Under Locke (40 page)

Obviously this man had never been around children for longer than a couple of hours if that was the kind of present he liked to buy.

"She won't do shit," he murmured, waving me out of the car.

I grabbed the two gift bags from the backseat while Dex dug around in the trunk for the stuff he'd thrown in there. Even though we were parked quite a way down from the concentration of the cars—and motorcycles I noticed a little late—the loud laughs and screaming children could be heard pretty darn clearly.

Something jabbed me in the side. "Ya ready?" he asked, pulling his elbow away from my ribs. He'd traded in his black and navy blue t-shirts for a plain white one. But those friggin' light jeans that were perfectly molded to his butt hadn't been replaced.

"Did you bring a bathing suit?" I asked him, looking down at the new pair of Nike's he had on instead of boots.

"Nope." He elbowed my side again, raising both of those pure black eyebrows. "I'm on babysittin' duty."

"You? Why?"

Dex tipped his chin up. "I brought you along, didn't I, babe?"

Asshole.

“Waah.” I
roll
ed
my eyes and
reached to pinch the back of his arm
. "You get on my nerves, you know that, right?"

He ducked out of the way, h
is mouth splitting into a wide smile, all pretty white teeth, before
laughing. "Nobody
’s tried to do that shit to me since back in the day when I’d piss off my ma.”

“It’s overdue then,” I told him, aiming for his arm again before he wrapped his hot palm around my fingers.

He squeezed his grip gently for a moment before dropping his hold, still grinning. “
C'mon, you little shit."

It should probably bother me that he called me a little shit but with the big grin on his face and the loud burst of his laugh, I kind of thought that he was using it as a pet name. He let out another lower, huskier laugh and I
was
completely convinced it was like his way of calling me... what? Whatever you'd call a
p
et baby rabbit.

"How many nieces and nephews do you have total?"

"Lisa has three girls, and Marie has a girl and a boy."

The noises from the group in the tree-lined area ahead of us got louder each step we took. "Lisa's your oldest sister?"

Dex nod
ded
. "She's Hannah's mom." The birthday girl, he meant.

I tried my best to mentally prepare myself to face three women that were potentially female versions of Dex, and I couldn't help but feel just a little intimidated. From what I've learned over the course of my stay in Austin, there was probably a big chance that Dex's mom knew my mom back when she was
going to college
here. Who knew how that could go. If her father was a member of the Widows' Original 12, then she was more heavily invested in the club than just about anyone else.

More than likely, it also didn't help that my crap-ass father left the MC for my mom.

Hmm.

Slowly, the group came clearly into view. What looked like two dozen adults and at least a dozen kids scrambled around a circle of four picnic tables, while a thick column of smoke spiraled in the background. From the looks of it, most of the men wore WMC vests.

You know, besides Dex.

My stomach couldn't help but clench up at the reminder.

I didn't recognize hardly anyone beside a couple of the women I'd met at Mayhem weeks back, but I couldn't remember their names to save my life.  No one paid us any attention as we walked up to the group until we stopped alongside the picnic table furthest away from the lake shore.

"I'll leave our shit right here—" Dex started to say, dropping our two bags onto the bench.

"It's about time you got here," a woman's voice suddenly said. "We've been waiting for you to start grilling, Dex."

Holy crap.

The woman standing just to the side of Dex had to be his mom. The hair color, that square jaw line, the eye color—it was all the same. Well,
m
inus the boobs and the gray hairs that peppered her blue-black mane. She even had the same smirk as she looked at what had to be her son.

"I'm not even late, Ma," Dex confirmed it, turning around with a matching
sneer
on his full, pink mouth. Holding out his arms, the woman stepped into them, slapping him on the back, hard.

"You're never late." She laughed. Her dark blue gaze moved from the ground and zeroed in on me just standing there. Her eyes went up, up, up, before they stopped on my face, and she frowned. "
Oh dear.
"

I wanted to say something but I didn't because my stomach dropped nervously. Why hadn't I stayed at his house?

"You look just like Delia," she choked out.

My mom? Suddenly my voice seemed to find its way back to my throat. "Hi, Mrs. Locke." Shit. I hope she still went by Locke or
this
was going to be incredibly awkward.

Before I even realized what the hell was going on, Mrs. Locke—I hoped—was pushing Dex out of the way to stand right in front of me. Nearly eye to eye if it wasn't for the inch or two she had on me. Her fingertips moved to my face, prodding at my cheekbones. "Girl, you could pass for your mama," she breathed.

Of course, I started smiling like a fool, all overwhelmed nerves. "Thank you. You're really pretty." How lame was that?

It must not have been that lame because Mrs. Locke laughed right in my face. "I know."

