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Ghost and I have spent time with a computer while hanging out with Autumn. We act as if we can’t figure out what to get to furnish the house and she steps in to help us. Honestly, it was the only way we knew she’d give us any input into what she likes or would want in her home. That’s what we went into this thinking—making a home for our family where we would fill with memories and love. I doubt she hasn’t caught on to what we’re doing, but it’s been fun to pick out furniture and other shit with her. We literally bought everything for the house online and had it delivered to us. Despite the threat against Autumn being gone, Ghost and I don’t want her out a lot. Autumn isn’t comfortable being too far from the clubhouse for any length of time and we don’t push her. I don’t think that’s going to change until we get the final sentence for Nolan and her mother and know for sure they’ve made it to the prison.
Autumn has gone back to work. She loves being at the garage and working with the guys. They spend more time in the office when the shop is slow. That doesn’t happen often these days since the custom build has started and there’s so much work that goes into those. I’ve been spending most of my time working at the garage because I know they need the extra hands to work on the other vehicles while keeping to the schedule for the custom build. Thankfully everything can be done here and we don’t have to send out for anything to be done and then sent back to us. We tried that before and it didn’t work out so good for us. The company not only didn’t do as asked, but the parts were damaged, things were even missing when we got it all back. So, Venom spent the money and had the guys trained so we can do everything on our own.
“Guys, where are we going?” Autumn asks as Ghost helps her from the bed and I hold out a jacket for her to put on.
“It’s a surprise,” I tell her, a smile on my face because Autumn can’t stand surprises.
“Nope. I’ll stay right here if that’s what you’re saying,” she returns, her stubbornness coming out in full force right now.
“Okay. We’re goin’ to the house. Things have changed since the last time you saw it and we thought you’d like to take a look. And maybe have a conversation about stayin’ there instead of here at the clubhouse. It would be good to be in our own home when the baby’s born. In the meantime, we can get everythin’ ready and get into a routine there,” Ghost tells her as we leave her room with her hands held in ours.
“Are you sure we’re ready to move in together?” she asks before taking a few seconds to think about what she just said.
“Aren’t we kind of already livin’ together, baby? Ghost and I don’t leave your room for much these days. Most of our clothes have even been moved in there,” I says, laughter filling my voice.
“Yeah, I just thought of that. If you two think you’re ready, then I say we take the leap and try to figure it out. If any of us change our minds, I will start staying at the clubhouse again,” she says, always trying to be practical and think things through completely before making a decision.
Though she’s also been trying to be more sporadic and adventurous at the same time. I think spending time with the other ol’ ladies over the last month has truly helped her. She’s let them in and shared her story with them. Autumn doesn’t hide in her room any longer. She wants to be out in the common room with everyone. I think she’s found that they’re all really great people now that they aren’t holding back and keeping themselves from truly welcoming her into our family. Autumn actually has a lot in common with most of the ol’ ladies and it’s amazing watching her blossom and open up as much as she has been lately.
Walking through the common room, we lead Autumn out the main door and head for Ghost’s truck. With her being pregnant, neither one of us is putting her on the back of our bike. I don’t care if the trip is five fucking feet, we’re not risking her safety or the safety of our baby. One second is all it takes for something to happen and it’s not worth the risk. There’s no reason we can’t take a truck or SUV until the baby’s born. We’ll have to get used to it for then anyway. It's not like we can strap a baby to our bike and take off down the road. There will be plenty of time to get Autumn out on our bikes for rides.
Ghost drives us up to the house as soon as we’re all loaded up in his truck. Pulling into the driveway, he parks close to the front porch. We’ve got a wraparound porch on our house and rocking chairs already sit waiting for us to use them. Autumn told us once before she’d love to be able to sit in a rocking chair on her front porch after a long day and just let the peace of the day wash over her while looking at the clouds and nature. So, we made it happen.
I help Autumn out of the truck as Ghost gets out and meets us at the front. We lead our girl up the steps and hand her the key to unlock the door. If the guys and ol’ ladies hadn’t helped us, none of the house would be ready yet. We all worked together and put in some long fucking nights as everything was delivered to make our home ready for us. Yesterday, the ol’ ladies put the final touches on and went to get groceries to fill the kitchen. We found a list Autumn had tucked away in her bag of all the groceries she would want to have when she got her own place.
Yes, we did have plenty of arguments over her getting her own place away from the clubhouse. She didn’t want to be a burden at the clubhouse and wanted to get out on her own. It literally took everyone in the club to inform her that she wasn’t a burden and more than pulled her weight by cooking and cleaning even though we told her she didn’t have to. Vanessa even went off on the club girls for sitting on their asses and watching a pregnant woman clean and cook while they did nothing but sit on their lazy asses and wait to be fucked or suck one of the guys off. She put them all on notice and made sure they’re aware that this is their last chance. If she has to speak to them again, they’ll all be out and the guys can find somewhere else to get laid or new girls will be brought in. Ones who aren’t lazy and will pull their fucking weight.
