Paroled

Chapter 8

The next morning Opie signaled Piney and Eva that he was slowly waking up with a number of grunts and groans. The first sound made her stomach churn, knowing how weird the morning would be, but as he sat up she felt her heart sink.

"Don't you have your own couch to pass out on?" Piney joked with a hint of real annoyance in his voice.

"Sorry, Pop," he huffed.

"Donna?" Piney asked once Opie joined him at the table.

He shook his head. "Just a long night at the clubhouse."

"He thought he was going to visit you," Eva  said from the stove.

Opie huffed with annoyance, uncomfortable with the passive aggressive teasing and the painful handover, but just shrugged. "Lucky I still check in on you."

"Mm hmm," Eva sat next to Piney. "There's Tylenol in the cabinet if you need something."

"I'm good," he cleared his throat. "Had worse."

Looking at him across the table, Eva saw how much of a mistake he felt the night before was. She sipped her coffee silently while Piney and Opie talked with short sentences and little huffs.

"It's going to be nice today," she said, getting up from her spot. "We should take a short walk, get moving a bit and get you some fresh air."

"She's a goddamn dictator," Piney joked as she left the kitchen and headed down the hall. "You fuck up last night?"

"Yeah," he said shamefully.  "I love Donna but," Opie shook his head. "Pop, I'm in over my head."

Piney glared at him. "You're a goddamn man with two women looking at you, grow a dick, pick one and take care of your shit."

"Ain't that easy," he said, pushing away from the table. Stomping down the hallway he looked for Eva eventually finding her making Piney's bed and opening the blinds and windows in his room.

"Hi," she said with her back to him.

"Hey," he stepped over the threshold. "I'm sorry about last night, Eva. That was fucking stupid."

"Thanks," she scoffed.

"I meant coming by here and all fucked up," he explained.

"And letting me ride your dick at the kitchen table?" She said, turning to face him.

"That's wasn't bad," he shook his head, "It was-"

"Irresponsible," she said. "You should go home, your wife is gonna be pissed."

"Yeah, I'm sure she already fucking is," he grumbled.

Eva sighed and dropped what she was doing to stand closer to him. She took his hands and frowned. "I like you. A lot. Like, too much too fast too good to be true. I would love to pursue what we started but not if you're lying and sneaking around. I can't handle that shit and it's not right. So please, just stop coming around and doing your adorable awkward flirting shit."

"Holy shit," he let out one short laugh. "You're serious."

"Very," she shrugged. Tiptoeing, she kissed his lips and slipped by him on her way out of the room.

—

When Opie finally decided to return home Donna was furious, just as he and everyone else who knew he'd been MIA expected. Donna glared at him as he trudged through the door.

"Where have you been?" She barked. "Christ, Ope, I was worried!"

"Kind of lost track of time," he shrugged.

"And lost count of beers," she clicked her tongue. "It's already starting!"

"It's not the club," he huffed. "I was at my old man's." As soon as the words left his lips Opie realized he had defused one issue while simultaneously igniting another one. 

"With Eva?" Donna crossed her arms over her chest.

"She was there," he shrugged, "But I wasn't with her."

With a sour look, Donna shook her head and stormed out of the room, returning seconds later with brochures.

"In-Home care agencies," she practically threw the paper at him. "Find a replacement."

"No," he said authoritatively. "Piney likes her, we all do," Opie said.

"That's the problem," Donna said, her anger making way for intense sorrow. "We can't ever work on this if you're distracted by her or the club."

"I'm not distracted," he snapped, his tone signaling that he was having the final word. "And no one is firing Eva."

—

Opie has the final word that day but it didn't stop Donna from making vague comments and being generally rude to Eva. They were rarely together but when they crossed paths everyone sensed the tension.

"What's Donna's problem?" Jax finally asked Opie after a few weeks of awkwardness.

He shook his head. "She's Donna, she's always got a problem."

"Doesn't seem like her leaving changed shit,  moving back didn't either," Jax remarked.

"Moving back was a goddamn mistake," he admitted sadly. "I just wanted to go back to what it was before, before Chino."

"Can't go back," Jax told him sympathetically. "Shit that big changes everything."

It was then that Piney surprised them all, arriving at the clubhouse unexpected and unaccompanied.

"Hey Pop," Opie said cheerfully. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm a goddamn member of the club, aren't I?" He chuckled as he hugged his son.

"Welcome home," Jax said, greeting Piney next. "You sneak out?"

"Nah, she took some personal time," he said, heading toward the bar. "Get me a goddamn beer."

"That doesn't sound good," Opie muses to himself quietly.

He debated visiting her, checking to make sure she was okay, but the idea also scared him. He still hadn't gotten over the crush, which was clearly much more, but he also was still with Donna and that wasn't seeming going to change soon either.

"I'm out," Opie said to Jax. "Make sure my old man doesn't kill himself."

"Does he think we still don't know he's obsessed with Eva?" Bobby asked Jax as Opie charged off toward the door with a purpose.

"Oh yeah, he thinks he's slick as fuck," Jax laughed. "I just wanna know if he actually hit that shit or not."

—

Opie knocked on Eva's door, seeing her car parked out front, and listened to her milking about her place.

"Who is it?" She asked through the door.

"It's me," he said awkwardly. "It's Ope."

"I'm busy."

"I just wanted to make sure you were alright, Piney's at the clubhouse."

"Of course he is," she groaned as she opened the door. Wearing sweats and a T-shirt she smiled timidly. "I took the day off. I've been with him nonstop, I needed a break."

"Okay," he shrugged. "Just uh, wanted to make sure."

"That's kind of you, but you should go," Eva said sadly.

"Yeah," he stepped back off her front step. "Alright. I'll see you around."

Eva waved and shut the door, turning back toward the bathroom again where she gathered up the boxes from five pregnancy tests that she lined up along her counter. It was still unreal. She still hadn't accepted it or even truly believed she was really pregnant with Opie's baby despite the multiple positive tests staring her in the face.

Pushing them right off the sink and into the trash she stepped back and sat on the edge of the bathtub.

"This is a goddamn nightmare."