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“And?” I asked, knowing what was coming.
“I’m gonna go with her.”
I stared at her.
“For a little while,” she went on, “Get her settled. See how she does. Spend time with Aunt Tammy. It’s a pretty little town an hour outside Halifax, so I’ll be way out of Wyld Jackals radar. We went there once when Aunt Tammy first went. Got to go to her wedding and spent two weeks there. Me, Aunt Francie, and Kailey. Kailey loved it so much there. Wanted to move there. Pretty, colorful village on the ocean. Beautiful place. She used to talk about wanting to go back. See if she could find a nice Canadian man to marry her.” She snickered, looking lost in memories. “I think Kai would love having her ashes spread there. So I’m gonna get them from Delia and take them with me.”
“I’m not gonna be able to talk you out of this, am I?”
“I love you so much. I don’t want you upset with me. But I need to do this, Jesse. Everything inside me is telling me that I need to get her there and go from there. I can’t desert her now. She was… different when we just talked. So different. She’s facing facts about her life ending and I just can’t leave her to it alone. And I’d really love to see Aunt Tammy, go back to a place me and Kailey loved and spread her ashes there. Aunt Francie said she’ll go if I come with her. She perked up, too, because Dad can’t come since he can’t leave the country due to his criminal record.”
“This your idea?” I asked.
“I called Aunt Tam this morning. I wanted her to come here and be a reinforcement. To talk to Aunt Francie with me about lookin’ after herself, about not giving up. It was Aunt Tammy’s idea to bring her there for a visit. Told me she’d cover airfare for us if I wanted to come too. She has a little bed and breakfast, and we wouldn’t have to worry about any expenses. Guess she doesn’t know either about all Aunt Francie’s money. Aunt Tam is a good person. Aunt Francie’s better around her, too. And it’s so pretty there. So peaceful. And it’s safe. Aunt Francie said it won’t just be a visit for her. She wants to go there for peace until it’s her time. We’ll see if she changes her mind, but I think she means it.”
I let out a long exhale.
“It’ll just be a visit for me. A couple weeks, probably. Please don’t break up with me,” she whispered, eyes filling with fear.
I shook my head.
“Jesse, please…”
“I’m not happy about this. Not at fucking all. But I’m not gonna try and stop you.”
“And you’re not breaking up with me?”
“Gonna spend the rest of my life with you, hostage,” I told her.
She faceplanted into my chest. I wrapped my arms around her.
“You were so worth waiting all this time for, Jesse,” she said, looking up into my eyes with tears in hers.
***
“First up,” Deke said, “I wanna appoint Edge as my VP. Asked him, since I didn’t know if he wanted to stay or go back to the falls, and he’s down to settle in permanently. So, let’s put it to a vote.”
This was our first post-Blow church. We voted in favor. Edge was a natural choice with Blow gone.
“Next: Blow’s family didn’t want us at the funeral. They’re having a family-only thing at their home but there’s an interment at the cemetery down the street from the Sioux Falls clubhouse. That’s in three days. What do we wanna do?”
“Blow wasn’t big on that funeral shit,” Brady put in. “But he also wasn’t big on his folks, so I say we show up anyway or at the very least, we skip the service but do a procession.”
“I like that idea,” Deacon put in. “Blow would appreciate that.”
”Agreed,” Rider piped up.
“Skip?” Deke called out. “You can handle that?”
“I’ll get with Duck and plan it, Prez,” Skip replied.
Duckie was Skip’s equivalent in Sioux Falls.
***
A bunch of us showed up at the funeral but didn’t go in. We were seen and then we rode as part of the procession to the cemetery from the family’s home.
Blow’s sister approached Deke and Rudy afterwards with tears of gratitude, because she said the way her parents had done it would’ve pissed Blow off.
She said the family had agreed to give her the urn. She was going to lend it to us for Blow’s real funeral when we were ready.
Deke and Rudy set a date with her for a few weeks out.
25
A Few Weeks Later
I was in the garage, finishing up a tire rotation, when Scott got in my space. He looked pissed.
“Hey,” I greeted.
“Gonna lose it brother, need to vent,” he said, pacing.
