Page 90 of Shooter
That time when he pulled out of the kiss I felt something other than anger and resentment toward him. I felt the love I’d always felt for him growing inside me with every breath I took.
“If you’ll let me, I want to spend the rest of my life making it up to you,” he said, and I couldn’t stop the tears from falling. Because just when I thought he couldn’t surprise me anymore, he did.
Jesse got down on one knee and pulled a small box from his pocket. The poor man looked nervous as hell and was practically shaking like a leaf. He opened the box and watched my face for a reaction before speaking. “If you’ll have me back, I’d like to marry you, Laney. That way I can spend every minute of every day making you the happiest old lady there ever was.”
I wiped the tears away with the back of my hand and I nodded, and he let out a sigh of relief. He stood up and grabbed me by the waist before swinging me around.
I laughed as I spoke. “What would you have done if I had said no?”
He stopped spinning me and looked at me seriously. A grin split his face. “I would have handcuffed you to my bed and kept you there until you agreed, of course.”
He pulled the ring from the box and slid it onto my finger and we both stared at the beautiful green emeralds in the ring, watching as they sparkled in the fading sunlight.
I couldn’t forgive him for the pain he had caused us both, but I also couldn’t stop loving him, no matter how hard I tried. So maybe it was time to admit that we were meant to be together, mistakes and all. We were both human, and we both made mistakes, but our mistakes were what made us and what defined us as people. Without our mistakes we were just people moving through life and never learning anything new. And that wouldn’t do either of us any good.
I was Jesse’s and Jesse was mine, and we were meant to be together, forever this time.
“I love you, Laney,” he growled against my mouth.
“I love you too,” I replied breathlessly.
He pushed me back inside the house, his arms wrapping around me.
“I have something to tell you,” I said.
His hands reached out to squeeze my ass, and I giggled as he hoisted me up into his arms.
“Can it wait?” he asked carrying me down the hallway.
I nodded and laughed again. “Yeah, it can wait.”
He carried me up the stairs and I thought about the life that was growing inside of me. The start of our family. The start of something good and pure. The only good that came from Butch’s death. A baby created through pain and sadness, and love.
I thought about how we would do it right. How we would give that little person everything we’d never had growing up. A real family. It would still be a fucked-up little family, because Lord knows there wasn’t anything about those bikers that wasn’t fucked up; they loved hard and they fought even harder. But the club, those men and women, they made up a family that you could always depend on.
Family didn’t have to be made from blood; it was made from love and loyalty, and those people had that in abundance.
I smiled as Jesse carried me up the stairs, one hand giving my ass a quick, sharp slap, and I thought about how happy Butch would have been for us if he would have been there to see his niece or nephew grow up. But he was there in spirit, and I knew he’d be with us every step of the way. Of that I had no doubt.
The end…
