Page 36 of Asking for Trouble

So of course, I had to give Carson shit just like I woulda done with any’a my other brothers.

“Shit, you two don’t quit it soon, it’ll be turnin’ me on, and trust me, ridin’ with a boner isnotcomfortable.”

Carson’s Old Man, Benny, unlocked lips long enough to blush and duck his head in man’s shoulder. Carson just leveled me with a cool glare.

He was gettin’ better at those.

And the fact he didn’t immediately drop Benny’s ass to the ground was good.

Progress.

Kid was raised by a piece’a shit father who taught him to be ashamed of where he liked to dip his wick. But he was learnin’ there was no shame to be had here.

Sure, I’d surprised them makin’ out against the side wall’a the clubhouse, but this wasourspace, so it was their space. They wanted to suck face anywhere on Fallen MC property, they were sure as shit welcome.

God knew Nova and Lila did it enough for the lot of us.

“Really, I’m doin’ ya a public service by stoppin’ this ’fore you pop wood, kid,” I continued as I felt Curtains join my side.

“He’s right,” Curtains said, and I could hear his grin even though I didn’t turn to face him. “Heckler actually crashed hisbike once after starin’ too long at this pretty girl in these little shorts.”

“Fuck off, Curtains,” Heckler hollered from inside the clubhouse.

We sniggered.

Carson sighed as if he was sixty years old and severely imposed upon and not a twenty-three-year-old prospect. “You two are the worst.”

Curtains raised his hand for a fist bump that I was only too happy to oblige. We exploded the gesture, then turned with matchin’ grins to see Benny hidin’ a giggle behind his hand.

“I think they’re pretty hilarious,” he admitted to Carson. “I’ll let you go. I just wanted to swing by to say hi on my way home from the bookstore.”

Benny worked at Cressida’s store, Paradise Found.

“Nice hello,” I muttered.

“Tell me about it,” Curtains quipped.

Carson raised his hand to flip us the bird.

Benny laughed, his big brown eyes sparklin’ like somethin’ from a comic book.

Unbidden, the image of Blue’s anime blue eyes flashed across my vision.

Fuck.

How was it possible to miss someone you’d only known for a single night?

It was more than missin’, though. Everythin’ felt…off. Like gravity had shifted and I was constantly off-balance, overcorrectin’ to fight the strain.

I thought about her when I went home at night and when I lay in bed alone. Again in the mornin’ when I woke up with my arms empty and my noise bereft’a the scent of that lush blue hair.

When I saw my brothers hold their women, or in Carson’s case, their man, and knew that I’d missed out on my chance for somethin’ like that.

“You ready?” Curtains asked, bangin’ his shoulder into mine.

I pulled my mind away from the sinkhole Blue’d left at the center’a my mind and clapped my brother on the back. “Let’s do it. It’s gonna be a drive.”

“Nice night for it,” Carson said, joinin’ us as we moved toward the line’a bikes shinin’ chrome bright under the hot sun.