“Yes, ma’am.”
“Don’t call me ma’am, you fucking ass,” she says, then she plants a peck on my cheek and takes a step back. She turns and looks at Rabid. “I forgive him.”
“Here’s what you get, Evan, Gator, whoever you are,” Rabid says, voice like iron. “You’re alive because you helped stop an attack on my house, and Molly’s decided to let you live. That buys you breath, but not my forgiveness.”
I don’t speak. I don’t move. I keep my eyes on him as he weighs my fate.
“Your continuing survival comes with conditions,” Rabid continues. “You don’t leave Ironwood Falls. You belong to this club. You work for us. You earn for us. You pay back every drop of blood you cost us. And… then you wear our patch. But until then, Gator, you’re a fucking prospect with a price on his head.”
I nod once, accepting the leash I’m to wear that’s made of a debt in blood and damage; the chance to make things right with this group of people united by loyalty and love feels like freedom. Like something honorable. “Good.”
Rabid’s stare sharpens. “And if you slip, it doesn’t matter who you’ve saved, I will put you in the ground myself, and it will not be fast.”
“I won’t slip.”
He holds my gaze long and intensely enough that I wonder if he’s going to give me a peck on the cheek, too, and then he nods and looks first to June, then to Molly. Everything in me stills. “Then welcome to the family, Gator. Molly, June, he’s all yours.”
June rushes in to give me another hug, and Molly steps forward slowly, like she’s approaching a wild animal that might bite. She stops right in front of me, close enough that I can see the exhaustion in the lines around her eyes, and the stubborn set of her mouth.
She lifts her hand and gently touches my face — two fingers along my jaw until she reaches my chin and, with those same two fingers, angles it upwards.
“You’re an idiot,” she says, voice low enough that it’s only for me. “A lying, stubborn, reckless, suicidal idiot.”
I nod. I’m through lying to her. “Yeah, I am.”
Her eyes shine. “And still, I love you. I must be the world’s biggest fool, huh?”
“I’ve seen you study. You’re no fool.”
“I love you.” She leans in and kisses me. It’s soft, slow, long. “I’m looking forward to more studying with you. I’ll need your help with the practice questions for my next test.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“No. Don’t even start,” she says. She kisses me anyway. “I need you to tell me something.”
“What’s that?’
“How’d you get the name ‘Gator’?’”
I smile at the memory. “From a job. Debt collection. I was sent to get some money from some guy, we cleaned him out, roughed him up, and while I was collecting the cash from this safe he had, he snuck out the back door. He was a wily bastard, and from Florida, too. He left his pet alligator behind. It was a little thing and it didn’t feel right to abandon it, so I kept him for a while until I found a zoo that could take him. He rode around with me in a little backpack I made for him. Called him Godzilla, even though he was a little thing.”
“Do you have pictures?” Molly says.
June nods. “Obviously. I have tons.”
“You can see them later.” I look into Molly’s eyes, my heart still burning with her kiss and with resolve for what I truly want. Something that I’ve wanted for years, ever since I was young, and now finally have the chance to truly have. “There’s another question you’ll have to answer, Molly.”
She looks at me and smiles, as if she already knows what I’m going to ask. I wouldn’t put it past her; she’s the first person I’ve met to seem excited to pick up an accounting book. “What’s that, Evan?”
“Molly, I’ve waited years for you to come back into my life. I’ve wanted you from the moment we met. So I’m not letting this chance pass me by. Will you be my ol’ lady?”
The words have hardly left my lips before she presses hers to mine. The kiss is deep and heated, her tongue and mine dancingwhile something between a moan and a giggle echoes in her throat. When she pulls back, her cheeks are even redder than her hair. “You ass. I thought you were going to ask me a hard question.”
“Oh, so it’s that easy for you to say ‘no,’ huh?”
“And you’re making it even easier for me to call you a bastard.” She kisses me again, then stands and looks down at me, still smiling. “Despite all that, my answer is yes, Evan. Yes, I’ll be your ol’ lady.”
Epilogue - Molly
