Chapter Five
C ompass got ready to head into the council meeting War had called after their dust-up this morning. He’d had lunch with the guys who had ended up joining the women for lunch at the diner.
Maureen had patted the seat beside hers and had touched his arm multiple times. He wasn’t sure if something had changed or if he was just noticing her touch more.
After lunch, she’d asked about him taking her for a motorcycle ride sometime this week to show her where he’d lived. He wanted to share that part of his life with her. She’d shared a lot about her husband while they’d been at the ranch, even the times they’d disagreed.
Maureen wasn’t one to be walked all over. She talked about how one time her husband had come home all beat up from being thrown from a horse. Instead of taking care of him, she’d made him sleep in the bunkhouse or barn, whichever he preferred, because he’d promised he was done trying to help break the wild horses.
He wished she wanted to be his permanently, but she’d said marriage wasn’t for her. Despite his beliefs changing some over time, he still wouldn’t make love to a woman that he wasn’t married to. Call him old-fashioned or prudish, but it was how he’d grown up, and he wasn’t ashamed of it.
His upbringing had given him an insight he’d used in the Army and later in the MC. He dropped his phone in the basket outside the room and found a seat. The officers were the only ones with set seats, and Compass had given that up when he went nomad.
Even though his heart had ached when he left the brotherhood, on the road, he could breathe again. With no destination in mind, he’d left Bluff Creek and ridden down to catch Highway Forty, which he followed through Oklahoma and Texas. He’d stopped in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and grabbed a place for the night. He’d ended up staying a week because of the weather. He’d always been one to ride in anything, but he just couldn’t make himself leave because the weather was as dreary as he felt—rainy and with dark, cloudy skies. He’d gotten drunk, and when he finally surfaced, the weather had cleared.
He'd taken four days to ride from Albuquerque to Oceanside, California, with pit stops along the way. He took the trip that Lucille had wanted them to take but had become too sick to do. He’d fished from the pier in Oceanside and taken one of those whale-watching tours she’d wanted to do. And every night, he cried for the woman he’d lost.
He shook himself out of the memories as the room filled. War and Roam carried in two laundry baskets with blankets and what Compass guessed were the pigs.
“Here you are, Dad,” Roam said, putting his basket on the table in front of Baron. Baron peered over the basket.
“He’s not tiny,” Baron said.
“These guys were surrendered when a puppy mill was raided. The breeder was trying to say they are mini. They will be if you consider one hundred pounds mini. The only reason he let us take them was because he knew Mom would take care of them and have an area for them to be taken care of. They even have names if you want to keep them,” War said.
“This one is Baby,” Roam said, leaning over and scratching the piglet on its back.
“Baby? What kind of name is that for a pig?” Baron asked.
“Baby Back Ribs is his full name,” Roam said, then laughed, high-fiving War.
“I’m positive your mom dropped you two on your heads when you were young. That’s the only reason I’d think you’d have such a crappy sense of humor because you didn’t learn that from me,” Baron grunted, lifting the piglet out and holding him.
The other basket was close to Compass, so he decided to get the little one out. Baron’s looked pretty cute. Compass lifted him out, and it squealed just like Compass had expected.
“What’s this one’s name?” Compass asked.
“Pork Chop,” War said.
Compass laughed along with everyone else. It was a good thing the compound had so many acres; Baron might need to expand room for the animals, especially if he kept doing things that he needed to apologize to Regina for.
“Okay, on to the incident. I’ve discussed some with Scoop and Sarah. They’re going to do some digging on the land and make sure it hasn’t changed hands. After dark, a couple of us will sneak out there and place some cameras to see if we can get a little more intel. Any volunteers?” War asked.
“I will. I could use some excitement,” Dex said.
“This is strictly placing cameras. No engaging unless you see something that can’t wait,” War reiterated.
“Obviously, I’ll need to go to place the cameras,” Scoop said.
“Yeah, it has nothing to do with you wanting a little space from your wife, who you made cry,” Roam mentioned.
“You made Sarah cry?” Locks growled.
Compass could see this was not going to be good.
“Listen, get off my back, old man. No one warned me that anything I said while she is pregnant could be used against me. She asked if I thought she should have the caramel iced cake doughnut or a smoothie, then she freaking mumbled the last part. And she asked this while I was in the middle of tracing something. I answered the smoothie would probably be better because Stella said that Sarah didn’t have gestational diabetes but had been close enough that she might want to watch her sugar intake,” Scoop said, then shook his head.
“What did she mumble?” Locks asked with a smirk.
“She mumbled so her butt doesn’t get any bigger, but I didn’t know that until she yelled it at me and threw the smoothie mix at my head. Thank goodness her aim’s a little off with the big belly, and if any of you assholes tell her what I said, I will screw up your bank accounts so much that you’ll never find your money.”
Compass chuckled along with the rest of the boys. His Lucille had only been pregnant once with their boy, but she’d been a mess of hormones. There were days he loved being with the brotherhood and other days when he wondered why he outlived his wife and his son. Their little one had gone to sleep one night at six months old and never woken up. Lucille had refused to ever try again because she couldn’t handle losing another one.
“Why don’t I go grab some caramel iced donuts along with supper for you all from the diner, and you can say you asked me to do it to make her day better?” Compass asked.
Scoop nodded. “Thanks, I would really appreciate it. I’d love it if she didn’t want to kill me by bedtime. Otherwise, I might offer to stay overnight in the clubhouse and help with the sleepover.”
“Pussy,” Dex said quietly into his hand.
“You wait until you have a woman who is pregnant, who believes it’s all your fault your spawn is doing these things to her body. Yesterday, I heard all about how it was my genes that caused our kid to give her heartburn. I did refrain from saying it might have been the six slices of pepperoni and jalapeno pizza she’d eaten at eight p.m.”
Compass chuckled along with everyone else. Scoop would survive, and their relationship would be stronger for it.
Compass envied them starting a family. Even if Maureen felt about him like he felt about her, they were well past having children. Maybe Lexi and Booker could get a move on with grandkids. He was getting ahead of himself. Maureen didn’t want to marry him. He didn’t know the reason, but he didn’t have to. He wasn’t sure, though, how much longer he could spend time sleeping beside her if they weren’t going to get married.
He’d wait until after the commemoration to decide if he’d head back to Logan Falls or go out on the road again for a couple months.