“I love you, too.”
“Take care of yourself.”
I nod my head again, not wanting the tears to come out but also not being able to stop them. I want to say you too because it’s such a natural thing to say, but that’s dumb because regardless of it doesn’t matter if he does or not… the outcome will still be the same.
“Shh,” He pulls me into him again, and I bury my head into his chest. I can hear him swallow, as his heart pounds, and feel his chest vibrate as mine is too and I don’t need to look up to tell that he’s crying. That this is much harder than anything else could possibly be. “I want you to know.” His chest rumbles again as I slowly pull back and look up at him. I can see the tears in his eyes as he sighs and caresses my face. “You made the last few years of my life the best. You brought so much happiness to it, and there aren’t words to express how much you mean to me.” The tears are coming faster now.
That was the last time that I actually saw Oz. What I told Ella was true. I had taken Linc to meet him, but I had gotten there too late. I sat, watching from across the street until the van pulled away. There was no need for an ambulance. No lights. No sirens. Because the body inside was already dead…
I went to his funeral, trying to keep my distance from Ella the whole time. And managed to sneak out before anyone saw me. I cried the entire way home. I fell further into the depression that I was in since I had Linc, only this time there wasn’t anything to keep me out of it.
I sunk…
I was drowning… really I’m still drowning.
But at least now, I have someone that I’m drowning with. Someone who will tread the water with me until we both can’t put forth the effort any longer. Someone who will encourage me and make me push past all of the shit as much as we can.
Someone who is worthy of me.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
RO
It’s the first race that we’ve had here in years. I look around smiling at the warehouse full of people again. Most have come up and expressed how excited they were.
We ran the marketing as I always had, so people knew it was me. Apparently, J tried to run some but didn’t know what the fuck he was doing.
I see her walk in, somehow, I always know when she enters a room, it’s like my soul is finally home. I’m only slightly surprised when I see Ella walking with her. They’re talking and smiling. I’m almost surprised how quickly that she has gotten over her anger. I still see the way that she glances at her from time to time, and I know that she’s still weary of her, but they’ve known each other for so long that they tend to fall into a normalcy.
Her eyes raise in my direction, as if she can feel me watching herm and a smile spreads onto her face. They come walking over to me as some of my brothers walk in and shout over to me as well. Sadie moves over to me as she reaches her arms up and kisses me. There are some catcalls from the stands, I know that the majority of the people here have been coming for years. They know me, and the ones who don’t, know of me. And I’m positive that they’ve never seen me like this with a woman before.
A roar of two engines come into the warehouse and I don’t need to look over to know who it is as I hear the men get excited.
Breaking away from Sadie I smirk down and whisper. “Watch this.” I nod towards where they have the cars parked and Caroline and Billie both get out. She hears the whispers start, and she grabs ahold of my arm, and I watch as the smile spreads on her face as she tries to conceal her laughter. Ella watches too with the same excited eyes.
Leaning over, Ella is trying to maintain a straight face as she whispers. “Oh my God, look at Ash and Khan. They’re about to implode.” It actually makes me laugh as well. Looking over at the men, seeing their fists clenching from here.
“You should have saw them the first time. I thought they were going to, actually.” Ella starts laughing again as I pull Sadie into my side. “How was the drive?”
“It was fine. Mom says hello.”
“Shucks,” I joke with her. “Seems like your mom’s starting to like me.”
“Well, the excessive phone calls actually helped.”
“I had a feeling that they would.” I lean in and kiss her again.
“It’s weird, for the first time in my life it feels like my parents, or at least my mother and I have a decent relationship.” I pull her in, just concerned now with her getting hurt by her parents again. But Sadie’s a fucking survivor, and regardless she’ll be okay. And regardless of what happens I’ll be here to help her through whatever she needs.
“I would normally tell you to sit with the club, but they’re all running around here. Whoever finishes I’ll have them come over and sit with you. Why don’t you go sit with Ella.” She pouts causing me to laugh. “Better put that lip back before I take you upstairs and have a repeat.”
“Better yet, why don’t we go and finish what we started downstairs.” She gives me an evil smile as I just shake my head.
“Woman.” I warn her, pointing at her before she laughs out loud. Although, I still see the images of her with her legs wrapped around me as she’s pressed into the wall.
“Great,” I hear Caroline say at my side. “You and Ash have been hanging out a lot. He’s rubbing off on you.” She laughs out before I just shake my head.
“Heya, Red.” Ash calls as he jogs up next to us and I just shake my head at Sadie as Caroline squeals, like they didn’t just fucking see one another a couple hours ago.
