Page 39 of Salvation

“Well, she let me hold the baby!” He said, pointing an accusatory finger in my direction.

“Rachel!” Jenna gasped. “You didn’t!”

“And she let me push the pram!”

“Oh, fuck off!” I hissed back at him. “Don’t you have club business to attend to? Why do you have so much free time all of a sudden?”

“Amazing what not being at war can do for your schedule,” he replied with a grin. “And it’s one of the perks of not being the peacemaker. The whole club can go to shit, and it’s not my responsibility to resolve it.”

“It kind of is as the vice president…” I said, rolling my eyes at him.

“Who died and made you a know it all?”

“You’ll die soon.”

“Charming. And in front of the babies as well, Rachel. You’re despicable. But fine. Since I’m clearly not welcome here, I’ll go visit the lads in the garage.”

“You do that,” Jenna said, her lips pursed.

We both watched Vienna jump the wall, rather than using the gate, and then make his way down the busy streets, flirting with any woman who looked his way—which was pretty much all of them.

“You know, the budget for equipment has tripled in the last few months,” Jenna told me.

“Oh?” I frowned, not knowing where this was going. “What for?”

“For the garage!” She hissed, sounding at her absolute limit. “Either Vienna breaks something, or the other guys break it by throwing things at him! He needs to find an old lady instead of being under everyone else’s feet.”

I said nothing. I didn’t know how much the other old ladies knew about Gabriella, and I wasn’t going to gossip about Vienna—not even with the woman who had been closest friend when I last lived here. It wasn’t my story to tell.

“Come on in,” she said with a sigh, turning away from watching Vienna. “I’ll put the kettle on for you and you can relieve me of the baby for five minutes whilst I play with the little guy,” she beamed down at Axel, who grinned back up at her. I didn’t bother with introductions, since he had spent most of his morning here already.

Yet another thing Dante had robbed me of. I would have loved to introduce Axel to Jenna. But I suppose, in the interest of showing growth, it didn’t really matter who did the introductions and sweating the small stuff.

“That sounds nice,” I replied, unbuckling Axel from his pram and following her into the house.

Jenna popped the baby into his bouncer and went straight into the kitchen. I popped Axel on the floor, who immediately went to crawl towards Shark’s motorcycle helmet, and followed Jenna into the kitchen.

“Feel free to pick Trex up whenever you want.”

“Trex?”

“The baby? Dante didn’t even bother telling you his name?”

“He did… But he said T-Rex, like the dinosaur, because he bites?”

Jenna grinned. “Yeah. Trex, T-Rex?”

“Oh,” I grinned back, a semi-awkward silence falling over us.

“Jenna—” I began, not wanting to spend another second in this awkwardness. I wanted things to go back to the way they were, and if that meant I had to grovel, I was going to do it. Jenna’s friendship meant a lot to me, and I knew I was going to need her in the coming months.

“Don’t!” she snapped. “I know that tone of voice, and you’re about to apologise. I can tell. Just don’t. As far as I’m concerned, there’s nothing to apologise for. I would have liked you to say goodbye, but… I get it, okay? I get it. I’m five months post-partum, and if you start with the apologising, Iwillstart crying, and you’ll never get me to stop.”

“Okay,” I said, nodding as I watched her with a cautious eye. She was like a tightly coiled spring, ready to go off with no warning.

“Let’s just… Start where we left off, okay?”

“Sounds like a plan… And I promise to follow the plan in a minute. But first, I need to ask, are you okay, Jenna?”

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