Epilogue
ROXIE
I’m happy.
Six months later…
“That’s the last of it.”
I rub my dirty hands on my jeans as I watch Screamer carry in the last box.
Today is moving day. The two of us talked a lot about where we wanted to live, and we agreed that staying at either clubhouse was off the table.
Screamer respects the fact that I don’t want to be surrounded by club business all the time, and I respect the fact that, just because he doesn’t live with his club, doesn’t mean he’s not a part of it.
Finding a house was a compromise we both knew we needed to make.
We closed on the ranch house a week ago, and both clubs have helped us pack and transport all of our belongings. They’re all scattered throughout the house, putting together furniture, and generally doing whatever Screamer and I tell them to.
“Wait!” Rae says, running in behind him. “This fell out of your pocket.”
She hands something small to Screamer, but I can’t tell what it is because he turns away from me. Instead, I focus on my friend. It took longer than any of us would’ve liked, but about two months ago, she came to me and asked me to help her quit drinking. I happily agreed.
Mark has helped, too. Turns out, his mom is an alcoholic—sober for five years—so he’s been the perfect support system for Rae.
She’s still grieving the loss of Saint, and probably always will.
The important thing is that she’s learning that it’s okay, and despite how it feels sometimes, she’s not alone.
“Thanks,” Screamer mumbles.
“No problem.”
Mark pokes his head through the front door. “You ready to go?” he asks Rae. “The meeting starts in a half hour.”
He’s been taking her to AA meetings several times a week, and it’s helping for sure.
“Yep.” Rae walks toward me and kisses my cheek. “Call me after you’re settled in. We can get together for a girl’s night.”
“Count on it.”
After they leave, Screamer turns to face me, a sheepish look on his face.
“What’s up?”
“Nothing.” His response is cagey, but I trust him.
Shrugging, I return to putting dishes away in the kitchen. “Wanna check on everyone? See if they’re getting hungry. I can order some pizza.”
It isn’t until hours later that we’re alone in our new house, both beyond exhausted. Screamer collapses onto the couch, pulling me into his lap.
“Are you happy?” he asks.
I look at him and smile. “You really don’t know?”
“Humor me.”
“Yes, I’m happy.”
Scooting me to sit on the cushion, he slides to the floor and faces me. I watch as he reaches into his pocket and pulls out a black velvet box.
My hands fly to my mouth, and I suck in a breath. “W-what are you doing?”
Opening the box, he grins. “Roxie, I told myself I was going to wait longer, that I would give you more time to put some distance between what happened with Jace and moving forward. I had all these plans, and then this fell out of the box.” He shrugs.
“I’m taking it as a sign that enough time has passed, and I hope like hell that I’m not wrong. Roxie, sweetheart, will you marry me?”
Tears slide down my cheeks, and he brushes them away. Unable to form words, I nod.
“Yeah?” he asks.
“Y-yeah.”
Screamer
Twenty-five years later…
“It’s been a hell of a ride.”
I clink my bottle against Crow’s and stare out over the crowd.
Everyone is here today. Each Soulless Kings MC brother, prospect, family member, and close friends.
We’ve gathered to celebrate some of us retiring and the next generation taking the reins.
Limitless Throttle MC also has a presence, as they do on all family gatherings because of my marriage to Roxie.
“How did we get here?” I ask, wanting to hear my pres’s answer.
“Lots of pain and heartache,” he says. “And lots of fucking love, brother.”
“Yo, Dad?”
I turn to face my son, pride swelling in my chest as I watch him walk across the yard. “What’s up?”
“Mom and Rosie want you to come inside for a minute,” he says, not meeting my eyes.
“Everything okay?” I ask, suddenly worried. Benji doesn’t avert his eyes… ever.
“Yeah, just… c’mon.”
He whirls around and strides away, leaving me to follow.
“This can’t be good,” Crow says, walking beside me. “Roxie and Rosie summoning you? Fuck, when my wife and daughter team up, it always ends up fucking me somehow.”
I laugh at his assessment because he’s right.
After Addison gave birth to their daughter, the amount of estrogen that Crow had to put up with about broke him.
Don’t get me wrong, he loves them and would die for them, but being hitched to the Chief of Police and captain of the cheer squad wasn’t easy for him.
It was funny as hell for the rest of us though.
“What’s going on?” Journey asks when we pass him, and he falls into step with us.
“Screamer was summoned,” Crow says.
“Uh-oh. Both Rox and Rosie?”
“Yep,” I mutter, getting more apprehensive by the second.
Journey and Wren never had children. Even though Wren has a solid grip on her Dissociative Identity Disorder, and it’s not genetic, they agreed that they didn’t want to risk it.
They’ve lived vicariously through the rest of us and our children.
And to be honest, even if her different identities came out to play, I loved it when she watched Benji and Rosie when they were little.
“Heard your wife was looking for you,” Ghost states, joining the ever-growing group of us.
“Fuckin’ hell, word travels fast,” I bark.
“You might not have lived here for over two decades,” Ember says as she walks alongside Ghost. “But you know how things work. The gossip runs rampant.”
