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I don’t know why I care what she thinks. I mean, she is clearly in a messy situation of her own and I don’t need to be worrying about anything to do with her.
“You drove here?” Felix asks me.
I nod. “Yeah, I’ll taxi it back to the hotel and come get my car in the morning.”
“We’ll give you a ride,” he offers, nodding to his car across the road. “Do you want to come and hang out with us first? I haven’t seen you in a few weeks now.”
“Sounds good.”
And that’s how I ended up back at the Wind Dragons clubhouse.
* * *
I came here on a good night, or a bad one, depending on how you look at it. It’s someone’s birthday, which is why Clover and Felix came to visit in the first place, so there’s a pretty cool party happening at the clubhouse, and everyone is drinking. Coming in as a stranger, I get quite a few looks, but Clover and Felix are quick to tell everyone that I’m with them and that I’m a trusted friend.
“Don’t tell them about Constance,” Cara whispers to me. “Now is not the time.”
“Okay, that’s your business. I’m not going to say a thing.”
“Sorry you got dragged into my drama before,” she says, smiling sadly. “I’m so embarrassed. And to be honest, I’m feeling a little numb right now.”
“You don’t need to apologize, and you have nothing to be embarrassed about. No one dragged me. I walked right up there and brought myself into it. Something I’m used to doing as an ex-police officer.”
“I just don’t even know what to think right now,” she admits.
“Don’t think, just distract,” I suggest, giving her the terrible advice I would give myself.
She looks down and smiles. “It’s such a small world. I know you told me you knew Felix, but seeing you two together on my home turf? That’s wild.”
“Yep, I know.”
I feel like I’ve wandered right into the other side of Felix’s life. One I had briefly heard about—I knew that his wife had MC ties and that it was a very complicated situation for them, but it seems to have all worked out for him.
I mean, he’s still a cop, and right now he’s in a biker clubhouse having a drink with Clover’s dad, who I find out is a former president of the Wind Dragons MC. Weird. I’ve known her for years now and I never knew how connected she was to the Wind Dragons.
“Bet you never thought you’d end up here.” Cara smirks, crossing her arms over her chest and looking out at all of her friends and family. She points to a man in the corner, one who is currently watching her through a narrowed gaze. “That’s my dad.”
The man in question brings his eyes to me. “He looks just as happy to see me as your boyfriend was.”
She laughs. “You’re probably used to that welcome, right?”
I turn to her with a grin. “You might be surprised to know that lots of people find me charming.”
She smiles again, and even with her eyes red from crying, she looks beautiful. It’s like she radiates warmth, and I don’t know how any man could be okay to make her feel the way that Rhett did.
“I don’t doubt it. I’m going to get a drink, or ten, as Clover suggested. Do you want one?”
“I’d love one,” I reply, watching her disappear back into the kitchen and leaving me standing against a wall alone.
“Who are you?” a woman asks, leaning against the wall next to me. Just by looking at her, I know that she’s Cara’s mother. She looks just like her. And let’s just say that Cara is going to be an attractive woman at any age, because her mother is beautiful.
Cara quickly approaches, two beers in hand, saving me from the inquisition. “Mom, this is Decker. Decker, meet my mom.”
“Lovely to meet you, Mrs. Ward,” I say, offering her my hand.
“Please call me Bailey.”
“Bailey,” I correct.
