E L E V E N Nothing.
T E N: Landing.
Raven’s POV
Ryder had been an absolute bear these last two days before the trip.
That was to say, he had been grumpy, grumbly, and sulking.
Ever since his dad said he’d be coming to get him, then ghosted him, it was like Ryder had given up trying to get his dad to talk to him.
Like he was done with everything that had been done to him the past year, and I didn’t blame him.
All of the promises he had made about coming to get Ryder, and wouldn’t come, which had become his usual, I think, had pushed the relationship to a breaking point. My poor boy was hurt.
He had been acting out, getting so mad and frustrated, which I understood.
I mean, even as an adult, I’d be mad too if I had a dad and he were doing that to me.
And he’s only a boy of ten years now. I can’t expect him to have adult reactions or emotions when I don’t know how I would handle the situation.
He was finally in the double digits. It had been just over a year since his dad and I separated, and I filed for divorce.
I couldn’t expect him to just…be okay with how his dad is treating him, even if he was alright with his dad and me not being together anymore.
Expecting children to have adult reactions to crappy situations was not the way I wanted to parent. Especially when I wasn’t even sure what my reactions to what he was going through would be if I were in his shoes. So, I let him grumble and groan and work through his emotions.
We had decided to fly in because Ryder said he did not want to be stuck in a car for hours and hours, which was fine by me.
Mainly because sometimes he took those emotions out on me, even though he would feel bad about it right after.
I just wanted to hug him and love him until he forgot about that man who looked like his dad, but clearly wasn’t, and how he had hurt our boy.
Our flight landed just past dinner time, so I was hoping it wouldn’t be too tough getting out of the airport and into a restaurant for something to eat.
Ryder was practically ravenous with the appetite of a teenage boy during a growth spurt.
We had a lay over so it took an extra two hours to get to our final destination, Ohio.
Thankfully, our connecting flight was nice, no screaming children, just my brooding one, and we landed early.
Though the anger slipped from him sometime between getting off the first flight and our connecting flight, giving way to sadness.
Walking with the herd of disgruntled travelers headed toward baggage claim, I started to look around for Beckam.
I kept feeling like I was just missing him between people as they passed us, while still keeping an eye out for our luggage, and another eye on Ryder, though he was standing right next to me, I didn’t see Beckam.
Though there were lots of people in this airport.
It felt like we walked a mile from where the plane landed and we disembarked, to baggage claim. Maybe it was too crowded.
As I went to grab my white hardbody suitcase with gold polka dots, a hand came in contact with it first, grabbing it before I could.
I was about to say something to the person who was trying to take my luggage when I noticed the hand was attached to a well-defined forearm.
I quickly looked up at the person’s face.
The softest eyes I’d ever seen stared back at me, live and in person, instead of over a screen.
“Hi, Raven,” his voice sounded even better in person, and I tried not to swoon too hard. I smiled as he looked over my shoulder at my son, who was tucked against me.
“Hey, Ryder. How you doin', man?” Beckam nodded at whatever non-verbal cue Ryder had given him. “What else are we waiting for?”
He looked so confident, shoulders back, chest puffed out, head held high.
He looked so unaffected by being surrounded by this many people, and I was hoping that was a positive sign.
Ryder made a move to grab his suitcase, and after a slight struggle, Beckam offered help.
Ryder shook his head, determined to do it himself, so we waited for it to come back around.
“So, this time, how about you try to get in front of it, and bend at the knees before you try to hulk it off. Get a better center of gravity.” Beckam suggested, while Ryder looked at him like he was being completely ridiculous.
But he still tried it, and when it worked, he looked so proud of himself.
Beckam offered up a high five to Ryder, and my little man hit his hand as hard as he could, feeling on top of the world in that moment.
We turned around, heading to the exit with Beckam pulling my luggage behind him and holding my hand with his free hand while I held onto Ryder, just until we navigated our way out of the massive crowd of people.
“This her?” A voice asked, making Beckam smile and stop all of us just as we came up to the doors.
An incredibly tall, brooding, long-haired man who looked like someone not to be messed with stood in front of us.
He looked like a Viking with darker hair, clad in giant boots, leather, and a permanent scowl.
I looked at Beckam, and he just had a smile on his face.
“This is Raven. Raven, this is my club brother, Hades. Hades, this is Raven and my little dude, Ryder.” Beckam said, pointing to Ryder.
Ryder looked a little shocked, his eyes getting glassy for a moment before he blinked away the tears and looked proud to be called his little dude.
