by Hart, Eve R.
I stared at his hand wondering if this was a trick.
But when I looked back to his face, I saw it was genuine.
So, I shook his hand, feeling weird as fuck about it.
It was a start.
With any luck, we could at least find a way to tolerate each other for Harley’s sake.
I left and climbed onto my bike feeling like things were looking up. Everything was coming together for me and I felt a ray of warmth inside.
Before I went back to my shop, I crossed the street to see my woman for a second. The moment I walked into the door, she smiled and ran over to me. She threw herself in my arms, which was something she’d started doing recently. I took it to mean she was fucking happy to see me. I sure as fuck didn’t mind it one damn bit.
My fingers went to her ass and I hauled her up my body. Those sexy legs wrapped around my waist and I was in heaven.
“Hi!” she said a little breathless.
“Hey, Sweet Cheeks.”
Her arms went around my neck and she pulled me in for a kiss. I didn’t give a fuck who was around, I kissed my woman like she deserved to be kissed. It was the moments like this when I fell even harder for her. I didn’t think that was possible, but it was.
She broke away, her cheeks stained so bright they nearly matched her hair.
“Wanna fuck?” I asked, brow up as I waited for her to turn me down.
“Blade,” she scolded, but there was a smile on her face. Her legs untangled and then she was sliding down my body until her feet were back on the floor. “Later,” she whispered with a sexy hint of promise in her tone.
“Fuck yeah,” I muttered so only she would hear.
“Everything okay?” she asked.
“Yep,” I said shortly. “Made nice with your uncle.”
I was proud to tell her that. Probably the reason I had to come over here. Well, part of it.
Her eyes went wide with surprise.
“Fill you in later. Gotta get back to the shop.”
“Okay,” she said easily but I knew she was dying to get all the details. And I mean all of them. I had a feeling there wouldn’t be any way to get out of it this time. “See you after close?”
“You bet.”
She smiled, gave me one last kiss, and turned to walk away from me. She knew she had to or else I wouldn’t be leaving. Yeah, I had a problem when I was around her.
My eyes went to that sexy ass and because I couldn’t help myself, I reached out and swatted it good. She jumped, squeaked out a surprised noise, and sent me the sexiest smirk over her shoulder. She was used to it by now.
“Love you,” I said as I turned and headed for the door.
“Love you, too,” she called out and damn if I didn’t smile all the way across the street.
A good woman by my side and a strong family that had my back.
Yeah, this life was turning out to be pretty fuckin’ amazing.
Epilogue
Blade
We hadn’t been together all that long, but neither of us was going anywhere. It was clear by now that this was a for life kind of thing.
Loved that woman with every part of me.
I’d give her anything she ever wanted.
Which was why we were here at the shelter.
Har declared that Biscuit needed a brother or sister. I agreed, since it didn’t look like Harley would be pushing out one any time soon.
I was okay with it— for now.
She was still getting her shop up and running, and trying to make a name for herself. Not only that, but she said she had all that stuff from her past she was working through. She wanted to put some distance between all the shit that happened. She also wanted to settle herself more in her new life and have time with just the two of us.
I got where she was coming from and it made sense to wait. But I let her know I’d only give it so much time.
Biscuit was curled up in the crook of my arm while Harley walked down the row of cages.
I didn’t like being here. Hated seeing all these animals that needed homes. I knew I couldn’t take them all but I couldn’t lie, part of me wanted to.
Biscuit would probably kill me.
She was a daddy’s girl that was for sure.
I was a little nervous at how this whole thing would go over with her.
But Har and I had agreed that Biscuit had the final say so here.
Nothing was catching my woman’s eye. I could tell that easily enough. And my baby wasn’t really perking up at anything either.
“Oh, my, God!” Harley exclaimed, her gaze locked on whatever was in the last cage.
She turned and did this cute as hell fast shuffle to get back to me. She had on this tight-fitting skirt that went just below her knees. It looked hot as fuck but didn’t give her legs a lot of room to move.
No, wait.
She wasn’t after me.
Harley snatched Biscuit out of my arms and then was doing the shuffle thing back to the cage.
Biscuit barked and her little paw shot out to scratch at the bars of the cage.
Yep, they’d found it.
And I was curious as to what it was.
“Oh, that’s Maximus,” the girl that showed us to the back said. I couldn’t remember what her name was and it wasn’t like I really gave a fuck. “He was brought in because he was the runt and wasn’t going to make it. We nursed him back to health and he’s been here ever since.”
“How long has it been?” Harley asked.
“Oh, six months. People that come in aren’t really looking for a—”
“Pig?!” I asked, finally laying eyes on the thing. “That’s a damn pig.”
Harley and Biscuit both turned to me and just blinked.
Fuck me.
The girl giggled like I’d said something funny.
“He’s cute!” Harley exclaimed.
