Page 26

CHAPTER

TWENTY-FIVE

DEMI

Luna and I headed straight to the mall after getting the kids bunkered down at the clubhouse. For now, they’ll be sharing one of the larger rooms, one that’s kept empty for visitors.

As a matter of fact, the room is bare bones, it hasn’t been outfitted since they haven’t had any guests since purchasing the property.

We have a long list of things to buy and most of them will have to be delivered. We grabbed Stixx, Roscoe, Risk, and Midas to help us haul things back and forth.

They brought two trucks with attached closed trailers to haul the bulkier things in case we get lucky enough to not need to have the furniture delivered by the store.

We’re aiming for two sets of bunk beds, a toddler bed, and a crib.

We’ll need other things such as dressers too, but the beds are our top priority during this outing other than clothes and hygiene products.

As Luna drives us to our destination, I pull up the internet on my phone and my eyes bug out when I realize how much a toddler and baby need.

It’s overwhelming.

I send a text to Xavier to verify their diaper sizes and ask if there are certain ones I need to avoid after noticing that there are a variety to choose from—some are for sensitive skin, whether or not they’re moving a lot, and absorbent levels.

Then I begin to wonder if Hadley is in the midst of potty training, already trained, or if she needs a set of pullups that are for sleep time.

So I begin rapidly texting out questions. I don’t even give him a chance to reply to one before another concern forms in my head and I ask about that. This continues as we look for bottles, formula, and toys. I get confused as I see there are age ranges on things, not just sizes.

Brooklynn is four months old, does that mean I shouldn’t be getting things that are only up to a six month age range?

My dilemma is the sizes are really all over the place!

Zero to three, three to six, six to nine, nine to twelve; with her being four months old, should we get some of the bigger ones in case she has a growth spurt?

She’s so tiny, but I suspect that’s because they haven’t been able to feed her properly, which is definitely going to change for all of the kids.

Hadley is three, so I notice that it’s easier to buy things for her.

Everything is clearly marked for her age group.

As we go through the baby aisle, we grab a plethora of things.

Teething rings. Bottle brushes. Bottles with natural shaped nipples.

Diapers and wipes as well as a trash can to help keep the odor to a minimum, liners for it, and we stock up on meltable treats, plastic tubs of baby food, juice, and anything else we spot that we think she’ll like.

The day goes on like that. High chairs for both the girls, a walker for Brooklynn because I find it odd she’s held as much as she is instead of them letting her have tummy time or be mobile in other ways.

It’ll help give her a leg up and strengthen her muscles so when she’s old enough to begin walking, she’ll be ready.

Midas finds a bunch of other things he thinks will be entertaining for them, one is an inflatable ball pit-like thing—I can see Hadley having a blast in that, and Brooklynn too once she starts ambulating.

We took those carts up front once they were loaded down and we grabbed six more, one per child to fill up to the brim with clothes, shoes, and underthings.

Our last stop is in health and beauty, where we might’ve gone a little bit nuts buying frou-frou things for the two little girls, along with items that the preteen and teen boys will like.

Luna chooses their shampoos based on how good they smell which has me rolling my eyes, but I don’t say anything because she’s liable to burst into tears.

Instead, I keep doing searches on my phone to see what boys that age would like, as well as what’s appropriate for an infant.

When we finally make it up to the register, I feel sorry for our cashier.

The guys make quick work of laying things on the conveyor belt as Risk heads to the front of the store to where we stashed the other carts and brings them to us.

Along the way, I notice his steps falter as he stares off to the right. I follow his gaze and see one of the prettiest women I’ve ever seen. She is stacked in a way that reminds me of a fifties pin up model.

“Who’s that?” I ask, elbowing Luna.

“I have no clue, but I have a feeling our Risk just fell in love at first sight, or he knows her,” Luna remarks. “The way she’s looking at him, I’d say it’s the latter.”

“She looks ready to bolt,” I state. “Think there’s history there?”

“I’m pretty certain there is,” she whispers. “It must’ve been from back in the day, because I haven’t seen her around town. Have you?”

“Nope. Sure haven’t,” I reply then turn to Midas and whistle. “Midas, do you know who that is?”

His head lifts at my words and curses under his breath. “It’s McKenna.”

“Who is she to Risk because he looks like he’s about ready to swallow his tongue?” I ask.

“His wife. Let’s just say they didn’t part under the best of terms,” Midas informs us. “It was a whirlwind romance that ended just as quickly as it started.”

“What happened?” I probe, my nosy nature taking over.

“Not my story to tell, ladies,” he mumbles, his eyes swiveling between the two with worry etched on his face. “Let’s try to keep those two apart so there’s not an explosive confrontation for the entire town to witness.”

“If they would still go at it, there’s some heavy feelings involved for both of them,” Luna points out.

“Luna,” Midas sighs, “don’t go trying to play matchmaker, okay? When I say those two are better off apart, I’m not joking. We had to physically separate them the last time they crossed paths.”

That idea does not sit well with me, so I leave Luna to watch over the scanning of our things and walk over to Risk, leaning into his side. “You alright?”

“Feel like my heart's just been ripped out of my chest,” he confides. “I both love that woman with all of my heart but I hate her just as much.”

