“Holy crap, Tab?” Justine asked, straightening from her chair. “Tack’s girl?”
Tabby looked to her, not recognizing her at first. Her head tipped to the side and she asked, “Justine, right?”
“Yeah,” Justine replied, then moved to her and hugged her. “God, so cool to see you again.” She leaned back, still holding on. “All grown up and all grown up so good.”
“Tabby Allen,” Kellie said, moving toward them. “You were a cute kid, girl. Shoulda known you’d turn out to be a raving beauty.”
Then Kellie got her own hug.
“Remember me?” Dot asked, also hitting their huddle.
“Dottie,” Tabby stated, and looked to Kellie. “Um...?Kellie, yeah?”
Kellie nodded.
Dottie gave Tabby a hug.
They moved away from Tab and everyone looked at me just as Rafferty arched up and took purchase on my earring with his mouth.
“Who’s that?” Tabby asked.
“Raff...” I cleared my throat. “Rafferty. Justine’s boy with her partner Veronica.”
Tabby smiled and looked at Justine. “He’s cute.”
“Damn straight,” Justine muttered.
“You gonna hug her too?”
This was asked from the other side of the room and I looked that way to see it was Elvira with her eyebrows up.
I looked back to Tabby.
Then I got up with Rafferty and moved to her, giving her a one-armed hug.
When we were close, she said in my ear, “Weird, you haven’t changed a bit.”
I pulled away and looked at her. “You have, Tab, and it’s all good.”
She smiled. “Thanks.”
At this point, Rafferty decided he felt like discovering a stranger, so he launched himself at Tabby with a grunt.
Tabby caught him and it was at that point I noticed she had more than a small baby bump.
As if to confirm this, Tyra said, “Get used to the feel of that.”
Tab looked down at Raff, grinning at him and grabbing his little hand to shake it. “Not thinkin’ that’s gonna be hard.”
“Right, that’s done,” Elvira declared, and all eyes went to her. “You pissed at us?” she asked me.
I looked at Tyra and Lanie, who both looked anxious. So I smiled at them so they’d stop being that way and looked back to Elvira.
“No,” I answered.
“Good, ’cause that woman you sent me to to plan my wedding is not gonna work out,” she announced. “You got a pretty office. Your office is da bomb. She don’t have a pretty office. How’s she gonna plan the most romantic wedding of the century if she don’t even have a pretty office?”
“Well—” I started, but that was as far as I got.
“She’s not,” Elvira decreed. “And even if her office wasn’t god-awful, she wears flats. I don’t trust no woman who wears flats. Not at all but definitely not to plan my wedding.”
“I wear flats,” Kellie stated, then finished, “Essentially.”
Elvira looked her up and down. “You wear biker chick boots. You get a pass.”
Dottie looked to me, prompting an introduction. “Do you know these people?”
“I—” I began again, and again that was as far as I got.
“I’m Elvira. This here’s Tyra, Tack’s woman, Lanie, Hop’s woman, Carissa, Joker’s woman. You know Tab. What you don’t know is she’s Shy’s.”
I looked at Carissa.
She looked like a grown-up cheerleader.
I didn’t know him that well but I still knew somehow that she was perfect for Joker.
“So, Chaos,” Dot noted.
“Yes,” Tyra finally got a word in.
“Whose woman are you?” Justine asked Elvira a question that I had.
“I don’t belong to a biker. I belong to a cop. But I been adopted,” Elvira explained.
At the mention of a cop in the same breath as Chaos, in unison, Dot, Justine, and Kellie all looked to me.
“Chaos has changed,” I muttered.
“You said it,” Elvira chimed in. “Vigilante bikers who ride out now to keep their turf clean of bad folk doin’ bad things.”
Again, Dot, Justine, and Kellie in unison looked to me.
“It’s a long story,” I muttered.
“It sho’ is,” Elvira confirmed. “And it’s Chaos and their shit stays tight. Don’t mean we won’t be sharin’ some beverages and wearin’ some little black dresses this Saturday night, communin’ and building the biker bitch bond at the same time me and Millie here lay down some tentative plans about my wedding of the century.” She focused on me. “I’m thinkin’ peonies but I could be talked down from that. I want soft and bling and I don’t care if those two don’t go together. It’s your job to make ’em.”
I’d heard it all when it came to weddings.
But soft and...
Bling?
“Elvira, your mouth,” Tabby said. “There’s a kid present.”
Elvira looked to Rafferty and asked, “You speak English?”
“Gah, goo, dee,” Rafferty replied.
She looked to Tabby. “Got more to say?”
Tabby looked to the ceiling.
Lanie started giggling.
Tyra mouthed to me, “I’m so sorry.”
“Club,” Elvira announced. “Not the biker kind, the Cherry Creek cocktail place kind. Eight thirty. Saturday night. All you all better be there,” she ended, circling her hand through the room. She then turned to Tyra. “Now I gotta get back to Hawk. He’s got three things goin’ down and has his calls forwarded to me. Luckily, no one has called and I wanna keep it that way. Dealin’ with Hawk’s shit not at my desk is a headache. So I need to get back.” She looked to the room. “Awesome to meet you. You.” She pointed at Kellie. “Heels, Saturday, girl.”
On that, she walked out.
“Elvira’s kind of a...?character,” Lanie said when she was gone.
“I like her,” Kellie declared.
“Can my wife come?” Justine asked, then added hastily, “We both wear heels.”
“Wear what you want,” Tabby replied. “Elvira’s Elvira but we’re Chaos. Anything goes.”
“Awesome,” Justine said, and put a hand to Rafferty’s back. “Did you hear that, Raffy? Your mommies get a night out.”
He reached out, smacked her face, and giggled.
Everyone giggled with him.