“Is that what you’re wearing?” She points toward my boobs, flicking her gaze over my dress a few times and basically cringes.
“Yes.”
“Since when do you wear maxi dresses?”
“It’s one of the halfway decent things I can get away with. Regular dresses? Maverick thinks it’s hilarious to grab the skirt part and take off running. This is long enough and stretchy.”
“You look like a hobo. It’s definitely the wrong size for you.”
“Gee, thank you, assface.”
She giggles. “Come on, I have something you can borrow.”
“Uh no. I have hips, remember? Having a baby changed some things.”
She rolls her eyes and grabs my hand to drag me to her room. “In your case, it finally gave you an ass.”
I end up coming out in a different dress, surprise, surprise. This one’s a sun dress though with stretchy material. Fingers crossed my kid doesn’t flash my new ass to anyone today. I expect to see someone’s boobs at some point, it being a biker compound, but none of those body parts need to belong to myself.
After letting her screw with my hair and makeup which I bitch about the entire time, but secretly love, we’re finally ready. It helps having other people around to distract Maverick. I don’t usually have time to do anything special to my hair before work besides a quick ponytail. Mom duties overshadow hairstyles when it’s just the two of us.
I smear a healthy coat of sunscreen all over my son and grab his backpack full of Matchbox trucks and action figures. All he needs is some snacks and a little dirt to play in, and he’ll be one happy little boy.
“Ready?” Smiling, I fix his black tank top I have paired with army green camo shorts and chucks. He looks freaking adorable as usual. It pays to have a cool mom on your side.
“Ummm…yep.”
The ‘ummm’ thing drove me a little nuts at first, but the pediatrician said it’s normal for kids to pick a favorite word. Right now, Maverick’s favorite happens to be ‘Um.’ Guess it’s better than ‘mine.’
“He’ll fit in just fine with the other biker kids.” Princess shoots me a look. She knows I’m tripping out inside over seeing Nightmare after so long. Even being separated for a while, she can still read me like an open book.
I nod, we’re good. At least that’s what I keep telling myself. Fake it til you make it has been my life motto thus far. Why stop now?
“Follow behind Odin, and Viking will let the brother at the gate know you’re with us, okay?”
“All right. Just give me a sec to strap him in his seat, and we’ll be right behind you.” I look to Odin, and he gives me thumbs-up. For being raised by a badass, he doesn’t usually reflect it.
“Later kid.” He holds his fist out, and Maverick fist bumps him.
Only one morning being here and Odin’s already teaching my son to fist bump. Viking does the same, letting Mav fist bump him, too, before heading out the door, and then we’re off.
I’ve never been to Viking’s compound before. It was built after I left, and, well, I’m amazed. I was expecting it to be a crappy little building in the middle of nowhere to hold a bunch of rowdy bikers, but it’s not. Not even a little bit.
Princess’ house is on the back side of the property, so it’s really close to the actual building, but you have to drive in a sort of circle around a bunch of trees to get there. Viking did it on purpose. He wanted her close to him, but not too close, so if any shit ever went down, she wouldn’t be harmed. He can cut through the trees on foot to get to her, but vehicles and motorcycles have to drive around. It’s perfect actually.
They stop for a second to talk to the member standing at the gate, and then we all roll through, the biker nodding to each of us as we pass. He’s young, probably closer to Odin’s age. I’ve never seen him before. As we pass by slowly, I catch his name patch,Bronx. Definitely never met him; I’d remember the name.
I watch Maverick in my rearview mirror waving at the guy. Instead of acting cool and ignoring him, Bronx breaks out in a grin and waves back. I won’t lie; it brings a cheesy smile to my face. Maybe today won’t be so bad after all. Lord knows we’re about to find out.
Until you cross the bridge of your
insecurities, you can’t begin to
explore your possibilities.
- Tim Fargo
“I haven’t seen him yet.” I glance around again making sure Nightmare hasn’t suddenly appeared. The place is littered with men in leather cuts visiting with each other, but none resemble the man I remember.