Page 57 of Lake
I would have put her on the young side, maybe even just barely legal. I also had no clue why she was here. It seemed that all the other women that I’d seen so far had been attached to one of the club members. But the way Abigail floated around, she seemed like she was just kind ofthere.
“So how was it?” Gwen asked me. “I wasn’t here to hear all the craziness but these girls filled me in.”
I felt my face go red though I wasn’t sure why.
Yeah, maybe we’d gotten a little carried away and I may have forgotten that the outside world existed. I wasn’t ever one to keep quiet in the throws of passion but with Lake, things seemed to reach new levels.
“What are we talking about?” a guy I didn’t recognize asked as he made his way over to us from out of nowhere.
“Chris, this is Bridget. Bridget, Chris. He’s Ky’s… old lady-man?” Cami said with her head cocked to the side in confusion. “Guess I never really thought of how that title should go. He’s just Chris.” She gave a shrug as if that should have explained everything.
Chris took the seat between Laurel and Cami, and right away, I could tell there was a deep friendship between those three. He gave me a warm smile and a nod.
“Yeah, that sounds weird. I’ll just stick to Ky’s boyfriend, for now.” He let out a relaxed laugh and shook his head.
“Bridget and Lake got it on last night and half the club heard.” Laurel was quick to fill Chris in.
I wasn’t all that sure I like the spotlight on me.
“Well… nice.”
I felt like there was a high five coming with his tone.
“I’ve known Lake a long time. He’s a good guy,” Chris said giving me another smile.
“Oh, um, I’m not…” I let the words die there because I was tired of saying and thinking about how I wasn’t going to be sticking around much longer.
“She’s not from here,” Laurel said, filling in the thing I was trying to avoid. “She’s the one that gave Lake the black eye.”
She giggled and I heard a few snickers and chuckles too.
“Has everyone heard about that?” I asked feeling a little sorry for Lake.
“Nothing is kept a secret around here,” Chris said. “Well, mostly.”
“Just don’t ask aboutclub business,” Laurel said and I could hear the bite in her tone.
“Wasn’t planning on it,” I quickly said because I wanted to make it known that I wasn’t part of this world and I had no interest in knowing anything.
“So what are you doing back here?” Cami asked him and thank God the conversation moved off of me.
“The bar is dead and I figured I wasn’t needed right now. I am not really feeling it. One of those days, I guess.”
We sat around drinking coffee and bullshitting for a long while. I learned that Gwen had been raised in a chapter of the club that was in Tennessee, just like her man, Knight. They grew up together and their story was rather sweet.
Laurel’s man, B-ry, was also a club kid growing up in another chapter further west in Tennessee.
Chris had lived in Moon Hill, and while he wasn’t a born and raised club kid, he’d grown up in a very small town where the mother chapter was held. He was close to most of the club members there and here as well, which included Cami’s man, Brand. Even before he got together with his boyfriend. And that boyfriend came from a chapter in South Carolina.
I was getting the feeling that this was a fairly new branch or chapter or whatever of the club. And it seemed to be a huge mix of people from all over. Roots seemed to be deep with these people.
I tried to follow along as best as I could and remember the names and phrases they used. It wasn’t really that hard to figure things out, but a few times I did have to stop them and ask. I liked that they didn’t laugh at me for being clueless.
“Hey, Dade,” Laurel called out making my head turn and look over my shoulder.
“Hey,” the guy, I assumed Dade, grunted out as he made his way across the kitchen to the refrigerator on crutches.
I glanced down and noticed that his pant leg swung back and forth below his knee. I wondered how he rode with one leg but decided with the anger that was rolling off of him, it was best not to ask.
