Free Situation Normal: Inked Brotherhood (Lima Six Motorcycle Club Book 2) by Kathryn Thomas Page B

the door and walked up the short hall to the bar.
     
    The moment she and Leo stepped into the bar, all glasses are raised in a loud salute, over forty faces grinning at them before they dissolved into laughter. She burned in embarrassment as she stepped behind the bar, her face flushed.
     
    Will smiled at her and handed her a shot of Southern Comfort. “To take the edge off.” When she took the glass, he picked up another glass from the bar and held it in front of him. “To you and Leo… may he always halve your sorrow and double your joy,” he said quietly before tossing the liquid back.
     
    She didn’t think she could blush any deeper as she followed suit… but she was wrong. 
     
     
     
    “You’re sure you don’t mind,” Will asked as he looked at the young woman sitting at the bar and smiled, the same young woman that had become one of Will’s regulars.
     
    “No, of course not. You have covered for me several nights. I can do the same for you. Besides, who you do think ran this place before you got here?” Jamie teased.
     
    “Thanks, Squirt. You’re the best.”
     
    “What did I tell you about that,” she warned sternly, but not really minding that he used her old nickname.
     
    “You don’t mind staying?” he asked Leo.
     
    “Go.”
     
    “Thanks man, I owe you,” he said as he moved out from behind the bar.
     
    “Cute girl,” Leo said as Will escorted the woman out.
     
    “Yeah. She’s the town optometrist I think.”
     
    “Oh? Does he need glasses?”
     
    Jamie giggled. “No… I don’t think so.”
     
    Leo chuckled. “From the way she was hanging on him as they left, I’m guessing she wants to see if he can take care of her.”
     
    Jamie grinned. “Thanks for offering to stay. I don’t think he would have left otherwise.”
     
    “You know this means you will have to stay at my place tonight… in case he takes her to your house.”
     
    “Oh dear,” she moaned dramatically, “what a shame.”
     
    ***
     
    By the time Leo and Jamie arrived at his house, he was dead on his feet. It was almost two, and he had been up since six that morning. He wanted Jamie, wanted her badly, but he was wiped.
     
    Jamie crawled into bed beside him and he snuggled her in tight. She had seen Leo beginning to droop as the evening wore on. They were going to have to come to some accommodation on their schedules. She was a night owl, sleeping from three or four in the morning until noon or so the next day, made that way by the bar’s hours. But Leo, he had to be up and gone early for his job.
     
    Having Will to help had been a godsend, allowing her scoot out early some nights. It was impacting the profitability of the bar, but she was more than willing to trade that for quality time with Leo.
     
    “Thank you… thank you for being here for me,” he murmured as he kissed her shoulders. “I… don’t know how I would have made it through the last month without you.”
     
    “Shhh… no dark thoughts, okay? I’m here for you,” she whispered. His words weren’t exactly a confession of undying love, but they warmed her deep in her soul. “The last month, since you fell asleep on my couch, has been as happy as any I can remember.”
     
    “I’m sorry you had to see me like that.”
     
    “I’m glad I did. I had no idea of the strength you have to bear that for so long. And I’m happy to help you share the load.”
     
    “You have,” he sighed and she could tell he was sliding into sleep.
     
    “Sleep,” she whispered as his breathing became slow, deep and regular. He had confessed to poor sleeping and nightmares, but since they have been sharing a bed, he had slept peacefully… even when they didn’t make love. Perhaps that is the greatest compliment of all -- that his newfound peace is because of me… not what I do to him.
     
    She smiled, remembering the storage room from six hours before. She would let him sleep and gather his strength, but when he woke up… they