Chapter 9
JENNA
“Mom, Dad, I’m home!”
Jenna’s ears perked up at Melanie’s voice down below. “Be right down!”
Jack came out of the bathroom, a toothbrush hanging from the corner of his mouth.
Jenna absolutely loved moments like this when she got to see Jack as human and not some infallible leader with endless responsibilities.
She got to see him at his vulnerable moments.
She got to see beyond the unemotional mask.
“Don’t you dare go down those stairs without me,” he warned her around the foam in his mouth.
Jenna just waved him off. She hadn’t seen her daughter in almost a month. She was not waiting another minute.
Today was going to be emotional for several reasons.
Melanie was home for the holidays after successfully completing her first semester of college.
Sissy and Scissors were due to arrive any time now from their cross-country trek to get back in time for the holidays.
The club was having their annual Christmas celebrations early because Jenna and Jack’s plane to the Bahamas was leaving in two days.
It was also the club kids’ first Secret Santa exchange.
Jenna was feeling good, though. As much as it irked her to admit, Jack had been right to remove her from several tasks she normally volunteered herself for this time of year.
First, he demanded—which was so fucking hot, by the way—that the town council move the annual Fall Festival from beginning of November to the middle of October.
This allowed three more weeks between that major event and the club’s annual Thanksgiving feast, where they opened their doors for the entire town to come in and have a meal.
The club barely got a breather that day because they were either serving food, transporting residents, or managing traffic.
And Jenna was normally the busiest of them all.
Then came the endless Christmas events, throughout the town and that the club hosted.
It was frustrating, heartbreaking, and saddening to be faced with the reality that she just couldn’t do it anymore. Her MS symptoms were holding steady, and in order to keep them down, she needed to manage the stress and limit activities that could cause a flare-up.
Jack’s way of forcing her when he didn’t think she’d removed herself from enough activities?
Literally remove her from the town. Last year when she’d had a scare around Christmas, right after they had been given her diagnosis, Jack had joked that he would take her to the Bahamas next Christmas. Well, she thought he was joking.
He wasn’t.
All on his own, Jack booked the hotel, the airfare, researched hospitals in their destination’s area, and rented any medical supplies he thought she was going to need and then some. Hell, he’d even packed their suitcases already.
Jenna was torn because the Bahamas had been on her bucket list of places to see long before they knew about her illness. But it was the holidays? Why couldn’t they go in January after the holidays?
But, begrudgingly, Jenna had to admit that Jack had a point.
If she were here, she would try to help.
She hadn’t handled taking a backseat in the Fall Festival very well.
Yet, this would be the first Christmas since Carter had been born that she wouldn’t have her kids, including the additions of Lucy and Drew, with her Christmas morning.
Jenna was having a hard time with that.
So Carter, Lucy, Drew, Jordan, and Melanie were coming this weekend to have a faux-Christmas morning with Ollie, Jenna, and Jack.
Drew was still young enough that he wouldn’t understand the significance of December 25th or that it wasn’t actually Christmas Day.
As far as he knew, Santa would be coming tonight.
Today was for the club, tomorrow was for family, and then Monday, they were headed to the Bahamas.
Jenna kept a tight hold of the railing as she descended the stairs.
Her legs felt sturdy, but the exertion of going either up or down stairs tended to exhaust her more and more of late.
Jack liked to think of stairs as an opportunity to hold her and carry her, which she didn’t mind in the least, but she was also stubborn enough to want to be able to get herself up and down them on her own.
Ollie and Melanie were in the kitchen by the time Jenna made it to the last step. Then the pounding of boots followed her down, and she jumped when she felt a hand land on her ass. Jack’s gravelly voice spoke in her ear as his arm looped around her front. “I told you to wait for me, woman.”
Forty-plus years later, and he still affected her like no one else. Jenna’s breath caught, and her body instantly lit aflame at his touch.
She leaned back against him. “And I didn’t listen. What are you going to do about it?”
