Epilogue
“ROLL ME AWAY”
Diana
About two weeks later…
Hugger moving woke me up.
I was tucked tight to his back, and since it seemed he wasn’t getting out of bed to go to the bathroom or something, I kept hold on him with my arm wrapped around his waist.
I realized he was answering his phone when he grunted, “ Yeah ?”
I opened my eyes to see it was still dark out, but it was early November . Days were shorter, and unlike most of the rest of the world, we Phoenicians didn’t have a problem with the shorter days, because they brought the cooler temperatures, and the city woke up for what felt like an eight-month Mardi Gras .
This was my thought when I felt Hugger’s body turn to stone.
Any sleep still lingering vanished at the vibe coming off him, and I pushed up to a hand in the bed to try to see his profile.
The light was dim.
I still saw his face looked carved from granite.
My stomach curled into itself.
“ When ?” he bit off like a quiet bark.
But I heard it.
I heard the pain.
Oh no .
What was happening?
I pressed closer.
“ Okay , yeah,” he said. “ Yeah . We’ll be up.” A pause and a final, “ Yeah . Soon’s we can.”
He took the phone from his ear.
“ Honey ?” I called when he just lay there, on his side, unmoving.
He continued to lay there, on his side, unmoving, his arm with his phone in hand resting on the bed like it had stopped working, his eyes aimed at nothing.
Now I was getting scared.
“ Honey ?” I asked more urgently, trying to push his big body to its back so I could get a look at his whole face.
Suddenly , he dropped his phone to the bed and reached out to turn on the light.
I blinked against it, and when my eyes became accustomed to it, I saw he’d fallen to his back and he was looking at me, but even so, his handsome face had a blankness to it that was terrifying.
He lifted both hands and rubbed them over his face, something he did a lot in the mornings when he was in the midst of a Morning Hugger Haze .
But this wasn’t about that.
When his hands fell to his sides, I climbed onto him, chest to chest, and caught his jaw in both hands.
“ Harlan , what’s going on?” I demanded.
“ That was Tyra ,” he said.
Oh God .
Why was Tyra calling so early in the morning?
Hugger told me.
“ Pete died in his sleep last night.”
I didn’t know it until that moment, but the world had rushed out from under both of us.
Unable to hold it up, my head fell, my face landing in his chest.
Hugger sifted his fingers in my hair, cupping the back of it.
On a violent buck, my tears came, hot, hard, fast and furious.
Hugger rolled us to our sides and tucked my face into his throat, holding me close as I sobbed into his skin.
He let me, and after a very long time, when the tears were beginning to fade, he whispered, “ We gotta go up to Denver .”
I took my red, wet face out of his neck, looked into my man’s beautiful, gaunt one and whispered back, “ We gotta go up to Denver .”
* * *
In the funeral procession, Dad drove the rented SUV .
I sat in the passenger seat.
Nicole and Larry were in the back.
Hugger was on his bike, one of the ones at the front of the procession.
The roar ahead of us was deafening.
This was because it wasn’t just Chaos up there on their bikes leading the hearse to the cemetery.
Every member of Resurrection . Every member of Aces High . And about two hundred other bikers from all over the country whose lives Peter Waite touched were riding too.
And this was led by a police escort and tailed by it.
I’d never seen an honor guard so impressive in my life.
I wasn’t surprised in the slightest.
I’d watched them start to roll out, and noted there was a broken part of the procession up front, an open space, an empty space.
A space a Harley trike would be.
I’d had to look away, that empty space had so gutted me.
But I couldn’t stop thinking about it.
As we went, people pulled over, stopped, gawked, and they had no clue at all they saw a man glide by on his final ride, a man they’d never know was good and true, down to the marrow of his bones. They’d never know who rolled past them. They’d never know they were privileged to be in the presence of a man who might not have done great things in his life, but he did a whole lot of good, and the world was a vastly poorer place without him.
We hit the cemetery, cars and bikes everywhere, and Larry , in the seat behind me, got out quickly so he could open my door and help me out.
It was cold. Before we came, I’d had to rush to the mall to buy an overcoat. And gloves.
I didn’t feel anything.
Dad and Nicole joined Larry and me, Dad taking my hand, Nicole wrapping her arm through mine, but before we could move, Larry made a noise.
Like I was in a trance, I was watching them take the casket out of the back of the hearse.
