to notice five faces looming over her. She already acts as if we’re weirdos when we kiss her.
“I saw it,” Desi whispers when Carina gives a wide-mouthed smile to Bronco. “She’s not a lump.”
Laughing, I stand back to admire Bronco and the girls. Always meant to be a family, we were pieces of a puzzle just waiting to be put together. I never doubt our future together. Especially when Bronco gives me a wink after he gets a laugh-like noise out of our youngest daughter.
Before he walked into the Victorian and met Carina, he was a one-night-stand turned obsession I couldn’t forget. Today, I struggle to remember how I existed before he owned my heart.
BRONCO
I’m not a man all that interested in keeping things square in the eyes of the law. But I see the point in certain situations. Like marrying Lana and making sure she has the legal rights to my money and the kids if I’m no longer around. I don’t want to take a bullet or keel over from too much barbecue without leaving everything of value to the only woman I’ve ever completely trusted.
I get the idea when Lana registers Desi at the elementary school. There’s a lot of residency shit along with permission from Kenny. Most days, I can buy my way past shit. However, registering the nine-year-old takes a week’s worth of effort.
Not wanting to chance issues arising if I’m no longer around, I ask Lana to make us official. I buy her a ring and even kneel down, so it won’t seem as if I’m doing shit just to do it.
Lana is the one. I’ve known this fact for months. Now I’m finally getting around to doing what was obvious soon after I walked into that grandma house.
“I love you,” I say after she tackles me and says yes. “Nothing’s going to change that. I have a good gut about things, and it’s been telling me to nail this thing down with you since the beginning.”
“I swear I’ll take good care of you, Bronco Parrish.”
“I don’t need taking care of,” I mutter, but she just gives me the look. The one that says she sees me as few can. Lana knows I need something I’ve never enjoyed before—a safe space.
That’s what she is for me. Lana doesn’t care if I have all the answers or look weak. She loves me as a man, not the club president. I can strip myself bare for her without worrying about rejection or cruelty. And that’s something I did need. I just never realized how much until Lana offered an acceptance I’d never felt before.
That’s why I don’t care about her past or how quickly we’ve moved. I’ve got my head on straight, despite what my sisters say. I’ve found the woman I want at my side, always. Nothing is ever breaking us apart. We can argue, get on each other’s nerves, and even pull the silent treatment. Yet this thing between us is forever.
So I make Lana my wife, nice and legal. The wedding and reception are at the Woodlands clubhouse, where the Executioners hold big parties. Paranoid or not, I won’t chance a town wedding while shit drags on with the Village. Here in the community I helped build, I can take the night off and dance with my beautiful wife while our happy kids goof around nearby.
Some years back, Rooster got one of those legal certifications to perform weddings. He likes to pretend he’s a preacher man with a dirty mouth.
Everything comes together easily. Rooster leads the ceremony. Lana walks down the aisle with our four girls, each wearing a pale pink dress. No way could I have imagined a sight as beautiful as my five lovely ladies moving as one.
Much of Lana’s crew from Shasta comes up for the ceremony. Obviously, Ramona and Shane don’t make the drive. However, a dozen of Lana’s Shasta circle do join us.
As maid of honor, Shelby shares an inappropriate toast involving back seat sex. The woman can’t even edit herself with kids around.
“They’re the babies of bikers,” Shelby explains, shrugging when Barbie gives her grief. “If they haven’t heard the dirty stuff yet, then it was bound to come up. We don’t raise our kiddos to be dorks.”
I can’t argue with her logic. Besides, Sidonie and Desi were in the playground area by then. Plus, Summer received validation that I hadn’t lied about where her youngest sister was conceived.