Chapter 4
Cleo POV
The rest of the week fell into a routine: school, home, homework, dinner, and bed. For the first time in months, life felt almost normal. Tommy wouldn’t stop talking about Lola. Each morning began with him asking if it was Saturday yet. Every afternoon, he gave me a full report about whatever adventure he and Lola had during break time.
Skylar was just as bad. According to her, Maddox was the most annoying person she’d ever met, but also the only one worth sitting with at lunch. I decided not to mention how that didn’t make sense. She’d probably roll her eyes so hard it might kill me.
As for me, I was settling into Creek Wood better than I thought I would. The school was welcoming, my students were great, and even though I sometimes felt like everyone knew something I didn’t, the town was starting to feel less temporary and more like a place we could belong.
One thing I didn’t expect was seeing members of Devils Creek MC all over town. They weren’t intimidating, though.
Just… everywhere.
The club felt like a natural part of the town.
On Wednesday, I spotted the young blonde biker from the diner, helping an older woman change a flat tyre outside the grocery shop. The woman spent more time complaining about him kneeling on the pavement than he spent fixing the tyre. He took it with a grin.
On Thursday, I saw him carrying tables into the church hall while a group of older women shouted instructions at him from all sides. The big biker followed every order.
On Friday morning, I saw him kneel next to a crying little boy outside the school. The boy’s bike chain had come off. Ten minutes later, the bike was fixed, the boy was smiling, and Rage’s hands were covered in grease.
I couldn’t reconcile any of it.
The leather cut.
The tattoos.
The reputation bikers carried.
None of it fit the man I kept seeing around town. He didn’t really pay attention to me or at least, that’s what I told myself. Sometimes, I’d look up and catch him watching me. It wasn’t uncomfortable, or flirty, or threatening.
Just, curious, like he was trying to solve a puzzle.
The strange thing was, whenever he caught me looking, he smiled. It was a real smile. Then he’d go back to whatever he was doing. By Friday afternoon, I was smiling back.
Maybe Creek Wood wasn’t what I’d expected. Maybe the people weren’t either.
And judging by the excitement currently vibrating through my house, Saturday couldn’t arrive fast enough. The next morning, we headed to the clubhouse.
Saturday Morning
The clubhouse wasn’t nearly as intimidating as I’d expected. Children ran across the grass chasing one another. Music drifted from somewhere near the back of the property. The smell of barbecue filled the air, people laughed and talked.
A few men stood around oversized grills, arguing over something that appeared deeply important to them. Probably meat.
Tommy was out of the car before I’d fully parked.
“Tommy!” I called.
“I’m waiting!” he yelled back.
Apparently, there was a difference.
Skylar climbed out beside me, shaking her head. “He’s been like this all morning.”
“I noticed.”
I took a deep breath and looked at the clubhouse. Maybe this was a mistake. Maybe going to a biker club barbecue after knowing these people for less than a week was totally crazy.
Before I could talk myself into leaving, Stella appeared on the clubhouse porch. When she spotted us, her whole face lit up with relief and happiness, something warm and real. She walked straight over, and my nerves settled almost instantly.
“You’re here.”
I laughed softly. “We are.”
“I’m so glad.”
The sincerity in her voice caught me off guard. Then I noticed movement behind her. The older biker from the diner stepped onto the porch.
Graves.
The club president.
For a moment, he stood there looking at us, me, Skylar, and Tommy. Something passed over his face, something so raw it made my chest tighten.
Relief.
Like he’d been worried we wouldn’t come, like our being there mattered far more than it should.
Then it was gone. Hidden beneath a calm smile.
“Glad you made it,” he said.
His voice was steady and casual, but there was something in his eyes I couldn’t quite figure out. Whatever it was, it made me smile back before I even realized it.
“Thanks for having us.”
The look on his face was almost impossible to describe. It was like those four words meant everything to him. For some reason, I suddenly felt that coming here mattered to him, not just to me.
I just had no idea why.
“Tommy!”
A small blonde blur shot across the grass.
“Lola!”
Tommy ran off. He and Lola hugged so hard they almost fell over, then ran off to join a group of kids playing nearby. I couldn’t help but smile.
“Well,” Skylar said dryly, “I guess we’re not needed anymore.”
“Apparently not.”
A laugh sounded nearby.
I turned to find the blonde biker walking towards us.
Lola sat comfortably on his shoulders, grinning like she’d just won a prize. I noticed the resemblance right away.
They had the same smile, eyes, and same stubborn look.
For some reason, I’d never connected the dots.
“Roman,” Stella called.
The biker stopped beside us. Lola immediately wrapped her hands around his head. “My dad, Rage.”
I blinked. Then Lola looked at the big biker again. He noticed right away and grinned.
“Yeah, I get that reaction a lot.”
Heat crept into my cheeks. “I didn’t realize…”
“That I was old enough to have a kid?”
I laughed despite myself. “A little.”
He chuckled. “Fair.”
Lola patted his head. “My dad’s old.”
“I’m twenty?three.”
“Ancient.”
“Traitor.”
Lola giggled. The sound was infectious. Stella looked entirely unsurprised by the exchange.
“How old were you?” I asked.
Something softened in his expression. “Sixteen.”
My eyebrows shot up. “Sixteen?”
“Yeah.”
His grin turned self?deprecating. “I was an overachiever.”
I laughed, really laughed, and the sound surprised me. It had been a long time since that happened naturally.
“Lola’s mom and I were kids ourselves.”
His gaze shifted towards his daughter. No bitterness or anger. Just affection.
“Eve got pregnant young.”
He shrugged. “Neither of us knew what the hell we were doing.”
“Roman,” Stella warned.
“What? It’s true.”
Lola rolled her eyes dramatically. “Grandma says I don’t need to know how hopeless you were.”
