Holt pulled them from the inside pocket of his cut. “Here they are,brother.”
Abel continued. “Rings are a precious metal, and they are also made precious by us wearing them. Your wedding rings are special because they enhance who you are. They mark the beginning of your long journey together. Your wedding ring is a circle, a symbol of love never ending. It is the seal of the vows you have just taken to love each otherwithoutend.”
Before handing Raine and I our bands, Abel stared at them for a few seconds. With a kind smile on his face, he gave us each other’srings.
I slid the ring onto Raine’s dainty finger. “I offer you this ring as a symbol of my love. With this ring, Itheewed.”
Raine’s eyes filled with tears as she placed the band onto my finger. “I offer you this ring as a symbol of my love. With this ring, Itheewed.”
Crickett came up next to her husband as his voice started to shake. “May your love grow ever stronger as you share your lives together, and may your future be even more wonderful than you ever dreamed possible. You have made your promises and exchanged your rings. Family and friends, we have been waiting for this moment for what feels like a lifetime. So, get ready to put your hands together and make some noise. By the power vested in me by the world-wide web for a small fee of twenty-five dollars, I now pronounce you husband and wife. Ryder, you may kiss your beautifulbride!”
Everyone leapt to their feet, cheering and hollering for us. I grabbed both sides of Raine’s face and crushed my lips to hers. It was the best kiss of my life. It was the most important kiss of my life. I knew right then what people meant about seeing fireworks. In that moment my heart exploded into a million, love-filled pieces, ignitingmysoul.
Abel yelled over the roar of celebration, “I now present to you Mr. and Mrs.Walsh!”
Chapter2
Raine
A few weekslater
The thunder rolled outsidewhile I cleaned up the kitchen from making dinner. I couldn’t tell if the shitty weather was affecting our mood or what, but Crickett and I were both feeling kind of blah. It was another late night and Ryder and Dad were not home from the shop yet. Crickett was sitting at the kitchen table reading thenewspaper.
“Anything interesting?” I asked while putting a giant bowl of garlic mashed potatoes down in front of her. I took my seat after making sure the table was set for everyone and all of the food was set out. It wasn’t my most shining culinary moment, but it was good enough—baked chicken with snow peas and garlic mashedpotatoes.
“Nah, just the same old shit. Pretty boring if I’m being honest.” She folded the pages and started to serve herself. “Heard from theguysyet?”
I shook my head with a piece of chicken rolling around in my mouth. “Not since lunch. They’ve been pretty busy I guess. You know how little Ryder actuallytellsme.”
Crickett pursed her lips. “Trust me, sweetie, that’s probably for the best.” I could read my stepmom like a book and she knew it. Before I even had to start prying, she continued, “I just have a weird feeling,that’sall.”
“Has Dad said anything to you?” Before she could reply, Ryder and Dad came striding through thefrontdoor.
“Something smells mighty tasty in here.” My dad’s toothy grin lit up as he walked into the kitchen. “How’re my two favorite girls in the worlddoing?”
Crickett got up and kissed her husband as Ryder took a seat next to me. I pecked his scruffy cheek before teasing, “You better not be thinking about eating a damn thing with those dirty-ass hands.” His fingernails were black from God knows what, and he looked like he had been digging ditches all damn day from the sweat streaks running down his face and the grime covering most ofhisbody.
“Yes ma’am.” Ryder shoved away from the table and washed up in the kitchen sink after myfather.
“Where’s Collin?” Crickett asked. We all knew he was working at the bar that night, but I just assumed she was trying to get the guystalking.
“He’s going to learn how to close up tonight. Holt’s there with him now,” Dad responded, piling a heaping helping of mashed potatoes onto hisplate.
The tension between them could be cut with a knife. Crickett was the strongest woman I knew. She never took shit from my old man or any of the club members, but I had never seen her this cold toward my father. Something was seriously up and I just couldn’t put my fingeronit.
We sat eating in silence for a few minutes, and I couldn’t take it. Thunder boomed again as rain started pelting thewindows.
“Can you believe all of this rain and crazy ass weather we have been getting?” Crickett glanced around while everyone had their heads down, noshing away at theirmales.
“Crazy doesn’t even describe it.” I responded. Dad and Ryder continued to just shove bite after bite into their mouths. I was starting to antsy. Their silence was driving me upawall.
“I heard that the old farmhouse just up the road was put on the market this week.” I was desperately grasping at straws to distract from the awkwardnessIfelt.
Ryder glanced up at me from his plate. “We can go look at it in the morning ifyou’dlike.”
My father stiffened up as he forcefully coughed alittle.
“What?” I snapped at him. “You know we’re not going to live hereforever.”
