Chapter 52
“We could stay here,” Savage murmured against my rounded belly. The babies were currently napping, but earlier they’d been active, kicking me in the ribs and doing cartwheels inside me.
“Stay here. In this bed?” I quipped.
“In this bed, in this cabin.”
I traced his lips with my finger.
He was beautiful in the low lamplight. The sheets were tangled around us, and it was one of those perfect moments—but reality intruded.
“If we stayed it would mean we ran away,” I said softly. “Ran away from everything we didn’t want to face.”
“It’s been so calm here. I’ve been calm here.”
When we first arrived in Idaho two months ago, a three-day snowstorm had dumped over two feet of snow. It had covered everything in white and ice.
Savage had lit a fire in the wood stove while I cooked. We’d made love and reconnected. Our days were slow, our nights filled with passion. He’d taken me to Coeur d’Alene, and I’d found an OB to see. She was nice, but she wasn’t Doc. A stranger had been the one to tell us the sex of our babies.
The little town of Huckleberry Hill was something out of a nostalgic postcard. It was quiet and calm, with cowboys and ranches dotting the mountainsides.
“We could put down roots here. We could raise the girls to be Idaho girls. They’ll ride horses and fish.”
“We could do that in Waco,” I reminded him. “We don’t have to live in a place with eight months of winter.”
“No, I guess we don’t.”
“You’d really want to raise the twins away from everyone you know and love?” I asked. When he didn’t reply, I went on, “I want to go home, Savage.”
“We don’t have a home.”
“We do ,” I insisted. “I miss our family. And I know you do too. Cooper is almost unrecognizable; she’s growing so fast. Jazz and Homer just got engaged. I don’t want to miss their wedding. Please, Savage. I can’t hide anymore. And I’m wanting to nest. I want to nest so bad, but I can’t because this isn’t our home, it’s just a cabin in the woods. Something’s gotta give.”
“You’ve been so good to me,” he said. “Giving me time. But I don’t think there will ever be enough time.”
“I know,” I whispered, dragging my fingers through his hair. “That’s why we have to go back.”
The nightmares had subsided for both of us. But we were living in limbo.
“All right,” he said softly. “We’ll go home.”
The next afternoon, Savage was drinking a cup of cold coffee while I sat on the couch and doodled in a sketchbook. A knock on the front door had us both frowning in confusion.
“Are we finally going to meet a neighbor?” I asked.
“Open up, you bastard! I know you’re in there!”
“Is that?—”
“Duke,” Savage said, a huge grin spreading across his face.
Savage got up from the chair and went to answer the door. Only it wasn’t just Duke; Willa and the baby were with him.
I smiled in elation. “What are you guys doing here? Did you drive?”
“Drive?” Willa snorted. “With a baby? No way. We flew and rented a car. We stayed last night in Coeur d’Alene.” She removed the diaper bag from her shoulder.
“At the clubhouse?” Savage asked.
“A hotel,” Willa said.
Duke looked at me and set the baby in her carrier down. “Hi, Evie.” He embraced me and stepped back. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but wow.”
I laughed and placed a hand on my belly. “Yeah, I know. It kinda just . . . popped.”
“I remember that moment. You wake up one morning and all of a sudden, it’s just there ,” Willa said.
“Get you guys a cup of coffee?” Savage asked, still looking momentarily stunned that his two best friends were here.
“Please,” Willa said.
After the coffee was poured, we all took seats.
“You never answered my question. What are you guys doing here?” Savage asked again.
“It’s time for you both to come home,” Willa announced. “Enough already. You’ve had your time and space. But you need to come back.”
“Running away isn’t going to solve your problems,” Duke added.
“Agreed,” Savage said, taking my hand and linking his fingers through mine.
“Agreed?” Willa raised her brows and looked at Duke before staring at Savage again.
“We already talked about it,” Savage announced. “And we’ve decided to come back to Waco.”
“Oh.” Willa frowned.
“Feels anticlimactic, doesn’t it?” I asked with a smile.
She nodded. “Kinda, yeah.”
“Well . . . good,” Duke said awkwardly.
“How’s the club?” Savage asked.
“Fine,” Duke said. He didn’t elaborate.
Savage sighed. “Yeah, thought so.”
“We miss you, brother.”
“I don’t believe that. I’m sure life has been easier without me around. Have you guys decided what’s going to happen when I get back?”
Duke rubbed his jaw. “No. We’re not allowed to discuss it in Church until the three months have passed.”
“I’d ask what’s been going on, but I doubt you’ll tell me anything,” Savage said.
“What do you want me to say?” Duke demanded. “You put me in a shit position, you know. I had to vote against you. I had to, brother?—”
“I know.” Savage sighed. “We’re good.”