Tack , Hop , High , Hound , Arlo and Boz were the pall bearers, but the rest of the Club were lined up to follow Big Petey’s final journey.
The only non-bikers allowed to follow the Chaos pack did so. I’d met them the day before too. Their names were Hawk Delgado , Brock Lucas and Mitch Lawson .
I’d met all their women as well, they were somewhere around ( I didn’t have it in me right then to look for them), as was Mace (who apparently was married to Stella Freaking Gunn , the famous rock star!) and a bunch of other hot guys and their gorgeous wives who I would later learn were known as the “ Nightingale Men ” and the “ Rock Chicks .” And finally, there was a tragically handsome man introduced to me the day before as Knight Sebring , who was with his equally beautiful woman, whose name was Anya .
The casket was black, no flowers, but the Chaos insignia had been painted on the top.
“ Buttercup , I think you’re supposed to go with Rebel ,” Dad murmured in my ear.
I blinked and looked up at him, only to follow his gaze, seeing Rebel standing some way away, closer to the gravesite, her attention on me.
“ Go on, hon,” Nic encouraged, a hand in my back giving me a gentle push. “ You need to be with Pete’s family now. We’ll be close, promise.”
I nodded, Dad and Nic let me go, and I woodenly and awkwardly moved across the turf that wasn’t yet frozen in my spike-heeled black pumps.
When I got to Rebel , she curved an arm around my waist and guided me to the chairs set out by the freshly dug grave. There were massive arrays of blood red roses all around the bottom of the casket, hiding the hole in the dirt.
“ Hugger needs to be able to lay eyes on you,” Rebel murmured as explanation.
Yes , of course.
And I needed for Hugger to be able to lay eyes on me.
I nodded again.
She took me to the second row of chairs, and Archie , already in the row, held her hand my way.
I shuffled in, Georgie shuffling in after me.
Tyra and Tabby sat in front of us, Lanie beside Tyra , Elvira beside Tabby .
Renae , Pete’s woman (and Rosalie’s mom) sat beside Lanie , Rosalie beside her mother, then Millie , Carrie sitting beside Elvira , with Keely at the other end.
Rebel , the queen bee of Chaos now that her husband Rush was president, sat in our row, along with a woman I’d met the day before, Bev , who used to be married to Boz , but now she was married to someone else whose name in all the introductions I’d had the last couple of days, I’d sadly forgotten.
Then again, I’d noticed that once you were Chaos , if you did them right, they didn’t let you go.
Family was family.
Always .
Obviously , I wasn’t miffed at my placement. I was the newbie. And I saw that was how Rebel had arranged this, because she was a (semi-kinda-not-really-but-in-this-sense) newbie too.
All the women in the front had the most time in with Big Petey .
And the women in our row had their backs.
It was the biker way.
Children were jostled around, pulled into laps, given seats, and I would have had an issue with none of the woman saying anything when all the boys—including Rider and Cutter ( Tack and Tyra’s sons), Cody and Nash ( Hop’s boy from a previous relationship, and Lanie and Hop’s son— Molly , Hop’s daughter, was sitting scrunched up to Archie ), Playboy ( Tabby and Shy’s boy— Princess was sitting in Lanie’s lap), Travis and Wyatt ( Carrie and Joker’s boys— Dakota was much younger and sitting in his mom’s lap), Wilder ( Keely and Hound’s son), Atticus ( Rosalie and Snapper’s son— Emmeline , their daughter, was sitting on her Grandma Renae’s lap) and Rhodes ( Rebel and Rush’s boy— Ember , their little girl, was with Rebel )—cut away to go stand with the men (that being only the boys had gone), if Raven didn’t go too, along with her older sister Clementine .
Both of them headed right to Joker …and Hugger .
The minute Raven got to my guy, he picked her up and planted her on his hip. The minute she was put where she needed to be, she rested her little cheek on her Uncle Hugger’s chest and wrapped her little hand at the side of his neck.
I felt my throat get scratchy.
And damn , but I loved my man.
Clementine wasn’t a big girl, she wasn’t such a little girl anymore either, but that didn’t stop Joker from doing the same.
Rounding out this kid business, Cleo and Zadie , High’s girls and Millie’s stepdaughters, had taken hold of Wren , Shy and Tabby’s middle girl, and they were tucked in beside Georgie .
