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CHAPTER SEVEN

Tessa

The meeting went nothing like I expected.

First of all, I was included in all of it. Which was weird as hell.

In my experience, church only ever involved the bikers. The club girls and even the old ladies were kicked out.

But when we’d arrived and I started to excuse myself after the introductions, Rook threw an arm across my shoulders and pulled me back. “You’re staying.”

“It’s okay if you want to talk in private.”

“Don’t be silly. They’re discussing you, ” Nyx said, shaking her head. “You should be here.”

Not all of the old ladies were around. It seemed like several of them were busy raising babies, so they were at home doing bath time and bedtime stories.

Nyx was there, of course, as was Riff’s girl Vienna, who was as shy as Rook had told me. Then there was Sway’s girl Murphy—the weapons designer—who had said her hellos, but then informed everyone that she had a project to get to and disappeared.

Detroit’s woman, Everleigh, was apparently on her way back to the clubhouse after a yoga class.

It was kind of a small club, now that I got to see all the men gathered. There were only ten of them, all in all. And only three of them—if we weren’t counting Rook—were single.

I guess that was why there was more of a family vibe than a brotherhood vibe between everyone.

Another surprise about the meeting was how casual it was, with Slash—the president—asking questions instead of demanding explanations, giving Rook a chance to explain himself, and looking to me for my feelings on the situation.

In the end, Slash made a few concerns known, but told Rook he was in charge of the situation and to report back with any concerns.

“We gotta get going,” he said as Nyx showed him something on her phone. He threw an arm over her shoulders, but gave me a nod. “It’s nice to meet you, Tessa,” he said in that deep, rumbly voice of his. “Let me know if you need anything while you’re here.”

With that, the two of them were gone. Raff insisted that he, Coach, and Colter hit the bar to find some fun, and Everleigh came in holding her smush-faced little dog, setting him down so she could literally jump into Detroit’s arms.

He caught her, hands on her ass, and kissed her silly right there in the kitchen before setting her down on the island.

“Being around this crew might make you rethink your feelings on love not being real,” Rook said, watching me watch as Everleigh said something that made Detroit throw his head back and laugh.

Two things became true at once: I believed Rook, and I really, really didn’t want to.

“So what now?” I asked, wanting to think of anything but something as dangerous as love.

“Now, you settle in,” he said, waving around the clubhouse.

“You aren’t staying?”

“I have to be at my apartment at night in case Nancy drops in.”

“But you’ve already seen her several times…”

“Yeah, she’s a pain in the ass like that,” Rook agreed, shaking his head.

“Do you want me to drive you back to town?”

“Nah. I’m gonna walk in. Gives me an excuse for why I was out if she is there waiting.”

I would love to say that I didn’t know what it was like to have to answer for every move you made. But I had far too much personal experience with that. Which was why I felt a tug of sympathy for Rook, who had no choice but to endure it.

“Okay.”

“Expect me to be blowing up your phone on and off tonight. Answer when you get time. Just so we can keep building that text history.”

“Will do,” I agreed.

Rook started to walk away, then turned back. “Hey, question.”

“Shoot.”

“What ring size are you?”

“Oh. Uh, a six.”

He nodded at that. “What are your feelings on metals?”

“I guess just… not yellow gold? I mean, it doesn’t matter, though.”

“It’s your engagement ring, babe; it matters.”

With that, and nothing more, he turned and walked out. Leaving me standing there feeling another little rush of gratitude for his consideration, for giving a shit what I liked or didn’t.

It was so new.

And so welcome.

I spent a few more minutes in the common area, greeting the new dog, getting to know Everleigh a bit.

When she, Detroit, and the dog made their way upstairs to their room, I felt weird hanging out in the common area all by myself.

Besides, I had office supplies to buy.

I was riding the elevator up when I got a ding on my phone notifying me that someone had sent me money to my digital wallet.

Just in time.

I was still smiling as I opened the door to my temporary room.

“What is this?” I said aloud as my gaze landed on a massive basket sitting on the bed, jam-packed full of stuff.

It couldn’t have been Rook. He’d been downstairs with me the whole time.

One of the girls, maybe?

I mean, who else could it be?

Though I was still struggling to wrap my head around one of them being kind to a new, strange woman in their midst.

Either way, there was a basket.

Just for me.

There was this warm, gooey feeling moving across my chest as I closed the door and crossed the room to the bed to see what was inside it.

There was a little card sitting proudly in front with my name scratched on the front in a handwriting I was reasonably sure didn’t belong to a woman.

But, hey, my own handwriting wasn’t swoopy and feminine either, so I opened the card, finding a simple one with the word Welcome on the front and nothing inside but more of that same handwriting.

