two brown squirts about, I consider my options with Shelby.
I could do that romancing thing. I bought Becklyn and Jaymes flowers. Usually, when I fucked up or they were hardcore on the rag, but I know how to do that stuff.
No, that ain’t gonna mean shit with a woman like Shelby. She wants something specific. Probably has a checklist in her woman's brain, and I’m never gonna get all the right stuff done without her spelling shit out. It’s not who I am. If that’s what she needs, then I’m gonna have to live with doing without her around.
THE CHAPTER WHERE COURAGE IS BUILT UP
THE WEIRDO
Before Taylor came into my life, I spent most of my time with Shane and River or my parents. The Reapers in Ellsberg are tightknit in a way they aren’t in Shasta yet. My father is close to the club president—Cooper Johansson—and River’s dad, Vaughn. Those people were like an extended family. And there were plenty of girls to hang around with growing up—the Johansson sisters, the Majors girls, Heidi O’Keefe. Some were younger, but so is Shane, and I never felt as if he was a pest. I just couldn’t click with those girls.
I fell hard for Taylor, though. She was a scrappy kid with a terrible mullet haircut and the typical redneck trash family. We didn’t have much of anything in common, but chemistry doesn’t have to make sense. Taylor and I just got each other. Fortunately, River and Shane fell in love with her too. The four of us remain inseparable even now that everyone—except me—is in love and making babies.
“Last night, Kelsi, Hugh, and I were talking about having a kid together,” she says as we stand outside the Dirty Toes Saloon—aka the Reapers’ local clubhouse.
“How would that work?” I ask, fixing the collar on her flannel top.
Taylor’s always dated both guys and girls. Though she never showed a preference, I always believed she’d land on vagina when it was time to settle down. Mostly because she can be a bit of a ballbuster, and any man willing to be her bitch wouldn't be someone she’d want around. I was proven right when she fell hard for the cute, bouncy blonde Kelsi.
The Fearsome Foursome met its romantic match with the Band. Ramona, Max, Kelsi, and sole dude, Hugh, go way back. They’re tight like I’m tight with my friends. They like shitty music, good food, and okay movies. Shane falling for Ramona brought the Band into our circle. Then River fell hard. Next was Taylor. If Hugh wasn’t gay, I’d have jumped him just to make the foursome-on-foursome thing work. But he is, and I suspect he might be too quirky for me. Only one wackadoodle per relationship is my rule.
Now Taylor and Kelsi live in a rental house as a couple while Hugh shacks up in one of the spare bedrooms. It’s a nice fit for the threesome. Scratch that, apparently, they’re going foursome. Makes sense. We’re people who prefer quad scenarios.
“Kelsi and I were talking about who should carry the kid,” Taylor explains as the sun disappears, and the temperature drops around us. “I’m not against it, and I’m taller, so that bump wouldn’t slow me down like it would on her small frame.”
“But?” I ask, knowing there’s no way Taylor is planning to have the kid.
“My family’s trash. We have all the diseases. Why pass that on to my kid if I don’t have to? Kelsi’s family is normal. Not amazing, but not a petri dish of despair like mine.”
Hugging her tight, I’m excited to be an auntie to her future baby. “So, are we talking turkey baster?”
“Sure, or they can just do it. They’ve fucked before.”
“But he’s gay,” I mumble while stepping back, confused.
“And there are like three gay dudes in the entire county. That doesn’t give him many options. Sometimes, any hole will do.”
Feeling too virginal for my cool friends, I sigh. “I wish I was casually sexual. I bet I’d be good at it.”
“Most definitely,” she says, smirking and wiggling her eyebrows. “Anyway, it’s not a done deal. Like we’re going to let the idea settle. Though if we wanted to add a kid to the mix, it’d be most fun while our friends are making babies. Just think of the kiddies of the Foursome and the Band all chilling together.”
“What about me?” I say, pouting now since I feel as if they’re all leaving me behind in their sprint to happily ever after.