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Perfect answer for this damaged girl.
I lifted my chin. “Everlasting don’t mean I don’t want a ring.”
As laughter boomed around Thunder, a smirk grew on his mischievous lips. “I’ll get you a ring, babe.”
I suppose an unexpected proposal—in the middle of an FBI investigation—with deadly bikers present—after your brothers abandon you—wasn’t exactly romantic but, it was magnificent to me. It was the picture-perfect union beginning that would have to withstand all the challenges we would face.
Leaving Art and Roamer behind, I took off running down the first flight of stairs. Once to the middle landing, I jumped up with the strength I used when trying to mount Sable and landed with skill on the railing. Then I leaped, my boots shooting me over the next row of stairs so that I fell … right into Thunder’s waiting arms.
TWELVE
EXHAUSTION AND WALLS
Thunder
It was mind-blowing to be sitting at a table in Rya’s kitchen, her getting Diesel whatever he asked for while he stirred a pot of homemade spaghetti and flipped fried chicken. “Baby girl,” he smiled at her. “I need more butter.”
Dio had been the last man to cook for me.
Bopping around the kitchen as if there weren’t more guns nearby than utensils to eat with, Rya giggled, “You are from the south, Mr. Diesel.” She pronounced Diesel Dee-sul.
“And proud of it!” he proclaimed.
At the time, I didn’t comprehend why she was ecstatic to be in a kitchen being put to use, but Diesel did. That southern man knew that this southern girl had lost her mama early and probably missed cooking with her.
She hopped up on the counter for a seat. “What else ya good at cookin’ up?”
“Overgrown babies.” He winked then gestured a dripping wooden spoon around the full kitchen and eat-in area.
There were lots of male grumbles, but he was right. The kitchen was bursting with men, young and old, who counted on him. Including me.
Ryannon’s eyes landed on Artist first. Maybe it was because I was finding a brother while she was losing five of them. Then she peered at Maverick, who had lost his father by a drunk driver and then had literally ‘fought’ to be alive today. She gazed at Tucker, who had his own tragic past, losing a best friend to suicide after losing his mama to cancer. As for the older men in the room, they wore scars from pasts that were as sad as hers.
Exhaling, she pushed her precious little shoulders back. With a wide smile on her face, she said, “Mr. Dee-sul, I’d like to meet more of ya family.”
Making her giggle as she swatted him away, he tapped the wet spoon to her button nose. “Good thing, ’cause I’m moving you in with them.”
My brows rose. Huh?
As if he heard my unspoken question, Diesel told Rya, “I have a whole bunch of property Sable would love.”
Inhaling an emotion I didn’t recognize, Rya’s lips made an O shape as her golden eyes widened with alarm.
“Yep.” Diesel spoke to her with a gentleness I was sure none of the men in the room ever received. “And a stable’s being built. Think she would like Georgia?”
Rya’s mouth hung open as she stared at the floor, like she was searching for something. “She’s been all over the country, but I don’t know if she’s eve’ lived anywhere but here.”
Looking thoughtful, he nodded. “Yeah, I guess that could be scary for her, to call somewhere else home for a while.” Then he shrugged, saying, “Then again, sometimes new walls—I mean stalls—can help a lost horse realize that what’s in her heart is truly her home.” That was when I understood what he was doing.
My smart girl did, too. Rya’s bottom lip began to tremble, but she held the tears back. Side-eyeing him, she asked, “And if her heart is broken, Mr. Dee-sul?” She gnawed on her bottom lip. “Can she still find a home there?”
Diesel struggled through a swallow then assured her, “Cutting ties for a while can free any heart of loss and pain.”
She drew a deep breath through tiny nostrils then looked at me. “Thunda’, would ya like to cut ties from here for a lit’l bit?” Her accent was in full swing, as if her past was trying to hold her back.
Until this evening, I hadn’t realized how stressful watching over Rya had been. Roamer and Chubs were passed out on couches on the other side of the house even though they had sworn they’d be up in time to eat. I was barely moving in my chair, my elbows propped on the table the only thing holding me up. It felt like the only reason the walls hadn’t caved in on me and my exhaustion were my wide shoulders, propping us up.
Humbled, I told Rya, “I think it would be a really good idea, baby.” Then I told Diesel, “I won’t leave my boys—”
