Page 66 of Truck

“Shut it, Winger. I’ll let Rory do all that.” I smirk as I get up from my seat and head to the door. “Oh, so we’ll help the woman, and grab the man, right?”

“Right,” Winger and Bull answer at the same time.

Walking into the gas station office a few minutes later I’m surprised to see Briony is still here. “I’ve gotta leave soon Rum. The house is ready, and I’m going to pick up the keys. I’ll need Rory to see it so she can organize what furniture she wants.”

“Okay, no problem. I’ve arranged hours with Briony, and the pit stop is advertised on the billboard. We’ll have to see how much it’s used. If it’s a waste of time, we can convert the building into something useful to the recovery business,” Rum looks at me and I shrug my shoulders because I’ve no issue with that. “I’ve told Briony she should open her own cleaning business. Stay legit because she doesn’t want the IRS on her back.”

“Well, I’m going to ask Rory if she’d be okay with Briony cleaning at our place. Pres will need a cleaner for his house because he’ll do no cleaning and the club women are fuckin’ hopeless most the time,” I add and think the club women have been quiet lately. They seem to have been keeping their heads down, but is that because of the trouble they caused? Or something else?

“I will look into becoming a business if I get enough clients. It’s no good working hard at it if I have only one place to clean. Here I’m employed by the gas station business so I don’t need to be classed as self-employed,” Briony has obviously thought a little about it to say this, and she’s right, if she only works here, she can stay as employed by us.

“You ask Rory, Truck, and speak to Tracker about his place. What about Cilla? Maybe she could do with some help?” Rum asks, and I nod agreement that I’ll speak to everyone.

On my way to the clubhouse, I stop at our house so I can give Rory the good news. She’s helping the neighbors take shopping into their house. I didn’t know she was taking them for groceries today, but I grab two bags and haul them inside.

“That’s everything from the trunk, Martin,” I say as I place the bags on the kitchen table. “You did a lot of shopping today.”

“Well, we’ve told Rory we don’t need to go every week. If we go every two weeks, it’s enough. We have two freezers and a good size fridge so we can stock up for two weeks,” Martin throws his arm around Cora.

You know it is great to see a married couple still love each other after thirty-odd years. So many people don’t make the effort. It’s like at the first sign of a disagreement they throw in the towel. That’s not going to happen to me and Rory. I’ll make sure we stick with it until the very end. I expect that end to be when we are old and gray.

Rory slides her arm through mine when I hold it out to her. Like in one of those romance books I’ve caught her reading. I’ve seen how she smiles softly when she sees something like this, and I’m okay with looking like an idiot in front of my brothers if necessary. They take the piss out of everything, so this is going to be one of those things, of that, I’m sure.

In the kitchen of Rory’s house, I take a seat while she puts away a few things she purchased while shopping with Martin and Cora. “Our house is ready, Rory. I want to take you over and show it to you, room-by-room, because you’ll have the say on furniture and stuff. I’ve never furnished a house, so I’m going to be guided by your choices. I’ve had Coin put a wad of cash on this card.” I hand over a card that has more than enough to furnish the house and buy all the equipment for the kitchen. “I know you’ll need pots, pans, bed stuff, and well, everything. There is more than enough on the card. If you want me to go with you, I’ll come with you, but I’ll not know shit, so it’ll still be you making the choices.” I give her the stupidest grin, and she blinks a few times as she takes in all that I’m saying, then she smirks. Shit! Does that mean I’m in trouble?

Rory looks at the card and picks up her purse, placing the card in it, still with a smile on her face. “I’ll speak to Cilla and see if she would like to go shopping with me. It’ll be fun having a woman to shop with. I didn’t have that when I set this place up, so it’ll be nice to have another opinion when I buy stuff. Are you sure you don’t want to make choices with me? Or come to every shopping trip I do?”

“Babe, I’m good with whatever you buy because your sense of style is gonna be much better than mine. I’d probably buy everything in black and chrome so it would end up a dismal place if it was left to me.” I chuckle at the look of shock and horror on her face, but I step over to her, wrap her in my arms, and kiss her. “Now, come on, let’s go look at our new home.”

We spent two hours walking around the house, and to my amusement Rory had her phone out taking pictures of rooms and making copious notes on what she needs to purchase, including colors and sizes.

When we leave, Rory pats my forearm right before tucking her arm through mine again. “Come on, let’s go find Cilla and I’ll ask her if she wants to come shopping with me.”

Inside the clubhouse, Cilla and Finger are sitting in the common room, alongside Hot Rod, Rides, and Scalpel. They are relaxed and laughing at something.

We take a seat, and Rory blurts out to Cilla. “I am going shopping for furniture for the house. Would you like to come with me?”

Cilla squeals. “I’d love to. Oh, this will be fun. When we get our suite here, I’ll drag you along when I buy furniture for there.”

“What? You are going to buy furniture for the suite?” Finger sounds shocked, but Cilla scowls while pointing at him. He slams his mouth tightly shut, so another word doesn’t escape. We all do our best to keep a straight face, but it’s difficult when you can see Cilla is ready to go batshit on Finger any minute.

“I’ll call you and arrange a day and time. It’ll be fun, I agree. Are you bringing Ayla with you?” Rory asks but doesn’t get further than that when Tracker and Cap appear from behind me.

Tracker leans forward toward Cilla as he asks. “Where are you going?”

“Oh, not again!” Cilla sighs, but I grab Rory’s arm and lead her to another table, obviously not wanting to be involved in whatever conversation is going to happen.

“You know you were talking about Grady and skating?” I ask and Rory nods that she remembers. “Well, we can book the rink and have a hockey match. I have brothers on board if you are good with that?”

“I’ll ask Jill, but I think that’s a good idea.” Rory takes out her phone and sends a text. I didn’t expect her to react so quickly, but it will be fun if Jill agrees.

I waited until Rory had finished messaging to ask, “What did she say?”

“She said, have at it.” Rory smiles, and I rub my hands together because this is great. “Saturday, I’ll arrange it for Saturday evening.”

Rory giggles, “Okay. I’ll tell Grady and he’s going to be so excited.”

That is how I end up at the ice rink with a busted lip, a black eye and sore ribs, and yeah, feeling sorry for myself. Rum, who is sitting beside me on a bench chuckles. “Looks like you took more than a tumble, Truck.”