“Fine, if you ask me, she’ll love it. Not that I know Ava, but seeing as I hate this time of year, it’ll be my luck that she does.”
Smokey made a note to never hang out with Hunter while attempting to plan an awesome Christmas.“Next time, I’m bringing Raven,” he said, making his way over to the owner.
Within twenty minutes, the tree was loaded up onto the truck, and Smokey climbed inside with Hunter by his side.
“So Big Dick’s not going home for the holidays?”
Smokey frowned and looked toward Hunter. “Is something going on with you and Harlow?”
“Hell no, man, nothing. I’m just making conversation.”
Something was off, and he wasn’t quite sure what. “Harlow is young, and she’s also Big Dick’s little sister. Don’t make me remind you what kind of shit that will cause.”
“Dude, thereare enough chicks for me to get my dick sucked. Trust me. I don’t need no bratty bitch. I was just trying to make conversation is all. Damn, you’re touchy.”
Smokey still wasn’t convinced, but right now, he didn’t have time to follow up with Hunter to make sure he didn’t do anything stupid. He was a grown man and Harlow was certainly a woman who knew what she wanted, and he wasn’t going to get in the way of either of them. Every single part of him said he needed to keep an eye on what was going on, but for now, he had to focus on his own woman.
After they arrived back at the clubhouse, Elijah, Ortiz, and Brick helped him to unload the tree. They carried it into the main clubhouse.
Now that he had the tree, there was no way he was going to be able to allow Ava to come here until after everything was set up.
Raven arrived a few minutes later, Carlos following with a couple of boxes of decorations.
“Holy shit, Smokey. That’s amazing.”
“I got you a big tree,” Carlos said.
Smokey shook hishead and smirked as Raven moved in close to her husband. “I know and I love it.”
“Do you think Ava’s going to like this one?”
“She’s going to love it. You’ve gotno problems there.”
He stared at the tree, and in the back of his mind, he saw Ava tied to that fucking chair. The look of pain and betrayal on her face as she stared at him. He’d fucked up big time.
Gripping the back of his neck, he walked to the boxes. He reached out for something to do with his hands and then started to pull out decorations.
Decorating for Christmas wasn’t his strong suit, but for Ava, he would do anything.
****
“So, er, I’ve got to head out early today,” Harlow said.
Ava smiled at the customer as she handed him his change before turning back to Harlow. “You have?”
“Yeah,er, do you think you can close up here?”
“Of course. It’s my shop. Is there anything exciting you have planned?”
“No.”
Ava frowned at Harlow’s abruptresponse.
“It’s nothing. Boring crap that you don’t need to worry about.”
“Is everything okay?” Ava asked.
“Sure, yeah, everything is fine. In fact, you know what? I do need to head out kind of now. I hope that is okay.” Harlow was already removing her apron and heading near the exit before Ava could say anything.