AN: Now that Warm My Cold Heart is finished I can focus more on this and Baby You're Samcro. I could really use someone to bounce ideas off of. Please message me!
Four weeks had gone by and it was almost as if nothing had changed. Madison would keep surveillance on the clubhouse and check in with Markoff and Ryans occasionally. She had tipped them off on some ghost hunt out in Lodi, a fake gun run. They were furious with Maddie when they returned with nothing but she merely shrugged and said that was what she had heard and the Sons might have felt like something was wrong and switched locations or dates and that she would get back to them on it as soon as she could. Ryans began questioning why she was spending time with Tara and her children when she should have been spending time with Opie. Maddie gave him some BS lie about Tara being a great source of information. Truth? They never talked about the club when they went out. They talked about kids, activities, and the children's book that Madison was writing about a super spy named Abel and his sidekick Thomas. Tara damn near cried asking if she thought she would publish it or not.
Maddie was currently in the middle of grocery shopping. The place was fairly empty, and it was only ten in the morning. Maddie liked shopping early. It gave her the chance to shop at her leisure without being hounded by a neighbor or stopped by some friendly townie trying to invite her to the local bbq or the upcoming block party. Unfortunately, she was already going to it. She had promised Tara and Gemma that she would go and help run the kids stations. After all, she was great with Abel and Thomas; she was bound to be great with the other kids too! When she agreed she hadn't been told that everyone had to dress up as a character from a kids show or movie. Six days after she had returned home Gemma had dropped off a garment bag, told her to enjoy and left. Curiously, Maddie opened the bag to find a Dorothy from Wizard of Oz costume inside. It wasn't slutty but it certainly wasn't like the one from the movie either. The shirt was shorter than Dorothy's had been and there was a petticoat to wear to give the skirt some flair. Gemma had even found a pair of red sparkle flats. At least they weren't heels.
Shaking her head at the memory, the young woman turn the corner to produce and began her search for veggies. Slowly the cart began to fill with broccoli, carrots, cucumbers and the like. Heading towards the fruit she stopped in the middle of the aisle. As if luck was laughing at her, Opie and Gemma stood right in front of the apples. Maddie tried to turn her cart quietly but instead caught the edge of a display made up of Trisket boxes and knocked it down. Immediately she dropped to her knees and began picking them up, cursing whoever thought it was a good idea to put crackers in the produce area.
"Maddie?" She looked over her shoulder and found Gemma and Opie staring down at her. Great. Slowly she stood, arms full of crackers and smiled.
"Hey Gem. Shopping?" Wow. Smooth. Her eyes avoided Opie as she stood there mentally kicking herself for looking so horribly today. She was in a pair of white shorts and an old Lynard Skynard cutoff t shirt. Her hair was piled high on her head in a messy bun. Face flushed, she turned to try and stack the boxes.
"What else would you do in a grocery store? Baby, leave it. Let someone else pick the shit up." Gemma's hands came over Maddie's to stop her. Reluctantly, she did and turned back to the Samcro Queen.
"So how have you been? Getting ready for the party?" She began twisting the hem of her shirt in her fingers, eyes still avoiding Opie who still stood there.
"Yea, just picking up some veggies and fruits to give them for snacks. I doubt their mommas would appreciate it if we sent them home hopped up on caffeine and sugar."
"We could always give them caramel and chocolate dip or a little sugar and cinnamon so it won't be too plain." Madison offered. She saw Gemma's eyebrow rise and knew it was being taken into consideration.
"So what are you shopping for? I thought you were just here a few days ago?" Gemma looked into the cart to see quite a few items.
"I…I was. But I was just picking up food for a neighbor." She had been picking up food for Ryans and some poor officer they stuck with him. They had decided it better if she grabbed the food and dropped it off then them come out and be spotted.
"Well aren't you a Saint Mary? Which neighbor?" Madison should have known that Gemma would pry.
"A new one. He um…he just moved in down the street with his brother. Something about fixing the place up or something. I was heading out already so I offered." Her eyes flickered towards Opie who looked like he was about to throw something.
"Oh yea? What's his name?" Gemma looked pointedly at Opie. She knew damn well this was making him jealous.
"I'm gonna find the milk." He grumbled and stormed off.
"Gem." Maddie started.
"What? I just asked who he was. Not my fault if the gentle giant got mad. So tell me, who is he?"
"His name is Jared and his brother is Tim. They…I guess they bought the house and want to fix it up and sell it." Maddie shrugged acting like she didn't care. Truth was, Ryans was going to hang her for this.
"Invite them to the party. I'd like to meet them. Gotta run baby." She kissed Madison on the cheek then turned and walked away leaving Madison cursing at herself.
