Vegas: Devil's Rose #9

Chapter 12: June Emerson

But he never let his feelings get in the way of me trying to find the person for me. However, I know that right now he's fucking excited that he has another shot. To be honest, I'm glad he has one too.

I haven't romantically thought about him since meeting him in college but that's mostly because I was focused on work, and I had other relationships. I've had my fantasies about what that relationship would look like. I won't lie about that. I didn't think we would ever have the opportunity to make that happen though.

"What about therapy? Have you thought about that at all?"

"A little, but I'm also not ready to put in the work that therapy needs. Rex hurt me, but he's not here to hurt me again. I also know that we wouldn't only be talking about Rex. There would be a lot of other things that would talked about, and I'm not ready to dig through them yet."

"Well, whenever you are, if you ever are, I'll be right here to support you."

I press a light kiss to his cheek, silently thanking him because I can't get out the right words to express how much that means to me. The look in his eyes tells me that he understands. He hears me without me having to say anything.

"On a lighter note, would you like to meet some of the Devil's Rose members? I know you met Whiskey, but Poison and Bear would like to meet you too."

"Yeah, sure. If I'm not impeding on anything."

"Of course not, ladybug. You couldn't."

He wraps an arm around my waist when we're both standing with drinks in hand. I take a sip, feeling the slight burn of the vodka, as we head toward the group of three still chatting up a storm. Tank turns toward me, and I can tell that he recognizes me instantly.

I introduce myself to Poison and Bear, who are both kind and ask me normal questions about myself, but I can tell that Tank is seriously losing his shit. I guess Bruce hasn't told him that we've been hanging out recently. I don't think that I ever truly hung out with Tank.

I, of course, saw him around because Bruce and him have been friends since around the time I met them, but we never got together much. But Poison and Vegas are quick to get into a conversation (there's a story there, I can tell) which pulls Bear right in there with them, so it gives Tank and I a chance to talk.

He steps around Vegas to get slightly closer to me, not wanting to talk over the other three guys.

"So, how long have you been in Grove Heights?"

"About a month. I pretty much just got here."

"When did you and Vegas reconnect?"

"I think two weeks after I got here. I reached out, and we had dinner. You and him moved here together, right?"

"Yeah, about twenty-three years ago. We've been here for a long time."

"Yeah, you have. But you love it here, yeah? I mean, the Devil's Rose MC seems like a family, from what Vegas has told me."

"There's nowhere else for me, same with Vegas. We love it here."

"I get that. I'm starting to fall in love with Westmoor too."

He's absolutely grilling me.

"I had no idea that you two were still in contact. Not that we hung out, but we knew about each other," he questions with a tinge of something I can't quite decipher.

I wonder why Bruce didn't tell Tank that we were talking. I thought they talked about everything. There's a story there too. I know it for sure.

"Since we met in college. I was traveling around for a while because of my job, but I'm thinking of settling in one place, you know? As you two have here."

"This place has been good to us," Tanks assures vaguely.

"Do you have a partner? Children?"

"I have a wife and two children. We've been together for about three years now, and we couldn't be happier. Do you have a partner?"

"Too complicated a question, Tank," I reply with a laugh.

Bruce lays a hand on my hip and tugs me slightly to his side.

"You aren't being too hard on her, right, Tank?"

He chuckles, shaking his head like he knows something that I don't.

Soon enough, all five of us are in a conversation and just chatting anyway about life things. They asked me about a million questions about where I've been and what I do, which makes it way easier for me to talk to them.

There's not much I can relate to them with because I know extremely little about what they do, and can't know anything about what they do, so it feels nice to know that they are accommodating my lack of knowledge.

Though, I'm very curious about the relationship between Vegas and Poison. I will get the answers to what that's all about. When Bruce is ready to talk about it of course. I'm not going to force him to say anything he doesn't want to, but one day, I'm hoping he will tell me.