“They say love and hate have a fine line between them,” I convey. “What happened between you two that turned love into hate?”

“I fucked up,” he admits. “I was young and dumb. I thought I had to be one way to keep the respect of my brothers. Let’s just say I acted like bikers are portrayed and as a result, I lost her.”

“What did you do?” I continue, now it isn’t about being nosy, it’s about trying to help a friend figure out how to fix a wrong.

He clears his throat, his eyes still fixated on her when he answers, “I went out with our more free-loving brothers, met a girl, got drunk off my ass and wasn’t thinking straight.”

“Oh!” I whisper-shout. “When you say you screwed up, you mean you really fucked up, don’t you?”

“In the worst way a man committed to a woman could,” he tells me. “Worst mistake of my life.”

“Do you think you could redeem yourself with her? Is she the forgiving type?” I ask.

“Could you?” he asks me, harrumphing.

“If I’m being honest with you, Risk, probably not. But then again, she’s not me. I’ve been betrayed by nearly everyone in my life, once I give trust it’s given without any strings, and if those strings were to be clipped, I doubt I’d be forgiving. Especially if it was Conan that did that to me.”

“Then you just answered your own question, Demi.”

“I suppose I did. I’m sorry, Risk. I wish I had words of wisdom that’d fix this for you, but I’m drawing a blank. Once trust is broken–”

“It’s broken,” he continues my statement.

“Come on, let’s get out of here. We still have to get to the furniture store.” I want to get him out of her eyesight as quickly as possible. I can literally see his heart breaking in front of me and it makes me sad.

We get the carts to the others and unload them.

I’m in a frenzy, the Tasmanian Devil’s got nothing on how fast I’m moving.

Luna, feeling my anxiety, begins grabbing bags from the turn wheel faster, and before I know it, we’re jogging out of the store with a few employees tagging along and helping us tow them out to the trucks.

The best part of this trip? The store gave us a twenty percent discount once they learned why we were buying so much.

I make a note to do any shopping I need there because of their generosity.

They also signed us up for their free baby of the month club for both Brooklynn and Luna’s peanut, which will send coupons for baby essentials.

In this economy, every little bit helps.

“You’re so deep,” I cry out as Xavier pounds into me from behind.

“Fuck yeah, I am,” he groans as he swivels his hips. “You gonna come for me, baby?”

“I’m coming,” I tell him as my pussy clamps down on his dick.

“Mine,” he growls as he empties his release into me. “Fuck, I love you, Demi.”

“I love you too, Xavier.”

“Feeling better?” he asks. “When you came through the doors earlier, your eyes had a wild, panicked look in them.”

“Yes, much better.” I sigh as my heart rate slows down. I turn over and tell him about McKenna and everything Risk told me. “I felt so bad for him, Xavier. The pain was so evident it made me sick to my stomach.”

“It was a bad time for the both of them. McKenna tried to stick it out and forgive him, but like a bad rash, it kept coming up and there were some volatile confrontations that turned physical. They became toxic for each other and eventually, she had enough and walked.”

“Can you blame her, Xavier? I bet every time she looked at him all she could see was him with another woman. He’s lucky she didn’t cut off his dick after he did that. How did she find out he was with someone else?”

He humorlessly chuckles before saying, “She was our designated pickup driver. She came a little early to spend some time with him after she got off shift and watched him walk across the street to the motel with the chick. She waited to see if he was only escorting her there, but after forty minutes passed, she got suspicious and went to check it out.”

“She walked in on them?” I ask, stupefied.

A dark growl leaves his chest as he mutters, “The dumbass left the door unlocked so she went right on through it. I don’t need to give you a play-by-play of what she saw, but let’s just say, it was more than obvious what the two were doing.”

“I bet that was traumatic for her. And what do you mean she got off shift, I thought y’all were nomadic back then,” I inquire.

“We were. But we had to eat and put gas in our tanks, so we all took jobs that paid under the table. She was working at a laundromat at the time, and they locked the doors at one in the morning. She always took the later shifts because they paid more. Which we thought worked out perfectly because she could get us back to our motel safely.”

“Did y’all have a car?” I continue with my line of questioning. These are things we’ve never thought to talk about and I like that I’m learning more about him as well as the men during this conversation.

He nods his head, answering, “We had a beater van that followed us from site to site. It carried the things our bikes couldn’t. McKenna was usually the one driving it for us. She’s a good woman, Demi. A good friend and she was a good old lady to Risk.”

“Tell me more about your time on the road,” I plead, running the tips of my finger across his muscles.

For the next hour, he tells me more about Risk and McKenna plus some of the things they did while living the wild life.

I’m glad I didn’t come into the picture until after they settled, I would’ve gotten in a boatload of trouble had we met before we did.

I was wild myself during that time frame, so I know I would have a record by now if I’d followed them around and partied with them.

We fall asleep during the early morning hours, but by the time we do, I feel closer to him than I did before we fell into bed.

I wish I had a magic wand or a time machine so I could go back and change things for my friend, but he made his own bed so I guess he’ll have to continue to lie in it.

Doesn’t mean I don’t want to fix this for him, but I don’t have any idea about how I could go about smoothing the way so he could reconcile with the love of his life.

I hope one day they can both find peace and move forward, either with or without each other.