“Does Lily know?” Bliss gave a bitter laugh. “He wouldn’t cheat on Lily with me, but he did with you. Do you want to know the funniest part? The night before Lucky was supposed to leave for Ohio, he wanted me to fuck him, and I didn’t! I turned him down because you made me that fucking candy. He fucked Raci, Ember, and Stori all night, instead. I won’t make that mistake again. If you want me to go upstairs with you, Lucky, let’s go.” Her voice had turned sultry, her wanton insinuation like a slap in Willa’s face.
Willa turned around, giving the room her back as she battled her rising temper. “God, give me strength.”
“What did you say? If you’ve got something to say—”
Willa turned around sharply. “I said shut up!” Willa yelled, going toward Bliss angrily. “I didn’t have sex with Shade. We talked! That’s all! He showed me Lucky’s medals and talked to me about their time in the service. That was all we did!”
Lucky, Viper, and Bliss all took a step back at the fury on Willa’s face. All the anger she had been holding in for days, weeks, and years came spilling out at the woman who had broken a cookie jar she had cherished.
“Why is it that you felt like you had the right to talk to me like that? You wouldn’t have talked to anyone else that way, just me!”
Bliss started trembling. “I don’t know.”
“It stops now! Do you hear me?” This time, Willa yelled at the whole room of onlookers.
They all nodded in unison.
“That chore list sucks! If I want to cook and manage this kitchen, then I’m damn sure going to do it! Okay?” She glared at Viper.
“Knock yourself out.” Viper’s concession didn’t slow her down.
“If I want to do it, I will,” she snarled at her husband who was about to protest. “If it gets to be too much, I’ll tell you.”
“One person can’t do it all. You can’t handle this kitchen and your baking business—”
Willa cut him off. “I don’t plan do to it alone. I plan to hire someone. Ginny can quit the diner. She hates it. Everyone can keep their freaking clothes on while she’s in the house for a few hours a day. Everybody should pick the chores they want to be responsible for. If they don’t get done, dock their pay and give it to Ginny to pay her for doing them.”
“We usually vote on…” Viper began then stopped at her glare. “We’ll try it on a trial basis.”
Willa went to the pantry, taking out the broom and dust pan, angrily sweeping the broken glass and cookies up jerkily.
She pointed the handle of the broom at Raci. “If I want to wash dishes by hand, I will. It relaxes me.”
Raci jerked back as the broom handle nearly tapped her nose. “Okay.”
Willa dumped the glass into the trash can before turning her heated glance toward Winter. “And if I want to fix my husband breakfast and wait on him because it makes me feel good, then I will!”
“But, it’s archaic—” Her teeth snapped together at Willa’s glare. “All right.”
Stori moved out of Willa’s way as she put the broom and pan back in the pantry. Willa shut the pantry door then stopped in front of Stori, pointing her finger at her chest. “If anyone is going to make my husband’s lunch, it’s going to be me. If I’m not here, then he can fix it his own damn self.”
“Okay.”
Willa looked at her watch, realizing she was going to be late for work, and she hated being off schedule. She was almost out the kitchen door when she turned around.
“And, Rider, put down the freaking toilet lid in the half bath when you’re done, dammit.”
“I’ll remember that.”
Her tirade wasn’t over as her gaze focused on Jewell. “Do you see a nose on my face?”
Jewell gave her a strange look, nodding her head.
When Willa slammed her hand against the kitchen door, sending it flying the rest of the way open, Jewell hastily moved out of the way so it wouldn’t hit her when it swung back.
“I want my perfume back. It’s been missing since the day I moved in, and I smell it on you.”
She stormed out the kitchen door, still yelling her angry volleys over her shoulder as she headed toward the front door. She was going to get The Last Riders under control, and if not for good, then it would at least be until her and Lucky’s house was built.
*
The kitchen was silent as they all listened to Willa’s shouts from the other room as she left.
Lucky saw Moon open his mouth to reply when he heard Willa yell at him to get his boots picked up off the floor.
“Don’t say anything. She might come back,” Winter whispered.
Moon closed his mouth, flinching at the sound of his boot hitting a wall, which had them all staring at each other in trepidation that she would come storming back into the kitchen. The slam of the front door had more than one member giving a sigh of relief.
Raci went to stand by the back door. “Do you think she’s really gone, and she’s not faking us out?”
After several seconds, Viper opened the kitchen door, looking into the other room. “She’s gone.”
“Thank fuck.” Jewell sat down shakily at the kitchen table. “I thought she was going to kick my ass.”
“Mine, too.” Winter’s hand was trembling as she lifted her coffee cup to her lips.
The tension in the room didn’t dissipate with Willa leaving, though.