~ 19 ~
Seven months later…
“You sure you’re ready?” I asked her.
Her tight dress clung to her body, every curve accentuated by the smooth black fabric. Her hair was tied back in a low ponytail, her makeup simple. She still looked beautiful, despite the somber occasion.
It had been seven months since she’d gotten on the back of my bike and we’d started our life together. It had been the best seven months of my life. Wouldn’t have changed a damned thing about any of it, barring today, of course. I hated seeing my woman in pain.
She placed her hand in mine and squeezed it gently. “Yeah, it’s time, Sketch. There’s nothing left for me here now—it’s all gone. Even the bad memories can’t hurt me anymore. There’s just nothing here, and I’m ready for something now. I’m ready for everything and more.”
She curled into my side and I held her close, wondering if she was going to cry. But she didn’t. Woman was strong, physically, mentally. Every inch of her built on strength and beauty.
“We’re heading to the clubhouse, Sketch,” Crank said from behind me, and I let go of Nancy and turned to him, shaking his hand. “You two good here? I can stay if you need me.”
I shook my head. “We’re good. We’ll be right behind you. Heading out tomorrow, though, if you still want to come with us.”
He nodded and smiled. “Still got room on my skin, don’t I, brother?”
I smiled back and he took off toward his bike.
The clouds were darkening above us and one of Miles City’s famous summer storms was brimming, waiting to drop a bucket of water on us. The air was still humid, still thick, despite the rain threatening to drop. But the air felt different. It was as if something had changed. In a way, I guess it had. Everything and nothing had changed.
I gave Nancy a couple of minutes in private to say her final goodbyes to her mom. I was going to miss her too, so I couldn’t even begin to imagine how Nancy was feeling about her loss. Even in her last days, she was giving me shit about cutting my hair, never gave a shit that I was a biker or didn’t have much to offer her only daughter but myself. Yeah, I was really going to miss her.
Nancy was kneeling at the graveside and she started to stand back up. I went to her, helping to keep her steady, and placed my hand on her stomach, the baby inside kicking me in response.
“I think he knows something’s wrong,” Nancy said sadly. “He’s been moving nonstop, like he’s waiting to hear her voice.”
I kissed the top of her head. “She’d be real proud of you, babe. And she’ll be real proud of our boy.”
“I know,” she sighed.
The first drops of rain started to land on us and I looked at Nancy, waiting for her to tell me she was ready to go. In a way I guess she never would be, because leaving Miles City would be leaving the first twenty-four years of her life behind and starting again. It was both good and bad.
After settling up our shit with the club, Crank and I had had to stay anyway. Goddamned ATF had been all over everyone’s asses over their missing men and taking off would have looked real bad. Besides, we’d been busy setting her mom up with a small apartment and getting her settled in. The past few years had been a pile of shit for her mom, but she’d ended her days a lot happier. She’d been excited about our boy being on the way, but also sad knowing that she wouldn’t be around to see him grow up too.
“Okay,” Nance said, throwing a handful of dirt onto her mom’s grave. She looked up at me, giving me a sad smile. “I’m ready to go now, Sketch.”
We headed back to the clubhouse, and by the time we pulled up outside of it the rain was lashing down in sheets. We stared through the windshield for a few minutes, waiting for it to let up long enough to get inside the clubhouse without getting soaked, but it was relentless.
“We can stick around until after he’s born, if that’s what you’d prefer. There’s no rush, babe.” I turned to look at her, taking in every inch of her face. God, she was fucking beautiful. I’d never get enough of that woman, and every day we were together the feeling only grew stronger. Finding out she’d been carrying my son inside her had been scary for her. But not for me. For me it had been like all the pieces of my life had come together finally.
I’d never intended to fall in love. Not ever.
Honestly never thought I was a one-woman man.
But falling in love with Nancy had been like finding a part of myself I didn’t know existed.
I’d die for her. I’d kill for her. I’d fuckin’ live for her.
I’d thought I’d felt something like love before. But loving Nancy was like nothing I’d ever felt.
It was like taking a breath after being suffocated. It was like diving into a cool pool after standing at the precipice of a volcano. Loving Nancy was everything I never knew existed in the world, and more.
She sensed me staring and turned to look at me. “You okay, Sketch?”
“More than okay,” I replied. I reached behind my seat and pulled out the leather vest, and she watched me with curiosity.
“What is it?”
I handed her the pile of soft leather and she unfolded it, her fingers tracing the property patch on the back. When she looked up at me she was smiling.
“Sketch?”
