Epilogue
PAGAN ~ FOUR MONTHS LATER
“You ready for this, Dad?” Roman asked from the back seat.
I glanced in the rearview at my boys and cocked a brow. “Don’t worry about me. Worry about yourself.”
“To be fair, babe, they’ve got a point,” my ol’ lady, and wife, murmured from the passenger seat beside me.
“The only thing I’m not okay with is that I’m not on my bike,” I grumbled.
“Swore the day I got my first bike that I’d never ride in a cage again.
Had enough of this traffic bullshit when I was a delivery driver and when I was in the goddamned Marines.
” I gave the steering wheel of my truck a wallop. “But here I am, cage and all.”
“Jesus, Dad,” Rex drawled from behind me. “No need to crash out. It’s just a car.”
“It’s not my bike,” I reiterated.
Ash laughed. “You only have to drive a car when you take your family out. Think about all the memories we can make when we go on road trips and shit.”
“I fuckin’ wish we went on road trips,” I snapped back, indicating to turn onto Hambleton’s Main Street. “You won’t accept anythin’ less than the Caribbean.”
Aislynn preened. “Well, I’m too pretty to sit in an RV full of farting, smelly boys.”
Rex and Roman cackled.
Fuck knows what Ash was talking about. Nobody had asked her to vacation in an RV. I did take her fishing with the boys and me for two days, but we only stayed out one night, and she refused to sleep in a tent, so we ended up in a five-fucking-star hotel because everywhere else was full.
She was a total princess who loved her clothes, shoes, and purses.
Totally high-maintenance—and admittedly, I loved it.
She always looked pretty and smelled good, and our room was always clean and fresh.
Honestly, I kinda loved sleeping in girlie sheets with a five-million thread count, and I especially liked fucking her on them and dirtying them up.
I navigated the truck into a parking spot outside the Lucky Shamrock, my eyes automatically sweeping the inside of the place for any sign of trouble.
The bar was packed, but that was to be expected because today had been important for the O’Shea family, seeing as one of their own had gotten married.
Busy was good. Witnesses meant less chance of bloodshed.
Not that it would stop the O’Sheas if they really wanted their pound of flesh.
Aislynn stared through the window, then glanced at me, chewing the inside of her lip.
“Do you think Donovan and Rosie will hate me for missing their wedding ceremony?”
I reached for her hand and gave her fingers a squeeze. “Donovan’s not like that, baby. You know how easy-goin’ he is. I’m sure he’ll be fine, and Rosie’s cool.”
Aislynn’s family and friends still didn’t know we’d gotten married months before.
Her mom and Tristan were the only people we’d told.
We’d been seen around together, and her brothers must have known something was going on, but thank fuck, they tended to stay out of her business the same way she did theirs.
They all thought she was living down in Denver, seeing her lease out, but I’d gotten her out of that the week after we were married, and she’d been at the clubhouse with me ever since.
She’d already designed our house on the south side of the club compound.
There were a few smaller warehouses down there that we weren’t gonna use.
We looked at living in town, but there weren’t any houses Aislynn or the boys were particularly struck with, so I thought, why not design exactly what we want?
We had mountains behind us, and our view from what would soon be our back porch was breathtaking.
Also, we’d be close to the club but far enough away that we wouldn’t be bothered by people, so we’d have the best of both worlds.
I unclipped my seat belt and waited for everyone else to follow suit. “Are we ready?”
“As I’ll ever be,” she responded.
“It’s okay, Ash,” Rex piped up from behind her. “If they cause a scene, we’ll just leave and go to Giovanni’s.”
I turned and shot my oldest boy a wink.
He loved his stepmom; in fact, both my boys did.
She cooked for them and made sure they had clean clothes and enough money for dates and gas.
She also slipped condoms in their pockets, which I reckoned was a bit soon, especially for Roman, but then I loved the way she looked out for my boys, so I wasn’t going to upset the applecart by saying anything.
Breanna had met a guy in rehab and moved to Nebraska when she completed her program.
He was the brother of her roommate, and he seemed like a solid guy.
