Jaded: (Beautiful Biker MC Romance Series), page 55
I shook my head, tagged her hand and pulled her out of there.
***
“Get on my face,” I ordered.
“Doesn’t it hurt?” she asked, “it looks like it hurts.”
I slapped her bare ass and dragged her onto my face so I could swipe my tongue through her wet folds. I moaned and clenched her ass.
“Oh yeah, baby,” she whimpered. “Am I hurting you?”
“Yeah, G, it hurts. But it’s a good hurt. Because this hurt means I finally got to fuckin’ pummel that fucker’s face. Now, ride my face, baby.”
With my hands full of my girl’s sweet ass, I feasted on her, watching her throw her head back, press her hands on the wall above my headboard, and then she cried out my name in that sexy as fuck, husky voice of hers as I sucked her clit hard.
I flipped us, putting her on her back at the bottom of my bed, then I slammed home. Her tight walls fluttered around my cock as she grabbed my face with both hands.
I hissed at the pain. I’d have a nasty bruise on my jaw from the fight, but she was so lost in sensation she missed the hiss, fucking my mouth with her hot little tongue.
I threaded our fingers together and pinned her hands above her head while hammering my hips in a forward motion, watching her sexy mouth form the letter O before she abruptly arched, crying out my name as her cunt spasmed around me. Her ankles hooked around my waist, and I accelerated my pace, let go of one hand and pinched her nipple while she continued to cry out.
My load shot deep as I groaned out her name. And then I floated down off a cloud of fucking bliss to curl up tight with my girl.
Her phone rang.
“Ignore it,” I ordered.
She snuggled in.
Immediately after it stopped, it started up again.
“Fuck,” I muttered.
She rolled half off the bed to fetch it from the tangle of clothes on the floor.
“It’s Aunt Tam.”
“Answer it.”
“Hello? Hey, Aunt Tammy.”
I felt her body deflate as I heard the soft voice through the phone say, “Honey, I’m so sorry, but… your Aunt Francie? She’s gone.”
The phone fell out of Gigi’s hand onto the floor.
27
We were in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia with “Aunt Tammy” who insisted as soon as we met that she was now my aunt, too.
She’d already had Francie cremated. The ashes were picked up just before she got us from the Halifax airport. She showed us to the guest room and invited us to rest, saying she was making dinner.
We were only staying a couple days. Gigi got the senior home to bump her start date by another week and said she knew that’d been pushing it.
Gigi examined the cardboard box in her hands. “She told us to spread the ashes and not to…” She made her voice sound raspy, “Don’t waste no money on some fancy-ass urn that’s gonna sit in yer house and collect dust, girl.”
“Where are you gonna spread them,” I asked.
“I scattered Kailey’s at the waterfront in town. I think maybe here. At this shoreline. She loved to sit in that swing down there. Stare out at the horizon.”
“Do that tomorrow?” I suggested.
“Yeah,” she said, staring out at the water.
“This is a great spot,” I said. “I can see why you like it here. Peaceful.”
“Love it here. I’d love a place on the water one day.”
“Let’s make that happen, then,” I stated.
She smiled, eyes lighting up, warming my insides.
Tammy brought out a meal and we sat on the screened-in patio. It was well into autumn now and the leaves were turning. It’d be soon time to put away my motorcycle for the winter. And it wasn’t the first time I’d been thinking it’d be nice to live somewhere I could ride year-round.
After dinner, Tammy brought out a pot of coffee and showed photo albums of when they were younger, when Francie didn’t wear a constant scowl on her face.
“She looks so happy,” Gigi said.
“She was,” Tammy, the rounded blonde woman with the kind smile and the big dimples agreed. “She was madly in love with Barry. And then he broke her heart two days before their wedding day by runnin’ off with another woman and she turned so bitter. It’s sad how some people let one big disappointment stay like a cloud following them around the rest of their life.”
“Yeah,” Gigi said softly, fingertip caressing the picture.
