“What the heck,” I breathe.
Edge takes my hand, threading our fingers together into the same unbreakable knots that our hearts have always been bound up in. We step through the new door together onto the tiny porch.
My heart stops as I watch my dad walk up the driveway, his big black boots eating up the length of it, sending puffs of dust into the air because the gravel is so dry.
I clench Edge’s hand tightly, and he squeezes back. Even though neither of us have any idea what is going on, he stands calmly, breathing evenly, the giant of a man he truly is.
“Edge,” my dad says, as he stops right in front of the steps. He nods at me and I offer a small smile in return.
Except for a few quick words after we were released the night after we’d been taken by the Devil’s Slaves, I haven’t really talked to my dad. His face is neutral though, composed, all the anger long bled out of it. I suck in a shuddery breath and wait.
I can’t hear what Edge says beside me, but it’s a single word, a deep rumble from his chest, and I assume it’s my father’s name.
“Came here today,” my dad says after a pause, “to ask you to come back. We took a vote on it. Everyone voted in favor. The Riders ain’t a club without you.”
Edge looks down at me at the same time my head snaps up in shock. I watch his lips move. “You already have a VP, Steel. Don’t need any more chefs sticking their thumbs into the broth.”
“Don’t even know that the means, you dumb fuck,” my dad says, but I can tell from the shadow of a smile tugging at his lips and the light in his eyes, that it’s a sort of compliment type deal. Friendly banter between men who used to be friends.
I watch Edge’s face change as he mulls it over. “It means that you don’t need another VP.”
“Snake was just keeping the position warm. He never wanted it permanently.”
“I didn’t leave because I don’t love the MC,” Edge admits. He blinks down at me. “I left because you couldn’t accept this. What’s gonna make you start now?”
We both know what this is. Everyone knows what this is.
My dad shakes his head, but there isn’t anything mean clouding or shadowing his face. He almost looks… sorry. Happy. I don’t know. It’s hard to read all the emotion he has shining in his eyes.
“I’m not gonna say I’m sorry for what happened,” my dad starts. “Because Harley will always be my little girl. I’m always gonna love her and worry about her and want to keep her safe, but I will say that I’m sorry I let it cloud my judgment when it came to club business. And… our business. As brothers. You started this whole sorry mess with me a decade ago. I don’t want to keep at it without you. You belong with us. Harley belongs with us. We’re a family. Can’t have you going rogue on us now.”
Edge hesitates. I brace for whatever comes next. My dad stands there, a proud man who isn’t used to having to eat crow, but is doing it all the same, just for us, and even though it’s not the most flowery apology in the world, I get it. I get it because I’m his daughter and I really will always be his little girl. He’s the man who raised me and I’ll always love him. Always. I get that he’s rough and wild and hard around the edges. I get that, and I love him for it.
Edge still doesn’t say anything, and then there’s a movement near the back of the crowd and Wraith wedges his way through the sea of bodies and bikes. He weaves his way to the front of the yard, to stand just behind Steel.
In his hands is an object I know well. I know how buttery soft it is. The dark, smoky scent that clings to it. The way it feels heavy in my hands, when I’ve had to get it down from the peg on the wall, or hang it up.
Edge’s vest.
“Come on now,” Wraith urges. “Kiss and make up.”
I feel the ripple of laughter shift through the crowd as Wraith holds the jacket out, waiting.
“Doesn’t he ever shut up?” My dad mutters.
Edge squeezes my hand. “Just wait.” There’s humor dancing in his eyes. “He’s about to become a married man. Maybe that will tame him. “
“Nothing’s gonna tame me,” Wraith says, puffing his chest out like a damn cave man. I’m surprised he doesn’t beat on it too.
Edge winks at me. His eyes sparkle with all the love in the world, all that love, for me, for his brothers, for the club that is his life. It’s where he always belonged. Always. I know he wasn’t whole without it.
My heart swells with love and pride and tears prick the backs of my eyes, as he leaves me to accept that jacket. A cheer goes through the crowd when his hand closes over it, and he shrugs it on over his black t-shirt. Even though I can’t hear it, I can sense it, the way the men’s mouths move, but also the wild current of energy that shimmers in the air.
Then, my dad closes in. He and Edge eye each other up for a minute before they give each other one of those manly back-pounding, handshake deals.
Edge looks back towards the porch right after, to me, and all that love and happiness on his face chokes me up so bad I can barely hold the tears back. I swallow hard past the stinging lump lodged in my throat.
“We got enough burgers to feed everyone?” Edge calls to me.
