I chuckled and stepped back so she could step onto the bath mat. “If you say so, babe.”
She stepped out and moved the towel around her, so she was wearing it like a cape. “Good thing I bought big ass towels, right?”
I sort of wouldn’t have minded if she had tiny towels that didn’t cover her. As much as I liked sassy Mitzy, who wasn’t afraid to tell the world to fuck off, I was becoming a fan of light and bubbly Mitzy. Thank you, bottle of wine. “You ready for bed?”
“Are you gonna tuck me in like a good little girl, Monk?” she giggled.
“Whatever you want, babe.”
She planted a hand on my chest and pushed me back. “Out of the way, Mr. Monk. I can take it from here.”
I held up my hands and stepped to the side. She opened the door and bounced down the hallway to her bedroom.
“I’ll just clean up for you,” I called.
“You do that,” she laughed. “I think I might like having you around, Monk. My personal butler.”
I pulled the drain on the tub and grabbed the tipped-over bottle of bubble bath. “You’re getting a pass tonight, woman,” I warned. “Tomorrow, this ain’t happening.”
“Sure.” She slammed her door, and I shook my head.
Even when Mitzy was a bit tipsy, her sassy and sarcastic mouth wasn’t far away.
Again, I didn’t hate it.
*
Chapter Seven
An hour…
Mitzy
“You taking the day off?”
I grabbed my cup from underneath the Keurig and spooned in some sugar. “I don’t know.”
It was half-past eleven, and I was seconds away from getting my first sip of coffee. I wasn’t ready for questions like how did I sleep, or if I was going to work.
I took a sip and closed my eyes. When that first taste of coffee hits your dark soul in the morning…Magical.
“All my to-do list consisted of today was to sleep in.” I drew a checkmark with the end of my finger in the air. “Check.”
“Man,” Monk laughed. “Pretty accomplished when you have your to-do list done before lunchtime.”
“What about you? You got biker things to do today?”
Monk shrugged. “I was supposed to have church this morning.”
I looked up at the clock. “You do know that the morning is basically over, right?”
He grabbed his empty coffee cup, dropped it into the sink, then leaned against the counter and folded his arms over his chest. “I guess sleeping in was on my to-do list, too.”
I rolled my eyes. “Go do your biker things, Monk. I’m just gonna hang around the house today.”
He shook his head. “I am going to go do my biker thing, but you’re going to come with me.”
“Uh, no, I’m not.”
“Yeah, you are, Mitzy. I thought we came to an understanding yesterday.”
“We did,” I agreed. I was fine with having someone at the clubhouse and with Monk staying at my house.
“So that means if I can’t be here with you, then you need to go where I go.”
I rolled my eyes. “I’m safe here, Monk. We don’t need to be attached at the hip. Besides, if something happens, I can always call my neighbor.”
Monk leaned forward and looked out the window over the kitchen sink. “You wanna tell me what neighbor you are talking about? You literally live in the middle of a field with no house around for half a mile, Mitzy. You’ll be dead before ol’ Frank down the road even knows you need help.”
I leaned toward the window and pointed to the left. “That house there is Millie, not Frank, and she’ll be here faster than you can say ‘psycho at my door.’”
Monk chuckled. “I don’t know if that’s true, but it doesn’t matter. You’re not staying here by yourself.”
“Then have one of the other guys come and sit with me,” I suggested.
Monk shook his head. “We have church, babe. I need every one of the guys there. Well, all of the guys that I can find right now.”
“Barracuda?” I guessed. I would’ve had to have been living under a rock to not know that Barracuda had disappeared after Leona was murdered.
“And fucking Tank,” Monk growled. “No one has seen him in three days.”
“He’s probably on a bender or something.” I normally would have said he was stuck in Rain’s bed, but from the gossip I had heard from the girls, Rain and Tank were no longer a thing, just like Rebel and Rain were no more.
Monk turned and leaned against the sink. “That may be, but he should know he needs to fucking check-in and not disappear for days.”
“I’m sure he’ll turn up.” I mean, he had to, right?
Monk’s phone rang, and he put it to his ear. “Yo,” he called.
I turned to the cabinet, opened the door, grabbed a pack of Pop-Tarts, and ripped open the package. Then I popped them in the toaster and sipped on my coffee while Monk talked to Six-Gun.
He basically grunted and said “yes,” then hung up.
“Everything okay?” I asked.
Monk nodded. “Yeah. You’ve been summoned to the clubhouse by Raelyn and Memphis.”
“I’m not going with you,” I reminded him.
Monk held up his hands. “Look, babe. You’re coming with me because if you don’t, Raelyn and Memphis are going to decide to take another fucking drive to come and see you. The last time they did that, it didn’t end well for them.”
“I sense that is a good story. I am going to have to ask Memphis about the next time I see her.”
He nodded. “It is, and you can ask them when you see her today.”
I rolled my eyes, then grabbed my Poptarts from the toaster and set them on a paper plate. “I don’t want to spend the whole day at the clubhouse, Monk. If I’m going to take the day off of work, I want to spend it doing what I want to do.”
“An hour, tops, Mitzy. I got shit I need to go over with the guys, and then we’ll be back here or doing whatever you want to do.”
I nibbled on the corner of my Pop-Tart. “Seriously?”
Monk nodded. “Yes, Mitzy. You coming with me just makes my life easier, okay?”
I sighed and nodded. “Fine. I’ll go with you, but if this lasts longer than an hour, I’m calling an Uber to come home. Deal?” I held out my hand to him.
He wrapped his hand around mine and shook it. “You got a deal, babe.”
“You think you could stop calling me babe?” I suggested. I didn’t hate it, but it wasn’t exactly my favorite. I also wouldn’t think about the way his hand fit perfectly with mine and how the warmth shot tingles to places that should not be tingling.
“No.” He dropped my hand and grabbed one of my Pop-Tarts. He took a huge bite and smirked. “You got ten minutes to eat and get dressed before we are on the way to the clubhouse.”
I tried to snatch my Pop-Tart back from him, but he took a huge step back and then made a run for the stairs. “Ten minutes,” he called as he jogged up the steps.
“Hmph. I’ll be ready when I’m ready,” I warned.