“She was glad you called me, Gianna. She wasn’t quite her old self the past little while, but she said she felt a lot better than she was while she was up here. This was a good place for her to finish up.”
“She definitely was better the last few weeks,” G agreed. “Thank you for having her here. For being with her at the end. I’m sorry I wasn’t here when it happened.”
“Don’t be. She didn’t want you here for it. Didn’t want you to have to find her gone or hold her hand while she was hooked up to machines. This happened the way she wanted it to.”
“How did it happen?” Gigi asked.
Tammy gave her a sad smile. “She told me she was tired. Gonna take a late afternoon nap. We were gonna go to town for fish n’ chips and then play some bingo. I went in an hour later to get her up and she was just… she was sleeping. She just went to sleep and that was it. It was good. She was worried she’d suffer a lot, be a big burden to me. She told me she didn’t want to have you hurting while watching her deteriorate. I think she was ready. And I think it was peaceful for her. She got to just close her eyes and be done. I was gonna wait until the next day to call, knew you were starting your new job but couldn’t sleep, knew I had to tell you.”
“I wish I’d gotten a chance to tell her about my songs,” Gigi said, looking at me.
“What about your songs, sweetie?” Tammy asked.
“I write songs, and one or two of them might be on a record that’s being made by a band local to our area who’s kind of hitting the big time right now.”
“That’s amazing!” Tammy said, eyes lighting up. “Francie told me you’re always pluckin’ away at that guitar and singing along.”
“It drove her crazy.”
Tammy shrugged. “She was just bitter about everything. But she said you were good at it. Said, ‘thank the lord she don’t sound like a dyin’ cat at least’.”
Gigi busted up laughing. “From Aunt Francie, that was a major compliment.”
“You know it,” Tammy agreed and lifted the coffee pot and refilled our cups. “Said you should sing her favorites when you spread the ashes.”
“She never asked me to sing around her. Used to ask me to shut my piehole. Leave it to her to put in a request for after she’s gone.” Gigi rolled her eyes.
I chuckled.
“I’ll go get dessert.” Tammy hurried into the kitchen and returned with a big pie, plates and cutlery, along with a tub of ice cream.
“I can’t have pie, Aunt Tammy. I’m allergic to gluten, but thank you anyway.”
“Oh no, I remembered. I got a gluten-free pie crust and looked up how to do it without poisoning you. I promise, you can eat this.”
“Oh yippee!” Gigi clapped her hands.
I had the feeling it’d taste like dusty cardboard, like most of her gluten-free shit.
When I swallowed the first bite, I spoke up, “I expected to have to fake enthusiasm. Most of the time whenever she has me try her gluten-free food I say, you know what this needs?”
“Gluten,” Gigi finished for me.
“But it’s actually pretty good, Tammy,” I said and forked up another bite.
“She liked him,” Tammy said to G, gesturing to me.
“She didn’t,” I countered.
“Oh, but she did. She knew you’d take care of this one. Said it to me. Said she wished she’d had a man like you back in the day. A no bullshit, hottie. That’s what she called you.”
I threw my head back and laughed.
Tammy continued, “Well, first she was sure you were gonna break Gianna’s heart. She told me when she first met you and was worried about how this one looked at you like you could hang the moon.”
“He can,” Gigi whispered. “But don’t tell him. He’s got kind of a big ego.”
I laughed again, then touched my girl’s cheek with the back of my spoon, depositing a splotch of purple there.
“But then,” Tammy went on, “She admitted she’d been hard to get along with and I said ‘no, surely not you, Francie’. She actually laughed at that.”
The three of us laughed.
“This stays here forever, now,” Gigi said, examining her reflection on the back of a spoon.
“It suits you,” I replied and then took another bite.
“Seriously though,” Tammy went on, sobering, “she said you stood up for her and kept doin’ it until she felt safe enough to stand up for herself. That’s a good thing. She said she knew her niece would be all right after she was gone. And she was glad for it. Said she knew that your folks would be after you to get their hands on all the money she was leaving you and she knew your boyfriend, his mom, and the lady from the motorcycle club wouldn’t let you let them get their mitts on it.”
