Nor did I know what they’d think of this added evidence that I was happily mired deep in it.
Still, because Elvira was nosy but she also was right, my girls were around me and outside of Tack (and his badass brothers) there was no safer place to be, I answered, “January.”
“Yee ha!” Elvira hooted, Asher jumping in her arms then his rosy baby lips gave a baby smile as all the women surrounding me cheered, whooped and I got hug after hug.
Tabby’s included her body giving a slight jerk as her breath gave a slight hitch and my arms giving her a not-so-slight squeeze.
My girl was happy she was getting a baby brother or sister. Or, maybe, it was just that my girl was happy for her Dad and me. Or, maybe, both.
My last hug was from Aunt Bette. It lasted the longest and it was the tightest.
“Sometimes it happens in weird ways,” she whispered before she let me go, “but dreams come true.”
Boy, Aunt Bette paid attention to e-mails.
I felt the sting of tears in my eyes and she let me go, looking away quickly and I gave her that play.
Okay, so, I guess Aunt Bette inwardly accepted Tack, his kids and my biker babe lifestyle too.
Good to know.
My dampening eyes found my old man’s.
He was standing, one arm thrown around Rush’s shoulders, but his attention was all on me and he was grinning his sexy grin at me.
Yes, I thought, sitting in the sun, my girls around me, holding his gaze, taking in his smile and carrying his child, Aunt Bette was absolutely right.
Sometimes it happens in weird ways that included fights, blood, drunkenness, kidnappings and pregnancies.
But dreams came true.
* * * * *
“It was good form, your brothers not pulling knives or shooting anyone when Mitch, Brock and Hawk’s team beat your team in baseball,” I noted, lying cuddled na**d in bed with a na**d Tack in his room in the Compound.
It was late. The barbeque was over. Aunt Bette and Uncle Marsh were at their hotel. Tab and Rush were at home. And Tack and I decided to keep partying in private.
“Lawson didn’t tell me he had a secret weapon,” Tack mumbled. “Fuck, you see that kid hit?”
“Yep.”
“Jesus,” Tack muttered. “Got an arm on him too. He’s only eleven.”
“I noticed that too.”
“And Lucas’s boys weren’t far behind him. Older, f**kin’ powerhouses.”
“Yep.”
“We didn’t stand a chance.”
“Nope.”
Tack fell silent.
I did too.
Then I broke it with, “Rush make his decision?”
Rush had graduated high school and Rush told his father he was thinking of joining Chaos. I was surprised this wasn’t a given but, for some reason, it wasn’t.
“Not yet.”
“What’s holding him back?”
“I don’t know, maybe our shit gettin’ a woman he cares about stabbed five times?”
My head popped up from his shoulder and I looked through the dark at his shadowed face.
“Me?”
“Only some shit you can shield your kids from, darlin’, my kids ain’t dumb and their mother had a big mouth that also was loud, both of those making it harder to shield them at all. They heard me and Naomi fightin’. They heard what it was about. Hard as I tried, bitch wouldn’t shut up. This only led to what happened to you. And, babe, you know Pipe went down.”
Only weeks after my drama, Naomi’s old man had gotten into his car, started it and got blown to smithereens. Lescheva might have been out but the Russians kept good books. They knew who owed them a debt and those kinds of debts got paid.
Elliott paid it.
Pipe Dahl paid it too.
Naomi didn’t waste time moving onto her next victim. She shacked up three months later with a biker in Boulder.
Rush saw her occasionally.
Tabby, never.
As for me, even though I never saw her, Boulder wasn’t far enough away. But it was something.
“Rush isn’t all fired up about Chaos,” Tack finished.
“But you’re not on that path anymore,” I pointed out.
“Darlin’, you got stabbed five times and his stepdad got dead.”
“Pipe dying had nothing to do with Chaos.”
“Not sure Rush sees it that way.”
“He couldn’t do better than the Club,” I announced heatedly and the air in the room went still but I ignored it and kept talking, “What’s he going to do? He loves cars. He’s great with them. You got him that bike for Christmas and every good day with clear roads we’ve had since then, he’s been on it. He knows everything about cars and bikes. And –”
“He couldn’t do better than the Club?” Tack cut me off to ask.
“Well, yeah. Brothers and blood. What’s more important than a lifetime of loyalty to both?”
“Jesus,” Tack murmured.
“What?” I asked.
“Jesus,” Tack repeated.
“What?” I repeated too and his hand came up and cupped my jaw.
“Your what is that those layers keep strippin’ off, baby. And sometimes, when they do, what’s uncovered shines out so bright, it takes the wind out of me.”
His words took the wind out of me.
Tack went on, “This mornin’, you gave me one of the most precious gifts a woman can give her man. And now, you just gave me another one.”
What did I do?
“I…” I faltered then asked, “How did I do that?”
“I claimed you into my world and then you gave me you. But, Red, me claimin’ you and you existing in my world is one thing. You accepting it is another.”
Oh, that’s what I did.
My body relaxed into his and his hand slid from my jaw into my hair as I pointed out, “I took my place in it a long time ago, honey.”
“You love me, you love my kids, you feel deep for my brothers but until now, I didn’t know you also loved the life.” His hand in my hair pulled me close so he could touch my mouth to his before he let me back an inch and finished, “And that’s a gift, baby. One that means the world to me. Thank you.”
Ohmigod!
I was thinking I just heard Tack say, “thank you”.
“Did you just say ‘thank you’?” I asked in order to confirm.
“Spoke English, babe.”
“You just said ‘thank you’.”
A pause before he muttered, “Now she’s bustin’ my balls.”
“I am not!” I snapped.