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“These days? Nothing good, I’m sure.” I press a kiss to the top of her head. “Go back to Jay. Stick with him today.”
“Sure thing.”
As she walks out the front, I head out the back door and sit beside Cas on the stump.
“The prospect just told me there’s been complete silence on the scanners for the last hour,” I inform him.
He rubs his right thumb up and down the palm of his left hand. “I’ve got this feeling something big is coming for us, but I can’t see what it is.”
“Whatever it is, we’ll be ready for it,” I assure him. Not that I should need to.
He knows this shit as much as I do, or he used to. The feeling of change returns and rolls through me, leaving nausea in its wake.
“I look around, and do you know what I see?” he asks.
“What?”
“Luck. This place is still standing after all these years, after all the shit that’s happened.”
“It’s not luck, Cas, it’s all of us. This place is still standing because we’ve fought for it, and it’s what we’ll continue to do.”
“I know that. But you’ve gotta admit, we should’ve been dead a long time ago. Luck has most certainly played a part.”
“Or maybe it just wasn’t our time yet?” I hedge.
He shakes his head. “I’ve made a decision, and my mind won’t be changed. Once the new charter is up and running, and this place is secure, I’m stepping down.”
“Fuck, Cas.”
This is it. This is the decision that will change everything.
“I can’t imagine being here and you not leading us. I’ve followed you for thirty years. Hell, before you were even president.”
“And you’ll never know what your friendship has meant to me. Fuck, Sparks, you’re family to me, but it’s time. I’ve given everything I can, and because I love this club, I know it deserves to be led by the next generation.”
“Do you think you’re failing or something?”
“Not failing… I can’t explain it.”
“Try.”
“It’s like the same need in my heart to fight Effie Rathbone, the new sheriff, rival clubs. I still want to decimate the fucking lot of them. But more and more lately, I’m edging toward my family. We both know we’re lucky to still be here, to still have our old ladies at our sides after all these years, to have children, and now grandbabies. What’s been the point of fighting for our lives if we never choose to live them? We’ve given so much, and now I need to give my family more.”
How the fuck can I argue with that? I know him as well as he knows himself. If there’s one fucker who deserves to be a family man, it’s him. Not many ghosts haunt him these days, but the ones from his childhood still linger in the shadows.
“When are you going to tell the brothers?”
“Not yet. Too much is in the air, and it’ll only make the situation worse.”
Resting my arms on my knees, I think over what he’s said, and it hurts like hell to admit, “I suppose we should enjoy watching our sons take the club forward while we still can.”
“We both know Leo will choose Jay as his VP. Us stepping down together isn’t the end. It’s a new beginning, Sparks.”
“He could choose Luca. They’ve been getting closer these past months.”
“Luca has a different path to walk.”
“Is that so?”