Last , I saw what appeared to be someone waving out of the side of my eye, so I focused beyond the chairs, and I felt my chest depress when I saw Maddy , wearing black, standing there, eyes red rimmed, between Elias and Emmylou (the latter whose eyes were red rimmed too).
She looked melancholy, of course, but unbroken (which was so Maddy ), and best of all, like she’d gained some weight.
I blew her kiss, and she returned it, adding a sad little smile.
We settled in, a mass of people behind us, and I watched as the bikers in front of us fanned out in an arc around the other side of the casket.
They were all wearing their cuts.
For most of Chaos , their cuts were leather jackets with the Chaos patch on the back, only a few of them wore leather vests. Hugger had explained he didn’t wear it in Phoenix not only because it was “hot as fuck,” but because, when they were on missions, they didn’t wear their patches.
He also explained Resurrection never paraded their club info in public.
But all of Resurrection were wearing their cuts that day.
The sky was gray and ugly, like my mood.
But it was a sight to behold, two hundred and fifty some bikers curving around the casket of just one. I’d never seen a turnout this impressive for anyone, except a head of state or a royal.
Chaos , obviously, was up front of that crowd.
A movement in front of us caught my eye, and I looked to see Carrie now had her head resting on Elvira’s shoulder, Dakota had climbed into Elvira’s lap and Vira had wound her arms around the little boy.
Only Vira’s profile was visible to me, but from what I could see, silent tears were rolling down her cheeks as her back remained straight, and her gaze stayed locked to the casket.
I’d never seen anyone cry with such dignity before.
And I loved she gave that to Big Petey .
Tabby was a mess, and Tyra wasn’t far behind her. They were curled into each other, holding on for support, but faced forward.
It didn’t take long before everyone had arrived, took their positions, and Tack , center casket, standing between Rush and Hop , didn’t delay in taking a step forward.
His gaze never left the casket.
Quiet greeted him, so when his gravelly voice sounded loud, it was like a thunderclap.
“ Fuck you, old man, for being mortal.”
I couldn’t stop my mouth from forming a smile, because it was sad, but it was apropos.
Tabby let out a cry-laugh.
Tyra held her closer.
“ Fuck you more for convincing us you weren’t,” Tack went on. “ We all have our place in this brotherhood, but you held every place. Wherever we needed you. However we needed you. Whenever we needed you. You were there. Warrior . Wiseman . Healer . Priest . Hand -holder. Babysitter . Brother . Father . Granddad . Uncle . Husband . Partner . You went through the worst with us, and it was a rough ride, but you walked through fire with us, and finally, when we got smooth sailing, you fucked off. And gotta say, ’cause I know you like it honest, Pete , it pisses all of us off.”
It was definitely going to be the weirdest eulogy I’d ever heard.
And I could tell, absolutely the most perfect.
Tack put his hand on the casket and bowed his head.
Tyra , Tabby and Elvira all let out audible sobs when he did.
I knew why.
I’d heard all about Kane “ Tack ” Allen , and I’d seen that movie, and from what I heard, saw and knew, nothing bowed that man. He’d been through hell, personally and with his Club , and he’d guided his brothers out of it, his family, their families, and he’d done it eyes forward, head high, back straight, shoulders squared, vision strong.
Now he was bowed…
By the loss of Big Petey .
“ Only thing we got to hold on to is you lived a life where you owned the wind, and in your time, you were wild like it. Wild like fire. Wild like the wind. And now you’re finally free.”
Not taking my eyes off Tack , I dug in my purse for a Kleenex .
Tack kept going.
“ You were loved, because you were loving,” Tack told Big Petey direct. “ Best father there was. Best brother there could be. Best man I’ve ever met. There were times when it felt like the angels deserted us, but they never did. There was an angel among us. And that angel was you.”
More sobs, these now coming from all around, including me.
“ Tell that girl of yours we miss her,” Tack ordered. “ And ride steady, my brother. We’ll catch you on the flipside.”
He took a moment, lifted his head and stepped back.
The second he rejoined the arc, Rush shouted, “ On three!” and lifted his hand, three fingers extended.
One went down, the next, and the next.
And then the entire biker contingent shouted, “ Wind ! Ride ! Fire ! Free ! ”
Oh God .
I was sobbing openly now.
