Smoke and Steel (Wild West MC #2)(103)



She came to me, took the tray of biscuits and returned to the oven.

Opening it and sliding them in along with what appeared to be the most delicious stuffed pork chops known to personkind, she said, “Relationship stuff never needs an apology.”

Again, sweet.

“I think it’s an adjustment, being in the life,” I remarked.

“What life?” she asked the oven she was closing.

“The biker life.”

She turned to me, tipping her head to the side. “Do you think that?”

“Well…I…”

Shit, I’d put my foot right into my mouth.

She walked to me, leaned into a hip on the counter and placed a hand on it.

She then looked at me with an expression that was guarded, but also kind.

“You two are back together, so obviously you listened to Beck and made your decision. My opinion?” She touched her chest and offered a small smile. “The right one. I’d not known good until I met Beck and the club. What they were before, that doesn’t matter to me. It didn’t then, and I met Beck close to after it happened, and it doesn’t now. I have two beautiful babies. I have a husband who loves me deeply and who has always treated me with almost excruciating care. And we never have to worry if we need a babysitter.”

Three things struck me about that.

I filed away the babysitter information.

And I addressed the first.

“I’m sorry you’ve never known good.”

“Until Beck,” she corrected.

And that was the last thing that struck me.

Almost excruciating care.

“Until Beck,” I murmured, not sure I knew her well enough to ask her to unpack that with me.

“But you know what he did. And I know what he did. And still, that’s my reality.”

“Yes,” I agreed.

She touched my arm, dropped her hand and said, “It’s simple. You’re just a woman who met and fell in love with a man. People put labels on stuff. They do that so they can justify making decisions about things they don’t know anything about, so they can’t possibly understand them. Core’s not your first boyfriend, am I right?”

I shook my head. “No, he’s not.”

She nodded once. “So it’s that. You’re learning to be with your boyfriend. He just happens to ride a bike and hang with other guys who ride bikes. Of course, the biker world might not be one that you’re used to, but it’s not that much different, unless you focus on the differences, instead of seeing they’re just people.”

“You think it’s that simple?” I asked as she moved back to the corn.

She picked up a wooden spoon and started pushing it around.

“You might think I’m crazy, but I think people making blanket decisions about who people are is what complicates everything in this whole wide world. You don’t know unless you know, and you can’t possibly know every living being on this planet. So you can’t possibly say, ‘They’re all like that,’ and then treat them how you decide people ‘like that’ should be treated. Not one single person is just like another, no matter what traits or customs or inclinations they share. The biker life isn’t an adjustment, it’s just life to bikers. In other words, it’s just life. It might be different than the life you live, but once you live with people who live that life, it becomes just life to you too.”

“Okay, so maybe it is that simple,” I mumbled, deciding that maybe I underestimated Janna.

Not that I didn’t think she was smart.

Just that I didn’t know she was sage.

“I’m not lecturing you,” she replied gently. “I just wanted you to know that if you let it be easy, it’s easy. If you make it hard, it’ll be hard. And I’ll go on to advise that it isn’t hard, so don’t make it hard.”

“Yeah.” I was again mumbling.

“Something else on your mind?” she asked, still stirring the corn.

I lifted a shoulder. “It’s just that Core seemed in a mood earlier tonight and he didn’t want to talk about it.”

She laughed a pretty, quiet laugh, and when she was finished, she winked at me.

“Get used to that, sister. These boys have moods. Don’t worry about it. If it’s a situation that you need to know, he’ll eventually let fly.”

I hoped so. Letting things fester wasn’t my favorite thing.

“But I have five years in with these guys. Actually, longer,” Janna went on in a teasing lilt. “So if you need help adjusting to that, I’m your girl.”

“I would expect that eventual call,” I accepted her invitation, earning another one of her quiet laughs.

“What are you women talking about?” Beck asked as he strode in with Core.

“How moody you boys can be,” Janna answered.

Oh shit.

Core’s eyes cut to me.

Awesome.

“Absolutely,” Beck agreed. “Need my woman’s touch to snap me out of it.”

“So that explains it,” Janna said, making eyes at me. “It’s a ploy for his woman’s touch.”

He slid his arm around her shoulders and murmured, “Everything is a ploy for your touch.”

How cute.

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