"You what?!" Madison flinched and plopped herself down on the threadbare sofa.
"I'm sorry! You know she woulda tailed me to find out anyway. This was we will have three people on the in. More information right?" She tried hopefully. As soon as she dropped everything off at home she paced her foyer, waiting for the sun to go down. She felt more comfortable walking to Ryans's in the dark than in broad daylight. Of course he was furious, the officer turning white.
"Not this kinda in!" Ryans slammed his fist down on the small table where his laptop was.
"So uh…your name is Jared and that's Tim and you guys are brother renovating the house to sell." Madison smiled at him. The glare he sent her had the smile dropping from her face immediately. It was bad enough that Maddie and Ryans hated each other, it was worse that they had to work together even closer now. "I said I was sorry! Would you rather me screw this whole thing up and get us killed?" She yelled.
"I would rather you off the damn job!" He yelled back. Madison flipped him off and stomped out the door. It was going to take some serious acting to pull this off.
Madison tugged on her skirt as if it could make it any longer. It hit about an inch above her knee which wasn't too bad but she hated it. Of course some of her shorts were shorter than this but she felt more exposed in this. Plastering a smile on her face she greeted the mother who had just brought her two five year olds over to play for a while while she scoped out the craft booths. Madison had gathered together a few donated play grounds and swings from some local hardware stores that sold them and daycares. There were maybe fifteen kids running around or sitting at the picnic tables coloring. Gemma has stuck Juice with Maddie and two other women to help. Juice was dressed up as Spiderman and the two women as Cinderella and Belle. The two women kept sending looks her way; looks of distrust and annoyance. It was clear they didn't want her here. Madison chose to ignore then for the most part.
"Well look at you Dorothy. Long way from home?" Madison turned to find Ryans staring at her with an amused look on his face.
"Oh aren't you a joker." She stuck her tongue out and walked over. Being nice to him sucked. He leaned in and kissed her cheek.
"Big man is looking. Let's make him jealous." He whispered before pulling away. Madison frowned and shook her head. She wasn't about to make Opie jealous. Without warning, Ryans grabbed her hand and pulled her close to him. "You need to get back in there Madison. Do it or lose your job." He sneered. Her chest was pressed tight against his, her hands on his shoulders.
"You are playing with fire." She whispered. He laughed. Just as Ryans was leaning in to more than likely kiss her, Madison heard a gruff voice.
"I need to talk to you." Madison turned her head to find Opie, very red in the face, staring at her. Maddie escaped Ryans arms and smoothed her skirt. Wordlessly, Opie turned and started to stomp off towards an alley way between two small buildings. Eyes followed them but no one said anything. The second they were far enough in Opie turned and pointed at her. "What the fuck do you think you are doing?"
"Excuse me?" Maddie folded her arms across her chest.
"You don't know this guy and you're fucking him?" He growled.
"I'm not sleeping with him. What the hell is wrong with you?"
"It sure looks like you are. You tell Gemma that he is your neighbor and yet I see you guys pawing each other."
"I wasn't pawing him. He pulled me in for a hug. Why the hell do you care anyway?" Opie rubbed a hand over his face roughly.
"I don't."
"Yea, ok. You definitely don't care. That's why you had to restrain yourself from ripping Jared's head off." Maddie snorted and shook her head. "I'm done here." She turned to go but instead found herself up against the wall, Opie's mouth covering hers. Instantly Madison melted into him, her arms looping around his neck, her lips battling his. She could feel his large hands on her waist, one moving down to grab her thigh and pull it up on his hips. "Opie, stop." Madison pulled away a little. He wasn't one to do something a woman didn't want to and pulled away. "You can't do this. You can't make me believe you don't care about me, tell me you do, act like you don't then make me think you can again. This isn't right." Opie nodded and leaned in to brush his lips against hers softly. He let go of her leg and she let it drop.
"I do care about you. I always will." His fingers softly tilted her chin up and placed a searing kiss to her lips. It was the most intimate, earth moving kiss she had ever experienced. When the biker finally pulled away she felt dizzy and out of breath.
"Um hello? Aren't you supposed to be working?" Looking to the mouth of the alley the pair found Juice and one of the women staring at them. Cinderella looked pissed, Juice looked sheepish. Maddie instantly knew he had told the Princess where to find them. She could feel Opie tensing and she quickly apologized.
"Sorry! I'll be right over." She carefully pulled away from Opie and smoothed her costume down.
"I'll be over tonight to talk." Opie whispered to her before kissing her cheek and leaving the alley, taking Juice with him. Flushed and flustered Madison returned to the kids station where she worked for the rest of the day in a daze.