Rush stepped forward and yelled, “ Four wheels move the body, two wheels move the soul.”
All the bikers raised a shout.
Okay , dammit, I was close to bawling.
Fortunately , there was quiet for a moment so I could get it together before Rosie and Tabby got up and went to Renae . Rosie took her mother’s hand and helped her out of her seat. She tried to take her daughter from her mom, but Emmeline held close to her grandma as she rose, and Rosalie gave up as they all walked to the casket.
Tabby , known to all as Pete’s surrogate daughter who stepped in when his girl was lost, bent and kissed the casket first. Rosalie rubbed her mother’s back as Renae did it last.
As they stood there, taking their own moment, Emmeline studied the casket and whispered, “’ Bye -bye, Pawpaw .”
Renae released a silent, but visible hiccoughing sob.
And me?
Yep .
I was bawling. It wasn’t loud, but it was totally bawling and all around me I could hear sniffles, coughs, and quiet weeping.
Renae , Rosalie and Tabby returned to their seats, and the second their asses had found them, the bikers all began to move to their bikes.
I twisted to look for Dad , but Georgie caught my hand.
“ Sit still, babe, not over yet,” she whispered.
Honestly , I couldn’t take much more.
But I would. I had to.
For Big Petey .
And for Hugger .
I sat and watched the wave of bikers make their way to their bikes.
Millie turned to our row and murmured, “ Ringing out the dead.”
I didn’t know what that meant, but by the sound of it, I wasn’t sure I was going to like it.
Hugger had been so quiet, so lost for the last three days, I didn’t have the heart to push him on specifics. He told us where to be and when we had to be there. That morning, when they’d arrived, surprising us both, he’d let Dad , Nicole and Larry give him a hug, showing openly how shocked and touched he was they’d come.
But mostly he was stuck in his grief, and all I could do was stick close and make sure he knew I was there.
After a while, I heard all the bikes coming to life, and ran my gaze down that long, thick phalanx of Harleys .
Tack was at the front.
Rush was on his bike at the very back.
Suddenly , Tack revved his engine and then all of the bikers did it, one, two, three, four, five times.
The bikes went silent, and after a couple of beats, Rush revved his bike once.
“ The Last Rev ,” Keely’s trembling voice said. It broke when she finished, “ It’s done.”
God , how beautiful.
“ Now we can go,” Archie whispered and stood.
I stood with her and searched, finding Hugger astride his bike close to the front of the pack.
He wasn’t near.
But I knew his eyes were on me.
I touched my hand to my heart and my lips, then sent it fluttering in his direction.
Again , he wasn’t near.
But I saw him jerk up his chin.
Archie and Georgie escorted me to Dad , Nic and Larry .
And we headed back to Chaos .
* * *
A party raged outside the Compound , but inside, where only Chaos , Resurrection , Aces High (and Dad , Nic and Larry , and close friends to Chaos ) were allowed, the mood was somber.
I had my eyes on my man sitting at the bar where all the brothers were hanging, drinking tequila and brooding, while the rest of us gave them a wide berth.
Dad , Nic and Larry had their eyes on me.
But it was Nicole who curled her fingers around my wrist.
I looked to her.
“ Go to him,” Nicole urged.
I wasn’t sure.
I was the new girl. I didn’t want to do something stupid and mess up.
“ None of the other ladies are doing it,” I replied.
“ Then break the seal, sweetheart.” Dad was now close. “ Those men need their women.”
“ And these women need their men,” Nicole added.
Shit .
Should I ?
I watched Hugger throw back a shot of tequila.
He had a beer on more than the rare occasion, but he wasn’t a big drinker.
He’d barely put the glass down before Shy filled it.
And Shy had barely filled it before Hugger threw it back again.
Shy didn’t bother with a glass, he just took his slugs direct from the bottle.
Fuck .
I had to make a decision.
A decision for my man.
I made it.
I walked to my guy, my pumps sounding loud in the solemn quiet.
Some of the men watched me coming, but I couldn’t tell if I was doing wrong or right by the expressions on their faces.
Even so, I kept going.
And when I got to him, I put my hand on Hugger’s back.
He twisted to me.
“ Hey , honey,” I whispered.
I barely got the second word out before he turned fully to me, pulled me so forcefully between his spread knees and into his arms, my breath clean left me, and he buried his face in my neck.
