“Does anyone know what degree she graduated with yet?” Mama asks, and I snort.
For four years, Ivy kept quiet about what degree she was getting, stating that some brothers, including her dad, wouldn’t agree. To this day, none of us know, not even her brother.
The fucker is amazing at tech but he refuses to break her trust and log into the college data base.
“No,” I reply again, “but apparently if she gets the job, she’ll tell us.”
Mama nods as she looks around the room and mutters, “This place has come a long way since you started, sweetheart…”
I grin, puffing my chest a little at her praise like I’m a little boy again wanting his mama’s approval, and I say, “Thanks, Mama.”
She hums as she eyes the page she was on when I arrived, and I look down, too, but tense seeing the black Ivy shaped into angel wings.
Shit.
Mama looks at me and raises a brow and I sigh, knowing I can’t turn away from that look so I stand before lifting my tank and showing my chest, and she nods in approval as she questions, “Just friends, huh?”
I grunt, taking a seat again and repeat, “Just friends.”
“Jax, don’t let my failed relationship with your father dictate your relationship with Ivy because you’re not him. You won’t hurt her, and that tattoo is you claiming her, and you know it,” Mama whispers, and I sigh.
“It isn’t just Dad, Mama. Look what Glock has done to Clara and Brick, fathering a child with someone else as retaliation all because his old lady cheated once. I mean fuck, half the brotherhood fucks around not caring that they have women, families…” I look at her, “I won’t risk that with Ivy. She’s my best friend, and while yeah, I’ve claimed her in my heart, I won’t claim her in the club.”
I look back at the books as Mama places her hand on my back, my eyes going over the Ivy that I have tatted on my chest, over my heart, something of which no one is aware.
“Friends is all we’ll ever be, and besides, she has dreams of leaving and living in New York. I won’t take that away from her,” I mutter, and I won’t.
“If she comes back to me, then I know we were meant to be,” I finish on a sigh.
Her feelings and wants come before everything, and she wants to save up enough money to move to New York. She's not willing for her parents to help pay her way. She’s strong, independent, and stubborn, and she owns me. She just doesn’t know it, and she never will.
Friends, that is all I can and will ever offer.
Chapter 2
Ivy – Twenty-Four Years Old
“How’s work, Ivy?” Dad asks as he takes a seat next to me, and I clear my throat, trying to hide my groan of disappointment.
I’m pretty sure a certain big brother of mine said Dad was out on club business today. The only reason why I agreed to come to the club, a place I don’t like coming to anymore and yet here he is. Taking a seat right next to me, making conversation and asking a question I know for a fact is not what he wanted to ask. He most likely wanted to ask how Mama is but of course he needs to go in slow so I don’t snap at him like I did when he cornered me a few months ago or after finding out my hero was killed and he wanted to know if Mama would be at the funeral, which she was but stayed clear of him with mine and my brother’s help.
Mama left him after she walked in on him getting a blowy from Misty, the clubwhore Psycho likes to screw just over a year ago and threw her cut on the bar after burning all of his clothes and trashing his bike like a badass she is. That shocked the brothers while I have said barely two words to Dad since he hurt my mama and the only reason why I’m here is because Venom asked me. Or more like heard I was planning on going clubbing with Raya and most likely wanted to give me a warning about men.
He still thinks I’m a kid who can’t grow up and yet expects me to call him his road name, something I hate doing, but respect him for.
Shame he can’t respect me and my life choices.
Wonder how he’d feel if he knew I lost my virginity at prom to Todd Tracker, the then school's resident bad boy, who is funnily enough, a banker now with a house and a picket fence, a wife, a kid, and another on the way.
I was the club brat or princess, as they say, that all the boys wanted to try and hook up with. Todd was the only one who caught my eye. This may have had something to do with the fact that he didn’t treat me as anything special or wasn’t afraid of the brothers.
We probably could have lasted if I hadn’t been so head over heels in love with my best friend, something that just won’t vanish.
Four men, that is how many I have slept with overall, the last three in college. All four did nothing for me, and my thoughts always turned to a certain best friend who doesn’t see me as anything but a sister.
Venom would have a fit if he knew I slept with four men. While grandad, he’d high-five me, well, that is if he were still here where he should be if he hadn’t of let his ego take over.
I swallow hard and eye the chair across the room where he used to sit with his normal tap beer, laughing and joking while eying the club girls like the old perv he was.
