Epilogue
Jasper Nash - A Year Later
"K id sister," Lachlan says, wrapping an arm around Riley's shoulder.
I hold back the urge to growl. He's a little too close to my wife.
He's also very chummy with her. Then again all the guys in Ruin are.
They were all close to Bryan, Riley's brother.
Lachlan has a chubby toddler on his hip. "Damn, you're super knocked up."
Riley snorts. "No way, I had no clue." She runs a finger over the adorable chubby cheek of the toddler.
"Hey Riles," Callan says. "You look good."
"Thanks, you do too," Riley says, giving him a hug.
"Alright move," Love McKinley hisses. "You've got the pregnancy brigade coming through."
"She's getting meaner by the day," Storm says, chuckling. "Again."
"You're so pretty," Lyric Sinclair says, wrapping Riley in a hug. They're both extremely pregnant so it's awkward.
Love plops down in one of the club chairs, propping her feet up. "Damn I don't remember it being so hard last time," she grumbles.
"This time it's a girl," a small voice says, walking hand in hand with Rooker. Guess they weren't kidding when they said sometimes he knows things no one else knows.
"Your child is being a pain in the ass," Love says, snorting a laugh. She looks at Storm. "Again."
"Love you too," the boy, Ravvi says, fluttering his long lashes at her. He walks straight up to Riley and lays a hand over her stomach. "Do you want to know what you're having?"
"The doctor said it's a girl," Riley whispers, glancing around with a shocked smile on her face.
"It is," Ravvi agrees. "Do you want to know who the father is?"
Love leans forward, gently slapping a hand over his mouth. "Child we talked about this," she says, rolling her eyes. "Please excuse him, he takes after his uncle Vince. No decorum."
"You can say that again," Ryder Sinclair says, taking a seat next to Griffin Stone on the couch.
Ravvi just giggles as Love pulls away her hand. "That's her," he whispers, catching sight of Cove in Killian's arms. "She's very special to me."
Riley just blinks down at him. Yeah, seeing it in person is a whole lot different than being told second hand.
"I know we've video chatted," Lyric says, squeezing Riley's arm. "But we had to come see you. Ravvi insisted. Also I feel like, well," Lyric blinks wide blue-green eyes as she chooses her words. "You and I will talk, but yeah… it's so great to meet you."
"Just embrace the crazy," Love says, grunting. "That's my advice."
"She's damn cranky these days," Ryder says, snorting a laugh and pointing at Love.
"Hush your mouth St. James," Love grumbles.
"It's Sinclair these days, darling," Ryder says, chuckling.
"Hi, I'm Ravvi," the small boy says, holding a hand out to Cove. She blinks at him and glances away.
"Don't be rude," Killian says, putting her down. "Say hello."
"Holy shit dude, you’re Killian fucking Adler," Lachlan says, bouncing up and scaring the boy in his arms. "I loved watching you fight, you're a beast."
It's Nash these days, but no one corrects him.
Riley's eyes bounce between Killian and Lachlan.
"Well shit," Kills grumbles.
"What?" Lachlan asks, eyes bouncing between the two of them.
"You were a professional fighter?" Riley asks, tilting her head to study Killian. "Yeah, I see it."
"You owe me twenty bucks," I say to Finn. I guessed it would be a year before it came out and that Riley wouldn't blink twice. Finn was in the pot for three years and that she'd climb right on his cock. Finn smirks and covertly flips me off. Yeah, I definitely won that one.
Kills yanks her to his chest and kisses her temple. "Guess it was bound to come out eventually."
"Damn Lachlan, way to blow the man's cover," Storm says, snorting a laugh.
"They never stop tormenting me." Lachlan groans. "Sorry, kid," he says to Riley.
"That makes so much sense," Riley says, nodding and glancing up at Kills.
"Not mad?" Kills asks.
"Not even a little," Riley says, face planting into Killian's chest.
"You're going to love me one day," Ravvi says to Cove. She sticks her tongue out at him and runs into Riley's legs. "It's okay. I can wait." He follows her over, patting her on the back.
"We're all going to be family," Ravvi says the last bit to Riley. She snorts a laugh. It's hard to believe, but they warned us. Ravvi is very sure he's meant to end up with Cove.
