by J. C. Allen
“Will you marry me, Eve?”
And it was with the best man I had ever met or known.
“Yes! Of course I’ll marry you!” I said.
I burst into tears of joy as I leaped in to hug Derek and kissed him. Tara and Matty clapped and cheered as Derek squeezed me in, still on one knee.
“I promise I’ll be with you forever,” he whispered into my ear. “I love you, Eve.”
“And I promise the same back,” I said through tears. “Love you too, Derek.”
I pulled back and kissed him once more, causing me to think of everything that we’d gotten through to get there.
There were many imperfect moments, which felt like too dramatic an understatement. I didn’t need to rehash them, but in thinking about them quickly, it really did occur to me just how much we’d had to overcome to even get to this point.
It was nothing short of a miracle.
But sometimes in life, a miracle was exactly what you needed.
And right now, I had my future husband, my child, my best friend, and my greatest protector by my side. I no longer needed miracles. I no longer needed anything, because I had everything I needed.
Everything was perfect.
Epilogue
Six Months Later
“Holy fuckin’ shit!” Tara was almost roaring with laughter as she closed the distance between us. “Eve! Damn girl, you look like you expanded five sizes!”
Oh, Tara. Ever the subtle one.
Eve and I both started by frowning at that, but it didn’t take long for our laughter to betray our attempted outrage.
And in any case, how could I ever be mad about anything ever again? Eve was no longer Eve Kellerman. She was Eve Knight.
Eve Knight.
Eve Knight.
It just rolled off the tongue so perfectly. The name just fit like it was meant to be. And maybe that was way too corny coming from the president of a motorcycle club, but Eve had a way of turning me into mush.
In fact… well, OK, I couldn’t say Tara was completely wrong. Though she was, to her credit, still keeping fit, Eve’s pregnancy had carried her well beyond the realm of “big” and dropped her off in a gray area between “massive” and “glorious.” But, you know what? Sweet fucking hell, she was still the sexiest person in the world as far as I was concerned.
“I think I’m a better judge when it comes to the subject of bein’ fat, Tara, she’s not gonna… oh my,” Roost paused in mid-step, arms loaded and bulging around the weight of several stacks of boxes that had kept him from coming in alongside Tara. “Yeah, girl, yer fuckin’ fat! Welcome to the club! Ya can eat bacon and sausage and feel zero shame!”
“You’re one to talk, you porky fag!” Tara teased, driving a skinny elbow into his side.
Roost grunted, stumbled, and nearly lost himself beneath a tumble of boxes. Catching himself, and his cargo, at the last moment, however, he came out of it with nothing more than a scowl to show for it.
“Goddamn bony whore!” he shot back.
Eve, still working to stifle her giggles, cradled her belly as she started to duck-walk towards the two. She was a few words into offering to help Roost before I stopped her. Frowning at this, she got only one word into offering Tara a drink before I stopped her yet again.
While I loved the new Eve Knight—the girl who had gone from trapped, somewhat nervous wreck to an absolute badass who refused to be told no in doing anything—there was a such thing as too much.
And, well, also a such thing as being a gentleman.
“What you can do,” I said, already pulling out a chair and bringing it in behind her. “Is sit down and relax.”
“But…” she said in protest.
It was, of course, our typical routine. I had it down pat, especially with where we were now.
She tried to do something she shouldn’t.
I didn’t let her, sometimes providing some line that our doctor had given as a means of supporting my demand.
She argued—which, as of lately, amounted to either “But…” or “Derek!”—and then immediately succumbed to my demands.
The succumbing, however, had been coming faster and easier, I’d found. This, I imagined, was in large part due to the fact that, once off her feet and comfortable, she knew that I’d get her whatever it was she wanted, as well as fulfilling the initial task she’d set out to accomplish.
This, of course, meant that I now had to help Roost with his boxes and get Tara a drink. And while I certainly didn’t mind the former… well, it wasn’t that I didn’t mind the latter, but a buzzed Tara could sure turn into a loud Tara real quick.
Gonna make for a real fun time when she comes over to babysit, I thought with a grin that belied the humor it would bring.
Tara, taking a sip from the chilled bottle of amber beer I offered her, hurried to crouch beside Eve and croon over the massive bump that my wife’s midsection had become. While she set her head to my wife’s stomach and giggled over whatever secrets our unborn child dared to share with her in that moment, I set the last of Roost’s cargo in the corner of the room. It occurred to me then that it had been quite some time since I’d seen Roost—the one downside to moving outside the city and stepping away from being so involved in the Savage Saviors.
“So how ya been?” he asked, a big, thick eyebrow raised at me. “The boys been askin’ ‘bout ya, ya know.”
I smiled at the question. It was so simple and it had an obvious answer.
“That’smy wife over there,” I said, nodding back in Eve’s direction. “How do you think I’ve been?”
“Did pretty well for yerself,” he said.
Yes, I did.
Still don’t know how it happened. Still don’t know how it worked out.
But you’re not gonna hear a word of complaint from me.
“She really has gotten big, huh? I mean, it’s only been, what, a coupla months since the weddin’? No way she’d still fit in that dress now!”
