Harper disentangled herself from Cash and reached under the couch, pulling their money box out. “Let’s count it out and see.”
“Harper, are you sure?” Cash asked her quietly. “You did something much more personal for this money than I did. Are you sure you want to waste it on a TV.”
“It’s not a waste,” she was quick to defend the idea. “It’s our form of entertainment. This is where we convene as a group, and it’s a babysitter for Remy when we’re both busy with studying or whatever else we may be doing. This is a small price to pay, and I’m happy to pay it.”
Finally, he accepted her answer. Grabbing the money out of the box, he began counting it out. He was surprised when he realized they had $550. “That should get us a decent TV.” He grinned up at Remy. Happy that he was happy, proud that Remy was going to have the kind of childhood Cash had dreamed of and never gotten.
“Can we go tomorrow?” he asked, excitement making his voice loud.
“We will.” Cash nodded. “And we’ll pick it out as a family. We all have to agree on it.”
Harper watched him put the money back in the box and shove it back under the couch. Who would have thought in a little apartment, with barely enough furniture to fill it, in the not-so-nice part of town, with the bare essentials in the fridge, she would have found her happiness. And it was truly the happiest she’d ever been.
‡
Chapter Twenty-Two
“Where are we going?” Harper asked, her curiosity piqued.
She had been in the living room, contemplating with Remy about how they would be moving the furniture around in order to accommodate the new TV they had purchased, when he grabbed her hands, told Remy to mind Natalie, and they’d left.
Harper hadn’t had any idea that Natalie had even been coming over, but Natalie had smiled widely and waved goodbye to them.
“Would you stop?” he chuckled as she tried to peek out from the blindfold he’d placed over her eyes.
“I don’t do surprises well.” She huffed, folding her arms over her chest.
“No shit?” Cash’s voice was dry with humor as he slowed the car at a red light.
“C’mon, Cash, please?”
“No,” he was adamant. “I never get to surprise you with anything, so I’m doing it today. You can thank Natalie later.”
Harper bit her bottom lip and did as she was told, hoping that biting her lip would make the sassiness she wanted to give him go away. He seemed to be very excited about whatever it was he was doing for her.
“I’m going to sit over here and mind my own business.” She primly crossed her legs and folded her hands in her lap.
Cash couldn’t help the grin that spread across his face. “You do that, sweet thang. Sit over there and mind your own business.”
*
Harper was pretty sure she was going to kill him when they got to their destination. As they were driving to the undisclosed location, he would take his hand off the gearshift and run it up and down her thigh, or at a stop light he would grasp hold of the ends of her hair, and tug lightly.
“Cash.” She let out an exasperated breath. “Stop.”
“Okay, okay.” He laughed. “I’ll stop.”
She was glad when he finally did leave her alone, and she tried to figure out exactly where they were going. She listened as they traveled but couldn’t tell where they were.
“Can you not give me a little hint?” Harper asked again, turning to face him in the seat even though she couldn’t see him.
“Damn, woman. Yes. We’re here, anyway.”
She clapped her hands, excited they had finally made it to wherever it was they were going. She gasped when he took the blindfold off and she realized they were at the town square, less than ten minutes from their apartment.
“Did you drive all around so that I would have no idea?” She giggled, taking in the lights that decorated the trees, the red bows that wound around the lampposts. Even thought it was early evening, it was dark already, and there weren’t a lot of people around because it was cold.
“Yeah.” He ducked his head and then smiled. “I wanted to surprise you.”
“Well, consider me surprised.” She unbuckled her seatbelt. “C’mon, let’s go walk.”
They met at the front of the car and grabbed hands before going to the square’s perimeter of stores and window shopping. It was fun to look in the stores and imagine what it would be like to afford some of the things there.
“This would be a great place for a bakery.” She stopped him, pulling on his hand. “There’s nothing down here like it, and hopefully people would be window shopping like we are.”
“One day,” Cash told her. “One day all of our dreams will come true.”
*
“You want a hot chocolate?” Cash asked as they continued their walk around the square.
“Is this like a date?” she asked as she reached up and kissed his cheek.
“Yeah,” he admitted. “This is that date we keep planning on taking but can never afford to.”
“This is perfect,” she told him as she took hold of the hot chocolate that he handed her. “Let’s sit over here while I drink this.”
He had a seat and pulled her close to him, putting his arm around her shoulder. It was one of those moments where he realized how much he loved her, one of those moments where he knew this was where he was supposed to be. “Is it good?” he asked as she cupped it in her hands and blew on it before taking a sip.
“Sooo good! I think they used real chocolate. Want a sip?”
He nodded then leaned in so he could share in the drink. They sat in a comfortable silence, loving the fact that they could do this. Nobody needed anything from them, he didn’t have to be at work, she didn’t have to be at work, they were able to just be together. Clearing his throat, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a box.
“I know we said that we weren’t doing gifts for one another. That the TV is our Christmas gift to each other, but I wanted to get you something. It’s not much.” He shrugged. “I can’t afford much, but I hope you like it.”
Harper hesitantly grabbed the box out of Cash’s hand. “What did you do?”