Autumn unlocks the door and steps inside the house. The downstairs is almost completely an open floor plan. From the front door, you can see the living room, kitchen, dining room, and the halls leading off to either side of the house. There’s a set of stairs leading to the second floor on our right and a second set of stairs leading to the finished basement down the hall on the left. Autumn walks through every room and runs her hand over the furniture we picked out together. She cries when she sees the fully stocked kitchen that’s just waiting for her to use. I’m not gonna lie and say I can cook, because I can’t. I can use the grill as good as anyone, but I can’t cook a meal to save my fucking life. Ghost can make simple things but not too much. We had the kitchen stocked with what we knew Autumn would need to be happy and cook and bake as much as she wanted.
Once she’s gone through every room downstairs which consists of the office, two bathrooms, a large laundry room, three guest rooms, and the finished basement, we lead Autumn upstairs so she can see the rooms up there. We have a bathroom in the hallway between two bedrooms on the left side of the hall. To the right there’s two more bedrooms each with their own bathroom. All the bedrooms have a walk-in closet. Our room is at the end of the hall. Autumn finally makes her way there after looking in every room except for the nursery. We want to show her that last.
There’s a large bed taking up the back wall of our room. It’s big enough to fit all of us. There’s a massive walk-in closet and an ensuite. We don’t have to leave our room for much of anything. There’s a bassinet set up in the corner of our room already for when the baby first comes home. We even set up a reading corner for Autumn. After learning about her love of reading, we wanted her to have a space she could curl up in and get lost in the books she loves so much. Our room is painted all white with the exception of the wall the bed sits against. That wall is a dark gray and goes perfectly against the black and red bedding set that currently covers our bed.
“This is the room we’ll eventually share. For now, it will be yours and only yours,” I tell Autumn as she runs her hand down the comforter on the bed. “Ghost and I will be stayin’ in the other rooms up here so we’re still close enough to hear you if somethin’ happens, but aren’t in the same bedroom if you’re not ready for that. As we’ve been sayin’ over the last month, this is all goin’ at your pace and nothin’ will happen before you’re ready.”
“Neither one of you have to stay in different rooms. We’ve been sharing a room at the clubhouse and made it work. I don’t see why we can’t do that here. You’ve all put so much work into everything here and it would be silly to stay in separate rooms at this point,” she says, looking between Ghost and me.
“If that’s what you want. You can always change your mind, Autumn,” Ghost speaks up as we lead her from our room and toward the nursery.
Autumn opens the door and steps in the bedroom closest to ours. The second her eyes start to take in everything, I see tears start rolling down her cheeks. We painted the walls a soft yellow with white trim. There are framed photos filling the walls. Most of them are of the three of us but we’ve also included my parents, Ghost’s parents, our family members, and Tank, Maddie, and their kids. There’s a framed photo of the club’s colors as well. We’ve got one of the first ultrasound pictures in a frame sitting on the dresser along with various animals placed all over the room. Autumn wants a jungle theme because it will work for a boy or girl, so that’s what we went with.
There’s a crib sitting on the back wall of the room that’s completely built with the mattress resting inside. The sheet and blanket are in the crib as well. We’ve got a softer blanket resting over the rail of the crib and a mobile hanging in the corner. Next to the crib beneath one of the windows is a rocking chair for when we’re in here feeding our little one. On the opposite wall, we’ve got a dresser and changing table all set up and ready. The only thing we need to add is all the stuff a baby needs. The closet is also waiting to be filled with the little clothes and there’s a toy box sitting in the bottom. All the furniture came from Pops.
“This is all so beautiful,” Autumn says as she gently runs her hand along the railing of the crib. “You guys did this?”
“We all did. Everyone in the club has worked night and day puttin’ the house together for us and we all worked in here to make it ready for the baby to come home. I know we’ve still got more than enough time, but we wanted it ready for you and the baby,” I tell her as she sits down in the rocking chair.
Ghost and I give her space so she can take everything in. After sitting in the rocking chair for a minute and looking around the room, Autumn gets up and makes her way over to the pictures. She takes a minute to look at each one. When she comes to one from the bay the day we claimed her, the tears start all over again. Someone got a picture of the three of us on the dance floor. I’m behind Autumn and Ghost is in front of her. She’s leaning back against me while staring up at Ghost. Without any of us saying the words, you can see the love we feel for one another on our faces. It’s my favorite picture and the girls had it printed in black and white. I want the same one blown up to put in our bedroom so we can see it there too.
We decide to move into the house now as we head back to the clubhouse. It doesn’t take long to pack up Autumn’s room because most of what she has is clothing. Ghost and I grab what we have in our rooms which takes a little bit more time. Everyone in the club helps us get it loaded up in trucks and into the new house. We all have dinner together with the ol’ ladies cooking in our kitchen and Autumn helping them.
I sit back and look around my home that’s filled with everyone I consider family. The kids are playing in the living room while the ol’ ladies cook. I’m surrounded by my brothers as we all have a beer and talk in small groups. Never did I see my life heading down this path, but I really can’t say I hate it. For so long I thought having an ol’ lady and family would make me weak and put them in danger. It took Autumn’s situation to make me realize that danger is around every corner and it doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with the club at all. All I can do moving forward is protect Autumn and any children we fill our family with the best I can. I will be there to love and support them all no matter what and be the kind of dad my own was for Quinn and me when we were growing up. It took being a complete douche canoe to Autumn to make me realize what I truly want in my life. I will regret my actions toward her for the rest of my days and spend each day trying to make it up to her.
Epilogue
Ghost
Six months later
