Arrow of Time (2 page)

I looked around the lot, the guys and women sitting all over it, all of them with their attention directed at the car I was in. They'd stared when I walked in, but their stares were even more intense now. Guess that's what happened when you shook hands with the president and took off in a car with his wife. I might not have been at a clubhouse before, but Lanie had explained a lot in those emails. Basically while she herself was figuring out how all this worked. It didn't seem to be that different from most tribes, down to their view of women, which sucked. Some of the things I’d heard I googled to confirm—the outlaw parts, that is. But that was none of my business. My sister was my family, the only one I had, and this was her family so I wasn't gonna question that. I'd roll with it.

I looked at Lanie again, my calm, beautiful and brave big sister, and I nodded once more.

“
Yes. I'm done,” I said, and her smile grew even bigger at that.

“
Good. I missed you.”

-o0o-

Bull turned to Brick, but before he could say anything, Sisco jumped the gun.

“
Wanna fill us in?”

“
That was Edie. Mel's baby sister.”

“
Mel has a sister?” Bull asked.

He couldn't remember ever seeing her—no birthdays or anything like that. Not even at Brick and Mel's wedding. He couldn’t even remember
hearing
about a little sister. Even if this was chick drama, a person who could get into the club as fast as this one, was something he needed to keep an eye on. He wasn't in the habit of trusting women, he'd done it once and that had been a big mistake.

“
Well, I’d say she does,” Sisco answered his question while pointing towards the car that was disappearing. “That was her.”

“
Just... never heard about her.”

“
She's been away,” Brick said in the dismissing ‘don’t ask any fucking questions’ way.

That wasn’t really what Bull wanted to hear, but Brick had put him in charge of security, so he knew he'd get more info later on. He was still confused.

“Away? You've been with Mel for over five years, she's been away for that fucking long?”

“
Yeah. Traveling. She took off six years ago.”

“
Six years? Are you shitting me?” Sisco pushed. “Why?”

“
She needed it.” Brick turned around and looked at them. Bull knew that look, too; he'd had enough. “And I'd say the rest is none of your fucking business. She's Mel's sister, she had some shit to deal with, and she took off. She's back, and Mel's happy about that. Leave it at that.”

“
Fine,” Sisco shrugged.

Bull had a bad feeling about this, and he wanted to have the talk to Brick about her as soon as possible. He knew he'd get the info he needed, though. So for now, he nodded in agreement and turned to get back into the clubhouse.

-o0o-

When Melanie stopped the car on the driveway outside the house, Edie leaned forward to look through the front window of the car, and then she started laughing.

“You're shitting me?”

“
What?”

“
This is where you live? It's a fucking castle.”

“
He lived here before we met.”

Edie shook her head and got out of the car. As Melanie walked into the house, Edie followed behind, and she was still giggling a little bit.

“This is a really nice place. Big!” Edie said with a smile and looked around. A very tired smile.

“
Like I said, Brick lived here when we met. So it's still a bit of a man cave.”

“
It's beautiful.” Edie insisted when they were standing in the big hallway with the stairs in front of them.

It was a big open area; the ceiling in the hallway stretched all the way up to the second floor, with a balcony that held the doors to the bedrooms upstairs. To the right was the kitchen with a door out to a deck that overlooked a nature area, and to the left the living room. Underneath the hallway balcony were two guest rooms, an office and a two bathrooms. The basement was the actual man cave; a den and a bar with a pool table, leftovers from Brick’s life as single, and she didn't mind.  But also the two teenage boys’ bedrooms; they wanted them down there.  Brick had also given her a room, a study with the beginning of a library. The house was located just outside Greenville with few houses close by. It was all private, since Brick had wanted it like that, private. No one would be able to sneak up on him. She’d redecorated a bit, actually quite a lot, although not too ‘bitchy,’ as he’d put it. He didn’t want it to look like a chick place, and of the two of them, he was actually a lot better at decorating. He knew that stuff. They’d reached an agreement, though, so it was stylish, but neither feminine or masculine.

She looked back at Edie and this time really
looked
at her, and she looked like shit. Tired, dirty, her long dreads tied together into a big knot and her clothes beyond filthy.

“
Do you have any clean clothes?”

“
Not clean by your definition,” Edie answered with a laugh. “I'm not as picky anymore. Or rather, even less picky than I used to be.”

That was saying something. “I'll get you some and I'll wash your stuff while you're sleeping.” She pointed towards the laundry room. “You can drop it off in there.”

Edie nodded and walked into the room. Melanie went to the kitchen, and by the time Edie got back out she'd made her sandwiches and coffee. She couldn't help herself when Edie sat down, and she stroked her cheek before giving her a hug.

“
I'm so glad to have you back.”

“
It's really good to be back with you.”

She pointed at a t-shirt, some underwear and a pair of yoga pants. “Take those for now. I'll show you the guestroom. Or, well, guess it’s your room now for as long as you want it.”

“Think the big guy is okay with that?”

“
The big guy loves me and he knows I love you. He’s okay with that.”

Brick wouldn’t object; he knew how much Edie meant to her and how much she’d missed her. He was also a guy who valued family, so he’d understand. And they had this big house, not like they didn’t have room for her.

The guestroom wasn't big, but had an adjoining bathroom and the smile on Edie's face when she turned on the shower made Melanie laugh.

“
Damn, girl. Long time since you took a shower?”

