Up In Flames

Chapter 30

Posting early! Enjoy! Xoxo

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"She knows."

Rory stood at the sink washing a few plates as Happy wrapped his arms around her and kissed her behind her ear. A few feet away, watching with a toothy grin, sat Emma in her highchair covered in blueberry juice as she chomped away on her breakfast.

"What? That Mommy and Daddy got off last night?"

"No!" Rory laughed and pushed him away by jutting her butt out. "You're a pig."

"You fucking love it." He whispered before moving over to their daughter and popping a blueberry in his mouth.

"I meant she knows we're back together, she can feel we're happy." Drying her hands on the kitchen towel she flipped the pancakes one last time.

"Oh, you think?" He crouched down and looked at Emma. "Hey baby, are you happy I'm here? Are you happy I got my shit together." The child squealed and nodded, her little blue stained hands clapping as she chewed.

"Language, Hap." She groaned. "She is such a daddy's girl," Rory rolled her eyes as she loaded up three plates, the smallest for Emma and the largest for Happy. "Eat." She handed him his platter and began cutting up Emma's.

"So SAMTAZ," he started. "Benny is shady as shit, Ror."

"You think?" She laughed and loaded up Emma's tray with the pancakes. "I can't stand him. He creeps me out and not by trying, like he always does, but just the way he looks at me. Oh and watch your language."

"Has he said anything? Anything been going down?"

Joining him at that table she shrugged. "Someone patched out, Ronnie or Reggie or something? I was shocked, I thought that pretty much never happened but they said it wasn't a big deal." Her lipgloss left a light sheen on the edge of her mug. "And you heard about Little Paul."

"Yeah," Happy stuffed the last bite of pancake in his mouth. "Patching out, for someone like Reggie, is fucking unheard of."

"Language, Hap," Rory said firmly as her eyes moved from him to Emma.

"I'm so domestic." He groaned as he put his plate in the sink. Looking around he shook his head in disbelief.

"When we met did you ever think this was possible?"

"No." He kissed the top of her head then Emma's before sitting again. "I never wanted this, her or you, never. It still feels weird."

"But...?" Rory asked sadly.

"I love it," he grumbled hating to admit it. "I swear, it's just always going to seem fu-" he bit his tongue. "It's never going to feel like me."

"Well, maybe you'll get to know a different kind of you."

"Maybe. Or maybe I'll just live this acid trip life."

"You'd love that, wouldn't you?" She joked as she began to clean up Emma. "So, this stuff with SAMTAZ, what are you thinking and how can I help?"

He shook his head and rolled his toothpick back and forth along his lips. "I gotta look deeper. You know where they meet? Where their business goes down?"

"Don't be mad." She picked up Emma and set her down in the living room to play.

Happy grit his teeth as he watched her move about. Despite her words he was already angry. "What did you do, little girl?"

"I love when you call me that." She sat and looked at him with intense guilt. "I'm sorry, I knew I shouldn't have, but Huff asked me to run by the truck stop, I don't remember the address but I can show you. Anyway, they own the spot and I was supposed to drop off some cash for the diner owner. It's not dangerous, I had my gun anyway, but I saw a dealer there."

"He see you?"

She was caught off guard by the question. "Oh uhh, he could have but we didn't make eye contact or anything."

"Just one?"

"I only saw one." Arching her neck she checked on Emma in the other room. "Anyway, I went back and said something to Benny and he said they'd handle it."

"And I know my old lady didn't leave it at that."

"I didn't." She said proudly. "I went back a few days later and he was there again. That's not the Sons, you guys take care of shit and that wasn't taken care of."

"Yeah we do." Happy pulled the toothpick from his mouth and tapped the end of it on the table. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Cause you were a dick and I didn't care. When you'd call and ditch plans with Emma the last thing on my mind was drug dealers and the club."

Happy laughed. "Business runs smoothly when the old ladies are happy."

"Goddamn right it does."

"I think you'll be going under cover."

"Oh, I fucking love it. Can we have rough stranger sex after? My name can be Michelle and you can be Doug."

Happy's head tilted to the side as he pulled a face. "Something ain't right with you, little girl but I like it."