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I take her to the boutique Jimmy took me to. They seem to have a little bit of everything. Her fashion style revolves around slightly ripped jeans, knee length maxi dresses, mid-thigh length shorts, sweatpants, sweatshirts, and nothing see through when it comes to tops. She changes into a pair of black sweatpants with double stripes on each side and a T-Shirt. I’m not blind, even in sweatpants she’s breathtaking.
* * *
Itold her I was going to drop her off at the clubhouse, but she insisted she come run errands with me, which consisted of getting her an ID. Well, she probably should be present for that one. She told me how it was stolen along with her phone. She blushed when she said she last used a cell phone nine months ago. She had been with Enzo for NINE MONTHS, enduring whatever he made her do for that whole time. I don’t even want to think about what he made her do to please him. I’m sure it wasn’t pleasant for her.
“Thank you for doing all of this,” she says from the passenger seat of my new truck. I would take my bike but I don’t know if she’s ready for that yet.
“It’s not a problem,” I wave off what she says because it’s not.
* * *
The last two weeks she’s opened up a lot about her experiences and I find that I’m comfortable around her, even sharing some of my story with her.
It’s a blessing we haven’t heard from Enzo. He also hasn’t called me for an escort or to even ask how Everleigh is doing. He’s a man of his word—she’s dead to him.
We’ve gone on walks together and she never asks me about my whole past. I appreciate that to no end. I haven’t been on a walk—just a walk—with a woman in God knows how long. Since…
She knows what it’s like to lose an entire family and while she knows my family is gone, she doesn’t pry. We have a lot in common, more than I thought.
Maybe it wasn’t chance that brought us together, but fate.
* * *
Three Months Later
Outlaw
I sit at the bar and nurse a beer. Everleigh has been free for three months. She’s been looking for a job so she can move out on her own. I, however, don’t want her to leave just yet or ever. I just don’t know how to say it out loud. I have enough money for her to take some time and experience life so that she doesn’t have to work. She’s so determined that it’s crossed my mind to hire her to help Jimmy out, but I don’t think I could stand watching the guys flirt with her.
I move to the back window, nursing the same beer, looking out at the land we have behind the clubhouse. I’ve always wondered what we should do with it.
"My mother always wanted to live in a house with a farm," Everleigh suddenly says, standing next to me.
"Oh, hey. I didn’t even hear you come downstairs,” My eyes turn to the barn that sits alone and abandoned. We just haven’t found the time to do something with it. “Well, now you’re living her dream and yours.”
"Yeah, except it's not my house. She would tell me how she would sit on the balcony watching me and my siblings run around. My brother died when he was seven. I was fourteen at the time and my mom had this whole future planned in her head."
"You miss her, don't you?"
"I do, a lot." She nods and wipes a tear.
"I miss my family too. The last memory I have of them is the day they saw me off on deployment. My little brother and sister felt like celebrities, walking around base with me. They would tell everyone that would listen that their brother was a soldier. I wish I had known that would be the last time I would see them.”
"I'm so sorry for your loss."
"It's okay. They are in a better place now."
“Sometimes I think the same thing. That they’re in a better place, living it up in heaven on a farm and happy. As long as they’re not sick or depressed, I don’t know what I’m trying to say.”
"Neither my parents nor siblings were sick. Neither were my wife and daughter. They were all murdered by some assholes thinking that killing was a sort of protest. I blame myself every day for not being there for them. I sometimes think that maybe if I had gone home the night we got back from deployment, I could have saved them. It’s my fault they were murdered,” I scrub a hand down my face. “If only I hadn't joined the army and became a doctor or lawyer instead, they would still be here today."
I find myself pouring it all out like a broken dam. Everything I had suppressed over the years, piling into a heap of daunting thoughts, slowly breaks down.
"It wasn't your fault, Outlaw. You were doing what you thought was best for you. If there was something to be done about it, then you would have gone for it. Everything has a reason, you know,” she pats my arm. “Yes, we carry the pain and loss for the rest of our lives but we teach ourselves not to dwell on it. Look at you now, a known and respected MC president. Life gets better. We just have to live it one day at a time."
Her words calm my entire being. I feel as if a heavy weight has been lifted off my chest. I feel free and motivated.
"Thank you. I will keep that in mind."