“
A while. And it's been a really fucking long time since I took a shower with hot water.”

“
There's shampoo and soap. Let me know if you need anything else.”

Still with that smile on her lips, she shook her head. “No, Lanie. This is fucking perfect.” Edie turned to her. “Thank you.”

“Give me the clothes you’re wearing, and I'll wash them too.”

When she looked inside the room forty-five minutes later, Edie was sleeping. She stood there for a while, just looking at her, her baby sister who was back home with her. Finally.

-o0o-

When I woke up, it took me a few moments to remember why I was so damn comfortable. I was in Lanie’s house. I looked around, and according to the alarm clock, it was seven the morning after. I'd slept for over seventeen hours. I got up and found the yoga pants. They were a bit big, but they weren’t in any danger of sliding off me, so they’d do. I heard voices from the kitchen, and when I got there Brick, two boys in their late teens, a young girl, and finally Lanie were sitting around the table.

“Hi,” I said and cleared my throat. “Good morning.”

There was a silence with all of them staring at me until the little girl, Eliza, who I knew had her fourth birthday the month before, opened her mouth.

“Are you really my aunt?”

It took me a second and then I laughed. “Yes. I am. And you're Eliza.”

“Yes. I'm four years old.” She pointed at the two older boys. “That's Marcus and Mitchell, but everyone calls them Mac and Mitch, they're seventeen and fifteen.” I nodded at them and smiled. “That's my mom, she's forty and that's my dad, he's just old.”

I laughed at her labeling Brick as too old to even have an age, and I wasn't the only one. He rolled his eyes.

“I'm fifty-one,” he said. “I have an age, baby girl. I'm not 'just old'.”

“
Dawg said that when you're more than fifty you're just old.”

Brick made an annoyed smiling face as he nodded to his daughter, who wasn't even looking at him. Besides the 'just old' thing, age was apparently very important to Eliza.

“How old are you?” She asked me.

“
I'm twenty-five.”

Then Eliza really surprised me when she jumped down form the chair, came up to me and grabbed my hand. Her hair was long and blond, eyes big and blue and she was incredibly pretty.

“We're having breakfast, do you like breakfast?”

“
Yes.” I followed her to a chair and sat down. “It’s my favorite meal of the day.”

“
Mine too!” She smiled. “And both our names start with E! We're the same.”

Lanie came over and put a cup of coffee in front of me.

“If you give me the rest of your clothes, I'll wash those too.”

“
I gave you all my clothes.”

When she stared at me I knew what was coming. With Lanie being who she was, the amount of clothes I owned was probably gonna shock her half to death. I was right. She opened and closed her mouth like a fish before she was finally able to speak.

“You gave me two pairs of jeans, some underwear, t-shirts and two hoodies.”

“
Yes.”

“
That's all your clothes?”

“
No,” I said and looked into my coffee cup. “I have a leather jacket as well, but you don't need to clean that one.”

Brick laughed. “My kinda girl.”

“We're going shopping,” Lanie said, and judging by the tone of her voice, it wouldn't matter what I said. We were going shopping. I had known that was coming.

“
So,” the oldest of the boys said. Mac, he looked a lot like his dad, long dark hair and brown eyes. “You've been traveling for six years?”

“
Yes.”

“
Cool.”

“
Which country was the best?” Mitch asked.

That kind of stunned me. “Ehh. Not sure. Most of them were good, just in different ways. And it also depends on where in a country you go.”

“Tell us about the best things you did,” Mac said while handing me the plate with waffles on.

-o0o-

Brick looked at the woman sitting at his table. She looked a lot better clean and rested. She actually looked a lot like a younger version of his wife. Just with brown hair and a little less curves. She wasn't skinny, she had curves, just not the kind Mel had.

Mel had told him early on about Edie, her baby sister. He'd been pissed at first, thought it was cowardly to just take off and leave your only family behind, but then he got the full story and a better sense of what kind of a person Edie was. Her taking off wasn't just about getting away, running, it was just as much about not being a burden to Mel. At least that was his take on it. Mel had said it was more to find herself. Either way, she’d taken off with the intention to be away for a year.

Mel had expected Edie to be on her way home by the time he met her, but she wasn't. She just kept on traveling, picking up jobs where she found them. Brick had sometimes wondered if the fact that Mel had settled down had been one of the reasons that Edie kept on searching for whatever the fuck she was looking for. She didn't have much to come home to, and maybe she didn't want to get in their way when they started up a new life. Again, that was all him guessing. He knew she had a lot to deal with, and Mel had said she was the kind of person who wanted to deal with things by herself.

He didn't know any of it for sure, since he’d only ever had Mel’s version of what Edie was like. The rest were all his own speculations, but he knew Mel was happy to have her back. He'd caught her going into the guestroom more than once the night before, coming out with shiny eyes and mumbling about Edie finally being back.

And if his Old Lady was happy, he was. Edie was family, so she was welcome to stay. She seemed like a calm person, much more calm and laid back than he'd expected. So far it sure looked like she'd dealt with her issues, most of them at least. He'd seen some pictures of her, but she didn't look anything like that anymore. She looked healthy now, still a bit tired but her eyes had the same shine as Mel's had.

His two sons had obviously been half knocked out of their chairs when Edie showed up in the kitchen, tight yoga pants and a tank top, looking a lot like his wife which meant she was beautiful, really beautiful. But in a more casual way, which was more their style.