Epilogue
KYA
Five Months Later
The waiting room at Stoneheart General Hospital buzzes with nervous energy and the kind of barely contained chaos that follows the Stoneheart MC wherever they go.
I’m curled up in one of the uncomfortable plastic chairs, Lee’s leather cut draped over my shoulders, watching the controlled mayhem unfold around me.
Bones is pacing a hole in the linoleum floor, muttering under his breath about how long labor is supposed to take.
Duck sits stoically in the corner, his wife Maggie knitting something tiny and yellow.
Hawk stands by the windows like a sentinel, periodically checking his phone for updates from Axel.
“Any word?” Lee asks, returning from the vending machine with two cups of coffee that smell like they were brewed sometime last week.
“Nothing yet.” I accept the coffee gratefully, even though it tastes like sludge. “Hawk says it could be hours still.”
“First babies take their time,” Maggie agrees without looking up from her knitting. “Poppy’s young and strong. Everything will be fine.”
I hope she’s right. Poppy and Axel have been through hell to get to this point. They deserve this happiness.
The elevator dings, and I look up to see Mercy and Cash stepping out together. They’re trying to look casual, but there’s something in their body language—the careful distance between them—that makes me bite back a smile.
“Any news?” Mercy asks, settling into the chair beside me.
“Still waiting,” I reply, then lower my voice. “Interesting entrance you two made.”
Mercy’s cheeks go pink. “We just happened to arrive at the same time.”
“Uh-huh.” I glance at Cash, who’s suddenly very interested in the outdated magazines on the side table. “And I suppose that hickey on your neck is from running into a door?”
Her hand flies to her throat. “Kya!”
“I’m just saying, if you two are going to sneak around, you might want to invest in some concealer.”
Before Mercy can respond, the elevator opens again and Stone steps out, followed by Josie Bright. The lawyer looks impeccable as always—not a hair out of place, her suit perfectly pressed—but there’s something different about her tonight. A softness around the edges that wasn’t there before.
Stone, on the other hand, looks like he’s been running his hands through his hair. His usually perfect appearance is slightly rumpled, and there’s an energy about him that’s distinctly un-presidential.
“Jesus,” Lee mutters under his breath. “Everyone’s getting laid but us.”
I elbow him in the ribs. “We got laid three hours ago.”
“That was three hours ago. I have needs.”
“You have a problem.”
“A problem that you created by being irresistible.”
Despite everything—the hospital setting, the worry about Poppy, the exhaustion from being here all night—I feel that familiar flutter of heat low in my belly.
“Down, boy,” I murmur. “This is neither the time nor the place.”
“There’s always time,” he says, but he’s grinning as he says it. “And I can find a place.”
Stone approaches our little group, and I notice the way his eyes track to Josie as she settles into a chair across the room. She’s pulled out her phone and appears to be working, but I catch her glancing his way more than once.
“How’s Axel holding up?” Stone asks.
“About as well as you’d expect,” Lee replies. “Hawk had to physically restrain him from threatening a doctor an hour ago.”
“Can’t blame him. Waiting’s the hardest part.”
Across the room, Josie looks up from her phone, and for just a moment, her gaze meets Stone’s. The air between them practically crackles with tension before she looks away, color staining her cheeks.
Oh, this is interesting.
“Josie,” I call out. “Come sit with us. No point in sitting alone.”
She hesitates, glancing at Stone, then makes her way over. “Thanks. Hospitals aren’t exactly my favorite place.”
“Nobody’s favorite place,” Stone says, and there’s something gentle in his tone that makes me look at him more closely.
“True.” Josie settles into the chair next to mine, and I catch a whiff of her perfume—something expensive and sophisticated. “How long have you all been here?”
“Since about ten last night,” Bones answers, finally stopping his pacing long enough to join the conversation. “Axel called when Poppy’s water broke, and here we are.”
“It’s sweet,” Josie says. “The way you all show up for each other.”
“That’s what family does,” Duck says from his corner. “Show up.”
Something flickers across Josie’s face—longing, maybe, or wistfulness. I wonder about her story, about what brought her to Stoneheart and whether she has family of her own somewhere.
Hawk’s phone buzzes loudly. He answers it immediately, his expression intense as he listens.
“Yeah… okay… we’ll be right there.”
He hangs up, and the entire waiting room goes silent.
“Well?” Bones demands.
Hawk’s typically stoic expression cracks into a rare smile. “It’s a girl. Eight pounds, two ounces. Both mom and baby are healthy.”
The cheer that goes up is loud enough to wake half the hospital. Maggie starts crying happy tears, Duck actually cracks a smile, and Bones looks like he might pass out from relief.
“Can we see them?” Mercy asks.
“Give them a few minutes to get settled, then family can go in. Two at a time.”
“I should go,” Josie says, standing. “This is family time.”