“Whatever happens, you need to know that I’m with you. I have your back.”
“I know you do.”
Duke looked at Willa and nodded.
“No,” Duke continued. “I don’t think you understand—if they don’t let you back into the club, then I’m out. I’m walking away.”
“ No .” Savage’s tone was emphatic.
“Yes.” Duke’s gaze was intense. “We were brothers before the club. If you think for a fucking second that I won’t choose you over the club, then you’re dead wrong.”
“I’d never ask you to do that,” Savage said.
“That’s exactly why I’m willing to do it.”
“Fuck, man. Way to lay it all out there,” Savage muttered.
“I named my daughter after you,” Duke stated. “You think that was bullshit?”
The two of them looked at each other, having an understanding without words.
I cleared my throat. “Speaking of daughters . . . We’re having two girls.”
“No shit,” Duke said with a laugh. “That’s a reason to celebrate. Where’s the nearest bar?”
“I’ll show you. You’re driving though,” Savage said.
“And I guess that means Evie and I will stay here and catch up.” Willa looked at me and I nodded.
Duke and Savage needed time together. They could say things to each other in private that they couldn’t say in front of us.
Savage grabbed his coat, kissed me goodbye and then the two of them headed out the door. Once it was shut, Willa asked, “What time do you think it will be when they call us for a ride?”
“I don’t even think the sun will be set yet,” I said with a chuckle. “Coffee refill?”
“No, I’m good.”
We sat in silence for a moment and then I asked, “How’s Sailor doing?”
“Getting through it. Waverly won’t leave her side.” She looked at the coffee table at my open sketchbook. “You’ve gotten good.”
“Not much else to do,” I said with a laugh. “You can look at them, if you want.”
Willa picked up the sketch book and perused it. “You ever thought of apprenticing as a tattoo artist? I’m sure Roman would be happy to teach you.”
“Maybe,” I murmured. “I’ve kind of got a lot on my plate at the moment.”
Cooper began to cry, and Willa turned her focus to her infant. “She’s hungry. You mind if I feed her?”
I shook my head.
She reached into the diaper bag and pulled out a nursing blanket and set it across her lap before getting Cooper out of her car carrier. Willa put the baby to her breast and covered her with the blanket.
“I don’t know how you did it, Evie,” she said, returning her attention to me.
“Did what? Convince him to go back to Waco?”
“Yeah.”
“If it were up to Savage, he would stay here. But I told him what I needed and that was to move home. Waco is home.”
“He’s not going to be happy for a while.”
“He hasn’t been happy here,” I said. “And as much as he doesn’t want to go back and face it all, he needs to. Besides, you and Duke are there. He needs to go home as much as I do. Even if he doesn’t know it yet.”
“I think you’re going to be mad at me,” Savage whispered.
“I’m not mad at you for drinking with your best friend and then calling for a ride. I expected it,” I said, helping him take off his boots.
He plopped down onto the bed. “That’s not what I meant.”
“What did you mean?” I asked with a raise of my brows.
Savage scratched his chest. “I think I bought us some land.”
“You think you bought us some land?” I repeated. “In Idaho? You promised me we were going back, you?—”
He shook his head. “In Texas . Waco.”
“You were only at the bar for a few hours, how the heck did you do that?”
“Shhh. You don’t want to wake up Cooper.”
Willa, Duke and the baby were staying in the second room of the cabin instead of driving back to Coeur d’Alene.
I lowered my voice. “You bought land in Waco? How?”
“I know I was supposed to talk to you before I did anything permanent about our lives, but I think you’ll be okay with what I did. I mean, I hope so.”
He fell silent and I prodded him to continue.
“Duke and Willa bought the land behind their house when it came up for sale. Duke sold it to me. Well, he said he’d sell it to me. If I wanted it. If you wanted it. I was thinking we could build a house. Get some lambs. You like lambs, right?”
I smiled gently. “Yes, I like lambs.”
“And bees. You said you kept bees. And chickens. Fresh eggs might be nice.” He yawned. “And I thought it would be nice to live near Willa and Duke and Cooper and Waverly and Sailor and we can all be one giant family.”
He looked up at me, his eyes glassy.
I cradled his cheek with my hand and leaned down to kiss him softly.
“Let’s go home, Savage.”
“Home,” he repeated. “You’re my home. And I’ll go wherever you want. I promised to make you happy.”
“When did you promise me that?” I asked with a gentle laugh.
“When I fell in love with you.” His brow furrowed. “Didn’t I promise you that?”
“No, baby. You promised me you’d always protect me.”
“Protection is good.” He nodded. “But so is happiness. I want you to be happy.”
“I’m happy,” I assured him.
“Evie?”
“Yeah?”
“I’m gonna fall over.”
I smiled. “That’s okay. I’ll catch you.”