“How big is that thing going to get?” I asked. It didn’t fucking matter because my girls were in love. Even Maximus seemed like he was ready to come home with us, his little snout was sticking out between the bars trying to smell my baby.
Biscuit stretched her neck out, nose bumping up against his. Then she was looking at me with damn pleading eyes.
Yes, she had me wrapped around her paw.
And Harley had me wrapped around her finger.
So whatever my girls wanted, they damn well knew they were going to get it.
“Um,” the girl said, drawing out the sound like she didn’t want to say. “Truthfully, pigs can continue to grow until they are six. And without knowing what her parents look like, there’s no way to tell.”
“Great, I’m gonna end up with a hundred-pound pig running around my place,” I mumbled under my breath.
I pulled out my phone and started to look shit up. I knew nothing about pigs and I didn’t want to go in blind.
“They can be house trained,” the girl said. “Pigs are actually very smart.
“Alright, get the damn thing out. Let’s see him up close,” I said with a sigh.
And almost an hour later we were walking out the door with a pig.
Not a dog, or even a cat— which I was glad it wasn’t that last one. But a tiny, stubby-legged, pink and black pig.
Had to admit he was kind of cute.
For a pig.
On the ride back to Harley’s place, I looked over to see them both curled up together in Har’s lap.
It had been the right thing and I could already tell that.
“Love you, Sweet Cheeks,” I said, giving her my eyes for a brief second before I looked back at the road.
“Love you, too,” she said back and I could hear how damn happy she was in those three simple words.
I couldn’t lie, this was the fuckin’ life.
The smile on my face was proof enough of that.
Harley
So much had changed in the last couple of years.
All for the better, of course.
For starters, the
shop was blowing up. We were just as busy as the one across the way. It was amazing. Blade was proud of me. So was Estelle, though she loved to tell me how she never had any doubts about me.
Oh, and Estelle was around a lot. As in, she’d found her place. Or her person, rather. She was living here now, traveling only a few times a year to check on her other shops. She hadn’t given up inking completely, but she had stepped back, only taking on big jobs that were special. I was glad she was getting a break.
Her person? Well, turned out that happened to be my uncle.
Yeah, I know, right?
I didn’t see that one coming.
But I had to admit that he settled her as much as she chilled him out. He was so chill, in fact, that he didn’t mind the occasional dinner with Blade.
So, it worked perfectly.
We had a handful of artists in the shop now and it allowed me to have some time to spend with my man. Darlene was just happy that she had two days off a week.
Wade had taken off with her own thing and only worked two days a week in the shop. Laurel hadn’t been kidding when she mentioned getting Wade to make outfits. And then there was our buddy, Bennie, who found out about Wade’s talents and told a few of his friends that performed in drag about her. So she was busy making all kinds of things now. She even had a workspace that wasn’t in the middle of the living room. She was loving it. I suspected that had been her true passion but she was never really sure how to break out with it.
“There’s a new bar open,” Didi said as Wade and I were finishing up our closing duties. I guessed she was already done cleaning up her shit. “They have like ten different house-made margarita mixes. One of them is blackberry coconut!”
She was excited.
I expected nothing different.
Sugar Didi’s was doing very well. She was now doing a ton of special orders for parties and stuff. She also had a houseful of employees to help her out.
“I’m in,” Wade said, brow raised in my direction.
“Me too,” I chimed in.
“I’ll text Darlene,” Wade said, her phone already in her hand. “Why don’t you see if any of the girls want to join us.”
And by girls, she meant the old ladies.
I still wasn’t sure how I felt about being called that but at this point, I just rolled with it.
I loved how my two worlds just seemed to mesh together so easily. Wade was in love with the women that held the club together and I was pretty sure she didn’t mind hanging out at the compound sometimes because there was tons of eye-candy to keep her entertained.
And bless Didi’s heart, she never could tell when one of the brothers was hitting on her whenever she was around.
So while things had changed, it was still very much the same.
I might not have imagined a life like this.
But it was pretty damn perfect to me.
Harley
“What is she doing?” I asked Laurel as I walked up to the little play area that had been built a few years ago for the kids. It was sitting off to the side in the lot between the two buildings. It also had a fence around it for extra safety.
Oh, and it wasn’t a little playground either. This thing was massive and built with the best shit that money could buy.
One thing I’d learned, there was no expense spared when it came to the kids of this club.
It kinda made me feel proud inside and lucky that I could be a part of it.
“Oh, you know…” Laurel said with a laugh as she turned her attention back to the kids. “Doing what Sparrow does best.”
“Is she hustling that kid out of his cookies?” I asked, shock ringing through in my tone. I guess I shouldn’t have really been surprised, out of all the kids so far, she was the one I kept my eye on. “Wait, who is that kid anyway? Did one pop up overnight?”
There were a lot of kids here, but I was sure I knew them all. And I was also sure that I’d never seen that little boy around here before.
Laurel and Claire laughed at me.
