He Shielded Her, So I Left the Club novel · Chapter 22 of 24

Chapter 22: Patched Out

Jared's POV

I rode to the clubhouse on Sunday in my cut, because I wanted to take it off in front of them and not leave it on a hook.

Thirty-one days had gone by, and the leather felt heavier than I remembered.

Mara had said nothing about it at breakfast.

She had put a bowl of cereal in front of Hattie, kissed the top of my head, and taken Hattie to Dot's.

She hadn't asked me what I would do, and I hadn't told her.

The lot was full when I pulled in.

The long tables were set with cornbread, and the wives were there, and the kids, and my uncle sat at the head with the gavel in front of him.

Gage sat at the far end, and his left eye was yellow-green.

He didn't look at me, and I didn't look at him.

"Sit down, Jared," my uncle said.

"I'll stand."

"Then we'll do it standing." He picked up the gavel and held it out across the table. "This club needs a president I trust, and I trust you. Your father would have taken it."

The room went silent.

I heard a spoon ring on a plate.

I thought about my father at nineteen on a bike, squinting into the sun.

"I won't," I said.

A murmur went down the tables.

"You'll say why," a gray-bearded patch near the front said. "You owe the table that."

"I do."

I took off my cut.

It took a long time, because the leather had gone soft and clung to my shirt.

I felt every year of it coming off my shoulders.

I laid it on the long table in front of my uncle.

The patches faced up: the road captain rocker, the Dust Dogs rocker and the small one with my name.

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