Chapter 26
TWENTY-SIX
WES
Killian was waiting for me when I pulled up to the house.
He was helping me lay down sod before the sun got too high and it was too hot. Callie and I were moving into the new house in a few days, and I wanted to surprise her by having the yard finished. Kill offered to help me—well, several of the guys did, but I wanted to talk to him alone first.
“You eat already?” I asked, lifting the bag of donuts I’d grabbed from The Drip before driving up.
Killian’s arms were folded while he nodded.
I could tell he was pissed by the way he tossed off his cut and started aggressively raking the dirt to get it even.
“Look, I know you’re pissed,” I started.
“You don’t know shit!” Killian yelled, swinging his wild gaze my way. “No, I’m not pissed, Wes. I’m fucking hurt. You sent me on a wild goose chase, and you almost died because of it. You almost got Callie killed. She’s my family, Wes, as much as you are. You should have told me!”
He threw the rake across the yard.
Kilian’s chest heaved as he pinned his hands to his hips.
“I tried to stay quiet and respectful for weeks, Wes, but fuck this. I can’t believe you did that.
I can’t honestly even process how close you both came to dying.
Now Callie made some sort of alliance with Silas, the new leader of the Death Raiders, and you’re stepping down? Just fuck all this.”
He started walking back toward his bike, belatedly remembering his cut.
I followed him, keeping calm so he could get out all his anger.
“What am I supposed to do now? Simon is gone, half the club won’t even get to know he’s still alive.
But I’ll know. This is too much change for our club at one time.
I need you to stay on for a while, Wes. I can’t do this—” he trailed off, clenching his jaw tightly before leveling me with a hard glare.
“I feel like I just lost my entire family in one day. I need you around for a while.”
I was close enough now that I pulled him into a hug. Like fuck did we do this in front of other members, but Killian was my brother, and I felt like shit for making him feel this way.
“I’m not going anywhere. Callie’s here, too…stepping down doesn’t mean leaving.”
We separated, and Killian ran his hand over his head.
“Pretty sure Callie is going to have something to say about that…she left because of the club.”
The sky was turning a darker blue. The sun was getting higher, and we were going to have to lay this grass in the hot as fuck afternoon. I bent down to grab a new rake and started scraping over the gravel and dirt to level it out.
“Callie didn’t leave because of the club. She left because of me. I was keeping her out of the loop and ignoring her. We were young, and I had no idea how to balance the role I had taken on, not to mention that I wanted to do right by Simon. But Callie feels at home here.”
Killian smiled, letting out a laugh as he started joining me with leveling the yard.
“You locking that down then?”
I scoffed. “Fuck yes, I am. I want it to be as inconvenient as possible for her if she ever tries to leave again. I plan on proposing as soon as we move in, and I keep trying to put a baby inside her.”
Killian laughed, shaking his head. “Fuck, stop. She’s like my little sister.”
We worked while talking shop for the next several hours, until all the sod had been laid and the irrigation had been set up to keep it alive.
By the time we made our way back to the club, it was close to dinner, and all I wanted was to eat and then practice getting Callie pregnant.
But as we pulled up to the clubhouse, we were met with chaos.
At least a hundred bikes were parked around the garage, spilling into the front yard and taking up the bonfire space.
The doors were wide open, with members drinking, dancing, and partying.
We hadn’t thrown a party like this in months due to the president’s sickness, and transition of power to me.
It was poor taste to celebrate when your president was dying.
Parking the truck, Killian and I both piled out with confused expressions.
I didn’t think Callie would be mixed up in the madness inside, but I heard Max bark and then he was galloping, cutting through people, whipping them with his tail while he made his way to me.
I bent down to greet him with a pat to the stomach and chest.
“Where’s your mama?” I asked, walking inside with him on my heels.
Callie wouldn’t have left him inside unless she was here to make sure he was safe.
Searching the space, I found several members who only came around for special occasions and a lot of out of towners, some retired.
