Page 122 of Caution to the Wind

Wasn’t that the fuck of it?

Still, I hadn’t realized I was so fuckin’ obvious.

“Yeah, brother,” Nova said with faux sympathy, pattin’ my hand. “It’s that fuckin’ obvious.”

I forcibly unclenched my fist. “Fuck.”

“What’s the problem, exactly?” Dane asked. “She’s gorgeous, she’s clearly into you, and I gotta think, with the way Cleo loves both of you, she wouldn’t care if you guys started somethin’.”

“Started somethin’?” I scoffed a little too hard. “Thinkin’ Mei’s…fuck, sexier than I got any right to think is one thing. I don’t wanna, what, make her my Old Lady?”

I waited for everyone to chime in on my behalf, but for outlaw bikers, these fuckers believed way too fuckin’ much in romance.

Hell, King literally called his woman his Queen and wrote her poetry.

Nova’d secreted love notes into Lila’s tattoos years before he even admitted he was into her.

I was fucked.

I looked at Bat and Dane, but they only shared a little smile and then shook their heads at me.

“You’re all fucked,” I declared.

They laughed at me.

“Feels good to see someone else struggle,” Nova admitted. “I’m the one with all the wisdom now.”

Bat, Dane, and I all scoffed, but he only shrugged smugly. “Hey, I’m the one goin’ home to a smokin’-hot woman who’d do anythin’ for me.”

Somethin’ about those words tunnelled under my nails like bamboo.

Do anythin’ for me.

Once, I’d thought Mei would do anythin’ for Lin, Cleo, and me, and then she’d fuckin’ disappeared after that night at Turner Farm. None of us saw her, even fuckin’ heard from her, for eighteen months. I’d sat there in that cage goin’ over every moment we’d had together, wonderin’ where I’d misjudged.

It was one of the qualities I’d always thought we’d shared.

A willingness to do anythin’ for our loved ones. For each other.

“She’s here, man,” Bat said, leanin’ close to my side, murmurin’ as the others joked around. “Take it from a man who knows, sometimes showin’ up for someone is the biggest act of love there is.”

“Mei doesn’t love me,” I told him. “Not anymore, if she ever really did. She was a fuckin’ kid, and I was the only adult after Kate died aside from her grandfather who ever made any time for her. It was puppy love, at best. She’s here for Cleo.”

“You sure that’s totally true?” he pushed. “Listen, I’m not a fuckin’ therapist, and I’m in no place to give advice about successful relationships. Amelia was basically a foreign creature to me after years’a marriage and you know, we only got hitched ’cause she ended up pregnant with the boys. But I do know loyalty, and I do get family. That girl dropped everythin’ in her life to be in Entrance for Cleo, even knowin’ you hated her.”

“She loves Cleo that much,” I admitted, ’cause I’d always known that.

Even when Mei’d disappeared and returned, I’d never asked Cleo if they were in touch ’cause part of me didn’t want confirmation theywere. If Mei was dead to me, I needed her not to exist at fuckin’ all.

“Yeah, or maybe she loves you enough to brave your hatred if it means bein’ close to you again?” he suggested. “Either way, stop tiptoein’ around it, man. You want her. You know what’s between you. It isn’t like you to be a coward. Just fuckin’askher what happened.”

“You know, I’ve never liked you much,” I grumbled, but my oldest friend only laughed and slung an arm around my shoulders to tug me close.

“Yeah, yeah, I love you, too, fucker.”

The lights dimmed suddenly, and a spotlight trained on the side of the main stage. All twenty-odd men in the club quieted instantly, wonderin’ what kinda special show they had in store for the groom.

Most of us roared with laughter when Harleigh Rose herself sashayed onto the stage in cowboy boots, fishnets, tiny denim shorts, and a matching denim bra with her big hair all over the place.