Each biker started his engine. Then Spider, as Chig’s son, revved his engine three times. One by one, all the other Fugitives did the same. When everyone had finished, the Tail Gunner gave the last rev. Finally, they mounted their bikes and rode away.
Later that evening, the party to honor Chig was in full swing at the clubhouse. Spider went over to Tallie, who was chatting with Brenna, Deanie and some of the other old ladies. “Hey, Mom, can Tallie and I talk to you for a moment?” he asked, wrapping an arm around Tallie.
“Sure, thing, baby. What’s up?” Deanie asked, walking with him toward a quieter spot in the back.
Spider looked at Tallie, and she grinned up at him, then looked at Deanie. “We wanted to let you know, we’ve decided on a name for the baby.”
“You know the sex already? I thought you said you weren’t gonna find out ahead of time,” Deanie said in confusion.
“We’re not,” Spider replied. “But we’ve decided to name him or her after Dad. Of course, Chig isn’t much of a name for a little baby. But we’ve decided on James for a boy, and Jamie for a girl.”
Deanie’s eyes filled with tears. “Oh,” she whispered, trying not to cry. “Chig would have been so proud!” She hugged first Spider, then Tallie. “I’m so happy for you two!”
“We love you, Mom,” Spider smiled. Then, turning to Tallie, he said: “Can I steal you away for a minute?”
“What do you have in mind, sir?” she teased him.
“I just wanna spend a little alone time with the mother of my child, is all.”
“You two kids go on,” Deanie shooed them away. “We’ll be fine here.”
“We’ll be back,” Spider promised. “I just want a few minutes.”
Tallie and Spider walked out the back door of the clubhouse together. He led her to a picnic table that was stationed under a small cluster of trees. The two of them sat next to each other on the table with their feet on the bench, and stared up at the moonlit night sky.
“How you doing, baby?” Tallie asked him. “It’s gotta be hard having your dad gone.”
“You’d know,” he replied tenderly, taking her hand. “At least I got to have mine a little longer. And at least I still have my mom. And you.”
Tallie leaned her head against his shoulder. “You certainly do have me, baby.”
“Tallie,” Spider began, “I wanted to tell you something. And I have just enough bourbon in me right now to do it,” he chuckled ironically. “You remember you asked me once why I lied to you about being there when Gonzo died?”
Tallie nodded. “Yes, of course. But it’s not important, Spider.”
“Yes, it is,” he insisted. “Truth is, I think it’s because I wanted it to be true – I wished I had been there. I always blamed myself for not being there to have his back. And I guess I couldn’t stand for you to think of me as the coward I thought of myself as being. I couldn’t stand for you to know that I’d abandoned my best friend. That I had let him die alone. And after Gonzo came back, and you asked me why I’d lied… well, it just brought everything back to me. How betrayed I felt by my dad for lying to me, and by Gonzo by leaving… but most of all that I was a shitty human being. It was easier to blame my dad and Gonzo than to blame myself.”
Tallie was silent for a moment. “That makes sense,” she finally said. “But Spider, we’ve all of us made a lot of mistakes, because of things we didn’t understand or couldn’t control. And we’ve all been given this second chance. Because of Chig. We owe it to him to make sure we don’t waste it.” She looked up at him. “We all need to forgive each other. And ourselves.”
Spider gazed down at her and laughed in disbelief. “God damn, Tallie. The first thing Gonzo ever said to me about you was how smart as a whip you were. What did I ever do to deserve a woman like you?”
“That’s the thing about love,” she said. “It chooses you. All you have to do to deserve it is be who you are. I love you, Spider Daniels.”
“I love you, Tallie Hendricks. Now, let’s go in and get back to Chig’s party.”
THE END
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Acknowledgements
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