Highway Don't Care (Freebirds) (24 page)

  “You were never even home.  How was I supposed to
know you’d want her?”

  “I didn’t want her?  I bought a fucking cradle for
her before I even deployed the last time!  How does that say that I’m not
interested?”  He yelled.

  “You’re going to ruin everything if you pursue
this.  He’ll leave me, and I won’t have any way to put a roof over your
baby’s head.”  She sneered.

  “Good, because I have a roof.  She won’t even need
you anymore.  She’s gonna have my wife.  You’re gonna be nothing to
her.  Do you hear me?  Nothing.”

  “You can’t take her away from me!  I’ll leave the
country before I allow you to have her.”

  “Try it.  I dare you.”

  Chills slithered like a snake down my spine when I heard
Gabe’s tone of voice.  He was one scary motherfucker when he wanted to be. 
She took two large steps back, so she was closer to my chair, and I heard what
she probably meant for nobody to hear.

  “I fucking told him this wouldn’t work.  You have
ways of ruining everything.  That stupid prick.”  Sidney muttered
under her breath.

  My brows slashed down in question.  What they heck
did she mean that?  Who was this, her husband, or someone else?

  “I think it’s time for you to leave.  We’re supposed
to have the results from the DNA test in a few hours.  My lawyer’s drawn
up papers to put into motion my visitation rights.  I’ll be having Cora
with me by the weekend.”

  That was news to me, but it also excited me.  I did
feel that maybe he needed to spend some alone time with her, and I went through
my plans for the weekend in my head.  I didn’t have anything
planned.  Maybe Max and I could go and stay at the cabin.

  The cabin was my parent’s favorite getaway.  When
they needed some time to unwind, they would all go up to Hainseville, and stay
in the cabin.  It was primitive.  There was no running water, nor
working lights unless you had the generator running.  There were some
4-wheelers there last time I checked, but I hadn’t been on them in well over
eight years.  The weekend before my parents died.

  Deciding that would be a good plan, I typed up a text on
my phone asking Max if he would go with me.

  Me:  Can we go to the cabin and stay for the
weekend?

  Max:  Sure.  I just got some lights and indoor
plumbing installed. 

  Me:  Since when?

  Max:  Why are we talking like this when we are
sitting next to each other?

  Me:  Because we’re awesome.

  Me:  You aren’t talking.

  I saw Max glance at his phone, roll his eyes, and then
lay the phone back in his lap.

  Me:  Max

  Me:  Maxie Poo.

  Me:  Maximilian Horatio Tremaine.

  Max:  Where did you get Horatio?  That’s not my
middle name.

  Me:  This is getting good.  What do you think
he’s gonna do?

  It was getting good too.  So good, I decided to tape
it.  Good thing I did too, because she used that moment in time to slap the
shit out of Gabe.  I was so stunned that she’d done it that it took me a
few seconds to react.  One second I was leaning back in the chair and
watching the drama unfold, and the next, I was grabbing the bitch by the
hair.  I pulled my arm back, and propelled it forward, knocking her square
in the eye.  She crumpled to the ground on her hands and knees. 

  Yanking her by the hair, I very nearly dragged her until
she got back on her feet and followed me out the door. I let my grip on her
hair loosen as I got to her car.  Leaning away from her, I watched as she
straightened.

  “I don’t care how upset you are.  You do
not
ever hit him again.  I swear to God, if I see or hear that you did that
again you won’t eat solid food for a month.  Got it?”

  She opened her mouth to say something, but then thought
better of it.  Yanking open her door, she folded inside and slammed it
behind her.  She did a pretty impressive burn out once she was in the
street, and I wondered if I could ever do one of those in my POS car. 
Probably not.

  I turned around and startled to see the men of Free lined
up behind me.  Every last one of them was wearing a shit-eating grin on
their face, too.

  “Excuse me while I finish my hash brown.”  I said
squeezing in between James and Sam.

