Page 43 of Mace
I gave her a soft kiss on the forehead and lifted the tray off the table. I flipped the legs out and set it on her lap. “Try to eat a little, sweetness. It’ll help you feel better.”
She sighed when she looked down at the food. “I’m not hungry. My stomach feels weird, shaky.”
“You’re probably just nervous about your mother. Just eat a little and try to get through this. Hopefully, we’ll find her real soon.”
She took a deep breath and nodded. “Alright, I’ll try.”
She handed a bit of bacon to Nine who wolfed it up enthusiastically.
“Don’t be feeding it all to the canine trashcan here, he’s already eaten.” I swear if that dog could speak he’d be telling me to shut my damn mouth right now, if the side-eye he just gave me was anything to go by.
Alicia rolled her eyes. “I’ll take good care of myself while you’re gone. Don’t worry about me. Besides Rosie worries over me like a mother hen.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. “Yeah, she’s like that with everyone but I can see she’s more protective with you because she genuinely likes you.”
A smile jumped onto her face, and she grabbed a piece of bacon. Using it as a pointer, she said, “I’m going to eat this bacon and go downstairs and hang out at the bar all day. What do you think of that?”
Grinning, my chest ached with love for her. “I think that’s a really good idea. If you want to borrow my laptop, maybe you could look for college classes for when this whole debacle is over. You know, start thinking about what you want to do with yourself.”
She froze with the piece of bacon almost to her mouth. “You mean you want me to stay here with you forever?”
My stomach dropped but I pushed through, forcing myself to say what was on my mind. “Yes. That’s exactly what I want. My family has land. We all live together, mostly in separate houses. We eat together, spend time together, and our grandparents tell stories that were handed down in our tribe. I want us to spend more time with my family so you can decide if living my way is right for you. If not, I understand but I’d like you to at least know what you’d be turning down.”
Before I could stop her, Alicia moved the tray aside and climbed into my lap again. She kissed my face a bunch of times before pulling back. “That sounds amazing, kind of like how I grew up with a lot of people around. Only this time there would be no assholes or men leering at me, right?”
Pleased that she saw value in the life I was offering her, I gave her a tight hug before agreeing. “I can pretty muchguarantee there are no assholes in my family. My gran would have dealt with them all. Hey!”
Alicia turned to see what had caused me to be distracted. Nine was chowing down on her discarded breakfast plate, I couldn’t blame him though, he’s used to hunting so I suppose I put temptation his way.
She laughed and said, “I guess I need to get up and find more breakfast. Alright, I truly am good. You go with your club brothers and look for my mom. If you find her, try to rescue her without getting yourself killed. I’ll be right here, waiting for you and wearing your cut.”
I waited while she jumped into the shower and got dressed. I shouldn’t have, especially as Storm had called church, but I felt we’d finally gotten to a really good place, and I wanted to do everything humanly possible to maintain it. Storm’s always impatient, but I was sure even he knew that we weren’t all sitting around fully dressed at all hours, waiting on his call.
As we walked downstairs together, my heart sank when I saw my mom and grandmother at the bar talking to Rosie. I love my family to bits, but my grandmother can be a loose cannon, and I didn’t really have time to supervise them today. Rosie seemed delighted to see them and was busy pouring them coffee when we came down.
As we approached, I greeted my mother first with a kiss on the forehead. “MorningInna.”
She smiled at me. “Good morning Huri. Your motorcycle place is really nice.”
I didn’t even correct her about it being a MC clubhouse because there was no use.
When I stepped over to my gran, she pointed to her forehead. I gave her a kiss as well. “Good morning,Unna-Inna. I hope you’re well this morning?”
She just stared at me. “Huri Shetland, what is wrong with you? Have you forgotten your manners? You should offer us a table so we can become better acquainted with your new girlfriend.” The look on her face was so stubborn that it made me rethink my words about there being no assholes in my family.
Before I could answer, my mom broke the silence. “Yes Huri, we’ve spent so little time with her, just that first time on the phone for a few minutes and at the party she threw for you.”
“Yes,” my grandmother added. “The party was nice, but I still remember the day she called to find out if you were a serial killer.”
I closed my eyes and counted to ten. I dreaded to think what kind of stories my mom would tell her, but against my better instincts I turned to Alicia and said, “I’ve got to go to a meeting, would you like to spend some time with my mother and grandmother today?”
She was all smiles because clearly, she did not know what she was getting herself into. “Of course! That would be wonderful.”
Rosie spoke up, “See, I told you she would want to spend time getting to know you.”
When my head snapped around to gape at Rosie, she cringed a little. “Alright, don’t be mad. Imighthave bumpedinto your grandmother shopping this morning and mentioned that you were putting Alicia into your property cut. Naturally, they would want to congratulate her and have a little visit. You wouldn’t want to begrudge them getting to know each other, would you?”
Stretching my neck to get rid of the stiffness building there, I gritted my teeth and said, “Of course not.” I turned to Alicia and said, “My mom’s name is Wren Shetland. Our family calls herInnaas it’s the word for mother in our language. You can use this word to address her as well if you like, because we’re together now. It’s a mark of respect.”