I not only heard but felt the powerful hitch in his breath.
I fisted my hand in his hair, wrapped my other arm around him and shoved my face in his neck too.
I sensed all the other women finding their men as I held on to my own.
I didn’t know how long I stood there with my guy, my sisters with theirs, before I heard Elvira say, “ Fuck this. Enough . Petey would be so over this shit, he’d spit.”
I peeked out from Hugger’s neck and saw her man, another gorgeous one (which seemed all that Chaos attracted, even if Malik wasn’t Chaos ) was setting a Bluetooth speaker on the bar, and she was queuing something up on her phone.
Within moments, some piano notes and drumbeats filled the room.
By the time Bob Seger’s voice could be heard, Hop was singing with him.
It barely got to the second line before Tack , Boz and Hound had joined in, and they were doing it loud.
It wasn’t even the next verse before High , Snap and Shy joined in.
Everyone in the Compound gathered around the bar then, and we all sang it (though I didn’t know all the words, I’d heard the song, so I did my best), and with each word, we were singing it louder, a Chaos and Friends chorus of Seger’s “ Roll Me Away .”
Some arms were linked, some thrown over shoulders, some curved around waists, but all of us were in some way connected so there was a circle of love around that bar, shouting out rock poetry.
Singing Big Petey off on his last ride.
Halfway through the song, people were smiling, eyes were lighting, breath was being breathed back into a loving family who’d lost their cornerstone and hadn’t known what to do.
Until then, when they realized the man who formed that cornerstone did it so strong, it’d never crumble.
And they realized the man who set it would always be part of the very foundation of the beauty that was built on top of it.
Because , when Chaos hit their next time, with Peter Waite’s support, grit and guidance, they got it right.
* * *
In Hugger’s room at the Compound , I left the bathroom after cleaning up.
Hugger and I had just made love.
It wasn’t that we never did it that way, we did. Though it was rare. We preferred to get physical, raunchy, rough, intense.
But that night, he took his beautiful, sweet time with my body, I did the same with his, and in this moment, at the end of this dreadful day, it was perfect.
Hugger’s room at the Compound , I’d noticed the time before, and again right then, was clean and tidy, like he always was everywhere.
He’d been so conditioned to take care of the little he had, even when he had more, he did the same.
The week before, I’d considered it a minor triumph when he left his clothes on the floor of our bedroom, rather than what he normally did, gathering them up and putting them in the laundry hamper, when he had an early meeting with Buck about the properties they were looking at.
I was maybe the only woman on the planet who wanted her man to loosen up when it came to keeping their place tight.
But in the end, if he didn’t, he didn’t.
I’d take him any way he came.
When I got close, Hugger lifted the bedclothes that were covering him from the waist down, so I could enter the bed, something I did, finding my place right on top of him.
When I settled in, he traced his big hands up my back and said softly, “ Why am I the only guy existing who’s considering going back to condoms, so my baby doesn’t have to haul her ass to the bathroom after sex?”
Okay , okay, okay .
Oh -freaking- ficial .
I so totally loved this man .
“ Deal , from here on, I clean you up,” he continued.
“ Deal ,” I agreed.
His eyes moved to the side and back to me. “ Your phone’s been goin’, baby.”
I’d heard it, vaguely, during sex, but obviously only very vaguely.
I sighed, reached out to nab it, thumbed it and showed it my face, then scanned the texts.
I put it back on his nightstand and turned to him.
“ Texts from Bernie , Charlie and Mel . Also Gerard . And shocker, Annie remembered too. They want me to tell you different versions of you and your family are in their thoughts.”
“ Sweet . Tell ’em thanks,” he muttered.
“ Will do,” I replied and stroked his beard. “ How are you hanging in?”
“ Feel absolute shit…and totally great.”
I didn’t get that, but I stayed silent and let him do what I knew he’d do.
Give it to me.
He did.
“ When I lost Ma , I didn’t know what I was heading into, and that was shit, but more, I did it alone, and that made it impossible to maneuver. That’s why I got stuck in it. I didn’t know how to pull myself out, and I didn’t have anyone to show me the way.”
My poor baby.
I continued to stroke his beard.
“ Losing Pete isn’t any less shit,” he carried on. “ Having lost someone before and knowing how bad it’s going to be isn’t any less shit either. The difference is havin’ my brothers, my family.” His hands stopped roaming my back. “ And havin’ you.”
