“I didn’t know you weremarried.”
“And you’re going to let that get in between us?”
“Because I have morals and basic decency?” she says. “Yes.”
“Fine. I don’t need to get into your pants. If I want to find someone else, I’ll have them.”
It’s like I want to punish myself for her disgust.
“You do that,” Gabby says. “As long as you keep your hands off of me.”
Chapter Eleven
Amanda
Ethan paces our bedroom with frustration that I know I can’t fix. You reallycan’tfix men, by the way, and it doesn’t take becoming a therapist to recognize that. His emotions have been under much better control the longer he spends away from gambling, but there is still something so profoundlymalein the way Ethan’s own feelings confuse and overwhelm him.
Instead of getting to the root, he starts at, “This shit pisses me off,” and stays there for a generous amount of time. Unfortunately, this episode with Isaac Sinclair has been ill-timed for all of us. With all my new clients and establishing the new practice, I worry about my sleep schedule. Nobody wants their therapist nodding off during a session.Embarrassing.
I get out my hair products and set them on a small towel while I sit on the edge of my bed to part and twist my hair while Ethan processes his emotions. I used my own skills as a therapist to get to the point where I realized, I have to be doing something with my hands to not let Ethan frustrate me.
He pushes hair out of his face and stops his pacing as I partthe bottom piece of my hair so I can further separate and twist. Ethan looks over at me.
“I’m stressing you out.”
“No. Why would you think that? We’re only babysitting a biker with a psychotic wife, and his new boo. Do you think Tylee knows about her?”
“Isaac has no fucking clue what he’s doing,” Ethan grunts. The two of us can at least agree with that much.
“What about the woman? Does shewantto be with him?”
Ethan gives me a look that I can easily interpret, but I play stupid. These bikers really do think that they can throw whoever they want on the back of their motorcycles and avoid the consequences. It might have worked out between me and Ethan, maybe a few of the other bikers, but these men have to find a new mating strategy.
“She witnessed a crime. She’s staying here tonight.”
I can’t imagine what this poor woman is going through. My husband doesn’t have to give me all the details for me to guess what most likely happened. Professionally, I can’t give my opinion, but personally? I’m sure the bikers got into a fight that spiraled out of control and another bystander got caught up in their personal issues.
“Should I go down and talk to her?”
I finish one length twist, wipe some hair product off on the towel and move on to the other one. Ethan responds gruffly, “Absolutely not. I want you far out of this club business. Tylee is a maniac.”
How does this connect to Tylee again? I’m trying my best to keep track of everything going on with them, but I’m more focused on my business and my child than anything else going on. It’s been hard for everyone with politics and rising anxieties about the direction of our country. I feel guilty about the fact that my business has been booming sometimes, but it’s kept my mind off of mostthings.
“Right. And who does Tylee want?” I remind Ethan, as if he needs reminding. If he’s more worried about Tylee finding Isaac than this crime situation, I question whether we should have Isaac or his new girlfriend under our roof. Is Tylee really more of a concern than the police or other gang members? These days, the police and gang members have been working together, and our neighborhood wouldn’t feel safe if I wasn’t married to a crazy asshole like Ethan.
“Tylee wants Isaac,” Ethan finally admits after taking a minute to consider everything I’ve been saying. Both Wyatt and Ethan refused to take me seriously when I promised them that Tylee wouldn’t simply accept Isaac laying low. I’ve done over four thousand hours of work to get my licenses and I’ve seen all types of families from all walks of life. You can predict some people like the weather, and women like Tylee unfortunately have a certain M.O.
I never thought she would let Isaac walk away – not if she was willing to go as far as to snatch his kids up from him. Luckily, even if Wyatt and my husband wouldn’t listen to me at first, I have other allies in the club.
“I know,” Ethan mutters, as if responding to something I said. I do use that therapist’s trick of waiting for people to fill the silence.
“She wants Isaac dead. She won’t enjoy the fact that he’s seeing somebody else but… I’m doing what Wyatt wants.”
“What do you want?” I ask my husband, moving from one twist to the other one. I’m almost done with the lower row of twists, and I might finish getting my whole head twisted up before bed-time.
“I want to put Tylee in a metal box and shake her very hard.”
I can’t fault him for being honest when I’m the one who asked the question, but this isn’t exactly the productive solution I expected him to come up with.