“Trust me, babe. It’s not huge, but I think you’re gonna like it.”
Her hands shook as she opened the box. Looking inside, she gasped. There, nestled against tissue paper, was a Christmas ornament that read “Our First Christmas”. “Cash, it’s gorgeous,” she breathed. And it was; it was silver and had their names and the date engraved on it. “This is too much.”
“Nah.” He shook his head. “I’m glad I was able to give it to you and hopefully officially call you my girlfriend?”
Leaning over, she giggled before kissing him softly. “I would love to be your girlfriend. It’s perfect.”
And for them, it was.
‡
Chapter Twenty-Three
“How’d you do?” Harper asked Cash as they met in the hallway of the school. They had both just taken their finals, both hoping that they would have the grades they needed to continue.
“Aced that bitch.” He slung his arm around her neck and pulled her close. “He graded it while we were still in there. This was the only one I was worried about. The rest I know I passed.”
She wished she had his confidence. “I’m worried.”
“Like always.” He rolled his eyes towards her. “But you’re one of the smartest people I know, Harper. There’s no reason for you to worry. You probably aced them all.”
She hoped so.
“Why are we still talking about this? What we need to be talking about is how we’re going to celebrate finishing our finals.”
This was the Cash of old, the Cash she hadn’t seen in a while. “It’s funny, you lost your playful side for a while, with the trial and all. It seems like you’re getting it back.”
He had to admit that he felt lighter than he had in a long time. He didn’t feel like the world was weighing him down, did
n’t feel the pressure he’d felt so often. “Maybe he is making a little of an appearance. Now where are we going?”
She thought for a few minutes. “Wherever you go, I’ll follow.”
*
Two hours later, Harper grinned down at Cash, her hair curtaining around his head. “How did I know you’d take me straight to bed?”
Cash wrapped an arm around her back, cupping her hip and rolling them over so that he lay halfway on top of her. They were out at the Richardsville house—a place they hadn’t visited in a while. “Because you know me so well.”
She leaned back, breathing easier. Tomorrow they would go back to working after their break because of finals, and they would resume their crazy lives. Today though, they decided they would enjoy themselves, completely and totally.
“I have an appointment with Doc Jones tomorrow,” she whispered, afraid to speak too loud. She didn’t want to ruin the mood they’d created.
“Do I need to come with you?”
Since the talk with her dad, and the visit where Doc Jones had suggested she speak with him, Cash had made it a point to make himself available if she needed it. Sometimes she did, sometimes she didn’t. Either way, he made sure she knew he was man enough to do that for her.
“No, I think I’ll be good.” She shook her head. “I’m sleeping easier and feeling better.”
“You know I’ll do that for you if you need it.”
She gave him an indulgent smile. “I have absolutely no doubt that you will.”
They were beginning to settle, and she could feel it. Their days weren’t so insane anymore; their nights not a quick rush of passion. That had slowed, but it had slowed to where they enjoyed one another. Cash was proving to be the man she’d always thought he would be. She hoped she was the woman he needed.
“Do you have any regrets?” she asked. “About forgiving me?”
It was a question she’d wanted to ask for a long time but hadn’t gotten the guts to do so.
“Fuck no,” he was quick to answer. “I had to forgive you because I couldn’t bear my life to be what it was without you in it. I had to learn what forgiveness was, and while it wasn’t exactly what I envisioned it would be, I’m glad I learned.”
“What do you mean?” she asked, sitting up in the bed, pulling the blanket with her.
“Forgiveness for me wasn’t telling myself that you did what you did to hurt me. I had to realize that you did it for yourself, and while that sucked in the short-term, because you always want the person you’re with to care more about your feelings, I had to realize that you couldn’t care about me until you cared about yourself. Self-preservation can sometimes be selfish; other times it’s what you do in order to give yourself completely to another person. I feel like—at this point—you’ve definitely given yourself completely to me. You trust me in a way you didn’t trust me before, and I trust you the same.” He stopped and dropped a kiss on her forehead. “Is everything hunky-dory? Fuck no, I still have doubts sometimes, but I realize that is normal in any relationship, and because we’ve fought through the hard times, we will truly appreciate the good times. I love you, and there’s not anything I can give you that means more than that.”
“I do appreciate them, and I hope you know I will never hurt you intentionally. I was protecting myself because I didn’t know what I was going to do if I lost you. I love you too.” She swallowed and glanced at him, pursing her lips.
“The reality was so much worse than I thought it would be.”
He pulled her close. “Then it’s a good thing you’re not going to have to go through that again. You’re stuck with me.”
“Good, ’cause you’re stuck with me too. Stuck like glue.”
Those were the best words he’d ever heard in his life.
‡
Chapter Twenty-Four
For the first time in her life, Harper felt at peace. It was as if the stars had aligned, and finally, she was where she was supposed to be. Being honest with herself was something new; it was something she and Doc Jones worked on at each and every session. If she were being totally honest with herself right now, she would admit she was happy, the happiest she had ever been.
“I’m starving.” Cash rubbed his hand over his stomach, navigating them on the road towards the Heaven Hill clubhouse.
