The clouds were darkening above us and one of Miles City’s famous summer storms was brimming, waiting to drop a bucket of water on us. The air was still humid, still thick, despite the rain threatening to drop. But the air felt different. It was as if something had changed. In a way, I guess it had. Everything and nothing had changed.
I gave Nancy a couple of minutes in private to say her final goodbyes to her mom. I was going to miss her too, so I couldn’t even begin to imagine how Nancy was feeling about her loss. Even in her last days, she was giving me shit about cutting my hair, never gave a shit that I was a biker or didn’t have much to offer her only daughter but myself. Yeah, I was really going to miss her.
Nancy was kneeling at the graveside and she started to stand back up. I went to her, helping to keep her steady, and placed my hand on her stomach, the baby inside kicking me in response.
“I think he knows something’s wrong,” Nancy said sadly. “He’s been moving nonstop, like he’s waiting to hear her voice.”
I kissed the top of her head. “She’d be real proud of you, babe. And she’ll be real proud of our boy.”
“I know,” she sighed.
The first drops of rain started to land on us and I looked at Nancy, waiting for her to tell me she was ready to go. In a way I guess she never would be, because leaving Miles City would be leaving the first twenty-four years of her life behind and starting again. It was both good and bad.
After settling up our shit with the club, Crank and I had had to stay anyway. Goddamned ATF had been all over everyone’s asses over their missing men and taking off would have looked real bad. Besides, we’d been busy setting her mom up with a small apartment and getting her settled in. The past few years had been a pile of shit for her mom, but she’d ended her days a lot happier. She’d been excited about our boy being on the way, but also sad knowing that she wouldn’t be around to see him grow up too.
“Okay,” Nance said, throwing a handful of dirt onto her mom’s grave. She looked up at me, giving me a sad smile. “I’m ready to go now, Sketch.”
We headed back to the clubhouse, and by the time we pulled up outside of it the rain was lashing down in sheets. We stared through the windshield for a few minutes, waiting for it to let up long enough to get inside the clubhouse without getting soaked, but it was relentless.
“We can stick around until after he’s born, if that’s what you’d prefer. There’s no rush, babe.” I turned to look at her, taking in every inch of her face. God, she was fucking beautiful. I’d never get enough of that woman, and every day we were together the feeling only grew stronger. Finding out she’d been carrying my son inside her had been scary for her. But not for me. For me it had been like all the pieces of my life had come together finally.
I’d never intended to fall in love. Not ever.
Honestly never thought I was a one-woman man.
But falling in love with Nancy had been like finding a part of myself I didn’t know existed.
I’d die for her. I’d kill for her. I’d fuckin’ live for her.
I’d thought I’d felt something like love before. But loving Nancy was like nothing I’d ever felt.
It was like taking a breath after being suffocated. It was like diving into a cool pool after standing at the precipice of a volcano. Loving Nancy was everything I never knew existed in the world, and more.
She sensed me staring and turned to look at me. “You okay, Sketch?”
“More than okay,” I replied. I reached behind my seat and pulled out the leather vest, and she watched me with curiosity.
“What is it?”
I handed her the pile of soft leather and she unfolded it, her fingers tracing the property patch on the back. When she looked up at me she was smiling.
“Sketch?”
I dragged a hand through my hair, more than ready to ask her. “Want you to be my old lady, Nance. Want you with me—always.” I reached over and put a hand on her stomach. “And now that you’re full of my kid, I think it’s time we made it official.”
For the first time all day, she smiled. “You have a way with words, you know that?” she laughed.
I laughed back, and it felt good. Real fucking good. “So I’ve been told.”
Nancy unbuckled her seatbelt and leaned in. I met her half way and our mouths met. I kissed her hard and fast, lust and love mingling into one.
“Need an answer, babe. Need an answer and then I need to get you inside.” I rubbed a hand down her side, reaching around to her ass and cupping it. Being pregnant hadn’t turned me off her, if anything she was even hotter now.
“Yes, Sketch,” she murmured between kisses.
“Want a ring on your finger too, babe,” I said, and she froze, pulling out of the kiss to look at me. “What? It makes sense,” I said with a frown.
“Are you serious?” she asked hesitantly.