Sweetbutts, new and old, were sitting in laps and serving beer.
A few people were hanging out without a cut or patch but I just moved past them. I needed to find Callie.
I was searching over by the kitchen area when all the sudden the overhead music lowered and everyone huddled around me seemed to make a path by moving to the side. Max stood next to me, alert, with his head up, but then he darted forward as soon as I saw her.
Wearing her hair up high in a ponytail, Callie’s hazel eyes were lined with black, her dark lashes framing them.
Her lips were plump and pink, glossed over with her favorite lip color.
She wore those cute as fuck heeled boots, and a pair of shorts that barely covered her ass.
Her shirt was trimmed in lace, cupping her breasts so tight it pushed them up, and there over her bare shoulders was a familiar leather cut.
My breathing hitched as I processed what she’d found.
Callie Stone just walked in wearing my property patch, looking like she was ready to fuck the devil, and I was completely at a loss for words. She looked like she just stepped out of one of my wet dreams.
“Mister President,” she flirted, tilting her head to the side.
A few people around us clapped, and a few seemed to be smothering smiles.
I stared into her hazel eyes, desperate to touch her. As soon as I reached out, she stepped back with a smirk.
“I have a question for you, sir.”
Smiling like a love-struck idiot, I laughed. “Whatever it is, the answer is yes.”
Perking up, she took two steps forward, allowing me to pull her into my arms.
“Great! Then it’s settled. I’ll marry you.”
Everyone let out a chorus of shouts and cheers as the party resumed, the music blaring and Max barking.
“Did you just propose to me?”
Tucking her face into my shoulder, she pressed a kiss to my neck before replying.
“Technically you agreed to me marrying you, but either way, we’re engaged.”
I made a pleased humming sound while holding her to me.
“So this is our engagement party then?”
Tipping her head back, those pink lips spread in a smile. “I guess it is.”
“Well, then, I want my own celebration.”
With her lips at my ear, she whispered, “What did you have in mind?”
The sounds from the party could still be heard in our room next door, but I didn’t care. Tonight, Callie was all mine, and this time I was taking her, knowing she was here to stay.
I’d given her instructions on what to wear, and now as I walked in from the bathroom, I could see she obeyed.
“You have a thing for it?” She lifted the edge of her property patch and smirked.
Rubbing my cock through my boxers, I returned the smile.
“I do when you’re naked underneath it.”
“Whatever you say, Mister President. I’m here to please you.”
Her pretending to be here for my pleasure was definitely sending the blood rushing straight to my cock. She’d reapplied her lip gloss, and kept her hair high, and all I wanted to do was wrap my fist around it and fuck her from behind while I stared down at the words on the back of that patch.
“Is that right?”
Crawling on her hands and knees, she moved to the edge of the bed, showing me her swaying ass as she went.
“Yes, I’m your dirty slut tonight. Use me however you want.”
Ah, fuck. I was granite, painfully so, and the bulk, with my weeping tip, was too much to be contained in my boxers, so I pulled them down and gripped my shaft.
“First, I have one thing I need you to put on for me.”
Callie sat back on her heels, spreading her thighs, and I nearly choked from how sexy she looked. Focusing, I reached into my top drawer and pulled out the ring box, then cracked it open.
“River, you sort of stole my thunder, but I don’t really care, as long as you say yes in the end.” I held up the diamond ring in front of her.
Those pink lips parted on a gasp.
“Oh my God!”
I wouldn’t tell her I’d had that purchased for years, or that I’d added to it, just hoping one day she’d come back into my life and wear it. Sliding it onto her finger, she stared down at it with tears brimming in her eyes.
“You were really going to propose?”
“Of course I was. The day we moved into our new house.”
She jumped from the bed, leaping into my arms. “I love you.”
Pulling her back, so I could kiss her, I traced her lips and moved my mouth slowly against hers. “I love you too.”