Jack nipped her ear. Hard. Shivers ran down her spine as an embarrassingly loud squeak emitted from her.
“Ew, please remember you have children in the house!” came from the kitchen.
Chuckling, Jack walked Jenna forward, not releasing his hold on her. “How do you children think you got here?”
Ollie was wearing… Jenna tipped her head.
She wasn’t really sure what Ollie was wearing.
It was sheer green with several layers like a Christmas tree.
The bottom hem of each layer was white, and there were a variety of bells and bobble ornaments hanging from them.
The shoulders were spaghetti straps. From his seat at the table, she couldn’t see what was on his bottom half.
Melanie was sitting cattycorner from him and applying his makeup. On his head was a headband with two plastic stars on springs. Flashing red and green tear lightbulbs hung from his ears.
To Jack’s question, Ollie quipped, “Pretty sure you stole me from a rogue motorcycle club.”
Jenna frowned, not liking to be reminded of what her youngest son had endured during the first fifteen years of his life.
Jack, though, chuckled. “Touché.” After seeing Jenna into a chair, he leaned over to kiss the top of Melanie’s head. “Hi, baby.”
“Hi, Daddy.”
Jack headed over to get them coffee from the pot.
Jenna looked at her two youngest children.
Melanie was only staying through the weekend.
She’d made plans with friends over the holiday, as had Jordan.
Ollie would be staying with Angel and Cage once Jenna and Jack left for their vacation.
This left Drew, Lucy, and Carter on their own too.
Jenna bit her lip. “Maybe we shouldn’t go. I’m not feeling right leaving the two of you over Christmas—”
“No!” came from not one, not two, but all three people in the room. Jenna practically jumped out of her seat at the volume.
Jack put down the mugs in his hands to come over to her, but Melanie waved him off.
“I got this.” She set down the sponge pad she’d been using to apply Ollie’s eyeshadow.
“Mom, you deserve this vacation. You do so much for the rest of us. It’s time that you and Dad took some time for yourselves.
” She didn’t add, “especially now,” though all of them seemed to hear it.
“Christmas isn’t a day. It’s about family and remembering the world is bigger than just one person.
” Melanie reached across the table, squeezing Jenna’s hand.
“You taught us that. So go! Have a blast. Get seriously sunburned and watch all the ladies fawn over Dad.”
Jenna giggled lightly. “I can’t take that man anywhere.”
Behind their children’s backs, Jack winked at her. He finished pouring their coffee and came over to sit next to Jenna at the table. “You need this break. We need this break, Jen.”
Jenna made a face, because he knew roping himself into that statement would make her reconsider. In less than a month, Jack was giving up the mantle of club president. The club that the two of them had built from the ground up. And he was doing it for her.
On the first of the New Year, Ghost would be taking over as President.
Beyond that, Jack wasn’t staying a member of the club.
While she would always be an ol’ lady due to their bylaws, Jack would no longer be a member.
He was handing over not just his president patch, but his cut.
His only priority was now her and her health.
It was a monumental sacrifice, and Jenna knew that Jack would never admit to how much doing so was hurting him.
He was giving up something that he loved for her, and she could never make that up to him.
Jack didn’t see it as a sacrifice, though. He saw it as his duty, his privilege, to take care of her. Of everything in his life, of all the hats he wore, husband was the most important.
And he was stubborn enough that once his mind was made up, it was not budging. She knew him. Even at fifteen, he’d been that hardheaded.
Then again, so had she.
Slowly, Jenna nodded. He was giving up so much for her, and this vacation wasn’t just an excuse to take her away from the chaos of the holidays.
It also gave him the opportunity to be elsewhere when Ghost officially took the title from him.
Jenna wasn’t sure if Jack had pieced that part together yet, but she had.
“Fine,” she said, conceding. “We’ll go to the Bahamas and have a marvelous time.
” She left her voice dull and unenthusiastic on purpose.
Chuckling at her antics, Jack leaned forward. “That’s the spirit.”