Ride Steady(93)

“You’re an enabler,” Mrs. Heely sighed.

“Pipe down, woman, and give me a hug,” Joker ordered.

Her eyes lit, her face lost its fake irritation, and she moved to him and into his arms.

He closed those arms around her and bent to kiss the top of her head.

She smelled like she always smelled, a few days ago and way back when she brought him dinner.

He wondered if her son liked her smell and figured the guy had never thought of it. He also figured if he thought he’d lose it, he’d think of it and like it.

Like Joker.

“Buddy!” Linus boomed.

Mrs. Heely pulled out of his arms but Joker didn’t let her get far. He kept her close with one arm around her shoulders.

“This menace is Jackson,” Linus stated, his hand on the head of a kid who was studying Joker curiously, until his father gently swiveled his head around and he started grinning and rolling his eyes back to get a look at his dad. “This is Tyler.” Linus let his boy go and bent deep to touch the head of a little one sitting on a step, eating from a bowl of grapes. “And this,” Linus went on, twisting and hefting up a pretty little girl who was hiding behind her daddy. “Is Candace. My little Candy.” He looked into her face and ordered, “Say hi to Daddy’s friend, Joker.”

She did a quick wave then tucked herself closer to her father.

“Joker? Like Batman?” Jackson asked.

“No, son, he’s a good guy,” Linus answered.

Jackson had a look on his face that said he didn’t comprehend this but he was trying.

It was funny and Joker wanted to crack up watching him.

But he didn’t.

Because he was taking it all in.

The house was a newish build, on a small lot, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t huge. It was also nice. Clean. Decorated. All about Kam’s colorful, stylish personality… and family. And Linus, with his beautiful wife, his three healthy, cute kids, the man of the family standing among all he built, the most important things in life. Woman. Kids. And the home you could give them.

He took this in glad as f*ck Linus had it.

But he took it in thinking for the first time in his life that he wanted this.

Just this.

Gorgeous woman. Cute kids. Clean home decorated in the warmth his woman wanted to give their family.

“You gonna stand there starin’ at me, or you gonna take off your jacket and drink some of your old friend’s beer?” Linus asked.

Joker let Mrs. Heely go to shrug off his jacket, answering, “Beer.”

“Now that introductions are complete, Linus, would you like to share how you feel about Car… Joker’s lack of grooming?” Mrs. Heely asked.

Linus turned laughing eyes to the woman. “Respect, Mrs. Heely, but even when he was a kid, he was good-lookin’. He could have hippie hair and still be that way.”

This said a lot coming from Linus, who might work in a garage but right then he was dressed well. He’d always cropped his hair close to his head with clean lines razor-sharp all around and straight up took care of himself.

“I disagree,” Mrs. Heely snapped.

“He’d be cuter with shorter hair,” Candace piped up shyly.

“There’s a girl with taste,” Mrs. Heely declared, moving forward and arriving at Linus in a way it was impossible to misunderstand what she wanted.

Linus didn’t misunderstand it. He put his daughter down and Mrs. Heely claimed her immediately.

Taking her hand, she moved her up the steps from the living room that led toward the back of the house and a big, open kitchen, saying, “We girls gotta stick together, Candy. Now, let’s go help Mommy with dinner.”

“Okay, Momma Heely,” Candace replied.

“That’s my cue,” Kamryn muttered and he looked to her. “So glad you’re here, Carson.”

He nodded.

She moved into the house.

“Bud,” Linus called. “Beer.”

“Yeah,” Joker replied and moved toward him thinking next time, he’d bring Carissa and Travis.

That being after he told her he was Carson and he could quit dicking around and give it all to her so she knew what she was getting, the man he was, how he came to be that man.

And then they’d see.

*

After dinner with his friends, Joker was walking into the Compound when his phone rang.

He looked right, saw some of his brothers hanging out with beer, shot glasses, and a bottle of vodka. He headed that way while he pulled out his phone.