This was because Minnie was not only being loud, but also using a fair amount of foul language.

Some customers just stared.

Most of them left.

I got my phone and contract.

We were at Ace because that was the plan. Shopping and then they were going to drop me off at Ace. Buck was going to drive us home.

His kids were due between five and six, depending, Buck said, on how fast and loose Gear played the speed limit.

He told me we should plan on them being home at five.

I guessed this meant Gear normally played the speed limit very fast and loose, and this wasn’t surprising, considering the loins from whence he came.

Not that Buck drove like a maniac (at least not with me in the car).

But he didn’t dillydally.

I surveyed the cavernous space that was Ace as we walked in, Minnie, Lorie and Driver hanging close to me. Pinky forged ahead and threw her arms around a tall man with a full beard that needed a trim, starting this habitual grooming about two years ago. He had long brown hair that he’d bunched up at the back of his head in a messy man-bun that by no means took him twenty minutes to fashion. He also had a hint of a beer gut.

He wrapped his arms around Pinky and bent her backwards, laying a big, wet one on her for all to see.

This was when I stopped watching Pinky and who I assumed was Cruise and started to look at the store.

It was spacious with very tall ceilings and lots of rows displaying lots of stuff. It smelled like a woodworking shop and fresh paint.

Metallica was playing over the sound system.

No Muzak, not at Ace.

Metal.

I wasn’t surprised, and as with pretty much everything I’d experienced that was the Aces High MC, it was cool.

We stopped close to Pinky and Cruise and I realized, after the mall drama, I’d had a good day.

I eventually relaxed, Pinky eventually spoke up, Lorie kept gabbing a mile a minute, Driver offered light relief through frequently muttering stuff that was funny and Minnie lost the attitude and was quite nice, in a hard-as-nails kind of way.

It might not have started great, but it got tons better, and the girls had a blast making me try stuff on and then hooting and hollering when I modeled it.

When Tia and I, or any of my old friends and I, went shopping, we didn’t hoot and holler.

In fact, I wasn’t certain I ever hooted and hollered or had been around anyone who did it.

I didn’t hoot and holler with the biker babe posse either, but it made me giggle when they did.

It wasn’t lost on me that I hadn’t had a day like this in a long time. So long, I actually couldn’t recall the last time I had one.

In fact, so long, I wondered if I ever did.

And, with that, it wasn’t lost on me that I owed more to Buck then a debt of safety, protection, a roof over my head, food in my belly and a fistful of “cake.”

Cruise released Pinky, though he didn’t let her go. He hooked her around the neck and tucked her against his side. Then his eyes came to me.

“Shit, babe, fuck, heard they nailed you, but Jesus,” he said, his gaze on my black eye.

“Yes,” I replied for want of anything else to say.

However, it was the truth.

They nailed me.

“We’re Professor Higgins to Clary,” Pinky told him, pressing into his side, wrapping her arm around his slightly protruding belly and looking up at him with a smile. “We’re making her Eliza Biker Babe.”

Cruise grinned down at Pinky with a warmth to his face that I liked for Pinky, a great deal, then he looked at Driver.

“Feel your pain, brother,” he muttered.

Driver grunted.

I smiled at Lorie then I looked at my watch.

It was ten to five.

Oh dear.

I’d learned today that Buck lived thirty minutes outside of the northernmost boundary of the Valley. And although Ace was situated in North Phoenix, it was a ten-minute drive to that boundary.

We were going to be late for his kids.

Not good.

I looked at Cruise and asked, “Where’s Buck?”

“Dive,” Cruise replied, jerking his head to the back of the store. “Go down aisle one, use the back door there.” He looked at Minnie. “Gash is there too.”

“Thanks,” I said. “Nice to meet you,” I continued even though I hadn’t really met him.

He grinned.

Minnie muttered, “I’ll come with.”

Awkwardly, because I was carrying a bunch of bags, but also because I wasn’t really practiced with it, I gave out hugs to Lorie and Pinky. I left out Driver because he’d wandered behind the long counter that ran most of the front of the store and held six registers. Also because I didn’t think he wanted a girlie, post-shopping hug. He’d done enough to prove his loyalty to the Club for one day.

Then I called out good-byes and Minnie and I wandered to the back of the store.

I felt it necessary to speak, even though Minnie didn’t seem to feel the same need.

“Thanks for, um…” I hesitated, “giving me a chance.”

She let out a short laugh before she bumped her shoulder to mine while we were walking, banging my bags against my leg as she did it.

“Babe, seriously, we need more lessons,” she noted.

I looked at her. “What? Why?”

“’Cause you don’t thank people for givin’ you a chance. They just should. They don’t, fuck ’em.”

“Do you think ‘fuck ’em’ about everyone?” I asked, then added, “And, well, everything?”

“Uh…yeah,” she answered.

I smiled at her, looked forward, saw the back door, and when we made it there, I put my bag-laden hand to the bar and shoved it open.

I’d barely left the store, not even the doorway, but as I started to do this, I turned my head to the right and stopped so dead, Minnie ran into my back.

I didn’t move.

I stared.

Outside the warehouse across the way, there were three picnic tables, where, I guessed, staff could take their breaks.

Buck was sitting on the end of one, his legs spread wide, a tall, ultra-curvy biker babe with long, lush, wavy dark hair standing between his legs. His hand was at her waist, his head tilted back. Her hands were resting on his shoulders, her head tilted down.

Her back was to me.

I also had a partial view of their sides, and it wasn’t a clear view, but it looked like they were kissing.

I felt my insides begin to burn as I retreated, running into Minnie again. I pushed her back into Ace and carefully closed the door.

I put my hand on it and deep-breathed to put out the fire burning deep.

“Babe,” Minnie whispered, and I looked at her.

Her gaze took in my face and she winced.

She’d seen it.

She’d seen what I had.

“Shit, already you’re in deep.” She kept whispering.

I shook my head, but this was meaningless denial.

I knew.

I knew with the intensity my insides were burning that she was right.

I was already in deep.

I liked him.

I liked Buck.

I liked him more than as my protector, a good guy, the guy who was taking care of me, the guy who was good in bed, who made me smile. The guy who had my back.

I liked him.

He kissed my nose.

I that kind of liked him.