After a few more sweet kisses and with the engagement ring on her finger, I tossed her back on the bed with a smirk.
“Now get on all fours again so I can teach you what it means to wear that patch.”
Callie
I was drinking tea, to soothe my throat after our zealous round of sex. I had taken a bath and came down to make some dinner. Wes ate, and pretty much passed out.
I couldn’t stop staring at my ring.
Nor could I ignore that the ring looked awfully similar to something I had picked out nine years ago while we were walking through a jewelry department.
There were extra bands of diamonds added to it, but the center diamond was the same modest princess cut that I had found when I was just seventeen years old and in love with the boy next door.
Peering over at Wes, and seeing him in his gray sweats, bare chest, half cuddling my dog, it was that sunshine in my soul feeling, chasing all the darkness that had hung around me for the past seven years.
All the struggling through rent, living paycheck to paycheck.
Meaningless connections and friendships until I met Laura.
Laura.
Alarm shot through me as I pulled up my phone to send her a text.
Me: So I have news…. sort of big news.
The dots on her end started moving but stopped. My brows caved as the dots repeated the process a few times, and then there was a soft knock on the door. Wes didn’t stir, so I tiptoed off the couch and peeked at his security camera.
Seeing who was there, I quickly unlocked and pulled the door open. Searching the porch, I curiously asked, “What are you doing here?”
It was dark out, and the club was still going, but it had died down quite a bit. There was a bonfire burning in the front, offering a bit of light to Wesley’s porch.
Laura was pulled in, and I locked everything up once more.
“Hey, sorry for randomly showing up like this.”
“No, are you kidding me? I’m so happy to see you.”
She fell into my arms for a hug, but I could sense something was off with her.
I heard the movie pause and peeked over to see Wes standing from the couch, rubbing his eyes.
“Hey, Laura, nice to see you. Guest room’s open if you need it.”
Placing a kiss on the side of my head, he headed upstairs with Max on his heels.
I took the opportunity to pull Laura by the wrist and settle into the couch. The cubby in the middle section had a few snacks I’d stashed, so I pulled it open and handed her a rope of red licorice.
“Why are there moving boxes everywhere?” Laura lightly nudged one by her foot.
I looked around, realizing things were a little crazy. I hadn’t really noticed before, with the engagement and orgasmic bliss from earlier.
“Wes built me a house. Three years ago. I just found out. We’re also engaged.” I held up my hand, and Laura tipped her head back in laughter.
“God, I missed you. Of course you’re engaged and the love of your life built you a house. So you’re moving in soon then?”
I shrugged, biting off a piece of licorice. “A few days.”
“Well, Wesley isn’t renting this place out by chance, is he?”
Wide-eyed, I turned toward her. “Are you saying what I think you’re saying?”
“The rental car I drove down here is packed, and when you texted me that you were staying, I abused my key privileges and loaded your stuff too.”
I was going to cry.
“Laura…are you for real moving here?”
I was having a hard time grasping the concept, because she grew up in a small town and had wanted the bigger city life for as long as I had known her. Why would she suddenly want tiny Rose Ridge, Virginia?
“I think this place grew on me. Also, I miss you, and living in DC is boring without you there. I’m also utterly dependent on you for more tattoos. I don’t trust anyone else.”
Leaning over to pull her into a hug, I let out a happy sigh as I addressed her earlier question.
“From what I understand, this place will go to the next president. Wes is acting president for a while, but the person in charge will be Killian, and I haven’t heard if he wants this place for when he’s here, or not. But I can ask for you.”
“Uh, I can just look for some place in town. If you’re not going to be here, then it might be weird for me to be.”
Her eyes dropped to her lap.
“Well, stay with us for as long as you want—in the new house I mean.”
Tipping her chin up, she smiled. “Okay, as long as Wes doesn’t mind.”
I waved her off. “He would never.”
At least I hoped not. Didn’t matter. My best friend was living in Rose Ridge with me; there was absolutely no downside to this situation.