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I let out a breath.
“Mr. Wilkins,” I say, “I’ve spent the last thirteen years thinking I hated your daughter. And I’ve recently come to find out that I was wrong. I ain’t making any excuses for the man I am. What you see is what you get. My choices are my own. I don’t need any man’s approval for them.
“Your daughter is the best damn woman I ever met, and I’m sorry as hell I wasted thirteen years not knowing that. But I’m gonna make suresheknows it, starting right now. And I don’t need your approval for that. All I need is hers.”
I turn on my heel. “I’ll be back to pick you up,” I say over my shoulder as I walk out the door.
Outside the hospital, I fire up my bike.
I’m gonna go get the car and bring Rory and her dad back to his house.
And then, I’ve got some people I need to see.
25
RORY
After all these years, I can’t believe I finally told Brody the truth.
I just didn’t have the energy to make up a story, too drained and exhausted from lack of sleep to lie to him anymore when he asked me.
Still, in a way it was a relief to finally just get it out. Now there are no more secrets between us.
I thought maybe he would hate me all over again, or blame me. Or worst of all, I was afraid he wouldn’t believe me. But seemed like none of that happened.
I’m still in a daze as we get Dad discharged. Brody comes with a car to drive us home. He doesn’t talk much on the ride. At the house, he pulls up in the circular driveway right at the front door, and makes sure we get inside okay.
Then, he drives away.
Not long after I get Dad situated in his room, Laney calls and says she’s working on setting up a home health nurse for him. I’m incredibly grateful to her, and say so.
“It’s what we do, girl. When you’re part of the MC life, you’re family.”
The thought of being in a family that takes care of each other like that sounds so, so nice. I find myself hoping against hope that someday I’ll have something like it.
I call in to work next, and tell Tonette what happened. I explain that Dad and I won’t be in for the rest of the week, and ask her to let Joshua know.
The next few days are kind of a blur. I barely leave the house. The home health nurse comes in and gets himself set up and organized, which includes ordering a hospital-type bed. We set it up in Dad’s office on the first floor. Dad complains a little about the changes, but I can tell he doesn’t really have the energy to protest them.
Rogue doesn’t stop by, or call.
I don’t know what to make of it. I guess he didn’t take my revelations about Thorpe as well as I thought he did. When Ironwood Car and Truck Repair calls about my car, it’s not Rogue on the line, but Mal.
“Sorry to tell ya, darlin’, but we’re having some trouble gettin’ a replacement windshield for ya. We’re callin’ around to salvage yards at this point. It’ll be a few more days, maybe a week.”
“That’s okay,” I tell him, my heart sinking. “I can drive my dad’s car until it’s repaired. How much do you think it’s going to cost to fix everything?”
“Oh, that depends on whether we can get the parts used for you. Don’t you worry about it right now. It ain’t gonna break you, I promise.”
Later that day,I decide there’s a call I need to make. One I should have done weeks ago.
“Hello, Mom?”
My mother is overjoyedto hear from me. We’ve mostly just been exchanging texts since I got to Ironwood. I’ve responded to her queries about how work has been going with vague platitudes, saying it’s fine but not particularly interesting.
But now, it’s time for me to face up to what I’ve done, come clean with the truth.
“How are you, Rory? How’s work?”