  Sam ruffled my hair as I walked past.  Everyone came
back in except for Gabe, who I saw walk into the direction of his house. 
I’d go check on him in a few minutes, but my guess was that he needed a few
minutes to calm down.

  “I gotta say, Ember.  It is completely awesome when
you do that hair-dragging thing.  Last year with Sam’s psycho, and then
again with Gabe’s, it is just truly a pleasure to witness.”  Elliott said.

  We shot the breeze for another twenty minutes before I
deemed it safe to go in search of my soon to be hubby.  Ditching the boys,
I walked into the garage and stopped dead when I saw the bike that was going up
for auction.  It was absolutely stunning.  The motorcycle was
polished.  The wheels gleamed.  The paint job was an American
flag.  It looked like it’d been through one hell of a war with tatters
swaying in the wind.  A hand reached up from beneath the ground as if
seeking the flag to lie with him in his final resting place.  Written on
the side in a beautiful script the words:  For Kayla.

  My heart squeezed.

  At the one-year mark to Dougie’s death, we went to the
Arlington cemetery and decorated his headstone with flowers and flags. 
Kayla drew a picture of her daddy in the sky with a stick figure Kayla blowing
kisses at him.  She was a very intelligent at the age of four, although
very quiet when you compared her to Janie.  We had a memorial service/wake
for him at a local pub since that is what he would have
wanted.   

  Everyone was drinking and having a good time when the
idea to make a bike and auction it off at one of the biggest motorcycle rallies
in the South came about.  Although, never in my wildest dreams would I
have guessed it would look like this!  It was magnificent.  Fat tears
splashed down my eyes when I thought about the reason this bike was made in the
first place. 

  At first, I was skeptical that a bike would be able to
portray a person as fine as Dougie, but this bike resembled everything that he
believed in and more. 

  Two strong arms wrapped around my waist, and I sank back
against the chest of the man I loved. 

  “It’s beautiful.”  I said to him.

  “I think it turned out nice.  No one knew what we
all planned.  Everyone just built off the previous man’s work.  When
I got it, it was already a piece of art.  I just polished it up a
bit.”  Gabe whispered against my hair.

  We stood like that for a long while.  We stopped
only when my side started to protest.

  “I think I’m gonna go take a nap.  I’m
exhausted.  I’m not going to do any laundry today, by the way.”  I
supplied before blowing him a kiss and walking towards the back door.

  His laughter followed me out the door.

  Cheyenne intercepted me on the way to Gabe’s, and she
ended up coming over to keep me company.  Nevertheless, what we really did
was both fall asleep in Gabe’s bed, and sleep the afternoon and evening away.

  I woke disoriented.  I heard the murmur of men’s
voices, but was too comfy to move.  I had my arms wrapped around Gabe’s
pillow, and my face buried in it breathing deep before I felt movement at my
back.  Looking down I noticed a skinny arm wrapped around my stomach, and
snoring happening right behind my head.

  “This is hilarious.”  Gabe whispered.

 A soft chuckle followed this statement and Sam said,
“Cheyenne is drooling on Ember’s hair.” 

  That wasn’t the first time it’d happened, and probably
wouldn’t be the last.  I slept over at Cheyenne’s place at least once a
week since we were sixteen.  Only recently had that slowed down. 
Every single one of those times, I would wake up in this position.

  “It’s like the snoring wars, Texas edition.”

  Indignation flooded my body and I raised my finger and
flipped both of them the bird.

  Chuckles escaped them as I untangled myself from
Cheyenne’s death clutch.  Gabe reached down and hefted me to my feet, and
I made my way groggily into the bathroom.  I made quick work and zombie
walked into the living room to find them both playing Call of Duty. 
Rolling my eyes, I walked up beside Gabe and plopped down next to him.  I
curled into his body, making it hard for him to work the controller.

  He didn’t shrug me off though.  I stayed like this
for ten minutes before they set the controllers down and started talking about
dinner.

