Epilogue
EPILOGUE
LORELEI
“ M aybe I shouldn’t go in.” I glanced down at my slightly rounded belly with a frown. “I’m a literal cliché.”
“You’re fucking gorgeous, that’s what you are,” Grey growled, setting his hand over the swell where his baby rested. “And you can’t even see your lush body beneath that gown. Nobody would ever guess I knocked you up if they didn’t already know.”
I sighed. “Maybe, but we’ve already shared the news with pretty much everyone.”
“Only the people who matter, and none of them are gonna judge you for being pregnant when you graduate high school.” He shook his head with a chuckle. “It’s not as though most of my club brothers or their women have room to say anything, even if they wanted to.”
Falling fast, age gaps, and getting pregnant right away seemed like a Silver Saints tradition. Along with kidnapping in some cases and rescuing from bad guys in others. Now that I’d gotten comfortable in my role as Grey’s old lady, I was hoping I got to see one of his club brothers go through it all when he found the woman who was meant to be his. I figured it had to be a lot more fun watching from the sidelines instead of being kidnapped by another club, even if Kansas’s brother never intended to hurt me.
“True, but I’m sure my mom will use today as an opportunity to express her displeasure over her daughter being eighteen and pregnant by a biker.”
I hadn’t invited my parents to my graduation, but Lee warned me that they planned to come anyway. To say they’d been shocked to discover that I’d moved in with Grey and Lee was prospecting the Silver Saints was an understatement. I tried to be understanding since so much had changed in the short time they were in Europe, but Grey had put his foot down when she made me cry over the pregnancy—even though I’d insisted it was the hormones more than her reaction to the news.
“Don’t worry about your mom. I’ll handle her.”
I grimaced, picturing all the ways that could go wrong. “Just put Lee next to her. He’s good at keeping her quiet when needed. You should be free to enjoy today with me. It isn’t every day your wife graduates from high school, after all.”
That was another thing my mom hadn’t been happy about. Grey slid an engagement ring on my finger the day after I’d been taken by the Iron Rogues, and we had a small ceremony at the Silver Saints compound—with Lee giving me away—on New Year’s Eve. It wasn’t the huge, fancy wedding she’d always wanted for me, and Grey wasn’t anything like the groom she’d pictured waiting for me at the end of the aisle.
But like my brother had pointed out…our parents had done a crap job raising us, so they didn’t get a say in how we lived our lives now that we were both adults.
“If that’s what you want, that’s what’ll happen,” he conceded. “Just so long as I don’t hear any of her bullshit, I should be able to ignore her.”
He climbed out of the truck and rounded the front to help me down from the passenger seat. As soon as my feet hit the ground, our Silver Saints family swarmed us. Everyone offered their congratulations on my graduation, and I was so touched by the effort they’d made to attend when my high school was over the state line. “Thanks for coming.”
“Not like we were gonna miss this when two of our women are making their graduations official on the same day at the same place,” Phantom muttered.
Although Karina had finished her classes a semester early, she’d decided to walk with me when she found out I was pregnant. That way, we were both in the same boat since she was expecting Cash’s baby.
“ Our women?” Grey growled.
Phantom held his hands up. “Didn’t mean either of them were mine in that way, and you know it, brother.”
“Just so long as you know it.”
I rolled my eyes at my husband. Grey knew that no Silver Saint would ever cross a line with an old lady, but that didn’t stop him from being possessive over me. I found it hot, especially with all the hormones running through my system. “Stop being all growly. You know what it does to me.”
“Sorry, baby.”
He wasn’t the least bit apologetic about turning me on, which we both knew. But before I could call him on it, Karina came over and hooked her arm through mine. “C’mon, we were supposed to be in our seats five minutes ago. We better get in there if we’re going to do this.”
“Not so fast.” Grey tugged me from her hold and gave me a deep kiss before whispering, “You’ve got this, my little firecracker.”
“I do,” I confirmed, beaming at him now that my nerves had settled.
His gaze slid to my left, and he added, “I’m gonna put Rom on the other side of your mom. Not sure what’s going on with him, but he looks like a fucking thundercloud today. Maybe he’ll intimidate her enough that she’ll keep her trap shut.”
I turned to look at his club brother and giggled at his description. “He really does.”
“So don’t you worry about a thing.” He patted my butt. “We’ve got you covered.”
With my Silver Saints family at my back, I walked into my high school graduation with my head held high. And when every single one of them surged to their feet as my name was called, shouting their congratulations, I didn’t feel even the tiniest bit embarrassed. Instead, I pumped my fist and yelled, “Watch out, this graduate has a baby on board!”