“You’re family,” Stone says firmly, catching her wrist as she moves to leave. “Stay.”
The touch is brief—just his fingers around her wrist—but the effect is immediate. Josie goes completely still, her breath catching audibly. When Stone realizes what he’s done, he releases her quickly, but the damage is done. Whatever careful distance they’ve been maintaining just evaporated.
“I—” Josie starts.
“Please. Stay.”
She nods mutely and sits back down, but I notice she chooses a different chair—one that’s not quite so close to Stone.
The next hour passes in a blur of excitement.
Axel emerges looking shell-shocked and blissful, showing off pictures on his phone of the tiniest, most perfect baby I’ve ever seen.
When it’s finally Lee’s and my turn to meet the newest member of the Stoneheart family, I’m not prepared for the emotional sucker punch that hits me.
Poppy looks radiant despite her exhaustion, cradling a bundle of pink blankets like she’s holding the most precious thing in the world. Because she is.
“Meet Rose,” she says softly, angling the baby so we can see her face.
She’s perfect. Absolutely, completely perfect, with a tiny button nose and the softest wisps of dark hair. When she opens her eyes, they’re the same piercing blue as her father’s.
“She’s beautiful,” I whisper, afraid to speak too loudly and disturb her.
“Want to hold her?” Poppy asks.
My heart stops. “I—are you sure?”
“Of course.”
With infinite care, I take the baby from her mother’s arms. Rose is so small, so delicate, but she settles against me like she belongs there. When she wraps her tiny fingers around mine, something shifts inside my chest, a longing so sharp and unexpected it takes my breath away.
“Hey there, little one,” I murmur. “Welcome to the world.”
I look up to find Lee watching me with an expression I can’t quite read. There’s tenderness there, and something else, something that makes my pulse quicken.
“Natural,” he says softly.
“What?”
“You. With her. You’re a natural.”
Heat floods my cheeks as I realize what he’s implying.
We’ve never talked about kids—not seriously.
But looking down at this perfect little person, feeling the weight of her in my arms, I can suddenly picture it.
A little boy with Lee’s green eyes. A little girl with his stubborn streak and my determination.
“Lee—”
“I know. Not yet.” He steps closer, pressing a kiss to my temple. “But someday?”
“Someday,” I agree, my voice barely a whisper.
When we finally emerge from the room, the waiting area has cleared out considerably. Most of the brothers have headed home, leaving just the core group—Stone, Duck and Maggie, Mercy and Cash, and Josie.
“How are they?” Maggie asks immediately.
“Perfect,” I say, and mean it. “Absolutely perfect.”
“Good.” She beams. “I’ll bring food by tomorrow. New parents need to eat.”
“I should head home too,” Josie says, gathering her purse. “Early court date tomorrow.”
“I’ll walk you to your car,” Stone offers, so casually it would sound polite if not for the way his voice drops slightly on the words.
“That’s not necessary—“
“It’s three in the morning. It’s necessary.”
Josie looks like she wants to argue, but something in Stone’s expression stops her. “Fine. Thank you.”
As they head toward the elevator, I catch the way Stone’s hand hovers protectively at her back, the way she glances at him when she thinks he’s not looking. Whatever’s happening between them, it’s definitely happening.
“Ten bucks says they don’t make it to her car before he kisses her,” Mercy whispers.
“You’re on,” Cash says. “Stone’s too much of a gentleman. He’ll wait until at least the second date.”
“What makes you think there’s going to be a first date?” Lee asks.
We all turn to stare at him.
“Have you seen the way they look at each other?” I ask. “There’s definitely going to be a first date.”
“Twenty says he asks her within the week,” Mercy adds.
“I’ll take that bet,” Duck says from his corner. “Stone’s been burned before. He’ll take his time.”
As we make our own way to the parking garage a few minutes later, I think about the evening—about new life and new possibilities, about family and love and the way everything can change in an instant.
“Penny for your thoughts,” Lee says as we reach his bike.
“Just thinking about how much has changed. A year ago, I was alone in Portland, flipping houses and pretending I was happy. Now…”
“Now?”
I gesture around us—at the hospital where friends just welcomed new life, at the town that’s become home, at the man who’s become my everything.
“Now I have all this. A fiancé who loves me, a family that chose me, a business that’s thriving, a community that’s worth fighting for.” I lean up to kiss him. “I have everything I never knew I wanted.”
As we ride through the quiet streets of Stoneheart, past Devil’s Bar where the neon sign glows welcomingly in the darkness, past the neighborhoods we helped protect from Summit’s greed, I think about all the somedays stretching ahead of us.
Someday there might be a baby of our own to spoil. Someday Stone might ask Josie on that date. Someday Mercy and Cash might figure out what’s between them. Someday Summit might try again.
But for now, this moment is enough. More than enough.
It’s everything.
Thanks for reading!