I lean in until my forehead touches hers. “Those parts aren’t separate from you. They’re not something I get to cut around. I love all of you or I don’t love you right.”
Her breath breaks.
My own isn’t much better.
“I do,” I tell her, because she deserves the words. She deserves every word I’ve been too scared or too stupid to say. “I love you, Ami. I’m in love with you. So fucking in love with you I don’t know what to do with it half the time.”
Her hands come up and close around my wrists, holding me there. “I love you too.”
For a second, I let myself have it.
Just that.
Her hands on me. Her breath against my mouth. Those words between us. No club. No past. No monster waiting in the dark. Just Ami and me and something fragile we’re both choosing not to crush.
Then I pull back enough to look at the papers.
“Give me the pen,” I say.
Epilogue
Gage
One Year Later…
“Once upon a time, there was a man. He had a wife. He had a beautiful wife that he fell in love with, though at the time, he didn’t know the meaning of the word. This woman loved him back, though she didn’t know the meaning of it either. She thought she was doing what was best for him when she asked for a divorce.”
I pause. No one tries to fill the silence. Instead they wait for me to continue.
The clubhouse is packed wall to wall. Steel Riders—both Helena originals and the Jacksonville chapter—family and friends. Kids are tearing around somewhere in the back despite repeated threats from their parents.
I glance to my left at Ami. She’s wearing a simple white dress that hugs every curve I know by heart. Her hair spills over her shoulders in soft waves, and the diamond on her finger catches the light every time she moves her hand.
My wife.
Again.
This time for keeps.
Steel sits across from me, his expression unreadable. Our first wedding was fake, a means to an alliance between The Riders and Viking. Steel did his best with finding suitablepartners for Viking’s daughters, but I know he still feels bad for what went down between me and Ami. I nod to him. If it wasn’t for him setting up me and Ami, then we wouldn’t be here now.
The entire damn club is staring at me waiting to see what I’m going to say. I’d rather fight a hundred men than give a fucking speech. I clear my throat and continue. “Now, most people would probably say that’s where the story gets complicated.”
A few chuckles ripple through the room.
“They’d be right,” I admit.
More laughter follows, rolling through the clubhouse. Somebody whistles from the back. I don’t even have to look to know it’s probably Edge.
“The problem was that neither one of them knew what the hell they were doing. The man thought he was helping by staying away. The woman thought she was helping by leaving. Turns out they were both idiots.”
“Once an idiot, always an idiot,” Wing says with a wink as he raises his beer bottle to me. Then he turns to Ami. “Not my sister-in-law, though. She’s the brains of the team.”
That gets more laughs. I let the noise settle naturally before lifting my beer.
“Anyway, I don’t have much else to say. I just wanted to thank everyone for coming. Especially the people who put up with our bullshit while we figured our lives out,” I stop then, but everyone’s silent. I guess they really think I’m going to do some fucking Oscar winner’s monologue. “That’s it,” I mutter. “Speech over.”
The clubhouse explodes.
