Page 24 of Brother In Arms

Anyways, it was definitely something that she liked the bike. Maybe it could be a starting point, something I could work with to crack that shell she was trying to hide behind. I shucked out of my clothes and went down the hall to shower, standing under the hot spray to let it relax my muscles. I hadn’t come out of that fight completely unscathed. While I’d been lucky and no one had landed any real blows, I’d pulled a thing or two and was starting to stiffen up.

A hot shower, some ibuprofen, and some good sleep and I should be good to go. I went back to my room and racked out. Dropping into a deep sleep right off the bat. It felt like I’d just closed my eyes and the alarm was already going off. Still, when I opened them, it wasn’t any more than the usual grogginess that accompanied waking up first thing in the morning. I’d slept pretty good.

I pulled on a clean pair of jeans and a fresh tee and sat on the edge of my bed with a big sigh. I bowed my head and pulled on the back of my head to stretch my neck and upper back as much as I could. It was supposed to be my ‘day off’ but until things had settled there was no such thing as time off. I thought about it some and decided that after yesterday, I’d earned it and I was gonna have my fuckin’ cake and eat it, too. I threw some of my shit together and packed one of my saddle bags after I finished getting dressed.

I rode out to Blue Hills and was surprised to see Bailey was up, sitting with Data on the front porch. I pulled up and backed my bike into line with Zeb’s rat bike and Data’s resto’ed classic chopper and killed the engine.

“You’re up early, boss lady,” I called up to the porch softly.

“Haven’t slept yet,” she called back.

“Been out here long?”

“Figured if I needed coffee, these guys did too.”

“Mighty kind of you,” I dropped into a seat at the table as I said it.

“It’s been known to happen,” she shot back with a wry smile.

“Got an extra cup?” I asked.

“Sure.” She poured one for me and asked, “You always get here this early?”

“Yep.”

“You know starting time isn’t until five, I would have thought Renaldo would have told you that.”

“You told me not to be late, remember?”

“Right… still, three in the morning is a little excessive, don’t you think?”

“A mite, but I like to get here before everyone else. I like the quiet, just me and the horses and hell, half of them or more are asleep, too.” I took the coffee she offered and doctored it up to my liking. I turned and asked Data, “Where’s Zeb gone to?”

“Foot patrol, don’t worry…” he lifted a small walkie-talkie and smiled. “Seven mile range, no interference out here, built them myself.”

“Nice.”

“Want I should call him in?” Data had a small smile that said he and I needed to talk later and I wondered just what he’d gotten Bailey to tell him. I gave a nod and he got on the radio.

“Hey Zeb, reel it in.”

The radio crackled and Zeb came over saying “Thanks, bro; I’m buggered.”

I chuckled and took another swallow of my coffee. It took Zeb the better part of twenty minutes to get back to us and I called down off the steps, “Man, where the fuck you been?”

“Way out in the wops, I reckon.”

“Dude, I have no idea what that means…”

“Better yet, be careful where you say that, wop is a derogatory name for an Italian person here in the states.” Bailey said and then followed up with, “And in New Zealand, ‘the wops’ is pretty much our rendition of the middle of nowhere or Timbuktu.”

“Oh, so BFE.”

She looked at me confused and I grinned, “Butt Fuck Egypt, sort of like Fucking New Guy or,” and Data picked up with me, “Big Fucking Gun.”

The boys and I cracked up hard while Bailey shook her head, knees drawn up to her chest under her cream satin bathrobe, the light spilling from the windows over her and giving her some kind of glow like an angel. It was the first time I’d seen her with her hair down and it made her look softer, less severe. I liked it.

“I always thought BFG was short for Big Friendly Giant.”

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