Total pages in book: 61
Estimated words: 58408 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 292(@200wpm)___ 234(@250wpm)___ 195(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 58408 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 292(@200wpm)___ 234(@250wpm)___ 195(@300wpm)
I don’t get the chance. Mera is already in a teasing mood.
“Are you going to let Gage babysit him?”
“Not unless I want him to have a mullet by preschool,” Sable fires back.
I lean in, waving at the phone. “Congrats, Mama.”
Sable softens, just a little. “Thanks, Callie. Means a lot. He’s pretty cute, right?”
Kael chimes in, “She’s been crying for an hour, don’t let her fool you.”
Sable growls, but this time the threat is a joke. “I’m naming the next one after you, Kael. So you better pray to god I don’t get pregnant again.”
He looks like he wants to run.
I prop my chin on my hand, watching the parade of bikers that pass in and out of frame, each trying to get a peek at the baby. For the first time in a long while, the whole place feels like home. I think about what Knox said, about getting to choose, and realize that maybe, just maybe, this was the choice I wanted all along.
Wolfe comes in, tosses a folded bandana at me. “You missed the best part of the night.”
“What’s that?”
“We did Zane’s last call. Right through the middle of town, twenty seconds of engines screaming. Think the sheriff shit himself.”
I laugh, picturing it. “Wish I’d seen that.”
He shrugs, grin sly. “We’ll do it again. For the kid this time.”
After the call ends, we all drift outside, coffee in hand. The sun’s high already, beating the world into submission. I sit on the stoop, knees hugged to my chest, and watch the light spill over the bikes, the battered lawn, the peeling paint of the house. Knox settles behind me, arms draped over my shoulders.
“What do you think he’ll be like?” I ask him.
“Trouble. Born and bred. But he’ll have a family.”
“The best family,” I grin.
We sit like that, not talking, not needing to. I imagine Sable teaching her kid to throw punches in grade school, can already see him in a tiny leather jacket, wreaking havoc. I wonder if, someday, I’ll have my own little wild thing to add to the club. The thought used to terrify me. Now it just makes me smile.
Sable messages an hour later: “We’re coming home tomorrow. If anyone does a parade or hangs a stupid sign, I’ll hunt you down. All I want is shots and a nap.”
Mera’s fingers are already flying over her phone, planning the world’s loudest homecoming. I can’t help but laugh.
Knox pulls me closer, and in the sun and the laughter and the noise, I realize something. It doesn’t matter how broken the world tries to leave us. We always find a way to patch it back together. We don’t let go, not for anything.
“Oh Knox?” I say, a sly grin on my face.
“Yeah?”
“I won the bet.”
He grunts. “We’ll see. I’m not done with you yet.”
I grin. Someday, there’ll be stories told about all this. About the club, about the chaos, about the messes we made and the family we found in the middle of it. And maybe, if we’re lucky, the next generation will be even wilder, even louder, even more impossible than we were.
But for now, it’s enough.
Just this.
Just us.
And the horizon, wide open, waiting.
THE END