“Money?” Gigi whispered.
Tammy nodded. “She did up a will and left it all to you. Doesn’t want Grant gettin’ a dime of it. Told me to tell you.” She pointed to me. “And I quote, ‘make sure Grant don’t get his mitts on it.’”
Gigi looked shocked. “She’s left the money to me?”
“Who do you think she’d leave the money to?” Tammy asked. “Of course she left it to you. Her uncle gave it to her, but she said you were always his favorite and he asked her to save you some. She said it was a shame what happened to Kailey, but said it was kind of better for you that you got her money after Kailey was gone otherwise she’d have been another in a long line of people trying to take it off you. Said one of the reasons she hid it is because everyone would’ve driven her nuts. Except you. She knew you’d never ask for money, and she said that’s another reason you deserved to have as much as she could leave.”
“I didn’t really think about what’d happen to her money,” Gigi said softly.
“She didn’t wanna spend it all on treatments that wouldn’t buy her that much more time. Said she’d rather leave more of it to you. She gave me an envelope for you.” She went inside and returned with a white envelope, which she set on the table. “It’s got the deed to her place. She said if you don’t wanna live there, sell it. Under no circumstances are you to let her brother live there. Besides the deed, it’s got information about her life insurance policy. Said it wasn’t a very big policy, but that’s yours, too. And the business card for her lawyer is in the envelope. Call him when you get back and he’ll make all the arrangements to have it all switched over. She told me to send the cremation bill to him, which I’ll do.”
Gigi’s widening eyes met mine.
I put my hand on top of hers.
“She leave me a letter?” she asked.
“I asked if she would. She said writing feelings down wasn’t her thing, more yours.”
“That’s very true,” Gigi said, wiping her moist eyes with a napkin.
I leaned over and kissed her forehead.
The phone rang inside the house, so Tammy excused herself.
I tugged on my girl’s hand and she climbed into my lap. I held her close.
“You okay?” I asked.
She nodded, sinking in closer.
“Let me get that,” I said and kissed her cheek, touching my tongue to it to get the rest of the blueberry off her face.
She looked up at me. “Wow,” she said.
“Yep.”
“I’m afraid to say it.”
“To say what?”
“Has my luck finally changed? First you. Then my songs and now no more money worries?”
“Karma’s finally payin’ you for all the shit you had to wade through, baby. Though that makes it sound like I think I’m your big reward. My ego ain’t that big.”
“You are, Jesse. I’d give the money and the opportunity for my music to be on the radio up if it meant I got to keep you.”
Warmth flooded me; I knew she wasn’t paying lip service. “Well good thing you don’t have to give anything up, G. And I’m goin’ nowhere unless you’re with me.”
***
We were back home.
My girl had been quiet. Reflective. In her head. I gave her that space but was there, close by in case she needed me.
This morning, before we left, she went down to the water with the old acoustic guitar Tammy’s late husband had. She wanted to be alone. She took her journal.
Three hours she sat on the swing strumming and jotting things down while I lounged on the patio with a paperback.
And when she came back up, for a minute I thought she looked lighter in her step, less pain on her face. When she got close, I could see her eyes were still sad. Still shrouded with pain.
We went into town for lunch before Tammy drove us to the airport. We walked around while Gigi talked about memories of when she and Kailey had come here. She showed me where she spread Kailey’s ashes and spent a few minutes there looking reflective.
Yesterday, we’d gone to the shore at Tammy’s, and she opened the box of Francie’s ashes after sitting down on the swing down there and quietly singing Dust in the Wind by Kansas while I played it on the guitar. Tammy couldn’t carry a tune very well, but she knew all the words and sang along. It was one of Francie’s favorite songs; they’d gone to a Kansas concert together twenty-odd years before. They spread the ashes together and then the three of us went back up to the house and I grilled steaks and potatoes for us while they reminisced some more.