I melted into him.
Or , I was pretty melted into him, so I oozed into him.
“ Babe , your dad, Nic and Larry showing was all kinds of cool,” he whispered.
“ They like you,” I whispered back.
“ Yeah ,” he grunted.
“ No , they really, really do,” I teased, but it was still the truth.
He slid his hands to the cheeks of my ass and gave them a squeeze.
I smiled at him. It wasn’t beaming but it was genuine.
Then I took a breath and let it flow.
“ And I love you,” I said.
Hugger went solid under me.
Then he rolled us so he was on top.
“ Say it again,” he ordered.
I smoothed the hair away from his handsome face, gazing into those warm, intense, beautiful brown eyes, and I whispered, “ I love you, Harlan McCain .”
He slanted his head and kissed me, hard, wet, long and deep .
When he broke it, my lips were bruised but my eyes were stinging with tears because Hugger was a tremendous kisser, but that was the best yet by far.
And I knew why it was.
But he was my Hugger .
So he told me.
“ Love you too, baby,” he said.
A tear slid out of the corner of my eye.
Hugger caught it with his thumb, dipped to rub his nose against mine…
Then he kissed me again.
And we made love again, long, slow, sweet and beautiful.
We fell asleep in each other’s arms in the Compound on Chaos .
Where I was meant to be.
And where my man was born to be.
* * *
Before we left to go back to Phoenix , we were delivered one more brutal, and velvet, blow.
Renae gave us the Christmas presents Big Petey had ordered for us.
Renae , being that kind of woman (in other words, awesome ), even wrapped them in Christmas paper, although it was still well before Thanksgiving .
We opened them in front of her, though I knew Hugger didn’t want to, and I didn’t either, because we knew they’d be blows.
We did it because she was hanging in there, but she was also broken. This was the second man she’d lost ( Rosalie’s father died before Renae met Big Petey ), and if she wanted to see our reactions, we were going to let her.
The good news was, it didn’t make me cry.
I loved my present, and Hugger’s , with every fiber of my being.
They were black tees (mine a babydoll—man, did Big Petey pay attention or what?).
They had the Chaos logo on front, and on the back of mine it said, Property of Hugger .
And on the back of Hugger’s it said, Property of Blue .
They were everything. They were life.
And after we got home, I called Rebel to find out where Pete got them.
I ordered three for Hugger and three for me, so there’d always be a clean one at hand.
The ones Big Petey got us, I had mounted in a shadowbox and hung on the wall behind the head of the table in my dining room, where Pete belonged.
And now he’d always be there with us.
Always .
* * *
Six months later…
Hugger walked ahead of me down the path. Caught up in looking around, he didn’t notice I’d stopped to take an up-close picture of a cherry blossom.
Once I got it, my gaze sought my man.
He’d stopped too and was breathing deep, taking in the delicate fragrance all around, the beauty of the place, the trees a dreamy, soft-pink landscape, a four-story, bright-red building with green roofs with the famous Japanese swoops at the edges decorating the distance.
I lifted my phone to snap a photo of him just as he turned to look for me, found me and smiled at me.
I returned that smile before I looked down at my phone to see the shot.
Damn , he was beautiful.
I heard a call I didn’t know what it was because it was in Japanese , so I looked up and saw a woman rushing toward Hugger .
But her little boy was standing close to him, staring up at him like he was some fantastical being who had fallen to the earth.
I understood the sentiment.
The woman made it to Hugger , bowed repeatedly and spoke, trying to pull her boy away.
Hugger just smiled, reached out and mussed the boy’s hair, and I wasn’t really close, but I could swear I saw him wink at the kid.
The kid’s giggle reached me, though, and I didn’t miss his face mostly taken up with a big, bright smile.
My heart swelled.
“ Thank you,” I whispered to Jackie McCain .
Then I hurried toward my man, so busy pulling up the translation app on my phone, I didn’t notice a gentle breeze blew through the cherry trees, setting petals to floating all around us.
And for a beautiful moment in time, our vacation became a downright dream.
Because we got a visit from Heaven .
Hugger
One and a half years later …
Every time he came, it was like this.
Candles , flowers, bottles of bourbon, whisky, tequila, and the odd beer. Patches , flags and a shit ton of pictures.
