“They didn’t kick in when your mom passed?”Jag asked.
She shrugged.“We were all rocked, obviously.But Mom was anonly child.I remember thinking they seemed to age twenty years from the lasttime I saw them before she died, to the time after.”She turned her head andlooked at Jagger.“They never recovered.Neither of them wereold-oldwhen they died.After she was gone, I think they just gave up and did theirtime until they were gone too.”
This info made Jag both pissed and sad.
“Sorry, sweetheart,” he murmured.“It would have been goodone adult in your life took your back.”
Slowly, she turned her attention back to the photos,reaching out a hand and scooting them around.
“I’ve taken some time with this, and I don’t blame them.Idon’t hold any anger,” she said softly.
She shifted her gaze to him again and kept talking.
“They fell in love.That’s one of the simplest, mostbeautiful things people can do.Of course, life makes it complicated, but theemotion isn’t complicated.It’s effortless, pure.But they couldn’t have that.They had to fight for their love.They had to explain it.They had to defendit.They couldn’t go out together without getting looks, assholes saying shit.But your family is supposed to be about no conditions, and they couldn’t evenbe in love and be around the people who were supposed to love them.That’sgottawear a soul down.They were together fifty years.That’s a success story.Something to celebrate.But they were forced to loseimportant things to gain each other.Then they lost their only baby.So no,”she shook her head, glancing again at the photographs, “I don’t blame them.Enough does tend to be enough.”
Jag reached out, caught her at the back of the neck, andsqueezed.
She turned to him and started, “Sometimes, bikers have areputation—”
He knew what she was saying.
There were MCs that were racist, some implicitly, othersexplicitly.
“Chaos is not about that.I can’t say we’re poster childrenfor diversity, because I think my mom’s Apache blood is the only diversity wegot.But you will not feel shit like that with my family.”
She nodded and then asked, “I’m living, breathing proof itworks, Jag.Why don’t people get that?”
“If I had that answer, baby, I’d win a Nobel Prize.”
“One of the issues, and they are numerous, is that it’s aBlack thing with Elijah.Along with other garbage, he’s putting that betweenhim and Dad.”
Well, fuck.
“Maybe because there’s nothing else to put there and he’sreaching?”Jagger suggested.
“Dad’s new wife is white.”
“Well, fuck,” Jag muttered out loud this time.
“Unh-hunh,” she agreed.
Jagger didn’t let her go when he looked down at one of thephotos, then back to Archie.
“She was gorgeous, Arch,” he said.
“I know,” she whispered.
“I was too young to remember my dad,” he told her.
Her eyes brightened with interest.
And again…
Fuck.
He quickly carried on, and not about that.
“But I know for certain I’d lose my shit if somethinghappened to my mom.Honest to God, I don’t know if I’d survive that.”