Cannon scoops up Cove and takes a seat next to Finn who's holding Lily on the couch. Finn is simply watching everything transpire with wide eyes.
"I'm going to put all this craziness in a book," Finn whispers to Cannon, laughing behind his hand. "It's pure gold."
"Let me tell you about the night I met Lachlan," Lyric says, frowning. And so she does. When she's finished we all kind of stare dumbstruck. That was a whole lot of personal information she just blurted out.
"And you adopted Ravvi and you think he's going to end up with Cove?" Riley asks. Her words are slow and she blinks.
"That's what he thinks," Callan says, pushing his glasses up his nose. "And he's eerily right about a lot of things. I guess Bryan had plans for all of us, after all."
"Or maybe it's the mysteries of the universe," Ravvi says, grinning. He mangled a few words, but I got the gist.
"Why am I here again?" Love asks, rubbing at the sides of her giant belly.
"Listen when I talk, Lovey," Ravvi says with a sigh. He grins and rolls his eyes. Love scoops him up, pulling him into her lap and he giggles.
"Where the hell are Dex and Walker?" Love frowns. "I need my cheeseburger. Child, you got any insight into that?"
Ravvi laughs, shaking his head.
"They probably got distracted with seeing who could climb the farthest then do the most dangerous flip to get down without breaking a bone," Rooker adds, taking the baby from Lachlan.
"No, don't remind her," Lyric hisses, frowning at Rook.
"Family?" Riley asks, blinking at the chaos. Her brain is obviously a little slow to catch up with all the insanity going on around us.
"Oh yes, you're quite stuck with us," Ryder adds winking.
That's when I stop standing dumbfounded and collect my very pregnant wife. I take a seat in the recliner and have her lie on my side. It takes some maneuvering with the giant belly, but she sighs in relief when she rests her face on my chest.
"It's pandemonium," I grunt, rolling my eyes.
"It sure is," Riley says, with a soft smile on her face.
"Holy fuck," I hiss, watching Issac motherfucking Matthews walk in with a toddler on each hip and a puppy circling his feet.
"Found your dog," Issac says, gently stepping around the golden retriever puppy.
Riley snorts, covering her face with her hand. "We absolutely do not have a dog," she says, choking on a laugh.
"Oh shit," Issac grumbles, setting down two small boys who look give or take two years old.
"Dude." Lachlan snorts a laugh. "You criminal. You straight up committed a puppy heist-"
"You brought back a dog and lost our daughter?" Love hisses, cutting off Lachlan.
"No. Shit that's not what happened." Issac grimaces. "Don't say it like that. Apparently, it adopted us. And Bellamy is with Dex," Issac says.
"That kid is going to know how to scale a three story building before she's five," Storm says, snorting a laugh.
"Jude is there, he won't let Dexter do anything too crazy," Love says, like this is her mantra she repeats in times of chaos. "Jude is reasonable."
"I'm just playing, Baby Love," Issac says, bending over and kissing Love. "She's playing at the park with Riggs."
"We don't have a park in the neighborhood," Finn says, laughing like this is the best day ever. "You're probably really confusing our neighbors."
Issac chuckles, shaking his head at the ceiling. "No wonder." He snorts a laugh. "Man, I thought they were staring out the windows because this is like a really white people neighborhood." He points to the small, toddling boys. "Help out my chick. I gotta go take these people their dog back."
"This is my new favorite day of all the days," Finn says, grinning at Lily who's chilling watching the room with wide eyes.
Lachlan loses it, laughing and shaking his head. Ryder Sinclair joins him.
"We've got you," Griffin says to Issac. He leans forward snatching up one of the twins.
"This is good shit," Rook says, nuzzling his face against the toddler's cheek. "Sorry Damian, you've got exactly zero chance of being normal growing up in a pack like this."
"Normal is dreadfully boring anyway," Finn and Ryder say in eerie unison.
They grin at each other. Good God, I think we're all in trouble.
Guess we'll just have to see what the future holds. The one thing Riley wanted for the girls, more than anything else, was a family—people to love and care for them outside of herself.
Looking around at our over-full living room? I'm pretty sure she got all that and more.