“I wasn’t hopeless.”
“You put my diaper on backwards.”
“I was learning.”
Lola looked unconvinced. I bit my lip to keep from laughing again. The whole exchange felt easy and comfortable, like watching a real family together, happy. Roman said after a moment, his voice quieter now. “They wanted her somewhere else. A different life.”
His gaze stayed on Lola.
“She left when Lola was little.”
The sadness was there, but there was no resentment.
“I don’t blame her.”
Stella rested a hand against his arm, a silent gesture that spoke of old wounds and family support. Roman smiled at his mother before continuing.
“Mom and Dad helped me a lot.”
His eyes met mine.
“I would’ve been lost without them.”
The honesty in his voice made my chest ache, because I knew how lucky he was to have people who wanted to help and stay.
“Lola’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”
He said it without hesitation, like he truly believed it. Judging by the way he looked at his daughter, he did.
Lola leaned down and kissed the top of his head. “You’re my best thing too.”
Roman groaned dramatically. “Well, now we’re both getting emotional.”
I smiled, and for the first time since coming to Creek Wood, the strange pull I felt toward this family started to make sense. Watching them together, I understood it more clearly.
They loved each other, openly and without apology. It was the kind of love I’d always wished for.
And standing there watching Roman with Lola, I found myself thinking…
Maybe I’d judged them too quickly.
*********
Graves POV
I couldn’t take my eyes off her.
Twenty?eight years.
After twenty-eight years of searching, there she was, standing in the middle of my clubhouse yard with a paper plate in her hand and a careful smile on her face.
My daughter, the words still didn’t feel real.
Next to her, Roman carried Lola on his shoulders while Tommy followed them everywhere. Skylar stood nearby talking to Maddox, looking more relaxed than she had at the diner. For the first time since she arrived. Cleo looked comfortable, not guarded, and not ready to run.
Comfortable.
A feeling I wasn’t sure she’d had much of in her life.
Beside me, Chains leaned against the porch railing. Silent, watching and listening. The same as me. Neither of us spoke.
I was too busy watching something I’d spent years imagining but never truly believed I’d see.
My children are together.
Roman was grinning at something Cleo had said. Lola was happily interrupting every conversation she could, and Cleo was laughing.
The sound hit me harder than I expected, because she’d come into the diner weighed down by the weight of the world. Now, even just for a moment, she looked lighter, and that change made the whole day feel different.
Roman noticed it too, of course he did. He’d spent the whole week finding reasons to be wherever Cleo was. Not enough to scare her or for her to notice, but just enough that I knew exactly what he was doing.
He thought she’d finally come home. He thought he’d found his sister, and every day since the diner, he acted like he already had.
I watched him shift Lola higher on his shoulders.
“Sixteen,” he said.
Cleo’s eyebrows shot up. “You were sixteen?”
“Yep.”
Roman grinned. “I was an overachiever.”
Lola groaned. “Dad.”
“What? It’s true.”
She laughed, really laughed and for a moment, she looked younger than twenty-eight.
She looked carefree. For a second, I could almost believe that was true.
Roman saw it too; his grin softened. Then he told her about Eve, about becoming a father young, about Stella and me helping raise Lola, about learning as he went.
I waited for discomfort. For judgment. For something.
Instead, Cleo listened. Really listened. When he finished, she smiled.
A soft smile.
“The important thing is that she knows she’s loved.”
Roman blinked.
Then looked up at Lola. His daughter immediately wrapped her arms around his head. The idiot nearly walked into a picnic table.
I laughed. Chains shook his head.
“He’s hopeless.”
“Always has been.”
My eyes went back to Cleo, to the way she watched Lola, Tommy, and Skylar running around the yard. There was sadness and grief in her eyes, but also love. So much love, the kind that puts others first, the kind that stays, the kind that fights. The kind I’d always hoped she’d have as she grew up.
Then Stella said something I couldn’t hear. Cleo smiled, and for the first time all afternoon, she opened up. Only a little, but it was enough.
“Wade and I grew up together.”
The conversation around her quieted down. Not completely, but enough for people to listen.
“He was my best friend before he was anything else.”
There was affection in her voice, a love that doesn’t go away just because someone is gone.
“We met when we were fourteen.”
Roman smiled. “That’s a long time.”
“It was.”
Her gaze drifted towards Skylar.
“We started dating at sixteen.”
Then Tommy.
“We got married at eighteen.”
I followed her gaze to the children.
My grandchildren. Jesus.
I still wasn’t used to thinking that.
“You had Skylar young,” Stella said gently.
Cleo smiled. “We did.”
No regret. Not a trace. Only love.
“We grew up together.”
The words settled heavily in my chest because she sounded happy when she talked about him. Even now. Even through the pain.
Then Stella asked the question nobody else would.
“What happened?”
Her smile faded, not all the way, but just enough.
“He died in a car accident.”
Grief flashed across her face before she hid it again. It was quick and practiced, like she’d spent months pretending she was okay.
“He was a good man.”
Five words. She said it with absolute certainty.
I respected that. Respected him. Whatever mistakes he’d made, he’d clearly been loved, and he’d loved my daughter right back.
“So when the teaching job came up here…” Cleo continued quietly.
She glanced towards her children.
“I thought we all needed a fresh start.”
Nobody spoke for a moment. Then Roman nodded.
“I’m glad you came.”
They were simple words, but I knew my son. I knew every expression, every sign. He wasn’t just glad she’d moved to Creek Wood.
He was glad she’d found us. Glad she was standing here. Glad she was finally part of his life, even if she didn’t know it yet.
The fool already looked at her like a sister, and judging by the way Cleo smiled back, she liked him too.
Not because she knew.
Because Roman was impossible not to like when he cared about someone.