I halt and turn to her. “Do you know what’s going on?”
Her only response is to shrug. I trail my gaze from her to Ghost and the rest of them.
“What about all of you?” I demand.
“Nope.”
“No.”
“Course not.”
I throw my hands up in the air, annoyed because it’s clear that they know exactly what’s going on.
“Is it time?” Poker asks, jogging in our direction.
“Fuck, you, too?”
I don’t wait for him to respond before picking up my pace.
By the time I reach the back deck of the clubhouse, which was added about ten years ago as the kids started to get older, my heart is racing, and sweat trickles down my back.
“Roxie!” I shout when I step inside.
Fender, the asshole, steps in front of me. “Where are you going?”
“He was summoned by Roxie and Rosie,” Crow answers before I can, and I groan.
“Oh, I know,” Fender states. “But you have to go wait for them in the common room.”
“Where are they?” I snarl.
Fender grins, and if he weren’t such a good friend and the retired president of the Soulless Kings mother chapter, I’d clock him in the mouth.
“Follow me.”
Benji slings his arm around my shoulder as we walk to the large room. “This is killing you, isn’t it?”
“Just you wait, son,” I say. “Someday, you’re gonna have an old lady and children, and your life will no longer be your own.”
“No fucking way,” Benji says.
That causes laughter to break out through the crowd. I slowly turn around because the sound is deafening, and that’s when I realize that every single person that was outside followed us in and is now crowded in the common room.
“Can someone please tell me what the fuck is goi?—”
“Daddy, stop.”
Rosie’s sharp tone cuts through the laughter, and I spin around again to see her and her mother standing a few feet away.
“Honey, what’s going on?” I ask her.
“I have an announcement to make,” she says with a serene smile on her beautiful face.
Rosie is a carbon copy of her mom, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Well, all except for the pride and stubbornness. Those things cost me a lot of sleep while she was growing up.
I glance from her to Roxie. “Do you know what’s going on?”
My wife grins. “I do.”
“Jesus, Rosie, put me out of my misery,” I plead, unable to take the secrecy a second longer.
Rosie closes the distance between us, and Roxie moves to stand at my side, sliding her arm through mine. Then my daughter hands me an envelope.
“Open it,” she says.
I peel the flap back and slide out the photo that’s inside. The weight of what I’m seeing hits me like a ton of bricks, and I lift my eyes to Rosie’s.
“I’m gonna be a grandpa?”
“Yep. They’ll be here in roughly seven months,” she replies, rubbing her hands over her still flat belly.
“They?” Roxie asks, clearly not in on this part of the secret.
“Twins?” I breathe.
Rosie nods. “I’m hoping for a boy and a girl. It was great growing up with a brother, and I want that dynamic for my children.”
“Aw, sis,” Benji says, a teasing quality in his tone. “Love you.”
“Love you, too, big brother.”
My family of four settles into a hug, and cheers erupt in the room. For the next ten minutes, hugs, back slaps, and congratulatory fist bumps come from all around. Then a loud bang breaks up the commotion.
I look to my right where Fender, in all his grey-haired glory, is standing on the bar.
“I’d like to make a toast,” he says, and again, cheers erupt.
He continues when it quiets down. “A wise man,” he begins, glancing at Royal, another retired brother from the mother chapter.
“A wise man once told me something that’s stuck with me.
They say your life flashes before your eyes at the moment just before death.
But ya know what?” He takes a deep breath. “They fucking lied.”
Chuckles ripple through the crowd.
“They fucking lied,” Fender repeats. “For the most part. What they got right is this… Life does flash before your eyes. It passes in a blur, and before you know it, you’re reaching the end.
Every flash makes up the memories of what I hope is a life well-lived.
Royal’s old lady has always captured those flashes with her camera.
I’ve seen the pictures here on the walls of the clubhouse with the flashes in Marble Falls.
Some of us need those pictures to remind us of the best parts of our lives. ”
He shifts his gaze to Rae, who stands with her hand in Mark’s.
They married a few years after Saint’s death, and they have a son they named after her deceased husband.
Little Saint isn’t so little anymore and is actually married to Rosie.
They married a few months after graduating high school because he was enlisting in the Army.
It sucks that he’s not here tonight, as he’s finishing up his latest tour of duty, but I know he’ll make an incredible father to my grandchildren.
“And to remind us of the worst parts,” Fender continues solemnly. “Some of us have snapshots stored in our brains, forever in our grasp when we want to remember.”
“Here, here!” Ghost shouts, lifting his glass.
“But then there’s a third group of people, people like all the club members here.
We don’t rely on pictures or the snapshot memories because we don’t dwell on the past. We live in the moment.
We live in the wind as it whips past us while we ride.
We live in the present because yesterday is gone, and tomorrow isn’t promised.
” Fender smiles sadly. “Fuck, we’ve all learned that the hard way.
So,” he jumps off the bar and walks to join me, Roxie, Rosie, and Benji.
“Don’t wait until you’re about to die to let life flash before your eyes.
Because whoever said that’s how it works… They fucking lied.”