When we got to the airport earlier today, Gigi promised we’d come back sometime. I liked the idea of taking the bike and traveling up here on it. Told her maybe the following summer. I was itching to get out exploring that area with my fishing rod. Tammy had a canoe and said we could come back, stay longer, and make use of it.
Surprisingly, Gigi told me she loved to fish, too. We talked about how Gigi’s songs might be on the radio by then.
Gigi got sad again that Francie never heard about that great news. Tammy told her that it didn’t matter. That she didn’t need to share that success with other people in order for it to mean something. I agreed.
***
Gigi was unpacking our suitcase when I got a text.
Deke: Chapel. Half an hour. Need everyone there for a vote. If you can’t make it, call me, I’ll brief you, and get your answer.
***
“Skip Ford is movin’ back to Sioux Falls,” Deke said at the head of the table. “I still want a vote so that if we vote him out, it’s on the books as part of our history. I want on our books that some of you, maybe even all of you want to make sure this fucker doesn’t come back to this chapter and that the bullshit he was about is not what the rest of us stand for.”
We were all there, save Skip and including Pudge who hadn’t been around but was now looking good after recovering from his gunshot wound.
Every single one of us, save Speedy who was Skip’s best friend, voted him out.
And then when Deke asked if there was any new business, Speedy put in a request for transfer to go back to Sioux Falls. They were best friends, had come up together as prospects.
Speedy was a good guy, even if his loyalty was misplaced. He shook my hand when he left and wished me luck. Seemed sincere about it. I’d hold no ill will toward him.
***
Saturday:
A bunch of us were at a local pizza place having dinner. My girl had a personal-size gluten-free pizza. She’d had a good first week at her new job, but she was still quiet, still reflective, it seemed.
Lulu the hairdresser showed up with her sister, a foxy redhead who I watched Edge take notice of with a double-take and jaw drop.
“Hey everybody. Um, Bronto, can I talk to you?” Lulu asked, eyes on Bront.
Her sister went to the counter and asked to pick up a call-in order.
“Sure, babe,” he agreed, dropping his napkin and following her outside.
I watched Jojo and Pippa exchange looks.
“What’s up there?” Fork asked.
“You’ll soon find out, I’m sure,” Jojo muttered.
“Clearly, you’re in the know,” Spencer stated, then looked to Pippa at his side. “You know what this is about?”
Pippa rolled her eyes. “These guys are always goin’ on about women gossiping. Look at them, dying to know what’s goin’ on. I think they’re way worse than we are.”
“Totally,” Ella agreed.
“Oh my God,” Gigi exclaimed, looking out the front window of the restaurant to the sidewalk. All heads swung that way.
Bront was on one knee in front of Lulu, holding her hand.
She was shaking her head.
“Oh shit,” I muttered.
Lulu pulled her hand back, said something else that had his shoulders slumping, then she turned and walked away. The poor fucker stared at her back and then his head dropped as he let out what looked like a heavy sigh.
Lulu’s sister hurried out with a pizza box in hand and said something to Bront who got to his feet. She put her hand on his shoulder briefly before getting into the car.
We all watched Bront watch their car pull away from the curb. Then he came back in, shoulders slumped, expression looking like a kicked dog.
“What’s the matter, Teddy?” Jenna asked.
“She’s pregnant,” Bront said, obviously stunned. “Told me she was pregnant, that she’s keeping it. It’s mine. I proposed, but she said no.” He looked about ready to cry.
I shoved my chair back and got to my feet. “Let’s go for a drink, brother. Can one of you on four wheels get my girl home?”
“I’ll take her,” Nolan offered.
I glared at him. “Dude, you’re on your bike.”
“Yeah. I’m a good driver,” Nolan defended.
“I’d let my girl on the back of your bike no more than I’d let her sit on your fuckin’ lap, dough brain.”
“I’ll come with,” Deacon said. “Kitten, bring Gia back to the clubhouse. Wait there for me, yeah?”
