladys and said, “Before we start unloading, why don’t you go check out the room and see what you want in there.”
“I guess that would be a good idea.”
Gladys looked less than enthused as she made her way up the steps and followed Ada into the house. I was beginning to have my doubts about this whole thing with Ada and Gladys. When Country turned to me with a grimace, I realized I wasn’t the only one who was concerned. But that didn’t stop us from unloading all of her boxes from the trailer. Once Gladys told us what she wanted to put in storage and what she wanted in the house, she and Ada went into the kitchen and made themselves scarce while we got to work. As soon as we had all of her things in her room, Ada motioned her hand towards the door. “Now, you boys go on and do your thing whiles we get Gladys here settled in.”