Ilara: Chapter 12
In the end, I’d worried for nothing. Last week when Bear had me go to the clubhouse with him after we’d made love, I’d been so damn nervous. I was worried they’d look at me or treat me differently.
The guys all greeted me like they had before. They teased me and Bear, mostly about how I was way too beautiful to be with him. He agreed with them, which I found to be ridiculous. Bear was a sexy, handsome man. He was a successful businessman. He could have any woman he wanted, but he seemed to only want me.
He’d done what he set out to do too. Bear found out where he could go to get an outdoor play gym for Hope. It had sparked off Bull and the other guys with kids into deciding to build a large one for all the kids like they had in Dublin Falls. By Tuesday, the company had visited the compound and said they’d come out to start building both of them the following week. They swore they would do it in a week. I had my doubts. The guys kept adding to it.
The ladies and I were getting closer. I shared with them what had happened to me. I was surprised to learn that even after my outburst, the guys hadn’t told them. All they knew was something had happened and Tate was gone.
Speaking of Tate, I hated that what he did got him banished. It had hurt me and I didn’t like it one bit, but he hadn’t done it to be malicious. He’d been genuinely concerned I might be using Bear and crying wolf. He’d believed someone he considered a friend. A friend who I think might have been fooled by Todd, like a lot of people were.
Bear wasn’t willing to talk to me about it. He was still angry at Tate. I let it go. Since I was confined to the compound unless I had an escort, I was learning a lot about what the ladies did with their time. Jocelyn still did part-time paralegal work for a lawyer in town. She was deciding whether she’d go back or not once the twins were older. They were going to be a year old in January. Devyn’s son was going to be a year-old next month. They were planning his birthday party. Jocelyn told me she still wanted to be a lawyer. Bull had told her to go for it.
Devyn, I found out, was in school to be a pharmacist. She’d gotten her degree that allowed her to work as a pharmacy tech. She was due to start working a few days a week at the drugstore in town, so she’d get experience. The rest of the time would be spent doing online schooling and raising Hayden. I loved to see her still pursuing her dream, even though she was young and had a baby. Ace seemed to be very supportive of her.
Madisen and Jessica worked at the bakery. They did have help from a few ladies, so they didn’t have to be there all the time. Madisen was part owner in the bakery with the club. She was a fantastic baker and Jessica wasn’t far behind her. They had so much business, it was hard to keep up. They were considering hiring another person to help bake. They were both new moms and spent a lot of time with their kids.
I found out Zara was not only a doctor, but she was due to have a baby in late February. They’d just found out they were going to have a boy. She was working to form her own clinic in town rather than work the ER, like she did now. They hoped to have it ready by the time she came back from maternity leave.
Hearing all of them talk about their jobs and schooling made me want to work even more. I knew with the threat of Todd coming to Hunters Creek, there was no way to continue to search for one right now, but I wanted one eventually. I was sitting down with Bear yesterday when he asked me what was wrong. I hesitated to tell him. I didn’t want to sound ungrateful.
“Come on. Something is bothering you, baby. What is it?”
“Don’t take this the wrong way, honey, but I’m feeling unfulfilled.”
“Unfulfilled, how? What am I not doing?” he asked me with a frown on his face.
“No, no, it’s not anything you’re doing or not doing. It’s me. I want to work and I can’t. I know logically why. You’re protecting me and Hope. It’s just that I like to work and all the other women are so busy with their kids and jobs that I feel like a slacker. I can only clean and cook so much, Donovan.”
He sat down beside me and tugged me onto his lap. “I know you’re bored. While I’d love to be able to stay home all day with you, I need to be at The Dark Angel.”
“I know and I don’t hold that against you,” I hurried to say.
“What if you could do something from home? Work remote and help manage HR stuff. That’s what you did before and you liked it, right?”
“I did love it, even when it was a pain or hassle at times. I like making sure employees have what they need as well as the company. There are a lot of things you have to consider to keep your workers happy and productive.”
“I’ve been thinking, and I mentioned it to Bull the other day. We have all these businesses, and while we think we’re doing everything we can for our people, we don’t have a formal HR department or anyone to ensure we are doing all the things we should. As managers, we deal with things as they come up. We don’t have anyone at our places who deals with those types of things. Could it be set up that all of them have one central HR person or persons? Policies and procedures could be formalized and any issues would be routed to this central person?”
“Yeah, that’s easy to do with the right programs. A lot of businesses do it. Why?”
“Because we’d like to do that and have you create it and run it for us.”
I knew my mouth fell open when he said that. Had I heard him right? He and his guys wanted me to create an HR department for their ten different businesses, soon-to-be eleven with the clinic? It would be a huge undertaking. Excitement bubbled up inside of me at the thought. To be able to create it from the ground up and be one of the main developers, it would be a dream come true.
“Donovan, honey, I don’t think I understand. Did you just say your club wants me to create an HR department for all your businesses and then I’d run it?”
“Yep, that’s what I said.” He was watching my face intently.
“Oh my God, are you sure? I mean, did all the guys say they agreed? You mentioned Bull. I know he’s the president. Can he just decide that without talking to the others?” I was still learning what MC life was all about.
“He could, but he didn’t. He’s pretty democratic on most things. The guys were there when I asked him. It was when you stayed at the house because Hope went to bed early. They loved the idea. I told them I’d ask.”
I grabbed his neck and pulled him down so I could kiss him. When I got done, I said excitedly, “I’d freaking love it! When can I start?”
He laughed. “Well, first you need to tell us what kind of equipment you need. Computers, software, that kind of thing. Maybe talk to Outlaw. He’ll be able to help decide which ones are the best to get and where to get them for the best price. Once you have those, then you can start working on whatever you think is your priority. We know it’ll take time, but that’s fine. We’ve never had it. We know it won’t be completed in a month.”
“You guys really did talk about it. Wow, I can’t believe it. This is so awesome. Thank you and thank the guys.” I gave him a hug. Later that evening, we went to the clubhouse, and he told them I’d accepted. They’d been excited, and I got to thank them in person.