“You’ve been whining since Harper started the cookies hours ago,” Remy piped up from the backseat.
“Whining? I am not whining.”
Harper smiled and looked back at Remy, winking. “You are definitely whining, but you’re gonna have to wait. We can’t ruin our first Christmas dinner together, and we definitely can’t disappoint the Heaven Hill crew.”
She couldn’t believe it, spending Christmas Day with the MC, but that’s what they had decided to do as a family. This wasn’t about the gifts they could give each other—because after all they’d gone through to get the money for a nice Christmas, the gift they’d decided to buy themselves had been the biggest surprise of all. The fifty-two-inch TV took up most of one wall of the apartment, and they had to sit way too close to it to make sure it fit, but that was the epicenter of their lives. That was the one thing they could always do. Remy could watch TV while they did schoolwork, or they could watch TV as a family.
“I hope some of those cookies are left over when we get home,” Remy told her. “You’ve never done oatmeal before, and I think those may be my favorite.”
She lifted the lid off of them, inhaling deeply. “They did turn out much better than I thought they would.”
It had snowed the night before, and Cash was being quiet and extra careful with the people he had in his car, but he chanced a glance when he smelled the container open.
“I can’t wait,” he declared, reaching his hand over and snatching one before Harper realized what he was doing.
She smacked his hand. “Seriously, Cash?”
“Seriously, Harper?” he fired back.
She reached over and gave him a chaste kiss on the cheek. “Later on, you can have all the cookies you want.”
“I really hope cookie is a euphemism.” A bad-boy grin covered his face, and his eyes shone.
Looking at him, she could no longer tell how stressed he had once been. Granted, things weren’t perfect; they were still struggling, but they both realized that they would always struggle. Anything worth having was worth fighting for, even if that fight was hard. They were willing to put in the work.
“What’s a euphemism?” Remy asked.
“Nothing.” Harper reached over and smacked Cash on the arm.
They pulled into the parking area, and Remy scrambled out, squeezing himself between the seat and door before Cash even unbuckled his seatbelt.
“Remy,” he yelled after him.
“He’s excited,” Harper shushed him. “I bet this is the best Christmas he’s ever had, doesn’t even matter that the present he got was a big one for all of us.”
They got out of the car, meeting in the middle of the front.
“I seem to remember us stopping at my car a few months ago and having a conversation about how we should mess around—ya know, have a fling.” Cash took the cookies from her, put them on the hood, and turned so that he leaned against the front, pulling Harper into him.
The smile she gave him was soft. “I was an idiot to think it could have ever been like that with you.”
“If you’re an idiot, then I’m an idiot, because I thought the same thing. I had no idea that the chick who let me steal her parking spot was about to change my life forever.” He bit his bottom lip, brushing her hair back from her face.
Leaning into his caress, she closed her eyes, enjoying their moment. “I had no idea that the asshole who stole the parking spot would change my life forever either.”
Cash broke apart from her and grabbed the container of cookies, pulling her towards the front of the clubhouse with him. “We’re gonna make it, right?” he echoed the thoughts that she’d asked him not too long
ago.
She giggled. “Damn straight we are. We are in tune.”
He stopped, his eyebrows raised. “And look at that, the cute girl who doesn’t know how to pop her hood just used car lingo.”
“You’ve taught me a lot.”
He opened the door to the clubhouse, observing the people he now called friends and family. “You’ve taught me a lot too. They’ve taught me a lot.”
“What’s your most valuable lesson?” Liam asked as he came up to them, hearing their conversation.
“Family isn’t blood; family isn’t what you’re born into. Family is the people who care when the going gets tough and have your back no matter what.”
Liam grinned widely. “You’ve figured it out, my man. You got it.”
And Cash knew without a doubt that he did.
‡
Epilogue
Eight Years Later
“C’mon, Rem,” Cash encouraged as he grabbed up the diaper bag Harper had left him on the couch. “We’ve got to haul ass if we’re going to make it.”
Cash slipped his feet into the only pair of dress shoes he owned and made sure the button-down shirt he wore lay flat against his chest. Rolling the sleeves up, he wondered if he should let the tattoo work he’d had done on his forearms be covered for the night but then realized he was who he was, and that would have to be fine with anyone who wanted to come into Southern Delight.
Checking his nails to make sure he’d gotten all the grease out from under them, he sighed. It had been a crazy rush to get home from the small custom shop he owned to get them ready. Cash’s Customs had taken off in a bigger way than he’d ever thought it would. He worked mostly on imports, and he employed kids who needed help as he had. Having it located next door to Walker’s Wheels was also a blessing.
“If you’ve got the diaper bag, I’ve got the Princess.” Remy carried his niece on his hip as they came down the stairs.
It struck Cash right then how far they had come. At twenty, Remy would be a sophomore at Western Kentucky University in the fall—still unsure of what he wanted to study—but he was getting that chance. A chance that none of them had ever had. It had been years since he’d had an asthma attack – he even played pick-up basketball on the weekends now. In his arms was the pride and joy of all three of their lives.
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