Butch couldn’t rip his eyes off of Gidget, even while Geo murdered the two Skulls. The only thing running through his head was So that’s what it was. There was a strange relief, alongside a whole cocktail of different emotions. But relief won. Not fear, or anxiety, or anything else that he might have guessed. Just the sweeping sigh that his girl was okay.
When Gidget turned to him, her eyes were wide and brimming with uncertainty. He wanted to pull her into his arms, to smash her into his embrace and never let go, but Geo was still a problem. Might be a problem forever.
Butch might never be able to touch her again, much less continue the closeness they’d found in Shreveport.
“Is it true?” His voice stuck to his throat when he spoke.
She nodded, a tear trickling down her cheek. Behind them, brothers gathered around the Skulls, chatter resuming. Someone turned on music, but it all faded to a dull murmur as Gidget stepped closer.
“I didn’t want to tell you like this. I didn’t even know if I wanted to tell my dad yet.” She nibbled on her bottom lip, her hand drifting toward his. When her fingertips brushed against his palm, he stiffened. God, he wanted her so much. In ways that were still hard for him to admit.
“Do you want to…” Butch gulped. “You know.”
She nodded hastily, tears making her eyes shimmery. “I do. I want to keep it.” She paused, her fingertips trailing up his arm. “It’s our baby.”
Those words broke something off inside of him, allowed something to splinter that had long ago fractured at its base. Butch’s throat tightened and he grabbed her hand, stilled it as she made the trek up along his bicep.
“But Geo,” he said, afraid to say more and betray his emotions.
“He’ll get over it,” she whispered. “He has to.”
“You don’t know that,” Butch said.
“This is all new territory.” She laughed a little, wiping at a tear. “I don’t even know that you’ll stick around. Now that I told you.”
Butch couldn’t help himself; he squeezed her shoulder, trailing his palm over the curve of her neck. “I’m not going anywhere.”
“You want a baby?” Gidget looked up at him, her quiet, shy voice nearly bringing him to his knees. He’d never considered being a father before. Never imagined sticking around long enough to find out if it had happened on accident. Never imagined being with someone he cared about, even.
“Only with you,” he finally was able to say, and it was the truth. It rang hard inside him, echoing so deeply that it made his chest hurt.
“This whole day has been fucked,” Gidget said, clasping his hand against her cheek. “I just want it to be over. What did they do to you?”
Butch took a labored draw of breath. “Not too much. Beat me up a few times for ratting, starved me in the closet, then almost shot me for knocking up the president’s daughter.”
Gidget grinned.
“Just a regular day,” Butch added, unable to look away from the mesmerizing blue of her eyes. This was something he wouldn’t get tired of looking at. Gidget was someone he wouldn’t get tired of ever.
“Daddy will come around,” she whispered, though it sounded like it was more to reassure her than himself. “But I think we’re lucky I’m pregnant. Otherwise you might have gotten beat again.”
“I guess I was just thinking ahead back in Shreveport.” His body ached and he longed to take a shower and collapse into bed with her tucked into his arms, like they’d done each night for the past month. "Can we go to bed now?”
Gidget glanced behind them, at the fray of brothers and hollering. Looking back up at Butch, she nodded. “Guess there’s nothing to hide now. Wanna sleep in my bed tonight?”
Butch grinned but squashed it quickly. “You’re trying to piss your dad off again?”
“At this point, he couldn’t be angrier. So I think we’re fine for now.” She slung an arm around his waist and together they began walking toward the clubhouse. He leaned on her when his ribs ached with each step, and she waited patiently as he paused to cough.
“I’ll get you all cleaned up,” she promised as she pushed the door open to the clubhouse.
“That’s what I should be saying to you,” he said.
“You’ve done enough today. Saved my ass for the second time in my life, and took way too many punches. So you shut up and let me take care of you.”
Butch couldn’t fight the grin. There was something sweet about her command. “Yes ma’am.”
“Besides, you need to get used to this. Now that this is out in the open, we’re dating, I’m carrying your child…you might decide to change your mind,” she said, a wry grin on her face as they walked toward the hallway.
“Do I have a grace period to decide?”
She sighed exaggeratedly. “That’s such a typical thing for a biker guy to say.”
“Hey,” he shot back. “I wasn’t a biker guy until I got out of jail.”
Her grin spread so wide that it nearly stretched ear to ear. “That’s right. You’re not a biker guy.” This seemed to please her as she pushed open her bedroom door. Butch took a glance up and down the hallway before going inside, just in case anyone spotted them together. It might take a while to get used to this thing between them being common knowledge. But the lid was blown off now. No more hiding behind the convenience of distance.
Besides, he couldn’t walk away from her. Even if he tried…he would only fail.
“You glad about that or something?” He groaned as he sat down on the edge of the bed.
“I always swore I’d never fall for a biker guy,” she said, kneeling down to help tug off his boots. “And to be honest, I was a little pissed that I thought I had.”
Butch smirked, moved by the way she popped his boots off and rolled his socks off. She was an angel. “But you still fell anyway.”
“How could I not?” Her hooded glance made his cock twitch, even with all the pain and confusion swirling in the clubhouse right now.
“I don’t deserve you,” he said plainly, forcing the words out through a tight throat. It weighed on him, constantly lurking in the back of his mind that she might realize it one day and run off. The stakes were higher, now that she carried his baby. This was territory he’d fought his entire life to avoid…and only now was seeing maybe there was a reason to wade into it.
“You do, though.” She unbuttoned his jeans and tugged them down over his knees, delicately extracting each leg. “That’s what you don’t get. You do. You deserve to be happy. And with someone who cares about you. To be a daddy someday.”
He avoided her gaze. “Sometimes I think I’m not cut out for it.” When she sent a worried glance his way, he added, “But with you, I’m willing to try.”
She leaned between his legs, nuzzling up against the rough of his cheek. “Well that’s enough then. That’s all I need.”
He grabbed her chin between his thumb and forefinger and they kissed so hard that his lips went numb. If he was going to try it with anyone, it was with a girl who’d been to hell and back with him. Who could spend a month in a tiny motel room with him and not grate on him and still even make it fun. A girl who knew enough about the dark side of life but still had the infectious zest that could inspire him, after all he’d seen and lived and lost.
Gidget was the only one who measured up. And he didn’t need to look further to know she’d be the only one in his life that did.
“Goddammit, Gidget,” he breathed after their kiss broke. “I love you.”