Total pages in book: 58
Estimated words: 53361 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 267(@200wpm)___ 213(@250wpm)___ 178(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 53361 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 267(@200wpm)___ 213(@250wpm)___ 178(@300wpm)
“You must be Cora.” She had a friendly smile, just like the other women I’d met here. “Hannah told me about you. I’m Pippa.” She held out her hand in greeting, and I took it automatically. “You have no idea how much we appreciate you taking our orders. We make regular runs, but I swear the guys around here are bottomless pits, to say nothing of the children at the shelter we feed.”
“You’re one of the few places I don’t deliver beer.” I have no idea why I made the observation but there it was. “I figured with as many men as you had here, I’d be delivering a lot of beer.”
“You’d think, huh?” The other woman grinned as she extended her hand. “I’m Penny.” I took her hand briefly. “It’s not that we don’t have beer, it’s that the guys prefer to get their own. I don’t think a single one of them drinks the same kind. It’s just easier.”
I helped carry the impressive haul to the kitchen. All the while, the two women chatted away, engaging me as easily as if we’d been friends for years.
The warmth inside was cozy and comfortable. Not just in temperature, but atmosphere. Hannah and Pippa each hugged me before going back to the car to bring in more stuff. Four times a week and they filled my trunk to overflowing. I’d actually started using my back seat sometimes, too.
“What’s an old lady?” I’d been meaning to ask them for the last couple of weeks but hadn’t worked up the courage. The last thing I wanted to do was offend these people when they’d been nothing but nice to me.
Instead of offense, I got laughter. “You’ll have to ask the guys why they call us old ladies.” Pippa grinned at me. “But, if you want to know the truth, I’m not a hundred percent sure even they know why the term is ‘old ladies’. We’re their women. Wives or girlfriends. And old lady is a woman in a permanent relationship with one of the men here.”
“Archaic, I know.” Hannah’s laugh was infectious and I found myself smiling. “And to be honest, sometimes I feel like these guys are one step up from cavemen. My dad’s the same way.”
“Is your dad in a motorcycle club, too?” I set the last of the bags on the counter. The other women had started putting things away as they chatted, so I helped. Not exactly something I’d consider doing anywhere else, but this place almost felt like home. I’d only known these people three weeks. I didn’t want to even think about what that said about my life.
“Oh, yeah.” Hannah nodded her head several times. “He owns a paramilitary company. All the guys in Bones MC work at ExFil. Dad was the president until a few years ago. Now he mostly lets my brothers run the place.”
“Mostly?” I raised an eyebrow.
Hannah shrugged. “Yeah. Dad has a bit of a control problem, but Mom says he’s working on it.”
“Yeah?” I raised an eyebrow. “How long has he been working on it?”
“Oh, I think maybe since she first met him.” Everyone laughed.
“Heard that, Sis. I’m tellin’ Dad.” Gunnar, Hannah’s brother, walked up behind her, placed a kiss on her cheek, and snagged a grape from the bunch she’d been going to put in the fridge. He popped it in his mouth with a grin.
“You know that snitches get stitches. Right?” I loved the easy way Hannah and Gunnar were with each other. Everyone was the same way. It felt like one big family and I found myself living for these moments, even if I wasn’t directly a part of them.
“You love me too much to make me need stitches.” Gunnar grinned before trotting over to Pippa and pulling her into his arms and giving her a hard, welcoming kiss. She squealed, then giggled as he tossed her over his shoulder. “Hate to run and eat so I’m taking her home.”
“That’s eat and run, you ape!”
“Yeah, not doin’ that either. I’m gonna eat, then we’re gonna have dessert.” He swatted her ass as he carried her out of the kitchen. Yet another thing I loved about this place. There was no vaguely naughty anything. They were in your face, raw to the max, while managing to not be offensive or creepy about anything. The men stuck with their women and vice versa. So not my experience with anything related to family or any kind of personal relationship. Soon after, all the women except Penny and Hannah left, each of them giving me a warm hug.
When it was just me, Hannah, and Penny, Penny gestured to the coffeepot on the counter. “Coffee?” A wonderful smelling dark brew had just finished dripping into the glass bowl. “We almost always have a fresh pot on.”