In fact, it had been forty-two days since our wedding, and, yes, a great deal of “growing” had passed in that time. More than just in Eve’s midsection, in fact.
The question reminded me of how that night had played out. Though we sadly did not have any family to pull from—although it wasn’t so sad in Eve’s case—we ran a tribute to our parents and my brother on a big screen just before the reception kicked off. All of the Saviors in attendance roared their approval, including at some of the video we dug up of everyone.
And the best part of all? It took place at the nearly rebuilt shop. Falcon’s explosion had done significant damage, and much of our product was lost, but the structure of the building remained intact. The fire department advised that, if we so chose, we could rebuild the building.
It didn’t take any time at all for me to say yes.
And there had been no better way to celebrate the reopening than to hold our marriage there.
“Yeah, she’s grown a bit,” I said with a quiet tone. “Pregnant folks have a habit of doing that.”
“Sheeeeit, then I must be carryin’ triplets!” he boasted, grabbing the sides of his amble stomach in either hand and giving his gut a wiggle.
We both laughed at that.
Damn, it felt good to laugh without having to metaphorically look over our shoulders to wonder if something bad was about to happen. It was an unnatural feeling at first, and for several weeks after the death of Falcon, I couldn’t help but wonder if some rogue member had escaped and would start coming after us.
But it never happened. We had the city on lockdown and the Black Falcons had completely, utterly, and without question been erased.
I watched as Roost took his first genuine look around the room. Though I’d spent plenty of time ogling the place, I shared the gesture with him. I’m a home owner in Samsville.
Just like my parents.
“It really is a nice place,” he said. “Don’t ya miss the condo, though? Place was like somethin’ outta Star Trek.”
“I mean, a bit,” I said. “It was nice to be in the city and closer to work and such. I do miss the boys. But you know what? I got a kid due in, like, less than a hundred days. Maybe even less than fifty. My life is about to get flipped upside down.”
I smirked.
“And yet, despite the distance from the city, here you stand, the one and only Matthew Rooster Rose, shivering in his size twenties, here to support Derek Knight.”
“Who the fuck’s shiverin’, boy?” he said, taking a sip of beer. “It’s just a fuckin’ pain in the balls to ride all the way out here! The beach ain’t exactly a hop, skip, and jump from the city, ya know! And if I was shiverin’, who cares? It’s fuckin’ winter out there now!”
“Aww,” I said, pretending to whimper. “And was riding with Tara thatmuch of a nightmare?”
“As a matter of fact, it fuckin’ was! Bitch actually waved her tits out the window at a van of college kids driving by us!”
“Why?”
Roost shrugged. It was Tara, after all.
“Because one of ‘em said ‘show us yer titties!’”
“And so I did!” Tara, who’d obviously overheard the story he was telling, shouted from beside Eve. “You shoulda seen the expression on the boy’s faces!”
My wife’s eyes widened and she groaned, dropping her face into her palms.
My wife.
That also rolls off the tongue real easy.
“Oh, Tara,” she grumbled, “you didn’t…”
“Fuck yeah, I did, bitch!” Tara boasted with a grin. “Think of it as marketing!”
“Yer not a work, ya over-eager whore!” Roost shouted after her. “Not every man has to get his dick sucked by ya!”
“Says the dude who tries to hit double digits a week!”
I regarded the two of them with a wide grin. Our lives were about to change dramatically, but it was nice as hell to see that some things never did.
“You sure the two of you shouldn’t just fuck and get it over with?” I said. “Don’t think any part of us would be surprised.
Roost harrumphed at the question, took a swig of beer, and said, “What part of ‘faggot’ does yer ass not understand?”
“Hey, man, if it ain’t happening then it ain’t happening, right?” I offered as I held up my hands, palms out, in surrender, but I was already grinning and perverting the point as I tried to make it.
Roost was still looking expectantly at me, waiting on an answer.
I sighed and nodded for him to follow before starting out of our new living room and out onto the back patio. Passing through the double-doors, we were greeted by the crash of the surf as the lake’s tide sang out in the distance. A wooden staircase, hugging the otherwise intimidating hill that rested between our new home and the lake, stretched down from the opposite end of the patio.
Ignoring this, I rested my elbows across the railing and stared out at the water. It was late in the afternoon, the sun still hanging high enough in the west to cast a beautiful glow across the lake’s surface, and a decent number of boats and wave runners were still carving their way through the water. Despite this, it was relatively quiet in comparison to where I’d once lived. The constant hum that I’d grown accustomed to from living in the city was so vacant in this place that, yes, the silence seemed almost noisy on its own.
But for where I was and what I had gained by moving out here?
I didn’t regret the decision one bit.
“What’s that look like to you, Roost?” I asked. “How do you feel about it?”
Roost moved to lean against the railing beside me, but pulled back as the wood started to groan under his weight. He sighed, gave the rail a disappointed look, took a sip from his bottle of beer, and finally let himself survey the scene before us.
“Looks perty,” he offered with a nod. “That’s for sure. And it’s ‘specially perty with yer dad’s old Camaro out front.”
Another relic of the Knights.