He worked as a plumber for a big construction company, and by all accounts, he took good care of her and was good to my boys whenever they drove over for a visit.
Bree was living in a one-bedroom apartment but had a blow-up bed in the living room that she organized for the boys when they were there.
My ex and her man were talking about moving in together soon and getting a bigger place, so it wouldn’t be forever, and at least she was living clean and living well.
I got out of the car and jogged around the hood to get Aislynn’s door. Opening it, I held a hand out for her to take and helped her down from my truck. “You okay?” I asked.
She smiled. “Nervous.”
“No need,” I assured her with more confidence than I was actually feeling. You see, there was a reason we hadn’t been around, especially in the last four to six weeks.
The fact was, our marriage wasn’t our only secret.
Aislynn pulled her long coat around her to brace against the Fall wind. Then, she threaded her arm through mine, checked that the boys were close, and moved into the bar first.
A cheer went up when Aislynn walked in, then died as soon as I stepped in behind her. Somebody turned the music down a notch, and I looked around the bar to see the O’Sheas and all the Speed Demons, along with their women and kids.
My attention was immediately caught by Atlas, who for some ungodly reason had taken his shirt off and had a necktie wrapped and fastened around his head, like he thought he was fucking Rambo.
Maeve was bent over a chair in front of him until she looked around and saw us, and she slowly stood to her full height.
Aislynn looked around and saw Donovan, Rosie, and Maureen sitting at the bar. She gave them a low wave and said, “Hey!”
“You’re late, Sis,” Donovan called over, eyeing me disdainfully. “I see you picked up a stray along the way.”
“Well,” she murmured. “Pagan’s not exactly a stray.
” She opened the front of her coat and slipped it off, showing her baby bump, which looked pretty big, considering she was only four months along.
She raised her left hand, flashing the huge diamond claddagh ring that I’d slipped on her finger the day I made her my wife and, incidentally, also got her pregnant, and fixed a smile on her face before calling out, “Surprise!”
A split-second of silence settled over the bar, then chairs scraped and the sound of glass smashing on the floor cut through the air, along with a collective gasp.
Then, all hell broke loose.
Two massive tattooed Irish men advanced on me, their hands balled into fists.
“Motherfucker!” Callum bellowed.
“You knocked my sister up!” Donovan roared.
I held my hands up defensively, stepping back.
“Yeah, I did, but I married her too.” Never once had I backed away from a fight, but I got their anger.
The last thing they knew was that I’d cheated on their sister, and although Tristan had spread the word that it was all a big misunderstanding, I doubted they believed him.
Then and there, I made a decision.
“Okay!” I shouted. “I’ll give you one punch apiece. After that, I hit back.”
“Done,” Callum muttered, drawing closer.
“Fuck, yeah,” Donovan crowed.
“Jesus, Mary, and Joseph,” Maureen screeched. “Angels, won’t you deliver me?”
As I heard the words, I saw a big, meaty fist coming for my jaw. It clipped me hard, and my head snapped to the side as I saw stars.
I rounded on the bastard that had sucker-punched me, only to see Atlas standing there, shaking his right hand out. “That’s for settin’ up my sister,” he bit out.
Another punch came at me from my left and caught my temple.
Pain radiated from my skull, and I stumbled back, falling against a table. That one hit hard, but I managed to stay on my feet.
Then, another punch came from nowhere and landed on my left kidney. I doubled over, clutching my side before letting out a pained groan.
Fuck, that one hit the spot. I wanted to puke.
“You okay, Dad?” Rex called over from the corner where Aislynn had ushered him and Rome.
“Yeah,” I croaked.
“Well, he’d better be,” Maureen piped up. “I’ve got a glass of Macallan here with his name on.”
I perked up at that and saw my mother-in-law holding up a glass full of amber liquid. Her eyes were soft and her smile wide as she studied me closely. She cleared her throat and shouted for silence before her eyes drifted back to me.
“Aiden,” she began. “I never got to raise a glass for you at your wedding to Aislynn, love, so let me take this opportunity to welcome you to the family.”