  “Pizza.”  I muttered into Gabe’s arm.

  Just then, Cheyenne walked into the room and made herself
comfortable in Sam’s lap.

  I must have fallen asleep again but I woke when the front
door closed quietly, and the lovely aroma of Italian spices and pizza sauce
filled the air.

    Sitting up, I rubbed the sleep from my eyes
and glanced at the clock.  Yikes.  It was already eight at
night.  We’d slept the day away.  Cheyenne was still knocked out on
the couch so I threw a pillow at her and hit her in the face.

  Grinning when she threw the pillow back at me blindly I
said, “Wake up, homie.  Pizzas here.” 

  Walking into the kitchen, I sat at the table and started
eating pizza directly from the box.  I had no clue where Sam and Gabe
were, but it wasn’t long before Cheyenne joined me.  She grabbed us both a
coke and we devoured an entire pizza between the two of us.  I let out a
large belch that was followed shortly by Cheyenne’s slightly shorter one. 
I beat her by at least three points.

  “That was attractive.”  Sam said as he walked in the
door.

  Her answer was to let another one rip, and I laughed.

  Gabe followed behind Sam and started laughing when he
heard her burp. 

  “I’m good as long as she doesn’t fart.  Then I might
be a little grossed out.”

  “What, you haven’t farted in front of each other
yet?”  Cheyenne asked.

  Gabe glanced at me and said, “Not intentionally.”

  “What’s not intentionally supposed to mean?”  I
asked quizzically.

  “Nothing.”  He muttered and opened the pizza box.

  I decided to let this slide for now.  It struck me
as being one of those things you don’t want to hear in front of others.

  “What happened to all the pizza?  Did y’all already
put it in the fridge?”  Gabe asked.

  “What do you mean?  We ate it all.  Wasn’t it
ours?”  Cheyenne asked.

   I concurred by nodding my head.

  “No.  That was an extra-large!  How could y’all
eat all that?  We only went outside for more beer.  Are y’all being
serious?”  Sam asked.

  “What did you want us to do?  We thought y’all took
the other box outside, or wherever y’all went!”  Cheyenne squirmed
uncomfortably.

  “Oops.”  I said.

  Rolling their eyes, they sat back and drank their
beers.  They were much better sports than we would have been.

  “What time are we leaving this weekend?”  I asked
them.

  The rally in Tulsa started this weekend, and I couldn’t
wait.  We’d never been to a rally before, so we were excited to experience
something new that our men loved so much.

  “Probably Friday morning.  It’s going to take a
while to haul the bike on the trailer.  So we’re gonna just go early so
we’re not trying to rush.”  Gabe explained.

  Nodding my head, I made a note to myself to call the
hotel to see if they could add one more day on to our stay.

  Standing up I went about making them a sandwich.  If
I thought about it, I might feel somewhat bad that we ate an entire extra-large
that could have fed two full-grown men.  Who was I kidding?  Why
would they think an extra-large would be enough for four people?  I made
the sandwiches anyway though, it’s not their fault Cheyenne and I can eat like
men.  Cheyenne got up and helped me seeing as I don’t know what Sam
liked. 

  I wasn’t sure what Gabe liked either, but I took a wild
guess he would eat anything.  Therefore, I made him two huge sandwiches with
turkey, ham, two kinds of cheeses, lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, mustard, and
finally mayo.  My mouth watered as I looked at the finish product, how I
could still eat was beyond me, but I’ve always been like this.  I can eat
a full meal, and two hours later eat another.  My family called me a
bottomless pit.  I had a feeling this pregnancy wasn’t going to be good
for my figure.

  I did pretty well on the sandwich.  The only thing
he took off was the tomatoes.  Good to know.  Just as the last bite cleared
his mouth, his phone rang.  Chewing quickly, he reached into his pocket
and dug it out.  His expression tensed as he saw who was calling, and we
all held our breath as we waited for the news.

  “Hello?”  Gabe answered.