Loving Lo: Devil's Knights Series (2 page)

              “No problem, Ma. I’ll get one of the guys to bring your car to you later. Make sure it’s locked.” Ma dug her keys out of her huge ass purse and beeped the locks. We both got into the shop truck and I started it up.

              “Sure was nice of that Meg to help out. I don’t know what I would have done without her.”

              “Yup, definitely nice of her.” I shifted the truck in drive, keeping my foot on the brake, knowing exactly where mom was headed with this.

              “You should ask her out.” All I could do was shake my head and laugh.

              “Straight to the point huh, ma?”

              “I’m old, I can say what I want. Meg is just the thing you need.”

              “I didn’t know I needed anything.” I said as I pulled out of the parking lot and headed to Ma’s house.

              “You need someone in your life besides that club.” My mom grabbed her phone out of her purse and started fiddling with it.

              “We’ll see ma. Meg didn’t seem too thrilled with me.” She definitely liked what she saw but it was like she couldn’t get away from me quick enough when she saw that Ma was going to be ok.

              “Well, you are pretty intimidating, Lo. Thank goodness you didn’t wear your cut.”

              My leather vest with my club rockers and patches was a part of me. “What the hell is wrong with my cut? If some bitch can’t handle me in my cut, she sure as shit don’t belong with me.” I growled.

              “Not what I meant Lo. That girl has been hurt, you can see it in her eyes. You’ll have to be gentle with her.”

              My phone dinged. I dug it out of my pocket and saw my mom had texted me. “You texted me her number, ma?”

              “Use it, Logan, fix her.” She insisted.

              I sighed and pulled into mom’s driveway. “Maybe she doesn’t want to be fixed ma. Maybe she has a boyfriend.”

              “She doesn’t. Call her, or I’ll do it for you.” She ordered.

              I knew my mom’s threat wasn’t idle. She totally would call Meg and ask her out for me. Fuck. “I’ll help you get your shit inside ma.”

              “I’ll make you lunch and then you can call Meg.”  Ma said, as she jumped out of the truck and grabbed some bags.

              I watched her walk into her house and looked at the message she had sent me. I saved Meg’s number to my phone and grabbed the rest of Ma’s shit and headed into the house.

              Looked like I was calling Meg.

=======

Chapter 2

Meg

              After my crazy morning at the Dollar Store, I put all my stuff away and started a new list of things I needed on the fridge. Dog food and shampoo got top billing on the list. I was running dangerously low on both things.

              The overflowing sink full of dishes was giving me the stink eye and I knew I should do them. Instead, I flipped the sink off, ripped a piece of paper out of a notebook and left a note for Remy. He could do them when he got home from school. I put a twenty dollar bill on top. Problem solved.

              Looking at the clock I saw there were four hours before I had to be at work. I was exhausted and would be needing a nap. I grabbed some panties and a sleep shirt from my dresser and headed into the bathroom before I keeled over.

              Remy was my fantastic, most awesome son ever. I love him. Plain and simple.

Remy was always telling me I don’t need to wake up in the mornings with him before school. He was right; he was sixteen and could totally handle getting himself out the door on time for school. Damn kid was more put together then his mom is. I don’t get up with him because I think he can’t get himself ready, I do it because otherwise I wouldn’t have any time to spend with him.

              Working from three to eleven Sunday through Thursday, I barely see Remy. Dragging my butt out of bed after only getting a couple hours of sleep to be up by at six to spend an hour and half with him before he runs off to school is necessary. After he goes to school, I clean, run errands, and any other odd things that needed to be done. Than I would normally pass out for a few hours before work. It was a weird schedule, but it works.

              I shared custody of Remy with my douche of an ex-husband, Hunter. We had been married for twelve years and divorced for the past five years. Yes, I had gotten married when I was nineteen. Looking back on marrying so young, I realized it was not the right choice at all, but that’s what happens when you’re young, stupid, have low self-esteem, and the first guy in eighteen years shows a little interest in you.  You end up married, pregnant, and alone, while your newly acquired husband runs off with his friends and leaves you alone with a newborn with no idea how to take care him. Thank goodness I had my mom and sister to help me out

              The decision to get a divorce was one of the hardest, and also one of the easiest, decisions I have ever made. It wasn’t a good marriage at all. In the end we both just stayed married for so long because of Remy. 