“You do know that kids don’t just pop out looking like they’re seven years old already?” Laurel looked at me and laughed again.
“I know that,” I responded and stuck my tongue out at her. “But seriously, where did he come from?”
“That’s Chry’s new buddy,” Claire told me. “His mom works at the diner. She’s a single parent and I guess the kid hangs out there a lot. Ingram brings Chry by there sometimes to play with him. I guess, his mom finally agreed to a play date or something.”
I looked around trying to see the kid’s mom but the only other adults I saw were Ingram and Chris, who were trying to wrangle up a group of runaway toddlers.
“His mom ended up getting called in to cover a shift,” Laurel said like she knew what I was thinking. “I think she works a lot.”
Laurel looked at the kid with sad eyes.
“Might as well add him to the mix and help her out when we can. It’s not like one more kid is going to make a difference around here.” And that was the damn truth.
We laughed, knowing all of us were thinking how right that was.
“Yeah, one more kid won’t hurt,” Laurel said and pointedly looked at me.
“No—” I started, then abruptly stopped.
My gaze went to the sky and I tried to count back to when I had my last period.
“Wait, you don’t know yet?” she asked.
“Know what?!”
“I know you might be gifted up top and all, but even I can tell that they’ve gotten bigger.”
I looked down in shock.
Sure, my bras had seemed a bit tighter lately. And maybe I felt like I was carrying a little extra water weight.
But I definitely wasn’t thinking anything of it.
“No,” I said again and I was in clear shock.
Claire looked at me and it was obvious she was trying to hold back a laugh.
“Come on,” Laurel said, her arm going around my shoulders as she guided me away from the play area. “I have a test in Bryan’s room.”
That didn’t surprise me since they were on kid number three now. And with how close they were in age, it seemed like B-ry lived to keep her knocked up.
“Though, I already know what it’s going to say,” she went on and it wasn’t helping me one bit.
“I don’t know if we’re ready for this,” I whispered like it was the world’s worst thing to admit.
“Ready or not, you can’t stop it now.” Well, that was true. “And the way he looks at you, I get the impression that he’s been trying for this moment for a long time.”
I smiled even though I was scared. She wasn’t wrong there.
Ten minutes later, I was walking out of her bathroom with the proof in my hands.
There was no confusion because it was one of those expensive tests. It said it clear as day on that little screen.
I was pregnant.
Laurel hugged me, patted me on the back, then told me everything would be just fine.
The way she said it, I couldn’t help but believe her.
I headed to Blade’s room, which was basically ours now, since we spent half our time here and the other half in the apartment above Inked Up.
Then I pulled out my phone and called my man.
“Yeah?” he grunted out as soon as he picked up.
This grunt was one of concern.
I’d learned by now how to tell the difference in each of them.
He was working and I knew he was booked up the entire day. I should have waited until he got home.
But the moment I heard his voice I couldn’t hold back.
“You put a bun in the oven, you beast,” I told him then swallowed hard.
The line went dead and I pulled my phone away to stare at my screen.
He just fucking hung up on me.
That was definitely not the reaction I was expecting.
And there went my temper.
I stomped my way down the stairs and i
nto the kitchen. I had a feeling I was going to go off and say a bunch of shit that kids didn’t need to hear. Then again, I was pretty sure they’d heard it all before. The bikers tried to watch their language, they did, but there was just no changing men like these. Which wasn’t such a bad thing, really.
“Abigail,” I snapped causing her to jump and turn away from the stove.
She was working on dinner already.
She still did it after all these years but it was easy to tell she loved cooking for the club.
“You will not believe what he did!” I said pretty loudly.
She blinked at me, then her eyes dropped to the test that was still clenched tight in my hand.
“Oh!” she said excitedly ignoring the fact that I was unhappy and ready to blow. “Are you?”
She was so cute. It instantly took my anger away with how happy she was at the idea that I might be pregnant.
She didn’t give me a chance to answer, and the next thing I knew, her body was crashing into mine and I quickly became wrapped up in a hug.
“Harley!” I heard Blade call out and turned in the direction of his voice.
What was he doing here?
And more importantly, how the hell did he get here so fast?
Blade didn’t say anything as he rushed into the kitchen and scooped me up so fast my head was spinning.
“Where are the babies?” I asked knowing Biscuit and Maximus were at the shop with him today.
“Left ‘em behind. They don’t need to see this,” he said booking it up to his room with me in his arms. “I knocked you up?”
“You did,” I told him with a shrug.
“About fuckin’ time,” he said with a big smile. “You gonna let me marry your ass now?”
That was one thing he never could let go.
And, well, I guess it was finally time to give into him.
“Fine,” I said with an exaggerated roll of my eyes.
But it wasn’t long that I could hold back the happy smile.
“Love you,” he grunted.
“Love you, too,” I told him and then he was tossing me on the bed so he could show me how excited he was that I was carrying his baby.