Dear God, this woman really was a female Dex.

But just as quickly as she laughed, her face sobered, and
no
. I knew that face. I knew the words that were going to come out her mouth before they actually did. "I'm so sorry about your mama," she said in a low voice. Those dark blue eyes turned sad and heavy, and shit, shit, shit this was too soon after my conversation with Sonny to think about her.

"Thanks," I somehow managed to cough out.

"Ma, where's the food?" Dex rudely interrupted.

Those strangely familiar cobalt blue eyes narrowed in the direction of the man that unhinged me half the time. What came out of her mouth next made me laugh because I couldn't help but believe she was one of the select few that could talk to her Dex so crisply. "Open your eyes, dip
s
hit."

~ * ~ *

"What are you doing out here all alone?" Dex's mom asked just as I'd started pulling my dress over my head.

For the last twenty or so minutes, I'd been sitting on the edge of the sandy shore, watching the group of shrieking little heathens throw
sand
at each other. After spending the last hour sitting and watching the group of people I barely knew interact with each other, it'd gotten to be too much. Their familiarity, their easiness, made me nostalgic.

It wasn't often that I was really struck by how lonely I
was
. Well, at least how lonely I'd become since Will left, even while living with Lanie.

Before, I always had someone. After The
Greatest Disappointment
left, it was Mom, Will,
yia-yia
and me. Then, everyone started getting picked off. We'd always been a tight-knit group. Everything was communal. We all worked in whatever way we could for the other, for the greater good of the family.

And now all I had left was Sonny. My little brother, the same little brother that I'd busted my ass for
,
couldn't even email me back.

So being around Dex's family, both the biological and the
motorcycle club
, reminded me of how in-between I was. I was but I wasn't one of them. I was but I wasn't Sonny's sister. I was but I wasn't a lot of things.

After getting introduced to a cousin of Mrs. Locke—or Debra as she'd asked me to call her—I made my way toward the beach where all the kids were. I
realized
it was rude but it just made me too sad to be around such a close group at least
in
that moment.

It made me want something that I wasn't sure I'd ever have again.

"I just needed a little break. I have a headache," I told her before throwing my dress onto the towel I'd bunched up on the sand.

She smiled sadly, and I had to wonder whether she had any idea that I was lying. She probably did. My mom had always known and so
had
yia-yia
. It had to be some weird mom-instinct that gave them bullshit meters.

Wading out into the murky greenish-brown lake water, I fought back the urge to think it was gross. There's no competition between fresh and salt water. The calm made me miss the waves and the salty air. This room temperature water was just... strange.

"I can never get used to how warm this damn water is," she said once we were about waist deep.

I had to make sure to keep my bad arm down as I nodded at her. "It feels really weird." More like gross but I didn't want to be completely rude.

Dex's mom snorted. "Every time we come out here, I have to pray that the water isn't too hot. I don't feel like getting some flesh-eating virus."

And, I stopped walking. "What?"

"You didn't hear about the cases these last few years?"

"No
...”
Holy crap, I started walking backward slowly.

Debra laughed and waved me forward. "Don't worry about it. Lisa made sure with the ranger that the water was over eighty degrees before we came."

I was still tempted to get out but I didn't want to seem like a big baby. Crap. I mean, I kind of liked my arms and legs.

"Trust me," she
snorted
.

I was left with no other choice but to trust her as we swam out to the floating dock not too far away. I
was
a little glad she wasn't in the mood to talk as I hoisted myself up onto the edge while she treaded water nearby. My head did hurt but I knew it was more because I felt a little disappointed than anything else.

"Are you healthy now?"

The question was like a punch to the gut. "Hmm?"

Her head bobbed just ten feet away from the dock, she tipped it toward me. "Your cancer. Is it all gone now?"

Blood rushed to my face like there was a fire it was trying to get away from, and my mind went reeling right along with it. I shouldn't be surprised that she knew. If I gave myself more than ten seconds to take in her question, I would probably think about the fact that she'd been involved in the Club long enough to remember hearing about me as a kid.

But answering her still didn't seem natural. "Ye
s
. I've been in remission for almost six years now."

"Good." She smiled wide like I'd just told her that I'd bought a new car. "No one's said anything about it, so I figured you were probably one-hundred percent again."

"I'm okay." I returned her smile, even moving my arm a little so that she could see a hint of the scarring. When the hell was the last time I showed it to someone? I couldn't remember. "Thank you for asking though."

Debra winked. "Glad to hear that. Dex been treating you okay?"

Now that made me
snort
. Why did everyone always ask a variation of the same question? "Except for his little temper tantrums, he's been good." I
was
tempted to say very good to me but luckily I managed not to. It just sounded dirty in my head.