Luke didn’t wake me when he got home, but sometime during the night, I realized the arms that held me were not Maddie or Red’s. When I snuggled closer to him, absorbing his warmth, he squeezed me tighter and kissed my hair. I fell back into a restful sleep, and woke the next morning to find him gone. I pulled myself from bed, heading straight to the shower in hopes that it would wake me up. When I stepped out, I found Luke standing there seemingly nervous as he fidgeted with something behind his back.
“Hey baby!” I said smiling, leaning up to give him a quick kiss.
“Hey beautiful. Happy birthday. I got you something,” he said, his huge smile replacing the nervous look he wore only seconds ago.
“Is it a kitten?” I asked excitedly, clasping my hands together as I beamed at him.
“No, babe. Not a kitten.” He presented me with an envelope, and I eyed it warily, while he watched with so much excitement and anxiety that I thought he would snatch it from me at any minute, and open it himself. I opened the envelope slowly, just because I’m a bitch and I knew a kitten couldn’t fit inside, and pulled out a plane ticket. To Fiji.
“I promised you a trip to the beach,” he said, once again nervous now that I had it open, and had not given him a reaction. Thoughts of Luke and I on a beach, alone, for any length of time had excitement bubbling inside me. Thoughts of kittens fled my mind, and all I cared about was seeing him shirtless, and devoting all of his time to only me, on a beach, in fucking Fiji. A slow smile formed on my face and, at Luke’s obvious reprieve, it turned into that heart-stopping smile reserved only for him. I jumped into his arms with a squeal, allowing him to spin me around the room in celebration.
“I love it! I love you!” I said with a laugh, my cheeks hurting from my permanent smile. I jumped out of his arms in search of Red and Maddie, ready to share my good news. Everything was perfect. This would be my best birthday yet, and we had a long night ahead of us.
“So Luke didn’t kill him?” Katina asked, as she straightened another lock of her long hair. We were crammed into the bathroom of the clubhouse, getting ready for our night out to celebrate my birthday, all nine of us. Brooklyn, Mary, Katina, Punkin, Chi Chi, Maddie, Red, Katelyn, and myself were all dressed in sparkly attire. Red and Maddie had chosen my outfit, which had resulted in a tiny scrap of gold, sequined material they called a dress. It was strapless, barely covered my breasts, and came just below my ass. Luke was going to have a heart attack when he saw it.
“Nope. It’s all good,” I replied, darkening my eyeliner.
“I can see how he would be pissed, though,” Brooklyn added, looking gorgeous in an orange, sequined dress that fell off her shoulders, and stopped just above her knees.
“But it really is none of his business,” Maddie said, reaching across the sink to dig through my makeup bag for some lipstick. “I mean, he can’t judge every guy I see just because he wears a cut. Luke wears one too for fuck’s sake.” Brooklyn shot her a look that said, “The hell he can’t”, and Red agreed, rushing to swallow her drink, so that she could verbally express her opinion.
“Look, I think if anyone can judge a man because of the lifestyle he chooses it’s Luke. And he promised that anyone who laid their hands on you would have him to answer to. And we all know what answering to Luke can entail. From beatings to a meeting with the Reaper, and everything in between. Even spankings,” Red added, as she looked over her glass at me with a wink.
“I seriously doubt Luke would spank someone,” Mary said, with a laugh, as she stood two inches taller in her back heels, which matched her black mini dress.
“He spanked Dallas,” Red said, putting all of my business out on show. Again.
“What?” The girls asked in unison, every eye turning to me for confirmation.
“Thanks a lot Red,” I mumbled, avoiding everyone’s stares as I applied mascara to my long lashes.
“Oh, wait. I have to hear this,” Chi Chi said, squeezing her way into my personal space, sure not to miss anything.
“I am not discussing it. End of.” I would not share that humiliating moment with these women. No fucking way.
“Hey!” Maddie snapped, forcing us to turn to look at her standing in the center of the room with her hand on her hip. Maddie’s dress was a deep blue that perfectly matched her eyes. Her blonde hair was styled impeccably on her head, and her long, tanned legs put everyone in the room to shame. “Y’all are acting as if we are just talking about some guy. This is Marty. Not some punk off the streets. It’s his brother. The man he trusts with his life, and the life of the ones he loves. How can you all act like we’re dealing with some kind of fucking outsider when in reality, we’re talking about one of our own.” Maddie was right. And by the look of guilt on everyone’s face, they all knew it too.