She held the whiskey up high and called out, “May your troubles be less, and your blessings be more. To Aiden and Aislynn.”
Then my heart swelled as the entire room toasted us.
“To Aiden and Aislynn.”
Aislynn
The Next Day
I stood at Mam’s kitchen window, gazing out at my boys playing soccer with their dad, Callum, and Donovan.
My brothers had come over early to hash things out with my husband. Yesterday’s non-fight was over before it even started, which was good, seeing as I didn’t want to ruin Rosie’s wedding day. But it was like Mam said: we were Irish. It was tradition to have a punch-up at a family wedding.
Mam filled the Yorkshire pudding tins with batter and slid them into the hot oven before closing the door.
“There,” she murmured as if to herself. “Twenty minutes, and they’ll be ready.” She moved over to the stove to stir the gravy. “My grandsons love my gravy, so I’ve made extra for you to take home for them.”
I smiled because she was right. “Thanks, Mam.”
She eyed my belly. “How are you feeling?”
“Fine,” I answered. “Pregnancy’s been a breeze so far.”
“Did you take that job in Rock Springs?” she asked.
I shook my head. “No. Pagan wants me to take Kennedy up on her offer. He says with the baby coming, it’ll be better if I have my own business so I can commit to my own hours, and he’s got a point.
Rosie said she’ll do my tax returns and monthly accounts, and the Kings want to hire me to renovate some of their buildings, so it looks like I’ll be good for work for a while. ”
The week before, Kennedy had called and offered to rent the bottom floor of her building to me.
She was a lawyer and owned offices in Hambleton, some of which she wasn’t using. I’d spoken to Pagan, and he told me to go for it. Between us, we had more than enough money to start me up, and the timing would be good for me because I could open my business after I had the baby.
Mam put the wooden spoon down and picked up her cup of tea from the counter before coming to stand beside me. “They look like they’re having fun,” she murmured, taking a sip from her cup.
I watched Roman get the ball past his dad, then he struck it hard and sent it sailing between the two stumps they were using as a makeshift goal.
Rex ran over to him and gave him a high-five, and Donovan let out a loud whoop.
“I knew he never cheated on you,” Mam declared.
I turned and smiled. “I know, you said that at the time. I wasn’t sure. I mean, seeing what I saw was jarring, but you know how manipulative Saskia is. Remember, she did the same shit to Callum and Maeve.”
She shot me a furtive wink. “You played it to perfection, though, love.”
My lips twitched. “No, Mam. You did. You guided me from that first night he spoke to me in the bar. Making me go to Ireland was genius. Not even I was sure I was making the right move then. But you were right; he wasn’t committing, and it forced him to pull his head out of his arse.”
“It was like history repeating itself,” Mam said, shooting me a knowing look.
“Your da did the same to me. He met me in Roscommon, then came to live in America. By the time he came back for me, I made sure I’d already left for England, and he had to hunt me down.
Men like your da and Pagan need the hunt, Aislynn.
The fact he couldn’t pin you down made him all the more loo-lah for ya. ”
I let out a quiet giggle.
“Knew you two were perfect for each other. Aiden’s just like your father, and no other man would have done it for you. You have your da’s restless soul, daughter. You needed a man like Pagan who would let you be yourself and not give an arse about it.”
“Yeah,” I agreed, my chest warming as I stared at my husband. “He loves it when I give him shit.”
“You held on, Aislynn.” Her hand rested on my belly, and she patted it lightly. “Now your reward will be sweet.” She nodded toward the garden where Pagan and Callum were trying to foul Donovan to get the ball off him. “Will you ever tell him we manipulated it all?”
“No need,” I murmured. “Pagan likes to think he’s the boss in every situation, and usually he is.
I don’t see any need to burst his bubble.
I got what I wanted, namely him. He got a woman who loves him and his boys, a new baby on the way, a strong ol’ lady for his club, and something even more precious. ”
My mammy smoothed her hand down my back. “What’s that?”
I smiled and rested my head on her shoulder. “He finally got a family.”
The End
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