Total pages in book: 135
Estimated words: 137310 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 687(@200wpm)___ 549(@250wpm)___ 458(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 137310 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 687(@200wpm)___ 549(@250wpm)___ 458(@300wpm)
In the end, the only ones left in the room were Hugger and Big Petey, who hadn’t left his seat at the table.
“You orchestrate that?” he asked the old man.
“Does it matter?” Big Petey asked in return.
“Reckon it doesn’t,” Hugger muttered.
“You got love, Hugger,” Big Petey said.
He knew that.
Oh yeah, he knew.
“Yeah,” Hugger grunted.
“Love you, son,” Big Petey said quietly.
Goddammit, fuck him.
He looked Pete square in the eye.
“Love you too, old man,” Hugger replied.
Big Petey’s lips tipped up, he pushed away from the table and got out of his chair.
“Now, let’s go get a fuckin’ beer,” Pete said.
A week later…
He took Diana direct to Chaos after picking her up at the airport.
He’d never been nervous when he met his high school girlfriends’ parents, because, he now knew, his mom set him up to give good boyfriend.
But he’d always been nervous when his mom met his girls, not because he worried what his girls would think of his ma, but what his ma would make of his choice in girls.
And even though Di was all Di was, and Hugger reckoned she could charm a snake, that was the uneasy feeling he had when they walked into the door in the Compound. The same one he had when he’d introduce one of his girlfriends to his mom.
When they walked in, Di was to his left, and she looked left, taking in the pitted walls covered in pictures and stuck-on stickers, the scarred couches, nicked and scratched tables and chairs and pool table.
Hugger looked right, to the bar, where Tack and Hop were both behind it, resting their asses against the back counter, and Hound, Big Petey, Joker and Dutch were sitting at it.
His attention returned to his woman when she exclaimed, “Oh my God! This place is so lit!”
She took another step forward, turned right and squealed.
She then raced to Big Petey, who, like all the other men, had come off his stool. To do it, she ran right by Hound, who had a look that many people would take in and think twice about getting close to the man, and she hit Pete like a bullet.
Hugger started at Big Petey taking that hit, as did all the other men, a telltale sign that all of them were aware that Big Petey was slowing down.
But Pete just went back on a foot and stood strong, folding his arms around Di as she did the same.
After a tight hug, she leaned away and said, “Our dining room table isn’t the same without you.”
When she said that, Hugger glanced at the other men, and that was when he saw it, plain as day.
Diana Armitage had just passed muster.
“Did Maddy call?” Di asked Big Petey. “I gave her your number.”
“Yeah, we’ve had a coupla chats, darlin’,” Big Petey told her.
“Of course you did,” Di said softly, the same kind of look on her face.
The door behind him opened and Tyra, Elvira and Millie came dashing in.
They all listed to a halt a couple feet inside the door. And they were all winded.
“Any a’ you break a heel on your sprint over here?” Tack asked them.
Tyra gave her husband a killing look.
But yeah, they saw Hugger pulling in and didn’t waste any time racing across the forecourt from Tyra’s office at the garage in order to get a load of Diana.
Diana, though, wasn’t noticing this.
She was hugging Dutch.
When they broke, she cried, “Holy crap! You have to come back down! Charlie has another gig in a couple of weeks. Ambient jam-a-palooza!”
The look on Dutch’s face nearly made Hugger bust a gut laughing.
“What the fuck is an ambient jam?” Hound asked.
“You don’t wanna know,” Hop, who used to be in a rock band, answered.
But Di just slapped Dutch’s arm and said, “Just kidding. I’ll tell Charlie that you said you’re sorry you were going to miss it, though.”
Relief hit Dutch’s face, and he replied, “Obliged.”
At that point, Diana turned and took in the rest of the men, just when High, who was probably with the women in the office, but he hadn’t sprinted across the forecourt, walked in. So Di got a look at him too.
She then turned right to Hugger, arched her brows, put her hands on her hips, and demanded, “There isn’t a hotness quotient your brothers have to meet before they prospect? Bullshit. And it looks like the women have to meet it too.”
That was when the entire room exploded with laughter.
Elvira strolled further into the room. “Girl, please tell me you drink tequila.” She jerked a thumb at Hugger and went on, “Someone melted this mountain of snow, we gotta do celebratory shots.”
Diana gave him a look like she’d fallen toward a ravine and certain death, saved herself with a spike, and made it the next day to the peak of Mount Everest.
Hugger just shook his head and smiled.