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Emotion clogged my throat at thinking over my dad doing something so sweet. He had his good moments, that was for sure. And at his core he was a good man. This world was a lesser place without him.
“I was sorry when he passed, but the other men in this club are good like him. Wes and Killian, Giles and Rune…they’re all good guys. I’m happy I’m here, and well, I don’t know if you’re sticking around, but I wanted to introduce myself and hopefully make you feel welcome. I heard you grew up here, but it can be tricky finding your place again.”
I was so moved by her thoughtful gesture that I skirted the counter and pulled her into a hug.
“Thank you, Natty. That is so sweet.”
She patted my shoulder, and then Max made his way downstairs, barking at the new person in the house.
“I better get back. Red usually asks me to help with the extra members on game nights.”
“Do you know if Wes usually plays poker with the guys?”
Natty stood but scrunched her nose.
“Not usually. He used to back when I got here, but for the past few months he hasn’t. If I had to take a guess at where he was, I’d say out on a run, or meeting with someone from another club, but I’m not technically supposed to know anything.”
I walked her to the door and hugged her again. “Well, thank you, and don’t be a stranger.”
Giving me a little wave, she ran down the steps and darted back over to the club. I locked up again and decided to have a relaxing night. It wasn’t very often I had such luxury at my fingertips.
I was on the hunt for a candle, which led me to snooping through the boxes in the top of Wesley’s closet. I had already checked all the obvious places, but surely, he had an emergency kit in his closet or something. I tugged one down, finding his childhood memorabilia inside. I remembered it from back when we’d lived together.
Sliding it to the side, I started on the secondary box, prying it open. My fingers froze and my breathing tightened in my chest.
It was my box.
Everything I left behind, including…I gently touched the leather and traced the words as my eyes misted. Candles, nail polish, books…everything was here, and he’d kept them for nearly a decade. Suddenly, I couldn’t breathe around the tightness in my throat. I couldn’t think of the implications around him keeping it all, so I closed the box and shoved it back where I found it.
A soak without candlelight would be fine because suddenly the desire to relax, or even be alone, was gone.
TWENTY
CALLIE
AGE 20
Dusk had claimed the sky,and with it a chill cut through the air, making me wrap my arms tightly across my chest. The winter months were supposed to be slower for the club, seeing as everyone put their bikes away and drove their trucks. There was usually less travel, which meant less partying, and fewer nights where the music was blaring loud enough to be heard from the main road.
However, it was October, and here I was, feeling like a little girl again trying to outrun another loud party. Except instead of running away, I was slowly walking toward it because my boyfriend was somewhere inside. We were supposed to look at a house today, but Wes never showed. He hadn’t even texted, or called—not even a DM. I just stood there with the realtor, looking like an idiot while he tried to show me the house, all while knowing I wouldn’t make a decision without my partner.
I needed to cool off, so I drove around for a while, and it seemed as though my boyfriend had finally remembered me, by sending me a text roughly an hour ago, asking me to come down to the gathering. I hated the part of me that resented him so much, because he knew how badly I hated these parties. He knew because he used to be the boy who saved me from them. Now he was the one delivering me right into the mayhem.
I had been in denial about our relationship for a while, but the house thing today severed a piece of my hope for us getting back to normal. I assumed if we could move off the property and get some distance from the club, it would make things easier, but now that dream was gone, just like all the others we had. Summer vacation, camping trips, date nights, a trip to Wyoming to see my aunt and cousins. A trip to see his mom and sisters. None of it happened, and while I was showing up as a receptionist at a dental office, day in and day out, doodling art for tattoo ideas, more and more of myself was starting to disappear.
I loved Wesley, but not more than I loved myself. I was about to turn twenty years old, and I already felt like I was locked into a life I never wanted. As a child, I couldn’t change it, but as an adult, I owed it to myself to at least try.
The party was strewn out on the lawn, with a large bonfire and people drinking themselves stupid. I pushed in through the back door, moving out of the way for a couple making out. There was another pair fucking against the wall. I was pathetically used to it, so I kept going, completely unfazed. There in the main room were so many men and women it was hard to make anyone out, especially with all of them wearing similar cuts.
I wasn’t wearing mine that indicated I was property of Wes. Frankly, I thought it was bullshit. I never wanted to be someone’s fucking property, and the man I loved knew that. Yet, he still asked me to wear it when I attended these things. Tonight, I wouldn’t, and I didn’t give a single fuck about it.
Red was behind the bar, serving drinks and blowing kisses. She didn’t have to serve, but she liked to keep an eye on how much liquor the girls were giving away. One time a sweetbutt took a whole bottle of vodka upstairs with her to seduce someone. Red nearly lost her mind.
Brooks wasn’t too far from the bar as he played pool with Hamish. Killian had a girl in his lap as he smoked a blunt. I hated how distant his gaze was as the girl kissed his neck. I wanted him to be happy and find a real relationship, something with meaning like Red and Brooks, but his taste was always with the girls who just got to their knees and disappeared the next day.
My eyes kept moving looking for Wesley when someone grabbed my ass.
“You are the best-looking thing in here,” the guy rasped into my ear, pulling me by the hip with his free hand.
