Chapter 17
JOSIE
Picnic tables line the clubhouse backyard, loaded with more food than a small army could eat. The smell of grilling meat fills the air, mixing with laughter and the steady thump of classic rock from someone’s speakers.
It’s the kind of gathering that would have terrified me a year ago. A biker barbecue, complete with leather cuts and tattoos and men who look like they could kill you with their bare hands.
Now it just feels like a family gathering.
Stone presses a kiss to my temple. “Try to relax. No one here is going to mug you.”
“I know.” And I do. Doesn’t mean it’s not awkward now that people know we’re banging.
Stone gets pulled away by Tank to deal with an issue—there’s always something—and I find myself drifting toward the drinks table. I’m reaching for a beer when a voice stops me.
“He’s out of your league, you know.”
I turn to find Lee leaning against the fence, arms crossed, watching me with an expression I can’t quite read.
“Excuse me?”
“Not you.” He nods toward where Stone is conferring with Hawk. “Him. You could do better.”
I blink. “That’s... a pretty shitty thing to say about your father.”
He grins. “What did you expect me to say?”
“Threats, maybe. ‘Hurt my dad and I’ll bury you in the woods.’ That sort of thing.”
Lee’s mouth twitches. “Emma already called dibs on the threatening speech. I’m supposed to be the reasonable one.”
“And is this reasonable?”
He pushes off the fence, coming to stand beside me. “After Mom left, he shut down. Went through the motions. Ran the club, raised us, but he wasn’t really there. You know?”
I nod slowly. I’ve seen hints of it—the walls Stone keeps up, the way he deflects anything too personal.
“He’s different with you,” Lee continues. “He laughs. He smiles. He talks about things other than club business.” He meets my eyes. “When you were in the hospital, I thought he was going to burn down the entire county looking for who hurt you.”
“Lee—”
“I’m not warning you off.” His expression softens. “I’m saying thank you. I know you could do better, but…” He takes a breath. “I’m really fucking glad you’re not interested in anyone but him.”
“I mean, if Paul Rudd offered, I might be tempted to run away to Hollywood.”
He grins.
I hip bump him gently. “Your dad is a good man. And he’s raised two awesome kids. You think I’m out of his league, but I don’t see him as anything but the man he is. Protective, smart, funny, and a guy who looks out for those he loves.”
Not to mention exceptional in bed. I don’t say that part aloud, I suspect Lee wouldn’t appreciate the info.
“I guess there’s only one thing left to say.” He gives me an awkward half-hug. “Welcome to the family.”
A warmth spreads through my chest. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.” He drops his arm and goes back to watching the party. “Emma’s going to be pissed when I tell her I beat her to the blessing thing. She had a whole speech prepared.”
“I won’t tell her you did it first.”
“Please do. It’s more fun that way.”
He wanders off to join Tank by the grill, and I’m left standing there with a beer I haven’t opened and an unexpected lump in my throat.
Emma finds me twenty minutes later.
“Lee already did it, didn’t he?” She plops down on the picnic bench beside me. “He had that smug look he only gets when he thinks he’s been emotionally mature.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Liar.” But she’s smiling. “Fine. I’ll give you the speech anyway.
Ahem.” She clears her throat dramatically.
“Josie Bright. You’re the first woman my father has looked at with any kind of interest beyond sexual since Mom left.
I was so angry at him for so long—for not being present, for putting the club first, for missing my ballet recitals and forgetting my birthday that one year—”
“Emma—”
“Let me finish.” She holds up a hand. “But you make him show up. You make him be present. He texts me back now within the same day. He asked about my audition last week. He’s trying, and I think... I think it’s because of you.”
“Can I say something now?”
She waves her hand. “Go ahead.”
“I didn’t make your dad anything.” I turn to face her fully. “Emma, that man has loved you fiercely since the day you were born. I’ve seen how he talks about you—his whole face changes. You and Lee are the center of his world.”
“Then why—”
“Because he gets lost sometimes.” I keep my voice gentle. “The cut, the president role, the weight of keeping everyone safe—it swallows him whole if he’s not careful. It’s not that he forgets you. It’s that he forgets himself. Forgets the man underneath all the responsibility.”
Emma’s quiet, her jaw tight.
“I don’t make him better,” I continue. “I just... remind him who he already is. The guy who coached your peewee soccer team and cried at your first recital—yeah, he told me about that—he’s always been in there. He just needed someone to pull him out of president mode once in a while.”
“He cried at my recital?” Her voice is smaller now.
“Apparently he was very proud. Said it was rather undignified for an MC president.”
She laughs, but it’s watery. “He never told me that.”
