Epilogue
Eighteen Years Later
BOLT
“Fuck me. I get it now,” I mumble to Sam. It’s summer, and we’re at the Crow MC annual summer fair. It’s hot, busy, and there are little fuckheads crowding around my girls and their cousins.
I’m not the slightest bit impressed.
“What do you get?” Sam wants to know, and he sounds just as pissed as me. Considering where his attention is focused, I’m not surprised.
“That I need to find Adam and apologise. If he felt even half of what I’m feeling right now, then the man has better control than me.
“Does it make me an asshole that I want to go over there and wrap my girls up in a blanket and keep them beside me?” I’m quiet for a bit then admit, “It makes me an asshole. But fuck me, Sam, I hate that our girls aren’t babies anymore.
Why the fuck did they have to grow up, and how did it happen so quickly? ”
“Tell me about it, brother.” Sam sighs then growls when one of the lads puts his arm around Matty, Sam’s daughter’s shoulders. We both snigger when she elbows him and turns to glower towards the lad.
Our girls are not wilting flowers by any means. With families like ours, they know how to look after themselves.
Addy, my girl, takes her cousin by the arm and they move to the tent where their moms have a table.
At the age of fifteen, our girls are gorgeous.
All our girls are; how could they not be when they look exactly like their mothers.
Between Jeanie and I and Sam and Ally, we have eight children, and out of the eight four are girls.
I’m not sure what jiggery pokery Ally and Jeanie did or if it is just luck of the Irish but somehow, we managed to each have a boy as our eldest, born within a few weeks of each other followed by two girls each and our lasts were boys.
All our children are close. Closer than most cousins and spend a lot of time together. Ally and Jeanie wouldn’t have it any other way.
That our girls look exactly like their mothers is both a curse and a blessing.
“What’s the matter with you two?” Adam wants to know as he comes to a stop next to us.
Turning my head slightly, I look at my father-in-law.
“I owe you an apology,” I tell him.
He jerks his head back in surprise. “What the feck for?”
“I didn’t get it then, but I get it now,” I tell him.
“Me too,” Sam agrees with a nod.
“Are you two high? I haven’t got a clue what the feck you are on about.”
I’m dead serious when I tell Adam, “I’m sorry I didn’t take your feelings about me taking Jeanie away from you more seriously. But I get it now, and thinking back, you went pretty easy on me. I’m wondering how you kept your control.”
Adam stares at me as if I’ve lost my mind, then he looks over at our girls who again have boys milling around them like bees to honey. He throws his head back and laughs and laughs. Then, just when I think he’s done, he starts all over again. He laughs until he has tears running down his face.
When he’s done, he wipes at his cheeks. “Ah fuck me, lads.” He claps us both on the shoulders. “You’re both so fucked. This is sweet, beautiful, revenge. Much better than beating you up.” He chuckles again before continuing, “Good fucking luck to you both.”
He’s still laughing as he walks away. ‘Fucker.’
But he does stop at the table with all our girls and glares long and hard at the lads milling around until they all leave.
“I wonder if he gives lessons in those glares,” I muse, before continuing with a chuckle. “I think we’re going to need them.”
Sam sniggers, but he’s nodding as he walks towards Ally and Jeanie.
I follow behind. Even with our girls causing me to have heart palpitations at the thought of them growing up and leaving, I don’t regret a single one of the last eighteen years. Best thing that ever happened to me was my Jeanie bumping into me that night.
I’d do it all over again in a heartbeat.
Just like I give thanks every Christmas when we continue the tradition that Jeanie and I started that first year, and we take a turn around the QWMC property in the sled I made her all those years ago.
My eyes meet and hold my love’s over the heads of our children milling about around her, and I smile.
Yes! I’d do it all again in a heartbeat.
THE END
Thank you for reading Sleigh Bells and Sleds. I hope you enjoyed Jeanie and Bolt’s book. You’ll see them again because next up in the Queens Wraiths is Copper and his lady in January 2026.
But first there’s a present for you.
Want to know how the Cursed Skulls were cursed? Be sure to keep reading.
I hope you have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.