Kendra looks about ready to maul Snake, and Violet carefully steps between the two of them and puts a calming hand on her best friend’s arm.
“I think maybe we’ll be taking a little break from movie nights for a while.”
Kendra nods. “I think that’s a good idea.”
“But mom!” Josie wails. “We were going to watch Snake’s favorite movie tonight.”
“And what movie is that? Some kind of bloody zombie movie? Or one with serial killers?”
Snake lowers his voice and leans in. “Um, yeah, actually it’s Up.”
“Up? Seriously?” Kendra says.
“That’s a great movie,” Blaze chimes in. “One of my favorites, too.”
“Wait, really?” Violet says. “Are you pranking us right now?”
“That montage with Carl and Ellie? Where you see their love over the years? No man or woman can watch that without crying,” Mack says. “I watched it with Sofia and Matty a couple weeks ago. It’s probably the fourth or fifth time I’ve seen it and it still gets me every time.”
“Amen, brother,” Blaze says.
“You are all serious about this?” Kendra says, staring around at all of us like we’re lunatics for enjoying one of the most perfect movies of the last few decades.
“We are,” I say.
“You too, Crash?” Violet says. “Does it make you cry, also?”
“It does. And if it doesn’t get you, well, there just might be something wrong with you. There’re a few occasions in a man’s life where it’s OK to cry — at the funeral of a loved one, or over the loss of a good dog, and during the montage scene in Up are the main ones. That scene in Rudy is another.”
“Oh, when that hobbit guy gets carried around the field?” Blaze says.
“That’s the one,” I say. “Just so damn inspirational. Gives me chills.”
“This is just too weird,” Kendra says, throwing up her hands. “A bunch of bikers getting teary-eyed over an animated movie?”
“We’re human beings, Kendra. Not heartless monsters,” Snake says.
“Crash, as much as I love to stand around here hearing about how you and your friends love to cry at movies, we have to get on the road if we’re going to make it to Lone Mesa by tonight,” Violet says.
“Sure thing, babe.”
Violet’s in the truck beside me — because I’m still too messed up to ride — when Josie comes up to her door and bangs on the window like a maniac.
“Aunt Vi, wait,” she says.
“What is it, Speed Demon?” She says. She’s even taken up Josie’s nickname. In fact, lately, the only person who still consistently calls Josie by her real name is her mom, Kendra. And even she slips up from time to time.
“We have a present for you.”
“What’s that?”
“Wait here,” she exclaims. Then, quick as her nickname, she runs off to her mom’s car and comes back a moment later with a box tied up tight with a ribbon. She hands it to Violet through the window of the truck. “My mom found it in that van she came home in. I think Crash left it there.”
Violet opens the package, taking care to undo the ribbon — a ribbon that’s tied up in a slightly haphazard way that looks like it was done by an eight-year-old girl — and then she opens the box. There’s an audible gasp, and she looks from Josie to me in pure disbelief.
“Where did you get this?” She says, holding up the bottle of Pappy Van Winkle that she used to buy my freedom from Sheriff Cartwright.
“Stole it from the sheriff’s office. There’s no way a man like him deserves a bottle like that. Especially one that belongs to my old lady.”
Violet hands the bottle over to me and then hops out of the car, giving a bug hug first to Josie and then an even bigger hug to Kendra.
“Thank you,” she whispers.
Kendra hugs her again, even tighter. “You take care in Lone Mesa. And don’t forget about us while you’re busy fitting in with everyone. The little Speed Demon and I will be a couple weeks behind you while Josie finishes up the quarter at school. And Teddy might come, too. We’re still figuring that out.”
I watch as she and Kendra exchange a few more words that I’m too far away to hear. My woman’s got quite a family around her, and soon all three of those strong women will join my family in Lone Mesa; the feeling of satisfaction that’s in my heart right now is greater than any I’ve ever felt before and puts to shame what it was like when I would focus on nothing more than the satisfaction I got from sticking to the job. If this is what it’s like to open my heart to something more, I’m in for one hell of a ride.
After a couple more minutes and a dozen more hugs, Violet climbs into the truck beside me, with an enormous smile on her face. God damn, is she ever beautiful. Then she leans across and gives me a kiss that gets my heart pumping like crazy.
“You ready?” She says.
I start the truck and grin at her. “I’ve never been more ready. Let’s go home.”
Epilogue – Violet
Violet
“Are you ready?” He says, his arm around my shoulder. His voice is steady, but I’ve known him long enough to know when he’s nervous and, right now, Crash is more than a little nervous.
I’ve been in Lone Mesa for three weeks now, two of which were spent unpacking, settling in to Crash’s place — a surprisingly nice home in the suburb area of Lone Mesa, with a big backyard, a patio made