I smiled back, holding my hand out to shake the giant’s.
“Nice to meet you, Hades. We’ve heard a lot about you, Bullet and Prez, and the others.” That got me a small smile, which was just him turning up the edges of his lips. It was brief, so quick and fleeting that I thought I imagined it.
“Let’s get you all loaded up and back to the compound. We’ve got a family-slash-welcome dinner tonight and a huge cookout with the whole club tomorrow. You guys must be tired from all the traveling.”
I held Beckam’s hand again, happy that he seemed okay with my touch.
We made it out to an SUV in about twenty minutes because this place was huge .
The drive back to the compound was filled with light conversation, getting to know Hades, the huge giant of a man, and Ryder was asking a million questions about motorcycles and club life.
I just smiled and thought to myself, so far, so good .
Back at the compound, two guys wearing the same matching vests came out and carried our luggage inside for us.
There was a small gathering of people in the main room off the large hallway when you first stepped in.
Beckam quickly led us up to all of the people and introduced us to everyone.
All the kids, their parents, what they did for the club.
Ryder made fast friends with a boy who looked close to his age named Bear.
Hades was his dad, so it was no surprise that the boy was as big as he was.
Beckam seemed to be the smallest of all the men in the room, but he still stood a good few inches taller than my five-seven frame.
He kept his hand in my hand the whole night, rubbing his thumb across my knuckles.
The grown-ups all sat together at one table while the kids played and ate at another table right next to the adults’ table.
It was nice talking with people close to Beckam, hearing their stories about him, what he does here, the people he’s helped, other than Ryder and me.
I helped to clear the table while the guys pulled Beckam aside to talk.
He explained that there was some club business going on; he couldn’t tell me specifics because I wasn’t a member, but he said it involved Bullet’s girl, Becca, and their daughter, Grey.
I was taking a few dishes into the kitchen when Willow, Rowan, and Indiana all cornered me to talk about Beckam, or Hacker as they all called him.
They were amazed that he held my hand and kept touching me in some way, shape, or form the whole time we were eating.
They said it was a miracle that he’d joined for Friday night dinner as he usually stayed in his room, and they’d never seen him touching someone else.
Ever.
They were all saying such wonderful things about how much he’d improved since we’d started talking.
It made me feel good that I was able to help him on his healing journey.
After dinner, Beckam led Ryder and me to his room, holding my hand proudly the whole night.
I laid on the bed, watching him interact with Ryder.
They were up until about eleven playing video games in the little gaming area he’d made just for the two of them.
He was so proud, showing off his room to us.
He showed me before-and-after pictures, and it looked like a whole new room, to be completely honest. After he pulled out the couch for Ryder and got him set up, we all got ready for bed, sharing the small one-person bathroom.
Ryder zonked out as soon as his little head hit the pillow, while Beckam came over and laid in bed with me, holding me all night.
“I was thinking,” he started nervously the next morning after we were all done getting ready, “If you guys like it up here and would want to give this, us, a try? I could start looking for a house on the compound that could accommodate the three of us.”
He looked at Ryder, tilting his head and giving him a nod. Was this something they’d been talking about? Ryder stepped forward out of the bathroom, putting his toothbrush and toothpaste back into his duffle. He took a moment before turning to look at me.
“Mom”, he started, taking a deep breath, “I asked Beckam a while ago if he could help me find a way to fully get Dad out of our lives. And, honestly, after the last couple of times of him promising to get me and not showing up or calling or anything, I want to show you what he found for me, so we can start whatever we need to do. I’m,” He sniffled, his eyes getting glassy.
I moved over to him, sitting next to him for comfort.
Beckam moved to his side, squatting down just below eye level, letting Ryder know we were here to listen to him and support him.
He was hiccupping from trying not to lose it, but he continued.
“I’m tired of Dad lying to me. It makes me sad.
And hurts my feelings. I don’t want to do this anymore.
He’s only taken me two weekends the whole year.
” Tears were spilling down my boy’s face as he flung his arms around both our shoulders and cried into us.
I looked at Beckam to make sure he was okay, as tears filled my eyes for my son.
Beckam looked a little startled, but then he hugged him back, embracing him, telling him it was okay to cry and be sad.
That he didn’t do anything wrong. That he’s an awesome kid.
I was sobbing with my boy. The first time I actually met this man in person and he was better than my ex in every possible way.
I knew that after we started texting, though .