Although I enjoyed working for Cotton, I enjoy working for myself more. After the website Molly set up for me took off, I decided to focus exclusively on my online business.
Now I’m the person for custom-made patches and embroidery; clubs all over the country know me by name and want to work with me. That achievement fortified me in a way that was more than needed. I now move through the world like a woman who knows she can do anything and is no longer afraid to try new things.
But at the same time, I know that if I ever decide to stop working and stay home with the kids, Hawk would support me in aheartbeat. I work hard because I want to, not because I have to, and that makes all the difference in the world.
After DJ’s things are in the car and he’s buckled in his booster seat, Dylan lingers outside with us. On his face, an expression I’m unfamiliar with.
“Kids, man. One day, they’re these tiny chubby angels sleeping in your bed, and the next, you’re having a full-on philosophical conversation about the nutritional value of boogers,” he says with a sad smile, then gets into the car.
As we wave at the two of them as they drive off, I remember what Hawk once said about Dylan.
“I hope Slim never realizes what a beautiful life and family he talked himself out of.”
Epilogue 2
Slim
5 years later...
“Where is Piper?” Marissa squints as she tries to locate her in the car behind me.
I look away. “It, er… didn’t work out with her.”
“That’s too bad,” she frowns as her hand flies to her baby bump. “I really liked her. DJ did, too.”
I suppress the memory of feeling DJ’s somersaults in there.
“I’m not sure she’s step-mom material. She’s not…” I swallow and finally meet her eyes. “She’s not you, Riss.”
Piper was my first relationship since I ended my marriage. As accepting as she was of an almost 40-year-old man who lives with his mother, I just couldn’t take the relationship to the next level.
Marissa’s eyes roll so far back into her skull that it’s an absolute miracle when they eventually return to their original position.
“Wow, and I mean at least a little offense, but you’ve got to stop idealizing your exes! That’s what got you into this mess in the first place, Dylan. Besides, it’s dehumanizing,” she adds.
“You spend too much time with Molly,” I mutter.
“Why can’t you live in the present? Or look at the person you’re with as they are instead of in relation to someone else?”
“I can! I do! Our situation was different. Rebel was a cancer on my heart, preventing me from being happy. She and I were bad for each other, toxic even.”
I mean that. In hindsight, Rebel coming back was the beginning of the end.
In just nine months, the time it takes to grow a baby, I lost everything - my family, my business, my club, and my home.
I shake my head. I don’t even like remembering that period of my life.
After the lawsuit, I had to close my shop. And then I lost my house because that moron Claw continued moving product for the cartel, thereby violating the conditions of his release.
I’ve lived with Mom since then. That part’s kinda nice. I feel like we’re closer now, and we love having DJ over. Both Mom and I have made some changes for his sake. I've become somewhat of an amateur chef, and she's started taking better care of her health. She even started leaving the house three years ago, and she's made tons of friends at the Arizona Senior Academy.
This weekend, I’m taking my son on a camping trip in the desert, since I’m working on building our own small traditions, per my therapist's suggestion.
After DJ’s accident and losing custody, I... went off the deep end a bit. I barely slept, because I kept having nightmares about someone cutting my leg off, or DJ losing his leg in the accident, or Rebel chopping my leg off... You get it.
And it only got worse after Marissa and Hawk got married. I was terrified of becoming irrelevant and insignificant to my son, now that he had this picture-perfect family with two parents and a fancy house.
I, on the other hand, had nothing. No house, no wife, no job, not even my club.
