“Dammit Crickett, I was going to fucking tell them in the morning.” My dad threw his hands in the air before playfully shovinghiswife.
She bounced a few times with eagerness. “I just can’t contain myexcitement!”
“Well, don’t keep us waiting.” Ryder handed me a beer before opening one forhimself.
My dad dug keys out of his pocket that I didn’t recognize and threw them over to me. “Think of it as a belated wedding present,” he said as a triumphant smile spread all the way to hislighteyes.
I stared down at them,confused.
“I just bought you the damn farmhouse. That’s what we just wentanddid.”
I froze. My father was a generous man, but I never thought I would see the day he would give me the blessing to not live underhisroof.
“What the hell? Dad, you didn’t have to do that.” I hugged both Crickett and my father as tears started to roll down mycheeks.
“I’ve had the deal in the works for a few days, and I got the call that it all was final right before I left the garage today.” His chest was puffed out with elated pride as he watched me practically jumpforjoy.
“But you just sat here and yelled at us about even thinking about moving out.” I felt like this was all too good to be true and way out of my father’scharacter.
“I had to put on some type of a show or I would have fucking spilled the beans too early.” My dad laughed a little. “I had you really going for a bit,didn’tI?”
Ryder ran his hand over his face. “You definitely had megoing.”
“Can we go see it?” I pleaded, but Ryder and my father both shot me downinstantly.
Crickett got up and patted my shoulder. “We’ll go check it out first thing in the morning.” She cooed to me in a sweet voice then turned to Ryder and my dad, and her tone switched to almost threatening as she spoke to them. “Is everyone happy with that?” She glared at both of the men as they nodded. “Perfect. I’m offtobed.”
My dad jumped up. “That’s my cue.Nightkids.”
Chapter3
Ryder
“Holy fuck.”Raine’s excitement laced her words while staring down at the keys still clutched in her hands. “Did this really justhappen?”
I pulled my gorgeous wife into my arms, kissing the top of her head. “You thought the world was ending and here they were just trying to not spoil thesurprise.”
I could feel her body relax as the stress she had built up melted away. “You were right. I’m sorry foroverreacting.”
“Babe, if I couldn’t handle your overreactions, I wouldn’t have put that damn ring on your finger,” I whispered intoherear.
The relief I felt in that moment was more than Raine even knew. The shitty thing was that I was keeping a secret from her. We were in danger—wewerealmost on lockdown, but I couldn’t tell her. I hated keeping things from Raine, but it was for the good of the club and for her. Crickett was privy to minor details, but even our queen was in the dark; that was how bad it was getting. We were doing our best to handle everything, but I didn’t know if it was going to be enough. Standing there in the kitchen with Raine, I didn’t want to think about any of that—not about the fact that one of our gun shipments had gone missing, or that Bear was on his way up from Atlanta with reinforcements for us, or that the Sinners were making our lives hellagain.
“Come on.” There was no way that I was going to be able to wait until the morning. Grabbing the keys out of her hand, I pulled Raine out the back door, not even giving her a chance to put on shoes. She followed without question or protest and climbed into the front seat of my restored Ford 100. I loved how Raine could practically read my mind. She cuddled up to my side on the bench seat of my truck as I drove us to ournewhome.
The old wooden steps that led up to the front porch creaked under us as we ran up hand in hand, trying to evade the rain. The look of excitement that lit up Raine’s face was breathtaking; I never wanted that carefree smile to ever leaveherlips.
“Will you do the honor?” I asked, holding the keys out for hertotake.
“With pleasure.” The lock turned andclicked.
We walked into the dark foyer. I tried the light switch, but nothing. “I guess we’ll have to call the power company in themorning.”
Raine pulled me to the staircase in front of us, leaving the front door wide open. She took a seat and I sat down on the step behind her. “This is perfect.” Her sweet voice echoed through the bare house as we both tookitin.
I stared out the front door with Raine’s head leaning back on my chest. Lightning coursed through the dark clouds and thunder shook the old home’srafters.
“This is the first step in the rest of our lives,” she stated. “This is where we will see our kids take their first steps, right over there in the living room.” She pointed into the darkened room nexttous.