              We have a pretty lax visitation schedule when it comes to Remy. A lot of the time Remy will spend the evenings with his dad, then come to my house to sleep and wake up at our house. Weekends are pretty much every other, but there are always exceptions. Hunter is big into hunting and fishing and had gotten Remy into in too so they are always out on the boat or traipsing through the woods. As long as Rem was happy, I was fine with the arrangement.

              I grabbed Rem’s dirty clothes off the floor and threw them into the hamper. God forbid he would put his clothes in the hamper instead of on the floor
next
to the hamper. Boys.

I plugged my phone into the speaker that was set up on the tank of the toilet and fired up the shower playlist. I had a play list for pretty much anything. Chill, shower, cleaning, pissed off, you name it; there was a play list for it.

              Steam and the sound of Journey crooning about a lonely girl taking the midnight train to anywhere filled the bathroom as I got undressed.

              I looked in the mirror and cringed. Hopefully my hair looked a lot better during my encounter with Lo. Right now it just looked like a maroon rats nest on the top of my head. I would be the first to tell you, my name is Meg, and I am addicted to dyeing my hair. Red, maroon, purple, black, brown, even blonde at one point in my life, you name it, my hair has been that color. On further inspection of myself in the mirror, I had bags under my eyes and dark circles that just made me look tired. Fabulous.

              Hunter never told me I was pretty. Or gorgeous. Or anything flattering. At one point I would have been thrilled for him to tell me I looked ok. He never commented when I changed my hair color or hairstyle (which was often and each time very noticeable.) Never commented when my weight would fluctuate (which it did quite often through our twelve years together.)

              When I would try to stand by him in public he would always move away from me like he didn’t want people to know he married me, let alone know me. In all honestly, he acted like he was just disgusted with me. He did wonders for my ego. Not!

              I tried so hard those first ten years of marriage to make it something more and I just couldn’t. He told me he wasn’t the type of guy to say things about hair or looks, and that I knew that when I married him (I so did
not!
). He wasn’t going to change for me, end of story.

              The last two years of hell (I mean our marriage), I had completely checked out. I weighed the most I ever had and I ate to be happy, but I never got happy. I just got bigger, and when I got bigger, my low self-esteem became nonexistent

              Hunter started noticing that I wouldn’t say I love you anymore. I would say “me too” or act like I didn’t hear him. He finally called me on it and I just couldn’t lie anymore. I loved him for giving me Remy, but that was it. Any love I had for him before had gone away a long time ago.

              He got pissed.

              I cried.

              He yelled.

              I cried more.

              That was a typical fight between us. Except that time, Hunter left and I let him go. We both knew it was over and there was no going back.

              Of course, Hunter called me every name in the book and tried to make my life hell that first year after the divorce but I didn’t let it bother me and that drove Hunter
crazy
. Silence drove him bat shit crazy, to be exact. He always had to be talking, even if it was nothing he was saying, you had better listen and you had better have a comment when he was done talking. I had no comment after all the things he said about me, just silence. He finally just left me alone and that was where we are now. We talked when it was about Remy and that was all we talked about.

              It. Was. Awesome.

              Now I was working on getting my confidence back. I never use to look in the mirror unless it was first thing in the morning getting ready or at night washing my face, those were the only times.              

              Now, I made myself look in the mirror and was learning to love the person staring back. I had lost some weight since the divorce, but was still a big girl. I was a size eighteen, with lots of boob and lots of ass. (I really had lots of everything.)  I was always going to be curvy.

              My face had finally gotten out of puberty two years ago to where it didn’t constantly break out. A woman in her thirties having constant breakouts was ridiculous, then just one day it stopped. Not that I was going to question it, I was just going to go with it and pray it never came back. My face was round and full and had an average look. I barely ever wore makeup because I just didn’t see the point and really wasn’t a girly girl. I would rather be out helping dad work on an old car then spending an hour each day worrying about how I looked.

              I jumped in the shower deciding that was enough looking in the mirror. If I looked too long, I started seeing all the things I hated.  I washed up and sang along with Journey for a couple songs and felt my fatigue hit me hard as I stepped out of the shower. I threw on my clothes and went to crash.

========

Meg

              I rolled over and heard “Compass” by Lady Antebellum blaring from my phone. I pulled the pillow off my head and looked at the time. It was only one o’clock. Everyone I knew knows not to call me during the afternoon unless it was an emergency.

