Confusion flickers across his face, but then he just picks up his broken pool cue and tosses it aside. “Rematch.”
But as a hand slides around my waist, a smile tugs at my lips.
“He’s busy,” Alder says, turning me away from the table, and his lips immediately find mine.
I kiss him back, letting my hands slide under his cut, and my fingers brush over the leather holster strapped to his ribs
“Fuck, baby,” he murmurs against my lips. “If this clubhouse wasn’t full right now, I’d bend you over that pool table and fuck you senseless.”
“Please don’t,” Mac says from beside us. “My kids are here. And me.”
I chuckle against Alder’s lips as he groans in disappointment and pulls me closer to him.
“Later then,” he says, running his lips along my jaw. “The second everyone clears out, I’m in that ass.”
I glance around the clubhouse at the busy room, as the club’s families set up food and tables for a barbecue, and nod. “Deal.”
Alder reaches around and grabs my ass, then releases me with a sigh as he tilts his head towards the bar. “Come on.”
I follow him to the bar where Caz stands behind it, cautiously staring at his exit, which is being guarded by Wingnut.
He turns to us as we approach, and he gives Alder a pleading look. “Please, man, I’m begging you. Take the duck. Let me live.”
“No,” Alder says simply, and reaches over the bar to grab a can of sparkling water and hands it to me.
Caz groans and glances at Wingnut again, just as the duck flares his wings and gives a single, menacing flap. “I just want to leave the bar…” he mutters.
Alder turns to face me and leans one elbow on the bar as his eyes flick down to the can in my hand. “I quit, too, you know.”
My eyebrow lifts, and he smiles.
“Smoking,” he says.
“Really…” I say slowly, not quite sure I believe that.
He nods. “It’s been two days.”
A slow smile spreads across my lips as I stare into his dark eyes, full of mischief, determination, and love.
“And why would you do a stupid thing like that?” I ask.
He chuckles, sliding a hand to my hip and tugging me closer. “Baby, there’s only one thing I’m addicted to.”
I pull a breath in and slowly exhale with a small nod. “Me too.”
And it’s true.
These past few weeks have been brutal. I’ve had to crack parts of myself open that I’ve spent years sealing shut, and there are still areas I haven’t reached yet. I’m working through and facing the reasons I was drinking, and why I let myself fall so far… and every session feels like I’m taking a crowbar to my own chest.
Some days it hits harder than others, and I wonder what one drink would do… and how fast it would make the pain go away.
But I haven’t. Because I’mfeelingthat pain… and that means something.
And even among those dark thoughts, there are moments of clarity. Where everything lifts and I can see how much better life can be. And not just a life without alcohol… but a life I actually want. One where I’m fully awake and reach for the future instead of folding under the weight of it.
I may not be there yet, but I’m on my way.
And he’s walking with me.