We can never have enough. Especially with the kid on the way.
“I suppose I should thank you for turning Eve on to that car,” I said. “And, yeah, the place is beautiful, there’s no doubt about that. But what it really is is a fresh start.”
“How so?”
I took a deep breath and thought about why, exactly, it was a fresh start. It was something that I’d known deep inside but had never quite vocalized—until now.
“I’ve gone through too much—put up with too much—from that city to stay shacked up there. Same with Eve. So all of this… this is a means to get away from all of… that stuff.”
“I guess that’s fair,” Roost said with a frown. “But what’s that mean for us?”
“Us?” I said, also knowing equally well what I was going to answer to that. “I have no intention of abandoning you or the others, Roost. The Savage Saviors has gone through a lot, and I’m not about to bail on you all now that it’s behind us.”
He quirked a brow at me.
“Quite a commute, ain’t it?”
“You seen my bike? I’ll take any excuse to prolong my rides.”
“And Eve?” he pushed on.
“She’s not exactly in any shape to be riding right now,” I said. “But, after the baby’s born and what not… Think I’ll look good in a minivan?”
“Nobody looks good in a minivan.”
“Bitch, please!” I said with a snap. “I’d look good in a golf shirt and a tutu.”
Roost folded his arms over his chest.
“Affirming the myth that straight men have no fashion sense whatsoever.” Taking in a deep breath, he stared out at the lake and, gradually, started to nod. “Yeah, I think I get why ya two came out here.”
Although the answer had sounded so simple, I had actually struggled for some time with coming up with the right decision—and even now, I couldn’t say with absolute certainty that the Saviors would be Knight-run forever. Though I had enjoyed running the club and took great pleasure in seeing us defeat the Falcons, I had stayed away from it while Dustin and my father lived for a reason. I just preferred the quiet lifestyle that I could finally have with Eve.
But, by the same token, I was a victim of my own success. There were still a few loose ends that needed to be tied up—police work, Tara’s brothel, the rebuilding of the shop—that required my presence. I made a trip over to the Black Reapers to show my thanks and couldn’t help but notice Roger Carter, their founder and president, was looking old and a bit weary. If something happened to him, I needed to be around to help new relations be as smooth as the one Roger and Roost had.
So for now, I was just taking it on a month-by-month basis. The men knew I’d be very sporadic in my availability when the kid came around, and after that, who knew? But I wasn’t looking to rush things for once in my life, and in a funny way, I’d come full circle.
Before I met Eve, I had never looked to the future, too depressed, drunk, and melancholy to think beyond that particular evening. When I met Eve, I couldn’t stop thinking of the future and what it would look like.
But now?
I had managed to find that perfect balance between forward-looking and enjoying the present.
And that was really the biggest contrast. I loved my life now. I hadn’t before, but my life was much, much better now.
“I’m not thatfat, am I?”
I turned around to see Eve coming outside with a mock frown on her face.
“Morbidly obese, I’m afraid,” I said with fake sincerity.
Eve whimpered, glared at her stomach some more, and sighed.
“Derek!” she groaned.
I laughed and shook my head, pulling her in close. This was a slightly different feeling than in months before, but if anything, I loved her even more for it.
“But I like you morbidly obese, baby.”
“But what about afterthe baby’s born?”
“You wanna stay fat?” I asked, smiling widely as I said. “‘Cause if so, I’d be more than happy
to join you.”
This earned a smile and a laugh from her. She paused, stared at me, and shook her head.
“Nah, I’m good. I think I’d like to keep you in good shape for as many years as I can. And—sorry if you dolike me like this, babe—but I don’t like feeling out of breath from climbing a flight of stairs.”
“Then it’s decided,” I said with a reassuring smile, “we shall remain young and sexy forever.”
“Aww, hell,” Roost said with an eye roll. “Tara’s less corny than that.”
I’m not sure if he used that as an excuse to go inside or not, but regardless of why he did it, it allowed Eve and I to be together once more.
She looked at me, giggled at my comment, and kissed me.
“That’s a little unrealistic, isn’t it? I mean, I know you’re rugged and handsome and will be forever and all that, but still. Totally unrealistic, right?”
“No more unrealistic than everything else that’s happened,” I offered.
I could feel the smile on my face beginning to bring an ache to my jaw, and this did nothing to stifle the gesture. Like Eve, I’d been through hell and, every step along the way, I’d been certain that I’d never know happiness again. To come so far, to gain so much, in such a short time and come out of it with such a vast and encompassing sense of wellness wasn’t just surprising…
It was just crazy.
“By the way,” I said. “Doctor said you can fly pregnant. So… guess where we’re going in a week’s time?”
“Wait, what, seriously? Seriously??”
I smiled, pulled up the tickets on my phone, and showed her.
“You got the painting of Italy in here,” I said. “Well, I figured it was time to show you the real thing.”
“Aww, babe,” she said, leaning forward to kiss me. “You’re perfect. I love you.”
“No, you define perfection, babe. I love you too.”
She leaned in to me as we stared off into the sunset of the Samsville lake. Our journey in the city, tumultuous as it had been, had finally come to an end.
