"Nice to have you back," Cash greeted, handing me a beer which I didn't typically drink that often, but I needed something to drink after the extracurriculars with Annie.
"I heard you bought a girl back here," a voice that was decidedly not a male murmured from my other side. "I thought it was going to be West who fell next," Lo added, looking at the man in question.
"Who the hell is going to want to put up with his pranking ass all the time? You could never let down your guard," Cash objected. "Besides, he doesn't want to settle down."
"And which one of you did want to settle down before the right woman came along?" Lo shot back, giving him a friendly eye roll. "Anyway, I'm happy for you. I know Astrid has been worried about you."
That didn't sound like Astrid to me. She wasn't, by nature, a worrier. She was someone who took shit as it came, who let very little get to her.
"I know, she doesn't worry a lot. But you can sometimes catch her watching the chickens, eyes far away. And if you catch her off-guard, she will admit she was thinking about you, about how she hasn't visited you in too long. Looks like she was right to worry, too. Yes, I knew," she added when my gaze shot over to her. "Not much goes on at Hailstorm without me knowing. And while it isn't weird to find Astrid and L holed up together, I knew something was up. So I checked in."
"She's nosy as fuck," Cash said with a smirk.
"I keep an eye on my people."
Often for good reason. She hired a lot of ex-military, people she'd needed to pull off the streets, men and women she'd needed to nurse out of addictions or back to health - both mental and physical. She was diligent to make sure everyone was behaving in a way that wasn't destructive, that they weren't slipping back into darkness. We all knew that she would never be able to forgive herself if someone hurt themselves on her watch because she was slacking as a leader.
"Anyway, once I figured out what was going on, I got Janie in on it. We have everything you need on this Thomas asshole. So whenever you're ready, we will give it all to you. But I suspect you're going to go ahead and take a few days with your girl first," she added, moving away, going over to talk to West.
"He's not going to join," Renny said, shaking his head as he joined us.
"What makes you say that?" Cash asked.
"He lives down in Florida. He's here visiting his uncle. He doesn't like it up here," Renny told us, shrugging.
"What's he do down there?" Cash asked, and there was something in his voice I couldn't quite place, but it sounded off. Judging by the way Renny's gaze held his for a long moment, I wasn't the only one who picked up on it.
"Owns a junkyard," Renny supplied.
To that, Cash's gaze went to his brother, jerking his chin toward the back door.
"Be back in a minute," he said a bit distractedly before following Reign outside.
"What the fuck is going on with that?" Renny asked, brows furrowed.
I had the same question.
And neither of us had any answers.
I wondered if - or when - we might be filled in on what was going on.
Some of the other guys strolled in, each of them going over to talk to Huck in turns, likely thinking like we had, that he was a shoo-in for a new member.
Another hour or so passed and the women trickled in to hang out as well. At least the ones without kids or with older ones.
"I don't want to know, do I?" Sugar asked when Peyton came in a while later in jeans and a white tee. Well, a tee that should have been white. But it was covered in dirt. As were her pants, shoes, arms.
"Well, you know that nosy fucking neighbor at Jamie's place?"
"Yeah..."
"Well, I figured if she was going to stare out her window at us, we should give her something to look at."
"You didn't," he said, shaking his head.
"Dig a human-sized hole in the yard then proceed to bury a rolled-up carpet in it? We sure as shit did. You should have seen how her eyes were bulging out of her head. It was amazing. Plus, I got a full-body workout. Win/win," she said, stealing the beer out of Sugar's hand, taking a long swig. "So who's Mister Square Jaw over there?"
"Huck," Sugar supplied.
"Don't you guys think the poor women in this town have enough eye-candy already? You all keep raising the bar like this and none of the average Joes around here will stand a chance of landing a woman."
"Speaking of landing a woman," Renny started, and I knew where this was going. "You have to meet Cam's girl."