They had decided to keep the house in Cadence despite the horror's that had taken place. Although, Sage had firmly insisted they move Noah's bedroom and renovate it into a bathroom. The only way she could tolerate that room was if it represented the opposite of what had taken place.
Happy knew that it had more to do with being clean than anything else. He had seen her the week after the incident, ripping up the carpet that had already been steam cleaned back to its original appearance. She had proceeded to scrub the newly revealed timber floorboards before coming to the conclusion that the only sensible use for the space was an ensuite. They could easily put in a door from the front bedroom.
More like he could easily put in a door.
He rolled his eyes. The bathroom had been completed in three days and now, nearing two weeks since the invasion, she was only just managing to cut down the cleaning to once a day. Happy was just thankful that they would be moving the following week.
He pulled out a duffel from the top of the closet and tossed it on the bed. He had already folded four t-shirts and a spare pair of jeans and began stuffing them into the slightly dusty bag. He rarely used it seeming as his trips generally triangulated between his home with Sage and Noah, his ma's house and the clubhouse in Charming – all of which were places he had a ready supply of clothing.
This time would be different however. Although he would be riding to Charming, Sage would be trailing him with Noah in the Prius. Stupid fucking green heap of Japanese shit. Introducing one half of his family to his rougher, tougher family was already going to be a shit storm and the prospect of presenting his beautiful, sweet, surfing artist of a wife who drove a fucking Prius to the no shit taking Gemma Teller-Morrow?
He stopped his train of though right there and, shaking his head, continued to pack clean boxers and a spare hoodie. His ears twitched as he caught the sound of the front door slamming downstairs. He heard keys drop into the small dish on the side table and the scuff of shoes lazily hitting each step as Sage ascended.
Happy unconsciously sucked in a sharp breath as she entered their room, Noah still tucked on her hip and handbag resting in the crease of her elbow. Today, she had dressed down in a pale yellow sundress and deep brown wedges. Her red hair was loose around her shoulders and she wore no makeup.
"So it turns out that James fucked – oh!" she frowned and looked at Noah from the corner of her eye as if he was about to start swearing like a sailor. Happy couldn't help but smirk, would he really be surprised if his kid's first word was fuck? He laughed; he'd be more surprised if it was something conventional like 'mama' or 'dada'. – "Messed up the schedule," she continued with a playful glare at Hap, "and actually booked D'Angelo in at ten AM instead of eleven AM so when I got there I had to deal with three fucking clients at once! Shit!"
She threw her head back in exasperation. Happy chuckled despite her frown becoming real. Sage had recently come to the conclusion that they should make a more concerted effort to check what they said around the four month old. Happy was pretty sure she had been getting shit from some of her snootier friends who lived up on the headland and had more money than sense.
"So, three clients?" he knew if he didn't distract her she would only brood until he ended up the victim of a sexless night. Those were the worst…
"Right! D'Angelo actually hung around until I got there, I had an actual twelve o'clock appointment that apparently wasn't D'Angelo, and then my one o'clock couldn't make her time so she decided to come an hour early without warning one. You'd think art acquirers would actually know how to be punctual, you know?"
"So it went well, then," he teased as he stepped towards her and wrapped one arm around her waist while she transferred Noah to his other arm. His smiling son gurgled up at him, his red gums on display and his little hands clapping together. "Hey there, little man," he rasped as he kissed his light smattering of hair.
"Yep! I sold another two pieces to private collectors and D'Angelo wants to commission an exhibition for next year sometime," Sage beamed up at him. He had never thought of being an artist as a profitable career move – rather something people who had hit a mid life crisis attempted before resigning themselves to carry out the rest of their work life in their shitty nine to fiver – but of course Sage was the exception.
Her works sold for anywhere upwards of a couple of grand, the most expensive having been sold to a private collector for nearly fifteen thousand.
"Are you packed?" he asked as he glanced around their spacious bedroom. He already knew the answer. She was messy enough that packing would result in an aftermath that required a solid half hour to clear up.
"Yeah, about that…" she trailed off with a sheepish smile and lightly shrugged her shoulders.