              “This better be an emergency. You know how much I love my sleep.” I mumbled into the phone, putting the pillow back over my head. I had forgotten to pull the curtains and sunlight was streaming in through the window.

              “No, I don’t know how much you like to sleep darling, but now I do.” I shot up, knocking the pillow off my head and kicked my dog, Blue, in the head.

              It was Lo. Why the heck was he calling? Maybe something happened to Ethel. Wait, did he just call me darling?

              “Did something happen to your mom?” I demanded.

              “No. She’s good. Actually making a pie right now for tomorrow.” Lo said.

              I breathed a sigh of relief and took a breathe. “Ok. That’s good. So why did you call me?” I asked, as I laid back down and Blue jumped off the bed. Blue was just like me, sleep was golden and nobody better interrupt it.

              “I was calling to ask-”

              “Wait. How did you get my number?” I interrupted him.

              “From my mom, darling. You gave it to her this morning.” He chuckled.

              “Shit, that’s right. I forgot. Sorry. Proceed.”

              “Thanks for the permission.” Lo rumbled into the phone.

              I slapped myself on the forehead and winced. “Sorry. I’m not a morning person.”

              “It’s one in the afternoon, you missed morning by an hour, Meg.” I could hear the smile in his voice. Apparently I was entertaining.

              “I mean, I need time to um… ahh… wake up before my brain starts to function properly.” Jeez, now I sounded like moron.

              “I got ya, babe. I’ll let ya get back to sleep but I just wanted to ask you if you wanted to meet me for a drink tonight?”

              Hmm, babe? Not quite as good as darling but still good. Wait, did he just ask me out for a drink? “What?”

              “You want to meet me at The Tavern for a drink after you get off work?” Lo asked again.

              “I did hear you right the first time; I guess I was just shocked you wanted to meet up with me.”

              “Why wouldn’t I want to get a drink with you? Buy you a couple drinks, thank you for helping my mom today.” Lo reasoned.

              Therefore, this was like a pity drink. Got it. That made more sense than Lo actually wanting to go out with me, just a drink. “Sure, sounds good. I live right down the street from there. We normally go there after work on Thursday, so I won’t be there till after midnight.” I told him.

              “No problem, darling. Hold on a sec.” I heard Ethel yelling something to Lo. “My mom wants to know if you can make it tomorrow for lunch.”

              “Um, yea. Should be fine. I just need to know where.”

              “I’ll text you her address and a time.” Lo said.

              “Ok, well, I guess I’ll see you tonight.”

              “Looking forward to it, darling.” I started to say bye but realized Lo had already hung up.

              Darling.  How many times did he call me that, three or four? His voice just sends shock waves through me, especially when he calls me darling. 

              “It’s just a drink. He just wants to say thanks for helping Ethel today. Nothing more, nothing less. Right, Bluesy? You’re all I need.” I crooned to Blue.

              Blue, my Basset Hound, sat at the foot of my bed, crying. “Can’t get up, Bluesy?” I leaned over the edge and looked at the dog. He really was cute looking, in a pathetic kind of way. He had ears that were about five times too big for his head and droopy looking eyes. He was black, brown, and white with black freckles running up his white legs. He was adorable.

              Blue looked at me and placed his front paws on the bed, begging for me to help him up. “Might as well get up Blue and make some dinner for work tonight. What ya in the mood for sweet boy?” I scratched Blue behind his ears and crawled out of bed.

              Blue walked into the kitchen and came back with his food bowl and dropped it at my feet. “Silly boy. How about I fill your bowl, and I’ll whip up some cheeseburgers for Remy and Troy.” Troy was my co-worker, we had been working together for the past twelve years. Besides Rem and my family, Troy was the only other person I was close to. We were like brother and sister.

              Troy was six years younger than me, had his own house, was freaking’ hilarious and my best friend. Troy was both mine and Hunter’s friend before the divorce. Troy always joked that I got Troy in the divorce.

              I walked in the kitchen and started getting everything out for the burgers.

              I lived in a two bedroom, one bath house. I loved it. It was perfect size for Remy and myself. There was a small living room with a chocolate brown, large over stuffed chaise lounge where I loved to read and a matching over stuffed couch where you would normally find Remy playing X-Box or watching Netflix. Remy and I each had our own rooms that were separated by the bathroom. The back yard was huge, with a large deck and a fire pit. It was where I spent a good bit of my time on the weekends just relaxing.