Page 107 of Gather the Storm

Chapter 57

Otis

The party was in full swing when I went looking for Jace and Wolf. I’d sobered up from my earlier drunkenness — that was thanks to the beers on the river — and had spent the last few hours helping Syd with the grill, looking at a few of the bikes that were having mechanical problems, and hanging with Daisy.

She’d been quiet when she and Wolf caught up with us back at the compound but I didn’t give it much thought. In my experience, people talked to you when and if they wanted to and there was no real point being a pain in the ass about it.

Anyway, she looked super cute in her shorts and theSummer Shit 2024T-shirt that barely covered her tits, and I’m not going to lie that the shirt gave me ideas because I basically beat off every night to the memory of sucking her tits on the Mustang.

And it wasn’t just her tits. I mean, they were pretty amazing, but they weren’t the only thing I noticed when we sat by the fire. I noticed that her cheeks were pink from the sun and her eyes sparkled like purple gemstones.

Amethyst? I think amethyst was the purple one.

She smelled like river water and sunshine and I was more than happy to give her my sweatshirt when she got cold, mostly because I was already looking forward to getting it back.

I hoped it would smell like her — like the river and sunshine. That would make beating off to the memory of sucking her tits even better.

I found Wolf by the coolers talking to Tiny, but before I could say anything Pinky yelled at Wolf to get more beers from the kitchen, so I went with him to help.

We shot the shit while we walked, catching up on the compound gossip which basically amounted to who was fucking who, who was doing time, and who was knocked up.

I didn’t tell him about stumbling on Jace and Daisy going at it in the bathroom — not my story to tell — and I also didn’t ask where he and Daisy had gone when they’d split off from the group while we’d been tubing.

I had a pretty good idea that Wolf had taken Daisy to the meadow he liked, the one he’d found when we were kids. Wolf loved that meadow, used to go sit there and sit with his eyes closed andfocus on his breath.

He said it calmed him down, but I never really got it when people said they were stressed. Things were what they were — people too — and there was no reason to stress if you just accepted that.

We passed a few of the girls on our way to the kitchen, including Sera, the pretty blonde I’d talked to when we’d been tubing. She’d been nice, laughing and touching my arm and stuff, but I don’t know… she wasn’t Daisy, and that was the only thing that came to mind when I considered fucking Sera.

“You and Sera fuck?” Wolf asked when the girls had passed.

“Nope,” I said.

“Why not?” Wolf asked. “She looked like she wanted to lick you like a lollipop.”

“Not interested,” I said.

We headed through the cafeteria to the kitchen, separated from the dining space with a stainless steel counter. It looked like a school lunch cafeteria, which made sense since it used to be a summer camp.

“Because of Daisy?” Wolf asked.

“Yeah,” I said. “Because of Daisy.”

Wolf sighed, like we were brothers-in-arms in some kind of battle, which I guess we were: the Battle to Not Fuck Blake’s Little Sister.

“Grab one of those carts to hold the beer,” Wolf said, opening the fridge.

I pushed one of the rubber carts over to where he stood. I was pretty sure Pinky and the rest of the staff who worked the kitchen used the carts to bus dishes when someone left without cleaning up their mess (though I didn’t know who would be stupid enough to do that because I wouldnotwant to cross Pinky), but it would be perfect for carrying the beer.

We started loading up the cart with beer from one of the old fridges that lined an entire wall in the kitchen, necessary to feed the small army that was the MC. It was about halfway full when Jace entered the room, and I knew right away that he had his panties in a twist.

“Let’s get out of here,” he said.

“Why?” Wolf asked. “It’s early.”

It wasn’t that early — almost midnight — but Summer Shit sometimes went until dawn.

“So fucking what?” Jace’s face was stormy, the way it got when he was fighting a losing battle against his temper. “Let’s get the fuck out of here.”

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