Epilogue
CADE
She kissed me like she was leaving for a month, not two hours.
Hands on my jaw, body pressed against mine right there on the sidewalk outside the salon, and I let her take her time because I'd learned something about Avery Price…
she gave you exactly what she felt, no more, no less.
If she was kissing me like this in front of the whole street, it was because she meant it.
She pulled back, grinned, and pointed at me. "Two hours. Don't be late."
"When have I ever been late?"
"You were ten months late."
She had me there.
I watched her dark hair disappear through the door, my old flannel knotted at her waist because she'd claimed it weeks ago and I hadn't fought her for it. I hadn't fought her for anything since that cliff. Turned out giving Avery everything she wanted was the easiest thing I'd ever done.
I rode back to the clubhouse to kill time, and pulled in next to Wrench's bike and found him out back, leaning against the railing. He was watching Whitney on Instagram talking about her new wellness business.
He wasn't moving. Just glued to the screen.
I knew that look.
I didn't say a word.
He'd get there or he wouldn't.
Inside, I grabbed what I needed from my room, shoved it in my cut, and left.
When I pulled up outside the salon, she was already waiting. Leaning against the brick wall with her sunglasses pushed up on her head, and arms crossed.
Blonde again.
Soft hair framing her face and catching the light in a way that made me smile.
My little bombshell.
She pushed off the wall and walked toward me and I couldn't stop looking at her.
"Well?" She stopped in front of the bike, one eyebrow raised.
"Get on."
"That's it? That's all I get?"
I grabbed her waist and pulled her in, and kissed her. I felt her smile against my mouth.
She pressed against my back, with her arms tight around me, and her chin on my shoulder. I could feel her humming something against my neck. Off-key and happy and Christ… I didn't know I could have this.
From sleeping in the clubhouse, riding solo and telling myself that was the life… to this.
I had a woman humming into my spine on a Tuesday afternoon and I'd burn the whole road down before I gave it up.
At her place… mine too now, she swung off the bike and stretched. "I need a shower."
"Go ahead."
She disappeared inside. I heard the water start and her off-key singing. Fucking perfect.
Then I went in.
I didn't join her in the shower. I had something to do first.
I'd cleared the right side of the closet two days ago. Moved my shit, made space. Hung the hooks she liked, put a shelf in for her boots. The bathroom counter had a clear half now too. I'd shoved all my crap into one drawer and left the rest open.
But that wasn't it.
I’d hidden something in the kitchen.
I set it on her side of the bed. On the pillow. Impossible to miss.
Then I sat on the edge of the bed and waited.
The shower cut off, and after a few minutes of quiet, the bathroom door opened and she walked out in my t-shirt and nothing else, toweling her blonde hair, and I almost forgot about the gift entirely.
She stopped.
Saw it.
Her hand dropped the towel slowly. She walked to the bed and picked up the stem.
“No thorns.”
"I stripped them off,” I said. “Dangerous in the wrong hands.”
"I love it."
Those words.
The ones she always gave me. I love it. About the food I made and the rides I planned and the way I touched her. Always it.
"And?"
"You."
And there it was.