Wild Like the Wind (Chaos #5)(89)

I put my hand out and took hers. “It wasn’t lame.”

“It was lame.”

“Beverly—”

“He cheated on me and then he made me feel like I was unfaithful to him because I wouldn’t get it. And you know what? That’s cracked. For years I kicked myself for making a big deal about it, but he put my cock in another woman. I wasn’t cracked. He could give me the biker lifestyle spiel until the day he died.” She pulled her hand from mine but not her gaze. “But I knew better. High’s back with Millie and it’s like the years in between didn’t happen. Shy nearly renounced the Club to have Tab. I swear to God, I melt a little every time Lanie walks into the room, the way Hop looks at her. And Naomi was a screaming bee-yatch and Tack might have thought about it, but he scraped her off before he had his fun. But then he found Tyra and the man walked through a hail of gunfire to save her life. It isn’t the lifestyle. It’s Boz.”

She took a sip of wine from her flute, looking away for a beat, then she looked back at me.

And when she did, I held my breath at what I saw in her eyes.

“I think Tad would walk through gunfire for me,” she whispered. “He’ll never be in the position to do that but I honest to God think he would, Keely. And I’ve been thinking on it since our phone conversation and I think that’s why I said yes. I think I’m whacked because I started to fall in love with my fiancé after he proposed to me.”

“And I think I’m beside myself with glee that’s happening for you, babe,” I replied softly.

She shot me a grin.

I lifted my glass up between us.

“To the magic of edible glitter dust and budding love,” I toasted.

“To hot-as-fuck teddies working wonders and best friends forever,” she toasted back.

We grinned at each other like goofs.

Then we clinked and drank.

Before she put her glass down, she exclaimed, “Shit! I forgot the fancy little knives. Hang tight.”

She dashed to the counter.

I didn’t need a fancy knife to shove a sliver of prosciutto in my mouth and I proved it by doing that.

“Okay, I said I was out of it,” she started before she turned back with the baby cheese knives in her hand, “but old habits that aren’t exactly old, since I haven’t yet gone cold turkey, are hard to break. In other words, I’m talking Chaos gossip. So what gives with you dogging Hound at that old lady’s funeral? Everyone is gabbing about it.”

I nearly choked on prosciutto.

Bev slid back into her seat and shoved knives into cheese even as she looked at me. “You okay?”

I pounded my chest, grabbed my glass and pushed out, “Yes,” before I took a sip.

“The old ladies are pissed, Keely,” she shared. “Everyone knows Hound has a soft spot for you. You show at that funeral and take off without giving him a hug?” She grew cautious. “I mean, I know … well, I guess I figure it’s about cemeteries, and well, no one likes them but you have more reason not to.”

“Bev—”

“But Elvira saw and she got ticked and she’s winding up Tyra and Lanie and Tabby and even Carissa, who’s sweet as sugar.”

“Elvira?” I asked.

“She’s a Club adoptee. I don’t get it. She was the black lady sitting in the seats by the casket with that smokin’ hot black dude. They just got engaged. He’s a cop.”

Even though I only had thoughts (and eyes) for Hound and Jean at the funeral and didn’t see any black lady with her smokin’ hot guy, I did another one of Hound’s slow blinks on learning that anyone having anything to do with a cop was adopted by Chaos.

“She’s a long story,” she finished.

I asked another one-word question.

“Carissa?”

“Joker’s old lady.”

“Ah,” I mumbled.

“Millie defended you, according to Lanie, but they figure with the time in between,” she shrugged a shoulder uncomfortably, “you should have … well, I mean, it’s Hound. How many old Jewish women has he been lookin’ after? Everyone was floored she even existed. They thought you could suck it up and show him some love.”

I was showing him some love all right.

“Bev, honey—”

“Not to come down on you but I also thought it was kinda uncool,” she kept going hesitantly.

“Bev—”

“I don’t want you to think I’m a bitch but he’s always had your back.”

“Bev, let me speak.”

She shut up and stared at me.

“Okay, I need you to brace. I mean, hang on, sister. Seriously,” I warned.

She kept shutting up but now was staring at me intensely.

Shit.

Okay.

She would get it. She’d be on our side. She’d be for anything that made me happy.

Just do it, Keely!

“Hound and I are together,” I announced. “We’ve been together a few months. The boys know. My boys that is, Dutch and Jagger. We were having a rough patch when Jean died that was really rough. I think we’ll have a lot more rough before it’s done, just not that kind. He loves me and I love him and we’re committed to this. Like committed. He’s my future. I’m his. He makes me happy. He lost Jean and I’m not certain he’s dealing but we just got back together and made the decision to tell everyone, come out, so I’m letting us settle into that before I take his pulse on Jean. But we’re not telling the Club. Not yet. Just you. And the boys. They’re ecstatic. And, well … so am I.”