“He’s not great at the emotional stuff. But love was never the problem, Emma. The showing it was.” I reach over and squeeze her hand. “He’s trying, but it’s not because of me—it’s because of you. Because he doesn’t want to miss any more of your life.”
Emma swipes at her eyes. “Okay. Fine. That was... annoyingly insightful.” She draws in a breath, shaking off her melancholy.
“And now for the big bad step-kid warning,” she adds, recovering her composure, “I will make your life a living hell if you hurt him. I have a lot of dancer friends, and we’re surprisingly vicious. ”
I hide a smile. “Noted.”
She hugs me—quick and fierce—and then she’s gone, disappearing into the crowd before I can respond.
Stone catches my eye across the yard. He raises an eyebrow. You okay?
I smile at him. More than okay. His kids just gave me their blessings. That’s huge.
Ginger finds me next. Of course she does. The woman has a sixth sense for emotional moments.
She settles beside me on the picnic bench, two fresh beers in hand, passing one over without asking.
“Honey, I’ve been an old lady for twenty years. I know the look.” She takes a sip. “You’re wondering if you can do this.”
I cock an eyebrow. “Is that what I’m thinking? I thought I was tossing up between a burger or dog for dinner.”
The smell of the barbecue is making my mouth water.
She shakes her head. “No, you’re wondering if you can deal with the late nights, the unexplained disappearances, the blood stains that you’ll have to somehow get out of their clothes.”
I wince. “Well I wasn’t but I am now.”
“Look, I’ve been there. I get it. Tank’s been gone three days without a word more times than I can count. I’ve held dinner, canceled plans, lied to my mother about why I couldn’t make Christmas.” She shrugs. “And I’d do it all again.”
“Why?”
“Because the club isn’t competition, Josie.
It’s part of who he is. I didn’t fall in love with some watered-down version of Tank who punches a clock and comes home at five.
I fell in love with the whole man—the one who’d ride through hell for his brothers, who’d take a bullet for this family without thinking twice.
” She looks at me. “Stone’s the same. You either want the whole package, or you don’t. ”
I watch Stone across the yard. He’s laughing at something Hawk said, his whole face transformed by it. This fierce, protective, complicated man who’s let me see the soft parts he hides from everyone else.
“I want the whole man,” I say quietly.
“I know.” Ginger smiles. “That’s why I’m talking to you instead of warning you off.”
“Does it get easier? The worry?”
“Never.” She’s honest about it. “But you learn to live with it. And the good parts—the family, the loyalty, knowing you’re loved by someone who’d burn the world down for you—that makes the worry worth it.”
I think about what she’s saying. About the choice I’m making, and the life I’m stepping into.
“I might get annoyed sometimes,” I admit. “When he disappears at 2am or Church runs three hours long.”
“Of course you will. That’s normal.”
“But it’s not like my life is so different, especially when I’m working a case.” I shrug. “So yeah, I’m sure I’ll get annoyed sometimes. But I get it. And this—him, all of you—it’s worth the occasional inconvenience.”
Ginger’s smile is warm and approving. “That’s my girl. Now, tell me about the sex. Was it good?”
The evening moves on, the bikers getting rowdier as the night deepens. I’m getting another drink when I notice them.
Isabel is sitting on the back porch steps, Lily drowsing against her shoulder. The little girl’s arms are wrapped around that ratty stuffed rabbit—Mr. Flopsy, she calls him—and her eyes are at half-mast, fighting sleep.
Steel is leaning against the porch post nearby, telling Isabel something that makes her almost-smile. Which for Isabel is practically hysterical laughter. He’s relaxed in a way I haven’t seen before, his usual guardedness softened.
And Brick...
Brick is watching from across the yard.
He’s not obvious about it. He’s in conversation with Tank, nodding at whatever’s being said, his massive frame somehow managing to look casual. But his eyes keep drifting back to that porch.
Steel notices. His jaw tightens, just slightly.
Oh. That’s going to be interesting.
Isabel, oblivious to both of them, adjusts Lily’s weight and says something that makes Steel laugh.
Brick’s beer bottle creaks in his grip.
Well, damn.
Stone appears at my elbow. “What are you looking at?”
“Nothing.” I turn to face him.
“Is it the Isabel situation?”
“You noticed too?”
“Hard not to.” He glances toward the porch. “Steel’s been hovering since the day he met her. And Brick hasn’t stopped watching her since he brought her home.”
“Does that concern you?”
“Not yet.” He pulls me against him. “Right now, I’m more concerned with making sure my woman knows she’s the only one I’m watching.”
“Smooth.”
“I try.”
He kisses me—soft and sweet in front of everyone—and I let myself sink into it. Into him. Into this life I never expected to want.
I fit here.
The realization settles over me like a warm blanket.
I truly fit here.