Dark Secret - Avelyn Paige Page 0,55
likes those treats you keep taking him when you go see Blair,” Shelby corrects her. “No dog can resist a cheeseburger.”
Red and Hayden have really struck up a friendship after I’d asked her to come over to see Hayden. She’d been having frequent nightmares since her kidnapping. Red wouldn’t tell me what the two of them had talked about, but Hayden seemed happier when they did.
The clubhouse comes into view, and every single space is taken in the front parking lot. I peer over at Shelby, who cocks one side of her lips before noticing me watching her.
“Large crowd for a patch party,” she remarks.
“He’s a popular guy.”
I maneuver our car into a space near the back of the front driveway. Hayden’s out of the back seat before I even get my seatbelt off.
“Hayden!” her mother calls after her.
“She’s fine, Shel. Probably just going to look for Red and Walter.”
We both exit the car, and meet up at the front of it. Shelby chews away at her bottom lip. The last time she was at a patch party, it was my own, and she left me because of it. Stepping into the door together with our daughter is the start of something new for us as a couple, and as a family. We just needed to take the first step toward our future.
Shelby reaches out, grasping my right hand tightly. I give it a quick squeeze and she smiles at me. The last few weeks gave us the chance to get to know each other all over again. To find out just who we had grown up to be after so many years apart. It was like we were kids again, fumbling through the motions until we got it right. And damn, had we gotten it right. This morning in the laundry room was proof enough of that.
“Should I tell the guys to lock the doors tonight so you don’t run away on me again?” I tease.
“We’ll see how the night goes,” she sasses right back as she jerks my hand, leading me toward the clubhouse door, the music thumping against the exterior of the building.
“Sounds like it’s started already.”
“Not without the guest of honor.”
She stops abruptly, pivoting to look at me, her face covered in confusion.
“Open the door and see for yourself.”
She wavers when her hand reaches out for the handle. The door swings wide, and a loud cheer erupts from the inside when we both walk through it.
Every single member of my club, and even a few of the guys from our sister chapters, line the interior of the room under a banner Hayden and I had hung up earlier when Shelby thought we were making a trip to a game store for an expansion pack. Hayden stands next to Lorna with a sign of her own.
Shelby brings her hands to her face when her eyes hit the banner. In big block letters, it reads, Marry me, while Hayden’s sign reads, Say yes, Mom!
I pivot, moving in front of Shelby and slipping my hand into my pocket. She’s stunned silent as I kneel in front of her, the crowd going quiet.
“What are you doing?” she whispers.
“Thirteen years ago, I thought I’d lost you. I’ve spent every one of those years we’ve been apart trying to figure out a way to find you, to fix what was broken. Then lo and behold, you came barreling back into my life with one of the greatest gifts you could have ever given me.”
Shelby lifts her gaze up to look behind us. Reaching up, I grab her hand, holding it in my own.
“I can’t promise you that every day is going to be easy, but I can promise you that even when you want to kill me, I will only love you. When I fuck up, you’ve got everyone here with us tonight ready to kick my ass back in line. This club is the only family I’ve ever known until you and Hayden came back into my life. And with my family and yours present, Shelby Jo Dawson, will you do me the honor of marrying me tonight?”
“Tonight?” she chokes out. “We can’t get married tonight. We don’t have a license or an officiant.”
“I can handle the second part of that,” Priest yells out from the crowd.
“He’s really a priest?” she mutters under her breath. “A biker priest?”
“After everything we’ve been through, that’s the part you question?”
“I guess so,” she giggles. “But it won’t be legal without the license.”
“We’ll go to