I’m not even at my house for two hours when Rock calls.
“Miss me already?” I answer.
“Yeah, baby, but that’s not why I called.”
“Oh. Is everything okay?”
There’s nothing but silence. “Rock?”
“Uh, Heidi… her grandmother died. Teller brought her up here, and she was asking for you. I know you’re probably exhaust—”
“No. I’m leaving right now. Just let me grab some stuff.” I rush down the hallway to my bedroom and plow through my closet. “How’s Teller? Is he okay?”
“Yeah, I guess. You know what kind of issues they’d been having.”
“What happened to her?”
“Heart, I guess.”
“Mmm… I knew they shouldn’t have let her out when they did.”
Over the line, Rock’s laughter is warm and rumbly. “I love you, baby doll.”
“I’ll be there soon.”
We hang up, and I finish packing some things. As I work my way through my closet, my hand stops on a black dress. I’ll need one for the funeral, right?
Crap.
It’s the same dress I wore to Clay’s funeral. For a moment, I’m stunned with indecision. It’s probably too big on me, but that’s not why I hesitate.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” I grumble out loud. It’s not a wedding dress. It’s a plain black fucking dress. I wore it plenty of times before Clay died.
I stuff it into my bag with everything else and head out the door.
At the clubhouse, I run into Teller outside. “Thanks for coming up, Hope.”
I give him a tight hug, which he hesitates before accepting. “I’m so sorry.” I draw back so I can see his face.
He shrugs. “We were never particularly close. But she pretty much raised Heidi. My mom dumped us there when Heidi was six and never came back for us.”
I already know this from helping Teller with the custody dispute between him and his grandmother, but it still breaks my heart a little to hear him talk about it so matter-of-fact.
“Heidi’s inside. I’m sorry Rock dragged you up here. You’re the only—”
“Teller, it’s fine. Of course I want to be here for Heidi. You too.”
“Thanks, Hope. There’s no danger of them trying to put her in foster care, is there?”
“No. Custody should go to you one hundred percent. I’ll start drafting something this week. I can call Charlotte too—”
“That’s okay. I have her number. I’ll call her.”
That gets my attention. Teller’s my client, so technically, Heidi’s lawyer has no business talking to him without my knowledge. I’m surprised because Charlotte seems so earnest. “You really shouldn’t be talking to her without me.”
His mouth twitches in a short grin. “Yeah, she says the same thing.” Before I can question him further, he asks, “Think you can help me with the estate stuff? Grams left the house and everything to Heidi, but it’s supposed to go into a trust for her until she’s twenty-five. It’s a big place to maintain, so I’m thinking of selling it after Heidi graduates and stuffing the money in the trust for her.”
From working with Adam, I’ve seen lots of people who would drain that trust dry contesting the grandmother’s wishes. Teller’s an honorable guy, and I want to do everything I can to make this easier on him. “Of course. I’ll ask Adam to help you with that. It shouldn’t be a problem.”
Heidi’s curled up on the couch when I step inside. Axel and Murphy hover nearby. They both look up when I enter.
Murphy’s mouth pulls into a smile when he spots me. “Hey, first lady, knew you couldn’t stay away from us for long.” He reaches out and squeezes my hand. “Thanks for coming up for Bug.”
Axel scowls at him but seems unsure of what to do.
“I’m guessing you didn’t get to your movie?” I ask him.
“No… it was. It was bad. I pulled up the same time the ambulance got there.”
I give his shoulder a squeeze and make my way to Heidi. She doesn’t move or register my presence until I sit next to her and put my hand on her back. “How are you, Heidi girl?”
Sitting up slowly, she sniffles and wipes her face before focusing on me. “Hi. Did they make you come up here because of me?”
My heart constricts at her words. As if I’m only here because Rock asked me and not because I want to be here for her. “Honey, I’m here for you. Do you want to talk?”
She blinks at me and sits up a little straighter. “Not really… Hope, she died right in front of me.”
Taking a chance, I wrap her in my arms, and she responds by putting her head on my shoulder. “I’m sorry, honey. That’s awful.”
“We weren’t fighting, though. I got to tell her about this scholarship I got to go to some summer classes, and she was actually happy with me for once. So that’s something, right?”
“Yes. That’s great. At least you had a nice moment with her before.”
“I still feel awful for always being such a brat to her, you know?”
I want to say it’s okay, that it’s normal to be a brat at her age, but I don’t think she’ll find that comforting. “That’s normal,” I tell her instead.
“I wish we could find my mom. She doesn’t even know her own mother is…”
“I know.” I don’t know what else to say to her. I’m not sure how much she knows about any of the time Rock spent helping Teller track down his mother.
Stupid secrets. One of these days I’m going to have to ask Rock to give me a list of what I can and can’t say to people around here.
As soon as I step out of the garage, I spot Hope’s car. No one bothered to tell me she’d arrived. Fuckin’ great.
“We’re all secure down there, right?” Wrath asks. Since he hates navigating the narrow stairs, he’s been patiently waiting in the garage.
Well, patient for him.
“Why didn’t anyone tell me Hope was here?”
Wrath glances at the parking lot. “Didn’t know.”
The door slams behind us. Z works the combination into the keypad for the side door and joins us. “We gonna have a full house for the funeral?” he asks.
I shake my head.
Teller joins us. “Hope’s here. She’s inside with Heidi. Thanks for calling her.”
“Yeah, no problem. You need help making any of the arrangements?”
“No. I guess her lawyer had a set of instructions or some shit. I’ll take Bug later to go pick out some stuff.”
“I’ll start contacting some of the other charters—” Z starts.
Teller cuts him off. “Don’t bother. If you guys are there, I appreciate it. But given the way she felt about the club, especially after some of the shit she said at the end of that stuff with Heidi, I don’t feel right having—”
“It’s not for her. It’s for you,” I say.
He shakes his head. “I know.”
“We’ll do whatever you want, bro,” Wrath says with a hearty back slap, almost knocking Teller on his ass.
Teller shoots him a glare, then focuses on me. “I hate askin’, but can I stay up here with Heidi for a few days? She really doesn’t want to go back to the house, and—”
“Yeah, of course.” And to make that happen, I see who I need to talk to stepping out of the clubhouse. “Trinity,” I call out. She turns and nods at me, waiting to see what I want.
“We good here?” I ask the guys. I get affirmatives from everyone, so I wave Trinity over and meet her halfway.
“What’s up, prez? Hope’s inside with Heidi.”
“I know. Thanks. Can you do me a favor? Heidi’s going to stay up here for a few days. I need you to—”
She gives me a knowing look. “Call the girls and tell them they can’t come up?”
“Pretty much.”
“Can I at least bring Swan? She won’t misbehave, and I could use her help.” She lowers her voice a bit. “Besides, she’s sorta tight with T, since, you know—”
“Yeah, yeah. I trust your judgment.” At the moment, I can’t remember which one Swan is, but if Trinity says the girl will behave, I believe her.
While we walk into the clubhouse together, Trinity explains what she plans to do for the wake. I barely hear any of it, though. I reassure her that everything sounds fine, and she thanks me as she heads to the kitchen. My eyes are glued to Hope, who’s sitting on the couch with Heidi in her arms, talking softly to the girl who wouldn’t respond to any of us an hour ago.
If I were the sort of man who cried, now might be one of those times. All I can think about is the doctor calmly explaining to Hope that she might not be able to have children. It’s beyond fuckin’ unfair. The woman is already so damn nurturing and maternal. I’m completely slammed and blindsided by the thought of having children with her and then beyond pissed that it might not be an option.