"It's okay, I know you've been busy but we need to hit the road in the next hour if we want to stop off at Ma's on the way." They had decided to take Noah to visit his Gram en route to Charming. That, and if he was too fussy they could stay the night and continue the next morning to their destination. It was just a house hunting trip but Happy also viewed it as a way to introduce his small family and then have a small cool off period before they relocated for good.
He knew there was gonna be some kind of blow back for his dishonesty – whether it was severe enough to affect his standing in the club or if it would just be Gemma kicking up a stink that she hadn't been aware of something so important, he wasn't sure yet.
He released his still chatting wife as she drifted around the room to pull out clothes for the four days they planned to stay in the town that had been his home away from home for a long time, longer than he had even known Sage. She pulled out a dark pair of jeans, a patterned sheer long sleeve, two colourful sundresses and a long navy blue skirt.
He shook his head with a smirk as he retreated to his sons' newest room on the top floor. She was going to stand out like a Son at the Hairy Dog. But, he conceded, that was just another one of the things that attracted him so strongly to her. She was nothing like the croweater's and sweetbutts that frequented the clubhouse and tried to latch on to him.
No. She was something else entirely. She was something special. And now he was turning into a fucking pansy. Thank fuck he wasn't talking out loud. If his brothers overheard him he would never hear the end of it, no matter how much he threatened and glared.
As he packed a small bag for Noah he made sure to steer his thoughts in a more manly direction. Pussy was always a good topic.
Yeah.
As long as it was his wife's pussy.
Jesus, he was a whipped motherfucker.
* A * C *
"Why? Why, why, why, why?" Sage winged as she leaned almost entirely against the steering wheel. If she didn't value the life currently strapped into his safety seat behind her more than everything else in her world she probably would have hit her head against the steering wheel. As it were, she did value her son more than her own life and kept her eyes on the road, even if he was screaming bloody murder.
This only seemed to spur him on as his cries became more insistent and his screams scraped her nerves.
"Argh! Fine! Next gas station we'll stop, okay? You can have the tit, even. I don't care! Just please, chill out, little man."
For a baby that slept remarkable well at night, he had the travel disposition of a baby mandrake. And she couldn't even tell him that, because his comprehension skills weren't developed enough and he wouldn't understand just how insulting it really was to be compared to a mandrake.
"That's right, I called you a mandrake," she muttered under her breath.
Sage sighed in relief as she saw a gas station up ahead. She made the turn and pulled into one of the free car spaces, clicking off the ignition and unstrapping her seat belt. She made her way to the back passenger side, shut the door behind her and lightly shushed her distressed baby as she unstrapped his restraints.
Once again she mentally thanked Toyota for deciding that the energy efficient car needed windows tinted right up to the legal limit. A reward for going green, maybe? She pulled one arm through the neckline of her white t-shirt and unclipped the front clasp bra – thank god for those. There was no doubt in her mind they were invented by a pregnant lady or a new mother – and settled Noah against her breast.
His screams quieted the minute he felt her flesh against his and he easily latched on. She shifted him to support most of his weight with her left arm as she rifled around her handbag for her phone. She may as well call Happy while she waited for Noah to finish. He probably wouldn't hear his cell if he was still riding but knew he would give her shit for not letting him know they had stopped. Yet again.
They had already spent the previous night at Happy's mothers house. Nora was only too pleased that Noah had travelled so terribly and forced their hand. Sage had felt a little guilty, after all, it was Nora's grandbaby and after living alone for the better part of twenty years, she knew the woman treasured every visit like her last.
They had set off over two hours ago and the three-hour drive to Charming was turning into a full day expedition. They were maybe two thirds of the way and with the now sated baby still resting against her skin, Sage could only hope he would be content enough to sleep the rest of their journey. After a quick burping, she settled him back in his car seat and redid all the restraints, double, triple and quadruple checking they were secure. She sat with her back against the front seat as she admired her beautiful baby, now sleeping soundly – a far cry from the demon he had been earlier – and took a moment to herself.
She had just clasped her bra and was adjusting her t-shirt when a fist wrapping against the tinted glass shocked her from her reverie. She looked up at the man staring through the glass – leather cut, helmet, riding gloves. Definitely a biker. His long hair was blocking any view she had of his patches but from the look of the crowd of them she could see from the rearview mirror, she wasn't sure they were the people Happy had meant when he said he wanted her to meet his other family.
