Page 12 of Devil

“Thelma, if I hadn’t been scared that Wayne would’ve kill me back then, I would have tried to steal you away from him,” Isaid,and Thelma laughed.

“Bailey, I hope you straighten that one out. Carly and Sami seem to be doing a decent job with those two.” If Thelma didn’t watch, she was going to put mine or Coast’s eye out with the damn pencil she moved around as she talked.

“Oh, we aren’t... Ow!” Bailey yelled and looked at me while her hand moved down and rubbed the side of her butt.

“Don’t say stuff you know nothing about.” Bailey frowned at my words.

“What the heck are you talking about?”

“You’ll find out soon enough. Now give Thelma your order. I’m hungry.” Bailey rolled hereyes,and Thelma wrote down what she wanted and then moved on to the next one with Coast being the last to place his order.

“I’ll turn these orders over to the cook and be back with your drinks.” Thelma walkedaway,and Bailey started back in.

“Are you going to tell me what you meant?”

“Nope.” I grinned when she turned and huffed as Thelma returned with our drinks. I always loved pushing Bailey’s buttons.

“Sami, I heard you’re selling your place in town,” Thelma said as she walked around the table and sat everyone’s drinks down.

“Yes, I actually think I might have a buyer.” Sami took a drink of her soda just as one of the otherwaitressesbrought out our food and Thelma set the orders down in front of each of us.

“That’s great, Sami, it is a nice house. I was going to ask if you had plans to rent it out.”

“Oh, Bailey, I might have if I’d known you wanted to rent it. Even Speed suggested renting it out, but I didn’t want to have to deal with renters. Carly lived there a whole two weeks and hadn’t even moved in all the way.” Sami chuckled.

“I can’t help it if I was a little busy with work and then laid up. You can blame Crusher for costing you a renter, not me.” Carly huffed as if she was offended but then smiled when Crusher leaned over and kissed the top of her head.

“Damn right, and I will take the blame for the loss of rent to have you with me, sugar.” Crusher picked up his burger and started eating when the other women said, “Aahhhhhh.”

“Going to get back to work. If you need anything else just yell.”

“Sure thing, Thelma,” was said in unison as Thelma started to walk away.

“And the next time you see my two lug-head sons, tell them it would be nice if they stopped in and saw their mother every once in a while.” Thelma didn’t wait for a response from any of us because we knew she was joking. I knew for a fact, Bull and Tank took turns visiting her throughout the week and the men made a conscious effort to at least have dinner with her twice a month. It had been that way since their dad passed away not long after they graduated high school. The two men were a couple years older than me and the others. They joined Black Hawk shortly before we left for the military. I figured Thelma was the reason they stayed instead of joining the military themselves. However, they had shocked her when after joining Black Hawk, they both registered at the trade school in town and received their mechanics license. Each one worked at Soft Tails asbouncers,and on their off days, they filled in at the garage the club owned to cover so the few members who worked there couldhavetime off. But since Sami had been off, Tank had been filling in forher,and he left the garage for Bull to cover.

Everyone began to eat and carry on individual conversations. I wanted to laugh as I watched and heard Coast trying to get Mac to engage with him. She would answer hisquestionsbut never turned to look at him.

“So, you’re looking for a place to rent?” I picked up my burger and waited for Bailey to answer. When she didn’t, I turned toward her and watched as she moved a french fry around in the ketchup on her plate. As I watched her teeth bite down on her plump lip and then her tongue followed and licked across the spot, my dick hardened. I studied her face, her brown eyes focused on the fry, the darker blond lashes, long and from the angle that I watched, they damn near touched against her cheeks. She was so beautiful.

Before I knew what I wasdoing,I reached over and ran the knuckles of my hand down her cheek. She blinked a couple times, then turned and focused on me.

“Where were you, Bay?” I whispered and watched as she glanced around the table, making sure no one was paying attention to us.

“I’ve gotten over thinking of James every day, but when I least expect it, he’ll pop into my mind.” I turned my handover,and she leaned her cheek into it. Touching her, the warmth of her skin against mine was the final straw for me. She’d be mine if it took the rest of my life to get her.

“It probably had to do with being here.”

“Yeah, he was so outgoing. Always the life of the party.” She lifted her faceaway,and I moved my arm and wrapped it around her, resting my hand on her shoulder and squeezed. Thencaught inthe moment, I leaned over and placed a kiss on her temple.

I liftedaway,and she looked at me, her eyes focused on mine, asking what she wouldn’t. Someone’s clearing of their throat broke themoment,and my eyes moved around the table to find that everyone watched us.

“Hey, Bailey, sorry to interrupt, but I need to head back to the office. My afternoon appointments will be showing up. The sooner I start seeing them, the sooner I am out of there.”

“No problem, I need to get back to the bakery too. Got a special cake to bake.” Bailey looked over at Sami who was grinning.

“Oh my God, Ally’s birthday day and cookout party. I totally forgot. I’ll be shopping after I leave the office today and I know exactly what I’m getting her.” Mac went tostand,and Coast helped with her chair.

“Mac, you don’t have to bring Ally anything. I invited you ‘cause I thought it would be a nice way to meet some of thesinglemen in the area,” Samisaid,and Coast smiled down at Mac.

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