“Nothin’ goes through me any longer?”Judge questions them as he grabs a chair from the table across from us and pulls it over to sit down at the end of the table.
“Nope.You weren’t there or out of your room when we left this mornin’.We weren’t about to wait for you,” Zach says, moving over in the booth so he’s farther away from Judge.
Zach can hold a grudge like no one I’ve ever seen before.Tristan and I are the only two he can never stay mad at for very long.Everyone else will be lucky if he thaws out the barrier between them in a matter of years.Tristan isn’t as bad, but I can see him giving Judge the cold shoulder for a long time.Both of them are protective of me and that’s an understatement.
“Don’t make it sound like I was fuckin’ someone else,” Judge growls out, his voice making the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.“I was with my family at the diner in town.”
“Doesn’t matter to us.Don’t know why you’re here, Judge,” Tristan says, pushing his empty plate away and wiping his hands on a napkin.
“I’m guessin’ I’m here for the same reason the two of you are,” he says as I push the empty plate away from me and pulling the one holding the food the guys gave me closer.
“No one asked you to show up, Judge,” I say before taking a bite of the baked potato from Zach.
“No one asked them to show up either, Little Bird,” he returns, leaning back in his chair as if he owns the place.
“That may be true, but I’d rather spend my time with them than you.You have no reason to be here, Judge.We’re not together and you want nothing to do with the baby.You can leave at any point in time,” I tell him, continuing to eat the food in front of me and trying to ignore him to no avail.
The familiar scent of Judge surrounds me.His knee brushes up against my leg whenever he moves in the chair and I can see the muscles in his arms bunching and flexing as if he’s doing it on purpose.My two favorite parts on a guy are his arms and the muscles in his back.There’s just something about the way they move that I really like.It’s been that way for as long as I can remember.Judge seems to know this without me saying a word as I finish the food and stand from the seat.
“I’m gonna get back to work.Let me know when you leave, Tris and Zach,” I say, gathering up our plates and leaving the three of them alone.I don’t even ask Judge if he wants a drink or something to eat.He can go sit in Josie’s section if he wants something.
Tristan, Zach, and Judge don’t leave while I’m on shift.They remain in the booth and I continue to refill the drinks of my foster brothers without hesitation.I even take them dessert when Leah makes me eat again.The three of us enjoy sundaes while Judge has nothing.I’ve got a peanut butter sundae while Zach has caramel, and Tristan has hot fudge.I load them with sauce and toppings because it’s them.Leah laughs when she sees them and how I’m not taking Judge one.She kind of knows the situation between us and told me to give him hell after he was in here the other day.Just one more reason I love her and want to be her when I grow up.
Chapter Twenty
Judge
GOING TO WREN hasn’thappened over the last few days.We have a run coming up and everyone has been staying close to the clubhouse as we prepare.Fury is leading this one while I stay behind to run the club.We’re still not talking and I don’t know what it will take for us to make things good between the two of us again.We’ve never fought like this before and we’re both stubborn enough not to make the first move to start repairing the damage that’s strained our friendship.The only time we talk is when it pertains to club business and even then I can tell Fury doesn’t want to have anything to do with me.He’d go to someone else if he could.There’s a clear divide in the clubhouse and we need to do something to fix it before a rival realizes what’s going on and they launch an attack against us because we’re vulnerable right now.
“You’ve really made a mess of things, haven’t ya?”Gramps asks me as I enter the common room from my office and take a seat next to him.
Wyatt hands me a bottle of water before going back to cleaning and restocking.
“Don’t know how to fix it, Gramps.Especially with Fury,” I tell him honestly as we move to sit at my normal table so no one can listen in on our conversation as easily as they can if we’re at the bar.
“First of all, you gotta be honest about your feelings for Wren, Braydon.We can all see you’re half in love with her already and yet you say she’s nothin’ more than a hole to fuck.Never heard you talk like that before and I don’t want to hear it again,” he tells me, his voice sharp with disapproval.