Knowing the windows were too dark for him to effectively see what she was doing, she made the split second decision to flick the lock button, securing both Noah and her self within the safety the vehicle provided, and jumped the center console to the drivers seat. She heard swearing from outside the glass and mentally swore.
Here she was, as a mother and wife of a biker, actively trying to provide a safe, educational and swearing free environment for her four-month old son and some asshole biker thought it was okay to disrespect that? To try and undo all the hard work she was putting in? Living with Happy already made it a challenge, but seriously?
"Oh, come on!"
She jammed the key in the ignition and, taking no care to check if the stranger had managed to move out her path, pulled the gear stick into reverse and accelerated. She saw him leap aside and, sparing only a brief thought in relief that she didn't actually hit him – that really wasn't something she wanted to explain – sped out of the gas station parking lot, tires spitting gravel and dust in the faces of the small congregation.
* A * C *
Happy had pulled over less than a hundred metres before Charming's welcome sign. He had felt the vibrating of his personal phone in one of his interior pockets – barely distinguishable from the rumble of the Harley beneath him. He knew it could only be Sage or his mother so he wasted no time pulling off into the breakdown bay.
He saw Sage's name and instantly hit redial. He wasn't worried. He had heard all about how his angelic son became his demon spawn when it came to car travel. She probably just wanted to include him in her suffering.
After four rings it hit voice mail. He hung up before the message tone rang out. Chances were she was pulling over and would call him back within the next thirty seconds. He waited patiently, alternating between calculating how long it would take to reach the clubhouse – approximately fifteen minutes – and staring at the home screen of his surprisingly sophisticated smart phone. Sage had insisted that if he was going to use shitty burner phones that he at least have a proper device for home.
At least that was her excuse.
Truthfully, she just didn't want him touching her obscenely – unnecessary, in his opinion – ginormous mac computer. It seemed he had a tendency to cause what she referred to as The Blue Screen of Death to appear resulting in a loss of important work related files and sex. Both agreed it wasn't worth it.
Christmas day a fancy, new, smart phone turned up in a harmless looking blue box with a bright white ribbon. He had thought it looked fucking suspicious from the outset.
Three minutes had passed and she still hadn't returned his call.
That wasn't part of the deal.
He frowned. Sure, she liked to fuck with him sometimes but he had stressed the important of keeping contact during this leg of the trip. There might not have been an immediate threat from any of their associates at that point in time but he wasn't taking chances. It would be typical that some white power or underdog gang would target a motorist and with the luck he had in Charming, of course it would be his wife.
He stopped his thoughts before they spiraled – the scenarios he was imagining might be typical but for the most part highly unlikely.
He hit redial again and brought the smart – stupid – device to his ear. He tucked the other arm across his chest and looked skywards. Nothing could ever be fucking easy, could it? Out of habit, he kept a vigilant ear in the opposite direction of Charming as he listened to the dial tone. The sound of her voicemail was slowly interrupted by the sound of motorcycles in the distance. As far as he had been aware, no one from Charming was out of town and they weren't expecting any visitors.
He quickly tucked the phone back inside his cut and started his bike, both eyes trained in the side mirror. If he couldn't get in contact with Sage he would just have to go find her himself. As soon as these visitors passed. He wasn't about to risk his own safety before he got the chance to check on his family in person.
It took 1.5 seconds for absolute cold to touch the tip of Happy's skull and reach the very ends of his extremities. He swore and slammed his hands on the handle bares with a growl as he watched his wife's Prius speed past him at least twenty miles over the speed limit with a pack of Nomads racing after it.
What the fuck was Quinn doing in Charming?
Just as Happy made to join the pursuit, he jerked the bike to a stop as his family phone rang.
"What the fuck do you think you're doing? Are you trying to get yourself killed? Noah?!" he roared into the speaker. He could hear Noah wailing in the background, fuelling his anger further.
"So, I got car jacked…"
A/N: so what do you think so far?
Like where it is going? Don't like where it is going? Truthfully I have no idea where it is going…
Thank you so much for your reviews and the amount of people who have favourited/followed this story! I woke up to 32 emails the other morning haha
Please feel free to leave your constructive criticisms – anything I can do to make this better is much appreciated! If you have any suggestions as to what direction this should go, let me know
Until next time!
