Ella comes to me with a smile. “I was going to think of something with my father, but I knew it needed to be the club. That doesn’t mean I don’t have a menu item dedicated to him though, and I also have one for Stacey. This is my way to remember them,” I say. She lets the tears fall from her eyes and gives me a tight hug. I can’t help but laugh and squeeze her just as hard back.
“It’s beautiful. Thank you,” she whispers before heading inside.
I spend quite a while hugging and getting congratulated by everyone.
The day is spent with my family. It didn’t take long before we ran out of everything. Who knew that bikers could eat that much?
Trigger ‘Colton’
I’m so fucking proud of my baby.
This bakery is awesome and completely her.
She used light and dark colors and worked around the club theme.
I would never have guessed that she would dedicate this place to the Snakes. Everyone looks at her in awe.
She didn’t have to put our name on it, but damn if she didn’t make a lot of people happy.
She said it was a test run so no one was paying, but that doesn’t stop the tip jar from overflowing. The workers she hired looked scared at first, but then they got comfortable once they came to realize that everyone was friendly.
We get that a lot. Because we’re bikers, people think that we are rough or mean, but that’s not really how we are. If you fuck with us or something related to the club then we become mean mother fuckers, but we won’t fucking bother you otherwise.
I saw Torch in the crowd, but he had just grabbed a coffee and brownie and took off.
I’m glad he came and showed his support for Sophie. I don’t know where he’s staying now because it’s not at the club, but I do know that he’s spent a lot of time drunk. I was surprised today to see him mostly sober. I would have to guess that he was just waking up from last night’s hang over and went back to wherever he is living.
I shake my head at my brother, but I know that it’s going to take time to heal, and a damn special person to break him out of his depression. Things like that don’t happen overnight.
I watch Sophie walk around the place with a look of pride on her face when she sees that everything has sold out. I see happy tears run down her cheeks. The smile on her face is blinding.
I can’t help but think how amazing this woman is considering everything that she has been through and where she came from.
I think about how months ago I was hooking up with random women and not thinking about anyone else besides me and my club. Sophie changed that.
Somehow, through everything, she had come to mean so much to me. I can’t imagine my life without her.
There was a chance we could have lost each other, but luckily for us we have survived it all.
I look in the mirror every morning heavy with loss. Sometimes I can’t believe that Stacey is gone and that there was nothing I could do to save her. It feels like this deep ache that won’t go away.
I shake my head thinking about Stacey. I need to concentrate on Sophie, here and now. There will be enough time to drown in my guilt when my woman isn’t high on the fact that her bakery is doing amazingly well.
When the night is over and I help clean up, we head home. Sophie is on the back of my bike with exhaustion in her eyes but a smile on her face because she can’t believe that she actually did it.
Sophie falls asleep in my arms after I make love to her, but my thoughts won’t stop running. I get up out of the bed without waking Sophie. I’d be surprised if anything woke her up tonight.
I put on a pair of sweats and head to the backyard to get some fresh air hoping to clear my thoughts.
Sitting on the steps of the back porch, I look out into the darkness.
I can hear the sounds of nature. When a lone tear slides down my cheek thinking about how I couldn’t save a brother’s woman, I don’t bother to wipe it away.
There are moments like this that happen more than I care to admit.
I sit here and think about my woman and how her coming here changed my life, but it also unfortunately changed Torch and Stacey’s lives too.
If I was the one burying my woman, I wouldn’t know how to function, let alone breathe, without her.
I hear a bike in the distance before I see it pull up and I walk around the house towards the light it gives off.
What I don’t expect is to see my brother Torch.
I stop in my tracks when he turns off his bike but makes no move to get up.
“Brother,” I say, but he holds his hand up, so I stay silent.
“It hurts, brother,” he blows out a breath and moves to light a smoke. Smoking is something he never did before, but my brother is changing, and I don’t think that there is anything I can do to stop it.
“I’m sorry.” He shakes his head.
“I know you’re sorry, brother. It’s not your fault. It’s not Sophie’s fault. It is fucking tragic what happened to my woman. I honestly don’t know how I can come back from this, or even if I want to come back from this. I loved her something fierce. I didn’t think that love