I dragged a hand through my hair, more than ready to ask her. “Want you to be my old lady, Nance. Want you with me—always.” I reached over and put a hand on her stomach. “And now that you’re full of my kid, I think it’s time we made it official.”
For the first time all day, she smiled. “You have a way with words, you know that?” she laughed.
I laughed back, and it felt good. Real fucking good. “So I’ve been told.”
Nancy unbuckled her seatbelt and leaned in. I met her half way and our mouths met. I kissed her hard and fast, lust and love mingling into one.
“Need an answer, babe. Need an answer and then I need to get you inside.” I rubbed a hand down her side, reaching around to her ass and cupping it. Being pregnant hadn’t turned me off her, if anything she was even hotter now.
“Yes, Sketch,” she murmured between kisses.
“Want a ring on your finger too, babe,” I said, and she froze, pulling out of the kiss to look at me. “What? It makes sense,” I said with a frown.
“Are you serious?” she asked hesitantly.
I squeezed her ass and ran my tongue across her lips. “Never been more serious in my life, babe.”
She looked away from me and I frowned harder.
“Babe?” I asked. “What’s the problem? You just agreed to wearing my cut, you’re carrying my kid, so why not take my ring too?”
“Because that’s more…” She stumbled for the right word. “Serious.”
“Babe, nothing’s more serious than wearing my cut,” I chuckled. “You really don’t get this life yet, but you will. Wearing my cut is just as, if not more, important than wearing my ring.” I leaned back in my chair, wondering how it had all gone so wrong. I thought she was going to be pleased. I swear, I’d never understand women. “What’s the real problem?”
“I wanted to talk to you.”
“Thought that’s what we were already doing,” I drolled.
She rolled her eyes. “I mean really talk.”
“Again, I thought that’s what we were doing.”
She sighed. “Sketch, I’m serious. Stop making this harder than it needs to be.”
“Babe, I have no fuckin’ clue what you’re going on about. I thought things were good with us. So can you please just spit out whatever the fuck is up your ass so I can get you inside and fuck you while you wear my property patch? Had the image in my head for days, and I’m thinking it’s gonna be even hotter than I imagined.”
Her eyes went wide and I thought she was going to either punch me or cry. Instead she started to laugh again.
“Babe?” I asked, more confused than ever. “Gotta let me in on what’s in that beautiful head of yours.”
“I want us to settle down somewhere,” she said. “I’m carrying your kid and I don’t want you having to pull in at some roadside diner while I give birth in the restroom. Or end up moving from club to club, with no familiar faces around me. I want a family, a real family. You and this club have shown me what family is really like—how good it can be. And I want that. I want that for me, and you and our son. So—”
“Okay,” I said, interrupting her.
She stopped talking and looked at me openmouthed. She knew what that would mean.
“I don’t want to hold you back or chain you down or anything, Sketch, and I’ll understand if you can’t, so don’t say yes unless you mean it,” she pleaded.
“Babe. I want to be with you, no matter what it takes. No matter where we are. Now can we go inside?” I squeezed her ass again and she laughed, relief flooding her features. I pulled out the small ring box from my pocket and handed it to her. “So is that a yes?”
She opened it, staring down at the white gold and diamond ring, and nodded. I helped slide it onto her finger and she laughed as I struggled to get it over her knuckle. She was putting on weight and taking on water or some shit, apparently. She hated it, but I loved it. It meant I had more of her to grab. And where Nancy was concerned, there could never be enough of her.
“I can’t stay here though,” she added solemnly. “I want to start a fresh somewhere else.”
“Done,” I said immediately, and she kissed me again.
The rain still hadn’t let up, but we both got out of the truck and I picked her up and ran with her across the clubhouse grounds toward the doors, my heavy boots splashing through the rain as it soaked us through, washing away the bad shit and breathing life into the good stuff.
Her mascara had leaked down her face, but her cheeks were pink and her eyes bright, and that smile…fuck me, that smile got me every time.
“Love you, Nance,” I said, leaning down to kiss her. “Knew you’d be mine from the second I saw you.”
“Yeah?”
“Fuck yeah, babe.”
I leaned down and pressed a kiss to her mouth, her body melting to mine as she clung to me. She smiled and pushed her wet hair away from her face as another crack of thunder shook the sky and the rain began to fall heavier.
“I love you too, Sketch,” she replied, kissing me back.
The End
BATTLE IS COMING…
DECEMBER 2018
READ ON FOR A SNEAK PEAK AND GET READY FOR THE THIRD NOMAD!