Page 148 of Dock

“Everything from this point forward is we, Emmerz. The good. The bad. The scary. You’re my Old Lady.” A second kiss is given to the damaged skin. “Whatever shit we gotta face? We face it together.”

Epilogue

A few months later…

Emaline

I love decorating for the holidays.

And what I love even more?

Not having to do it alone.

Seriously.

Carrying those boxes all by myself year after year after year has sucked.

They’re ridiculously heavy.

“I appreciate you guys doing this for me,” I coo to H and Flames as they stroll into my 1st grade classroom at Newt Newton Academy with the final load.

“Of course,” H states, dropping a kiss on my cheek prior to placing the box on the ground near my feet. “Can’t have my preggers Old Lady carrying heavy shi-”

“Ish,” I swiftly correct and tip my head to the window side of the room where my last student, Kari Hansen, is reading a book at his desk. “We’ve still got growing minds in the room, so be mindful of our grown up words.”

H steals a glimpse at the short haired, honey fawn skinned six-year-old trying his best not to be noticed.

I get it and him and his whole situation.

While I had a single grandma, working two jobs, to raise me, he’s got a single mom doing her best to be in multiple places at once which we all know is impossible, and also why I’ve made arrangements to be extra flexible with her from the beginning.

She doesn’t ask me to bend the rules or anything, but sometimes, people just need a little more compassion than a rigid world wants to provide.

Luckily for me, Dean Crabtree – Berkley’s Doctenn accented replacement I am beyond grateful to have – is more focused on fostering the best environment for individuals as well as the whole. She has this really interesting “no child left behind” mentality, yet it’s less about academics and more focused on the entire adolescent. There’s a lot of wiggle room and freedom for us – the educators – and quite the emphasis on partnering with parents – or in many cases the nanny – rather than splitting responsibilities or blame.

Her arrival came about a week after my hospital stretch, and the first thing I immediately felt was relief. She granted me permission to finish my course – when my body was up to it – allowed H to be in class to assist – but not officially take it to prevent the obvious rule breaking of being involved with a student – and also reassured me my private life, my personal choices were mine to make assuming they didn’t interfere with my ability to do my job or do it well.

And it hasn’t.

Is dating a biker dangerous?

Probably more than like…dating an astronaut, but it’s more fun too.

Since Berkley’s abrupt departure, my life hasn’t been in any known jeopardy.

No kidnappings, no car chases, no stalkers, no shootouts – although I was persuaded into going to the range with Lady just to become more comfortable with guns and around them. We have several hidden in the house for safety reasons along with a state-of-the-art security system that our older women neighbors enjoyed watching the club install.

Seriously.

They sat in lawn chairs and sipped lemonade and gave me a sitcom moment that kept my face bright red for days.

There honestly hasn’t been a minute since the kidnapping incident that I haven’t felt protected.

Taken care of.

There also hasn’t been a moment that H and I haven’t lived together.

He immediately moved his ass in to assist in my recovery – there were a ton of appointments just like he warned and he was there for every one of them – and I loved it.