Page 78 of Jackass

“I don’t want her anywhere near my daughter,” I replied.

“She’s my daughter too, Jack,” Sammy countered.

“I know she is, but have you forgotten the way she spoke to Tabby? In front of your daughter? Is that the influence you want around Charlie?”

Sammy sat back in the booth. “I don’t know why she did that, Jack. That is one question I will ask her when I meet with her.”

“I don’t like this. I don’t trust Carrie. I really don’t want heraround you or Charlie,” I told her.

“Jack, I am entitled to have friends. You can’t keep me hidden away from people.”

“Fuck, Sammy. That isn’t what I meant. I am not keeping you from having friends. You have Beck, Rach, Grace—”

“Those are all women in the club, Jack,” she interrupted.

“Then make friends outside the club,” I reasoned. “Hey, Julie. You wanna go shopping with Sammy?”

“Jack, what are you doing?” she whispered.

“Um, sure, Jack. I like shopping. When do you want to go, Sam?” Julie answered, clearly unsure of what was going on.

Sammy folded her arms on the table, dropping her head on them and groaning. She lifted her head and snarled at me before responding to Julie.

“Julie, I would love to go shopping with you. Jack is just being an asshole at the moment.”

Julie laughed. Walking over to our table, she sat on the seat next to Sammy.

“Let me guess. Jack is trying to prove you can have friends outside the club?”

Sammy snapped her gaze at Julie. “How did you know that?”

“Before I moved to Diamond Creek, I dated a biker. I almost became an old lady, but the possessive crap was just too much. It’s great reading about it in a book, but in real life, nah.”

“Thanks, Julie. I think.” I studied the woman a little closer. “Where did you live before?”

“Nope, not a chance, Jack. I am not telling you what club I was involved in. Don’t worry, the breakup was amicable. No disgruntled bikers will show up here.” She chuckled.

“Sam, Jack isn’t an asshole. He’s one of the good ones,” she said, patting Sammy on the shoulder. “I’ll go check on your order.” I watched her walk away, making a mental note to have Nav check her out.

“Jack, stop.”

“What?” I asked innocently.

“You will not have Nav dig into that woman’s background.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I grinned. “Let’s get back to Carrie and this meetup. Where does she want to meet?”

Something passed over Sammy’s expression before she answered, “Friday, after work. At a coffee shop in Scottsbluff.”

I hated I was doubting her. This was the reason Jingles would watch her without anyone else knowing. I knew some brothers would hold it against her if they discovered she was lying to me. King said he expected it, so hopefully he wouldn’t be one of them.

“Ok, we’ll make a plan to have someone there before either of you get there.”

She nodded. It was obvious she felt rejected by some members of the club. Time would prove them wrong, though. They would see they could trust her and that she would make a great old lady.

Julie brought our food, and we ate dinner with no more talk about Carrie or being an old lady. We mostly talked about Charlie and what we wanted to look for in a house.

As we finished up, Charlie skipped to our table, with Mimic right behind her.