Page 116 of Rush
"And she gave me the 'Rush is complicated and I know him better than you' speech again."
He's quiet for a second. "She's just trying to be helpful."
"She's being territorial."
"Ciara's not like that."
I don't push it because I can see he genuinely believes that.
And I'm not going to spend the whole ride arguing about Ciara.
"Okay," I say.
"Okay?"
"Yeah, okay. Let's just drop it."
He starts the bike and we ride to the clubhouse in silence.
When we get there, he helps me off and pulls me close.
"You sure you're good?" he asks.
"Yeah, I'm good."
"You don't sound good."
"I'm just tired of people having opinions about us."
"Who else has opinions?"
"My dad, Ciara, probably half the club."
He kisses my forehead. "Fuck them. The only opinions that matter are yours and mine."
"I know."
"Do you? Because you seem bothered."
"I'm just aware that this isn't going to be easy. People are going to push back and I need to be ready for it."
"We'll handle it together."
"Promise?"
"Yeah, I promise."
We go inside and the clubhouse is packed. It's Friday night and everyone's here.
Rush doesn't let go of my hand, just pulls me through the crowd to the bar.
We sit down and Chloe appears with drinks.
"Well, look at you two," she says with a grin. "Still going strong."
"Yeah," Rush says.
"Good, because your dad called Pyro again, Everly."
