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She gasped and took a step back. Yeah. I needed to rein it in. Again. Seemed to be my motto of late. “Sorry, honey. Didn’t expect your mother would make you cry. Doesn’t seem like her.”
“She didn’t. But I heard my dad in the background.” As she spoke, more tears spilled over. “He’s not going to let us be together.” Then she dissolved into more tears.
I pulled her into my arms, lifting her so I could carry her to the couch. She straddled my hips and wrapped her arms around my neck, clinging to me as I rubbed my hands up and down her back. “It’s all going to be fine. I promise you, Willa. We’ll get through this.”
“I’m so sorry, Daniel. So sorry.”
“You’ve got nothing to be sorry for. I never do anything I don’t want to do.”
“But I practically targeted you! Sure, stumbling onto you outside the clubhouse was an accident, but I came there hoping it would be you.”
“You want to know a secret?” I couldn’t believe I was about to tell her this, but she needed to hear it. “After talking with Trucker, hearing his rather vocal and violent pushback, instead of feeling relieved I wouldn’t have to take on a woman, that I’d be getting that beating I so richly deserved before I went on my merry way, I found myself pushing back just as hard as he did. Not aggressively. That ain’t the way to handle a man as big as Trucker. But I’d told him in no uncertain terms that if you’d have me, I was keeping you. Whether or not he approved.” Her eyes got wider and wider as I spoke. “And I meant every fuckin’ word, honey.”
“Daniel?” There was a becoming blush staining her cheeks and she trembled in my arms. Her eyes were wide and glassy as tears still dripped from them.
“I noticed you, Willa. At the compound. Yeah, I watched you grow up, but I noticed you as a woman. I tried to block it out, to deny I noticed because you were as off-limits as it got. But I saw you. When you fell in my lap that night, I think on some level I knew it was you. I mean, there was no way I was in a state to think rationally, but I knew you were familiar to me. I didn’t look too closely at who you were because I wanted you with every part of my fuckin’ being.”
“And now?” Her voice was soft, vulnerable.
“The only way I’m letting you get away from me is if you tell me you don’t want me. I’ll always respect your wishes, but even then, I’d be lying if I said I’d let you leave without a fight. I want you, Willa. You and this baby. So, the ball’s in your corner.”
“Oh, Daniel!” She threw her arms around my neck again, and the tears came in racking sobs into my neck.
“Don’t cry, honey. Please. I can’t stand for you to be sad.”
“I’m not,” she said, her voice muffled by my neck. “I’m just so…”
“Relieved?”
“Yes! I didn’t think you wanted a woman. You even said so. I said it before, but I don’t want you with me out of a sense of obligation.”
“I never do anything I don’t want to do. Even taking the vice presidency of Bones. Sure, Cain forced me into it, but I’d have told him to pick someone else if I really hadn’t wanted to do it. It’s a burden sometimes, and I’m still learning, but if my dad needs me to do something, then I give it a good effort. So, I might not have chosen the situation -- with you or with Bones -- but I’m all in. With both. Though, I gotta tell you. I think I’m gonna be happier with you than I am with being vice president of Bones. And I’m pretty fuckin’ happy with being vice president.”
She sat back on my lap, swiping her eyes with the sleeve of her shirt. “So, you’ll take me on? Make me your old lady?”
“Oh yeah, honey. It’ll be rough goin’ with Trucker, but I’ll prove to him and Helen that I can be what you need. We might not love each other yet, but there is a mutual respect that will grow. And to be honest?” I waited until I had her undivided attention, her gaze focused squarely on mine. “I think I’m more than halfway in love with you all ready.”
The smile she gave me was brilliant, if still a bit tearful. But I could see she believed me. What I didn’t tell her, and what I wasn’t sure I was fully prepared to admit even to myself, was that I was already way the fuck past halfway in love with her.
We stayed the night in Waynesville, talking. Making love. How the fuck had I managed to live this long without having this kind of closeness with another person? I finally got it. Spending a night fucking a club girl wasn’t nearly as satisfying as making love with my woman.
I got Kickstand to make arrangements to have Willa’s car brought back to Bones, and Willa was finishing packing up her shit when my phone rang.
I glanced at the screen and winced. Ice. My brother as well as my president.
“You calling as Cliff or Ice?” I didn’t bother with formalities. Cliff would understand.
“Both, you dumbass. What the fuck did you do to Trucker’s daughter? And don’t tell me it ain’t none of my business because, A: I’m the president of Bones MC, and B: I’m your fuckin’ brother. Right now, from the sound of it, you’re gonna need both solidly in your corner.”
“Congratulations,” I said dryly. “You’re gonna be an uncle.”
Ice chuckled. “Yeah. Good one. Tell me what’s really going on.” When I didn’t say anything his laughter died down. “You’re serious, aren’t you.” It wasn’t a question.
“You think I’d joke about that? With Trucker’s daughter? I might be an asshole, but I’m not a stupid asshole.” Yeah. The irony wasn’t lost on me.
“So actually knocking up the daughter of a man as big as Trucker is better than joking about knocking her up. Yeah. Not stupid at all, Cyclone.” If my brother’s tone of voice was any indication he was nearly as angry with me as Trucker was.
“It is what it is, brother. She’s agreed to be my old lady, so I’m not really sure what the problem is. Ain’t sayin’ we’re in love, but we’ll get there.”
