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Twenty minutes later, I was sitting down at a café with Mia.
After giving our orders to the server, Mia stole a hand across Scarlett’s back. She looked down at her sleeping daughter, a dreamy smile flitting across her face.
The café was mostly empty, but we were in the corner of the restaurant, away from most ears.
“I’m not from the biker world,” she began. “I didn’t grow up in it. I didn’t understand it, and when Colt and I first got together, we bumped heads a lot. He wanted to take care of me the biker way, which doesn’t always jive with the outside world.”
“It makes me uncomfortable,” I admitted. “The way Slash just…spends money. Tells me how to spend his money. How things are just…done because of the situation we’re in.”
“I know. I didn’t like the imbalance I felt in my relationship with Colt, either. It was hard to get used to. I’d been pulling my own weight and working and supporting myself for years. And then there was this guy, swooping in with his money and protection, and I wasn’t sure how to handle it.”
“What made you okay with all of it?”
“He didn’t give me much of a choice.” She grinned. “I had to trust him. I had to trust that him caring for me financially was not the same as him clipping my wings, you know?”
I let out a sigh. “Yes, that. That’s exactly what I’ve been feeling without being able to put it into words.”
“I know it’s a lot. I know it’s overwhelming, and you’re expecting a baby. Your whole life has changed in the blink of an eye, so give yourself some grace to discover where your lines are. But I think you’ll find that as time goes by and you trust Slash more and more, things that used to bother you just won’t anymore.”
“I let him off the hook, you know? When I found I was pregnant.”
“Off the hook how?”
“I wasn’t going to tell him,” I said slowly.
“You weren’t.”
She said it as a statement, not a question.
“I wasn’t.” I shrugged. “We’d only spent one night together, and he said he was a rolling stone. That he didn’t get tied down. Besides…”
“The biker thing. Doesn’t scream suburb stability. Yeah, I get that. What made you change your mind?”
“He came back to town.” I smiled slightly at her. “And he—ah...”
The server returned with our drinks. I’d ordered chamomile tea, needing something to soothe me after the running around of the day.
“He what?”
“Told me one night wasn’t enough.” My cheeks bloomed with heat. “And when I told him my life was complicated and I didn’t have time to be some guy’s piece of ass every time he happened to be riding through town, the bag I was carrying ripped open and out spilled all the baby books I’d just bought.”
She leaned back in her seat. “He didn’t tell us any of this.”
“Whatdidhe tell you?” I asked.
Mia bit her lip. “He went to Colt. Privately. He said he would be sticking around for a while because of you and the baby, and he asked if there was a permanent role in the club for him. Colt said yes. We lost a brother a while back. A seasoned brother.” Her eyes dimmed. “Duke and Savage are wonderful, but they’re still young, you know? South Paw and Crow will become patched in soon, but it was beneficial for both the club and for Slash that he wanted to stick around. Beneficial for you too, it seems.”
“This relationship is going at warp speed,” I muttered. “And yet…”
“It feels right. Doesn’t it?”
I nodded slowly.
“When they know they know. And Colt knew I was the one for him before I did. It all worked out in the end.” She brushed a hand against Scarlett’s head. “It’ll work out for you too. You just have to give it some time.”
We chatted about other things; her adopted son who was a science whiz, how I was enjoying the house and whether I had thought about the nursery yet.
When we said our goodbyes in the parking lot, she said, “We have an Old Ladies group text. Can I put you on it?”
