Page 77 of Riding Free

“You didn’t open the dresser?” a voice calls out from behind me.

When I spin around, the tears I had tried to keep from falling stream down my cheeks because Chassis and Juliette are standing at the dresser, all the drawers open, and they’re bursting.

Onesies, shorts, leggings, and blankets.

“How?” I ask.

“I noticed what size she was, and I knew with everything that happened that you needed something,” Chassis announces. “I’ve been doing my own shopping,” she says as she lifts her hand and places it on her belly. “So I suggested it as our wedding gift to you.”

“Gift? This is beyond a gift. I don’t know what this is, but it isn’t just a wedding gift. Everything you’ve all done in the past few days is… I don’t even have words for what it is. It’s bigger than a blessing or a gift. It’s something I could never repay because no amount of money could.”

“Oh, hush,” Juliette says, lifting her hand to wave me away. “We wanted to do this. There will be a time and a place, a way to be repaid, but we don’t keep score. We’re family.”

“Not everything is in Thea’s current size. We went ahead and outfitted her up to size twelve months,” Chassis states. “That’s what I’ve been collecting, and hopefully, it’ll cut down on me needing to run to the store to panic shop for clothes for this little one.”

The tears don’t stop rolling down my cheeks. I don’t even bother trying to wipe them away at this point. There are far too many to even try, and they aren’t slowing at all. Then my breathing comes out in heavy pants as I shift my focus from woman to woman.

“I don’t know what to say,” I whisper.

Elodie moves toward me, standing in front of me, and I think she’s going to say something, but she doesn’t. Instead, she opens her arms and closes the small distance between us, enveloping me in a hug.

A tight hug. I hug her back, holding her just as tightly as she’s holding me. I need it. And then I feel more arms around me. It’s overwhelming, but in the best way. Juliette and Chassis wrap their arms around us, and I feel absolutely loved.

Peace.

This whole shift, this house, these people—I’ve never felt so happy, full of love, and at peace in my entire life. Living in California was right for me at the time, and it felt good and like the right choice from the moment I moved there and started my career, no matter the struggles I faced.

Coming back to Boulder City felt like the exact opposite. I knew in my head that it was the right thing to do for Thea, but not once did I feel it in my soul. I thought it was just because it was all new again. I had to work a job I didn’t like and live with my parents, which I really didn't care for. And I felt like a failure.

Until that party. Until Brock found me again.

I didn’t realize that him finding me was what was supposed to happen. Me coming back to Boulder City, feeling like a failure, was just fate setting me up for what was always meant to be.

Setting me up for my future.

Setting Thea up for her future and a family.

A gigantic family that is full of roughnecks but also love. So much damn love. The girls take a step back from me, all our arms falling away from one another. I wipe the tears from my face, and then I hear someone clear their throat.

“You girls good?” Brock asks, his voice filling the air around us.

I shift my attention to him, and my lips curve up into a smile. He’s standing in the doorway, Thea in his arms, his very concerned gaze fixed on me.

“I’m good,” I whisper. “So damn good.”

And I am.

Beyond good, really.

The best.

CHAPTER

FIFTY-NINE

HOUND

The club shit is going to have to be on hold for the morning. As much as I want to go out and start researching the other Iron Flame chapters that have been working with the Russians and dig up shit on them for my list to present to Cake, I don’t. I can’t, not yet anyway.