My father was in a motorcycle club. He was rough, gruff, and abrasive.
And he loved his family fiercely.
He would not, under any circumstances, like any man that his daughter brought home. I was his baby girl.
Except… I was wrong.
My dad… loved him.
There were no other words.
The moment that Dad saw Sin, his face lit up like he’d just seen his best friend that he hadn’t seen in years.
Which, I guess, was kind of true.
At least, somewhat.
When Sin had done what he’d done, my father hadn’t gotten a chance to thank him because the military had stepped in and taken things over.
One second, he was at the hospital with me, and the next he was in prison at Leavenworth.
One thing I did know for sure, my father and grandfather had worked some kind of magic and gotten him out of military prison and into regular prison. He’d been moved to Huntsville State Penitentiary within a year.
No longer part of the military—again, he’d been let go with dishonorable discharge at some point—the opportunity for my dad to see him hadn’t come to pass.
Until now.
The moment we breached the door of my childhood home, and my father who’d been walking by with a beer in his hand saw us—saw Sin—he all but froze.
Then he was all man-hugging Sin in the next instant, spilling his beer all over the ground in his exuberance.
“Holy fucking shit.” My dad groaned as he stepped back, a very wide smile on his face. “I’m glad to see you breathing free air.”
Sin’s lips quirked. “It’s definitely different. Free air. You don’t realize it when you’re inside, but the moment that you get out from behind those bars, it’s like your lungs fill up with something that you haven’t had since you went in.”
Actually, I somewhat knew what he meant. There was just a difference in how you breathed when you were in a prison. I couldn’t tell you how many times that same feeling, though I was sure was quite a bit muted in comparison, stole over me the moment I left a particularly bad shift behind.
“Baylee!” Dad called loudly. “Come out here!” He looked from me to Sin then. “Not that I’m not super fucking happy to see you here, but what the fuck are you doing here? And at that, how are you even out?”
Sin gave me a look that clearly said ‘time to go’ so I rolled my eyes and went in search of my mother.
I found her in the bedroom lying on the bed to get her jeans zipped.
Been there, done that.
I didn’t judge.
“Mom,” I said. “I, uh, need to talk to you.”
Just then I heard the front door slam and my brother’s voice fill the air, followed by June’s.
Seconds later, I heard the soft pitter patter of June’s shoes coming down the hallway.
“We’re in here,” I called.
June showed in the doorway just as my mother got her button done up.
Standing up, she did that little shimmy shake that all women did when they were trying to get everything to fit just right in their jeans, then looked at me.
“What do you need to talk to me about?” my mother asked, grinning at me.
I bit my lip and looked at June, who did in fact know what I needed to talk to my mother about.
She gave me wide eyes and mouthed, “You can do it.”
I could do it.
I just wasn’t sure that I wanted to.
She might or might not freak out.
I raised my hand and pushed a few flyaway hairs out of my eyes, and the movement caught my mother’s attention.
Her eyes widened, and then she was leaping toward me, her hand going toward mine as she all but yanked me closer so she could get a look at my hand.
“What is this?” she whispered, sounding fierce.
“Uhhh,” I hesitated. “I’m getting married.”
She glanced up at me. “To who?”
My parents didn’t really know about my obsession with Sin.
They also didn’t know that the reason I moved around the country was because I was in love with the man.
At least, I didn’t think they did.
But the moment that Sin’s name came out of my mouth, her hands came up to her face and she burst out crying. “I just knew that you were going to marry him.”
I looked over at June in confusion.
“What?” I asked.
When I returned my gaze to my mom, she was swiping at her tears.
Then she rocked my world.
“A man doesn’t go that crazy over someone he doesn’t care about,” she told me.