the next 18 years, babe.” I smiled at Deck. “He’s being patched in today. Our son, can you believe it?!”
“Yeah, hopefully his legacy will be a better one than the men before him faced.”
“I think they’ll all do just fine. We should go enjoy the party.” I smiled thinking about all the changes that had been made to the club to ensure our children had a different life. The club didn’t allow any form of club whore to hang around at all any longer. So many things had changed after we got Deck back. Running background checks on anyone who got involved with the members in any capacity beyond simply checking them out at the grocery store was the norm. It had saved their asses a time or two over the years too. The men each expanded various businesses that also changed with the times. That was a story for the future generation to share though.
“Maybe, after the guys and I interrogate that little shit over there,” Deck nodded his head toward the cocky, frat-boy that Ash brought home with her.
I laughed. “You will do no such thing,” I teased my husband while knowing that I was already planning my own interrogation techniques. I might not have been a brother in their club, but I’d picked up on enough things over the years to be able to do a damn good job of it myself. I turned to see our other daughter, Amber, as she cozied up to one of the brothers, and not for the first time either. I wondered if Deck had noticed yet. I turned to see his gaze move from me to their direction. A stormy look passed across his face before he brought that smirk that I loved so much back to me.
“I’ll deal with that one later,” he insisted. I laughed, knowing he was telling the truth, and hoping that our baby girl would be given a better start into loving a club brother than my sister had. Even so, I hoped that if it worked out for them, that she had just as long and beautiful a relationship as Anna had with Joker. They still loved each other fiercely to this day. Kind of like how Deck and I were still madly in love too. Sure, we had a rough couple of years once we got him back. Thanks to head injuries, we had a lot of ground to cover just with his memories. He was never sure whether they were real or just something he dreamed up while he was being held captive.
Deck’s personality changed a bit afterward too, and it never quite went back to my care-free, fun-loving man. Instead, he was always a little more serious, a whole lot more temperamental, and definitely quieter and more contemplative. I know he struggled with the addiction he had been fed while held captive. To this day, he still has not touched a drop of alcohol, for fear that it would lead him down a path that would devastate his life and his family more than that missing year already had.
“Lost your dad exactly eight years ago today,” Deck commented. “Think he’s here watching his grandson being patched in?”
I smiled and thought about the fact that I’d been to visit with my dad earlier in the day and as I’d walked up to his grave, I noticed the same shimmer of something on top of his headstone as I had that day so long ago when we laid my mom to rest and I thought Toby was there. I knew, in that moment, that he was trying to tell me he was there, and he was listening. So, I filled him in on our lives and things he probably already knew. Then, I invited him to come see Archer get patched in tonight.
“I have no doubt. I bet your parents are here looking on too.” We had lost Merc later that year. He had already been sick with Prostate Cancer, though he refused treatment so he could help get Lily through hers. With his immune system already so low, he didn’t stand a chance when he caught a virus. Lily managed to beat the breast cancer and earned herself another five years until it came back, stronger than ever. She went fast, and with my dad by her side, where he’d been since Merc took his last breath. I think it was the only thing that got them both through losing the loves of their lives. They had one another. They also had their grandkids to dote upon, and they did. They would all have been so damn proud today. “I miss all of them, so much,” I admitted as I leaned in to give Deck a kiss and a little squeeze too.
“Fuck! Can’t you old people hold off on that mushy shit until after you leave for bedtime?” My son called out from across the room.
His dad wasn’t one to mince words, so Deck grinned at me before calling back to our Archer. “We ain’t leaving to go to sleep, numb nuts! When we leave early, it’s so I can go fuck your mom all over the house before you bring your ass home.” I spit my drink out laughing. I should have known better than to take a damn drink while those two were gearing up to have a go at one another. “How’d your toast taste this morning, boy? I could have sworn I saw you drop it on the table!”
We hadn’t had sex on the kitchen table since we nearly broke the damn thing two years ago, but the look on my son’s face was absolutely priceless as his fellow brothers began ribbing him. “That was just mean,” I whispered in Deck’s ear.
He smacked my ass and turned his beautiful face toward me. He had aged well, with little shots of silver running through his hair near his temples, while his close-trimmed beard was nearly all silver, with exception of a few darker patches near his mouth. I traced the crinkles around his eyes with my fingers as he smiled, loving the way our happiness and laughter had been etched into his body over the years. A beautiful reminder of our wonderful life together. “How about you take me home and we go break that kitchen table. He’ll really freak out in the morning.”
“And you call me evil.”
“Well, how else are we going to get that empty nest so we can go travel before they all start popping out kids of their own?”
“You have the best ideas, baby!”
“I know! The best one, by far, is standing right here looking at me.”
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to acknowledge everyone who asked for more from Ever and Deck. I know hits is probably not at all what you were expecting! Why in the hell would I put them through more shit?
Well… Such is life! I did enjoy keeping the Aces High MC – Charleston MC dramatically real.