In the mess around Big Petey’s headstone, Hugger tucked one more picture.
It was black and white, depicting a blurry blob.
But he tucked it anyway between a shot of Rider tickling Princess so hard, he had to hold her up so she wouldn’t fall from laughing, and a pic of Joker and Travis , with Travis standing on a step stool, bent over the hood of one of Joke’s builds.
Not far was a photo of Jag looming over Archie’s shoulder as she lay in a hospital bed, Arch holding the newborn Graham in her arms. And another of a bunch of his brothers, their old ladies, Hugger and Di , all crunching into tacos at the Taco Festival in Phoenix last year.
Also not far was the faded picture of Diana wearing a strapless wedding gown with a lot of lace and a long slit up one side that had two skirts. One that was straight and had a little lace train at the back, and there was a big floof of another one over it, falling from her waist, which looked fantastic as she was walking down the aisle, but fortunately she got rid of it by the time it came to party.
You could just say, Nolan and Di putting their heads together with Nolan’s money meant Hugger’s wedding to his woman had been far from a chill affair.
It gave his brothers never-ending fodder to hand him shit about, even if at the time he didn’t see any of them balk once at the open bar, shoving perfectly cooked prime rib in their faces, the extravagant dessert buffet, or busting a move on the dance floor.
But Hugger wouldn’t have had it any other way.
Di had looked so fucking gorgeous, it was hard to lay eyes on her (but he put in the effort and managed it).
And she’d been so damned happy, he wouldn’t change a thing.
Even the fact her mother didn’t show, mostly because she wasn’t invited.
But on Di’s side of the pews, the front one was filled with her dad, his now wife, then fiancée, Gisele (a woman who was age-appropriate, elegant as fuck (because she was French ), gorgeous, sophisticated and hilarious— Hugger thought she was the shit, Di adored her—needless to say, with pool parties and dinners, and Di and Gisele cooking French food in his kitchen, and Gisele having two kids of her own, also (so far) one grandchild, Nolan hadn’t sold his house), Di’s gram, Nicole , Larry and Larry’s kids.
With them and the rest of the church packed nearly to standing room only, on both sides, his woman had love to spare.
None of those pictures around Pete’s stone were in frames, but they were weighed down, which was what Hugger made sure to do with the newest one.
Over time, the heat beat down on those photos, the wind frayed them, the rain and snow made the images run.
And all that meant what was in those the images sunk into the stone, the dirt, and the bones below, right where they were intended to reach.
When he straightened, he stared down at the stone and shared, “ Her name’s gonna be Jacqueline Waite McCain .”
“ I suggested Petra as a middle name,” Di , standing at his side, chimed in.
He looked down at his wife.
“ We’re not namin’ our girl Petra ,” Hugger said for the fiftieth time.
“ Why not?”
“ It sounds like a video game.”
She scrunched her nose.
“ Exactly ,” he decreed.
“ Peta ?” she tried.
“ That’s bread.”
She screwed up her face.
Damn , she was cute.
“ Petronella ?” she tried again.
“ Sounds like fuel you’d put in a lantern.” He looked down at the stone. “ Seems my woman doesn’t like your last name, Big Petey .”
“ That’s not true!” she cried, also to the stone. Then she turned to Hugger and got desperate. “ Petunia !”
He caught her by the neck and yanked her to him before he bent his head and laid a heavy, wet one on her mouth.
When he lifted away, he stated, “ It’s gonna be Waite .”
“’ Kay ,” she breathed.
Oh yeah, she was cute.
“ You cold?” he asked.
“ Freezing ,” she whispered.
He rubbed his nose to hers and looked again at the stone.
“ Gotta get my woman home, old man, and get her warm. We’ll see you when we’re back in town,” he said.
“’ Bye , Big Petey ,” Diana added. “ Love you.”
Yeah . Love you, Pete , bottom of my soul , Hugger thought.
Then he wrapped his arm around his woman’s shoulders, feeling her arm circle his waist, and, holding her close, he took her to the bike he’d borrowed from the garage.
He got on first.
Di mounted up after him, curled her arms under his pits, her fingers on one hand into his shoulder, the other she flattened against his chest, and she put her chin to one shoulder.
With Di settled in where she belonged, Hugger started the bike up, revved their farewell-for-now to his brother, and he, his woman and their unborn baby girl rolled away.
The End