Welcome to the club - Colter

My hand was on my phone automatically, finding the text chain from Rook, and hitting the call button.

My insides felt sloshy and shaky. Hell, my hand holding the phone was trembling slightly.

“Miss me already?” Rook asked, tone light.

“I need to tell you something,” I said, voice close to frantic.

“Okay…” he said, his voice a mix of concerned and curious.

Not angry.

Yet.

“I didn’t ask for this,” I rushed to assure him.

“Ask for what, babe?”

“It was just here when I got to my room.”

“What was there? What’s going on? You okay? You sound freaked.”

“I was with you all day,” I reminded him.

“Tessa, what’s up? You need me to come back?”

“I was at your side the whole time. I couldn’t have said anything to anyone without you hearing.”

“Alright, babe, you’re starting to make me worry. What are you talking about?”

I swallowed past the lump in my throat.

“I came into my room, and there was a basket on the bed.”

There was a long pause after my words, making my shoulders go up near my ears, anticipating the yelling.

“Christ. That’s it? You were scaring me. Fuuuck,” he said, exhaling hard. “Yeah, that’s Colt. He gives everyone baskets. Didn’t I mention that?”

Actually, now that he reminded me, he had said that.

“Oh.”

Rook was silent for another second.

“Wait, did you think I was gonna be mad about you getting a gift basket?”

“Well, it wasn’t, you know, from you. And I didn’t want you to think I was, like, encouraging one of the other guys on or anything...”

“Yeah, no. That never crossed my mind. You okay? You sound upset.”

“No. No, I’m fine,” I said, sitting off the side of the bed, sucking in a steadying breath, trying to ground myself.

I needed to get a grip.

I couldn’t keep having knee-jerk trauma responses, or Rook was going to suss out that I was keeping a lot more from him than he realized.

“It’s just been a strange day,” I told him.

“Yeah, I guess. You want me to come over for a bit? Or want to come here? You feeling weird being there alone?”

“No, I’m okay. I just think I need some sleep.”

“Alright. I won’t keep you then. Have fun going through the basket. Colter is a weirdly good gift-giver.”

With that, he hung up.

I sat there for a long moment, taking calming breaths, before reaching to pull the basket closer to start going through.

Sitting right in the front was a really gorgeous mug with a golden handle. The rest of it was made to look like aquamarine mermaid scales.

I knew he picked it just for the color, which was sweet enough, but I just so happened to be obsessed with mermaids as a little girl.

Stuffed inside the mug was a bag of chocolate and caramel candies.

I set that on the nightstand, knowing it would be gone in two-point-five seconds once I opened it.

The basket as a whole seemed to be set up in sections. To one side were personal care products—face masks, bath bombs, a loofah, and lip balm. To the other side were snacks. Obviously not knowing my preferences, Colter covered all his bases—salty chips, sweet candy, and hot crisps. There were even a few drinks—a soda, an electrolyte bottle, and one of those shelf-stable coffee drinks.

Then, on top of all of that, there was what I would call a ‘comfort’ section. There were fuzzy socks, a sleep mask, one of those squishy animals in a teal color that could double as a pillow, and a silky-soft teal pajama set. And, under everything else in the basket to save room, was a folded teal ribbed blanket made of the softest material known to mankind.

There was no stopping the rush of water in my eyes. So I just sat there. Crying over a gift basket for what felt like hours.

It wasn’t, of course, the gift basket itself. It was the years and years—an entire lifetime—of never getting anything just for myself, of never having anyone care enough to actually go to the store with a mission to find things that I might like, then put it all together and give to me.

And in one day, I’d had two men show me that kind of kindness. Both of whom acted like it was no big deal.

But it was.

It was a huge deal.

The situation being such as it was, though, I felt like I couldn’t tell either of them how much it meant.

I wiped the tears from my cheeks, promising myself that I would thank Colter, be genuine in my gratitude, but would keep my damn emotions to myself.

I emptied the basket, putting the bath products in the bathroom, spreading the blanket across the bed, putting my stuffy up by the pillows, and setting the snacks in the drawer, marveling a little at the ability to just… eat them whenever I wanted to.

Finished putting everything away, I indulged in a bath with one of the bombs, slipped into my new PJs and fuzzy socks, then climbed into bed with my blanket.

Then I ate snacks while I shopped for office supplies.

It was the most seen I had ever felt.

It was the safest feeling I’d ever known.

It was the best night I’d ever known.

Maybe to an outsider, that would be sad. But to anyone who knew my life before Shady Valley, they would know how much this all meant, how dream-like it was, and how much I was soaking up the kindness and freedom.

And, it seemed, there was only more of it to come.