Page 38 of Trip

18

JJ

EPILOGUE

All of JJ’s fears about fitting in fled as she sat in the clubhouse sharing a drink with Billie and Andy while the men held church. They’d been back in Vegas for three weeks and everyone made her feel welcomed into the fold.

This was the first time they’d actually gotten to just sit around and shoot the shit, yet it felt like they’d been doing it for years.

Surprisingly, even most of the girls who hung around the club were welcoming, cool but welcoming. Not to say she didn’t get the side-eye from a few, but it was nothing like on television. She rapped her knuckles on the wooden bar superstitiously at the thought.

JJ was especially fond of Trixie and Lexi. While they were her age or younger, they both seemed more like den mothers. Naked den mothers, but still.

“So, are you all settled in at Red Rock?” Billie’s question pulled JJ from her head.

“Um, yeah. Between the guys here and the Maidens, I didn’t have to lift a finger. But to be honest, it wasn’t like either of us had much stuff. Trip pretty much moved his stuff in duffel bags and my apartment was so tiny, there wasn’t much there either. We had to buy furniture just to cover the basics.”

“That’s awesome that Hex had a trailer for you guys while you get your place built here. When do they break ground?” JJ noticed as Andy asked the question, Billie chewed her cheek and looked apologetic.

Trip had had one of the seven houses on the back of the property, but gave it to Bullseye and Billie when they moved in. Billie felt bad about it and had apologized more than once and even offered to give it back.

“Next week. And I’m super stoked. Billie, as beautiful as your house is, the layout is all wrong for me, so can I just say how happy I am that you guys live there instead, because now I get to design mine exactly how I want it. How cool is that?”

Billie perked up at her words.

Yes, mission accomplished.

“So, what’s the meeting about today?” It seemed an odd day to call church, unless something happened.

JJ wasn’t stupid, she kind of grasped the whole MC thing. She knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that Jake was gone gone and that the men in the other room made it happen.

If someone had told her at any other point in her life that she would look the other way in the face of something like that, she would’ve scoffed at them, but that’s exactly what she did. What they all did. The Phantoms weren’t the bad guys, even if they did bad things. That’s a concept she could’ve never embraced in theory. The lines were clear. But in reality, those lines are blurry as shit.

“Wipe that worry off your face, gorgeous,” Lexi called as she slipped up behind the bar. “Now that there are women about, I bet they’re in there discussing hearts and rainbows. All that girly shit for Valentine’s Day.”

“Yeah, right. And monkeys might fly out of my butt,” Andy teased her friend.

They all burst into a fit of laughter at the thought of a bunch of burly, bearded bikers holding a meeting for a holiday all about love. Besides, they had a poker run planned for the fourteenth, a tradition that apparently dated back to the start of the club.

The intercom buzzed and Blake’s voice filled the room. “Fake and Bake delivery coming in. One person.”

Billie clapped like a kid at Christmas.

“Fake and Bake?”

“Yeah.” They all rolled their eyes. “Taps started calling it that and it kinda stuck. It’s actually called Peace, Love & Sweets. Fair warning, if she has doughnuts, look away. You haven’t witnessed the spectacle that is Taps eating a doughnut yet, and it is something you cannot unsee.”

Everyone in the room groaned.

“But you haven’t lived until you’ve had Evan’s pineapple upside-down cake. It’s so heavenly, angels weep at the sight of us mere mortals indulging.”

JJ was skeptical. “I don’t know about that. I am a licensed sweetaholic, if you couldn’t tell, and I do not know if a vegan cake will cut it. I’m a fat girl and I love my goodies.”

Billie, Andy, and Lexi all rolled their eyes and groaned.

“Give it up, lady. You are not fat. You are curvy in all the right places and Trip can’t get enough of your goodies.”

“Uh, gag me. Cheesy much?”

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