“Why does anyone do anything in Shasta?” he asks and gulps his beer. “Boredom.”
“Yeah. Ain’t much to do around here.”
Hugh leans closer and tilts one of his hands near his mouth to block anyone looking to spy. “Is there a reason you want to know about Shelby?”
“Nomp.”
“She liked you. I remember her brother getting pissed about that. Can’t blame him, can you? She’s his second mommy, virginal, soft. You’re a dirty biker like him.”
“Huh?”
“Dude, have you not noticed the way Ellsberg people think compared to us locals?”
“Nomp,” I say, taking the beer the waitress brings me.
“Well, they’ve got a lot of weird hang-ups. Shane sees his sister as saintly, untouchable, perfect. She babies him like he’s five. He loves his club but would freak out if a biker fucked his sister. It’s weird shit. Their parents raised them bizarre,” he says and then leans back.
“They’re good people, though. Real tight-knit. Mom’s got some issues, but she’s warm, you know? Like she just opened up her home to Kelsi and me the first time she met us when Shane was showing off Ramona. A lot of people would have been cold with us, thinking we were outsiders stinking up their fancy house. Not Winnie and Dylan. Made me realize that Shane and Shelby are weird, but they’ll love Ramona right.”
I think of Fuse’s bastard daughter. I remember her around town, always with her dyed hair and punk-like makeup. She was trying too hard to seem tough. Couldn’t pull it off, though. Her eyes ratted her out. Fuse didn’t give a shit about her. He liked fucking her mom sometimes. Not as much before I went away. I remember him saying Velma was a drag. His newer girlfriends weren’t so needy. I don’t remember him saying anything one way or another about Ramona, but Fuse was a cold fucker. I don’t remember him saying much about his other girls, either. I suspect he wanted boys. When his old lady, Coterie, gave him girls, he could blame her. When Velma came up pregnant with a girl too, then it was his own balls that did him wrong.
“Shelby flirt with a lot of the guys?”
Hugh gives me an “are you stupid” look that I’m used to after nearly four decades on this earth. People always think I’m an idiot. I don’t do much to prove them wrong, of course.
“You know what asexual means?”
“Nomp.”
“It’s people who aren’t attracted to either guys or girls. They’re not sexually interested in anyone. I was sure that Shelby was asexual. Then she saw you. Not to give you a big head,” he says and then smirks. “You do have a big head. Huh, maybe she has a thing for giant men. She is on the tall side.”
“She’s playing a game.”
“No, she lacks the seriousness to make her seriousness seem real.”
“Huh?”
“Shelby acts like a goofball so much that it’s hard to take her serious feelings seriously. Like she was angry the other day, and I thought she was goofing around because she pretends to be angry a lot. Turned out, she was actually fucking angry. She’s hard to read.”
“Well, I don’t care about reading her.”
“Sure,” he says and glances around the room. “Are you going on the three-day-ride thing that Shane and River are putting together?”
“Is it optional?”
“Sure,” he says and smirks. “No doubt, you’ll put a target on your back by not going. However, I can’t imagine they’ll kill you as long as Shelby thinks you’re sexy.”
“Sexy,” I grumble.
“I think she’s just mental,” he says and frowns at Utah watching us. “Shelby’s great in a lot of ways, but she’s also a little unhinged.”
“How?”
“She thinks her house is haunted. She obsessively watches horror movies. She attaches bows to her dogs’ ears, even the male one. Poor shamed fucker. She wipes her brother’s mouth when he’s eating something messy. She stole Shane’s oldest kid for hours without telling anyone where she’d gone. She hasn’t slept in a bed in as long as I’ve known her. She sleeps on a couch in the TV or sitting rooms. And those are just the things I can remember off the top of my head. She’s different, so her liking you isn’t like Dione and Sandi liking you. They want your bod. She thinks she wants to rut with you and make mini Goliaths. Like I said, she’s mental.”
“Women like that make sense,” I say, gesturing at where the girls