by Brook Wilder
There was not an unshocked face to be had. “Leave?”
I nodded. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have come. This is probably one of the craziest things that has ever happened to me and I really appreciate the offer, I do. To work for the Times, that would be the pinnacle of my career.”
“But you are leaving,” one of the others said.
“I am,” I said, giving them a sheepish smile. “I’m afraid I made a mistake coming up here in the first place. This isn’t my future.” Keith was, and I was stupid to think that I needed some lofty job to find my self-worth.
“Miss Anders,” the owner began, rising from his chair. “I hope you know what you are turning down. We are prepared to offer you a position that would solidify your career.”
“I’m sure it would,” I said softly. “But it won’t make me happy. Thank you, really, but I’m turning it down.”
I didn’t wait to hear their response, exiting the boardroom without a second glance. Yeah, everyone else, including my colleagues in the journalism world, would think I was stupid for what I was doing. Some people would give up everything to have that sort of job offer.
I just wasn’t willing to do the same.
The receptionist was waiting for me at the end of the hall, a hopeful look on her face. “Well?”
I reached out and hugged her unexpectedly, catching her off guard. “Thank you. Thank you for telling me about his visit.”
She looked vaguely stunned as I released her. “You’re welcome?”
Now giddy with the prospect of returning home to Keith, to my future, I hurried to the elevator.
I was going home.
***
The plane ride seemed to stretch forever and by the time I pulled up to Keith’s apartment, I was hyped up on caffeine and hope.
His car was in its usual spot and I hurried up the stairs, using the key he had given me to let myself in. It was after two in the morning and I hoped he wouldn’t shoot me, thinking I was an intruder.
I was home.
After dropping my things off in the living room, I slid out of my clothes as I walked down the hall, my heart beating rapidly in my chest. I had just turned down the biggest job in the journalism world for this. There was no question that Keith loved me. After all, he had told me over and over again since he had come to see me at my place, giving me back my life’s work.
In fact, he had told me right before he put me on a plane headed north, knowing that there was a potential I wouldn’t come back to him.
A sane person wouldn’t have, but I wanted to be happy, not famous.
I wanted to be loved, not worshipped.
I wanted to be rich in love, not rich in money.
Pausing at the bedroom door, I watched as he slumbered in his bed, his long form sprawled out, naked as the day he was born. Lovingly, I took in his handsome face in the moonlight, my breath hitching as I realized that this was my man. Keith would never hurt me intentionally; he would never turn his back on me when I needed him the most.
He was going to give me what I had always longed to have, someone to love me and for me to return the feelings. Screw being a journalist.
I wanted to be his.
Quietly, I walked to the bed and climbed in next to him, my hand trembling slightly as I stroked his cheek.
God, I loved him so much.
Keith’s eyes fluttered open and he focused on my face, a sleepy grin on his lips. “Hey, you.”
“Hey, yourself,” I said softly. “I love you.”
“I love you too,” he murmured, reaching for me.
I pressed my face into his chest, inhaling his scent as I waited for him to realize that I was really here.
It took only seconds and Keith pulled back, his eyes searching mine. “This isn’t a dream.”
“Nope,” I smiled. “I’m home.”
He scrambled up to a sitting position and I followed, my heart melting at the way his hair was sticking up in all directions on the top of his head. “What happened? Did you get the job?”
“I did not.”
“Those assholes,” he swore, throwing aside the covers. “You deserve it.”
I stopped him before he went hell-bent on whatever he was planning. “I turned it down.”
Keith turned toward me, surprised. “You did what?”
“I turned it down,” I repeated, tugging him toward me. “While I appreciate everything you did to get me there, Keith, that wasn’t what I wanted for my future.”
He stared at me, barely breathing. “What do you want, Jill?”
“You, “I said simply. “I want you.”
Keith arched a brow. “You want a computer geek biker?”
“A very hot computer geek biker,” I corrected him, rising up until we were nose to nose. “Who snores at night and plays video games until the sun comes up.”
His arm snagged around my waist and he pressed his forehead to mine. “One who loves you so much it scares him.”
“The feeling’s mutual,” I whispered, closing my eyes. “Why did you send me to New York, Keith?”
“Because I wanted you to be happy, Jill, even if it meant you would leave me in the process.”
For a moment I soaked in this feeling of completeness, the one I had been searching for all my life only to have it fall in my lap at the oddest of times.
Everything I had gone through, everything that had been painful to me was leading up to this moment. “What do we do now?” I asked as his lips brushed over my cheek.
Keith chuckled. “Well, first I have my way with you in this bed for hours until we can’t move, then we’ll order some pizza to keep us from starving to death. For starters.”
“For starters.” I giggled, my body becoming acutely aware of his naked one so near.
“And then I ask you to marry me and you say yes.”
I did move then, blinking a few times. “What?”
Keith’s tender expression brought tears to my eyes. “You are everything to me. Never in my life have I felt this way about anyone and though you have infuriated me more times than I can count, you have also brought a joy to my life that I didn’t know was missing. Everything I do, everything I am is because of you in my life and I never want to experience my life without you in it. Marry me, Jill.”
“You should be the journalist,” I blurted out, touched by his words.
He cupped my cheek with his hand, rubbing a finger across my lips. “Maybe you are rubbing off on me. Answer the damn question, Jill. I feel like I am having a heart attack.”
“Yes,” I said, launching myself at him, knocking us both back on the bed. “Yes! Of course I will marry you.”
“Thank God,” he breathed, holding me close. “I can’t give you what the Times would, but you will be fucking happy for the rest of your life, I promise you that.”
As long as I was with him, I would be.
Chapter 25
Wires
Four Months Later
I looked at myself in the mirror, running a hand over my hair nervously. The tux I was wearing looked fucking ridiculous on me, but I was willing to go through the agony of wearing one if it meant seeing Jill smile.
After all, it was our wedding day.
“Looking sharp, Wires.”
I turned, giving Sabrina a grin. “You think? I was contemplating putting my vest on over my suit coat.”
She just shook her head as she entered the dressing room, her form-fitting dress surprising me. “Jill would kill you.”
Grinning, I turned back to the mirror, straightening the lapels of the jacket. “Nah, she wouldn’t. I think she probably would laugh first, then kill me.”
Sabrina put her hand on my shoulder, giving it a squeeze. “I can’t believe you are getting married, Keith. It feels like only yesterday that I was getting you into the club.”
Yeah, I couldn’t believe it either. Not because I didn’t want to get married. Oh no, I was looking forward to calling Jill my wife.
She had turned down the Times for me. I was gonna put a ring on that finger.
But not all was lost. She had decided to take the job with the website she had been working with, and between that job and what people were paying her for all the interviews, she was never gonna have to worry about money again.
And my job was secure with the club. While there had been some concern that now that we had exposed the government we would have to shut the doors on the Jesters, that turned out not to be the case. If nothing else, it had brought in more recruits, recruits that I was in charge of helping shape up, part of me wanting to get out of the computer lab every once in a while. I thought Chains would die from laughter when I first asked him, but he hadn’t, and handed over the fresh new crop of recruits instead with his blessing.
Damn if this didn’t feel like a family.
“Listen,” Sabrina was saying, releasing my shoulder. “I am so happy for you, Keith. I know that she makes you happy, and that makes me happy.”
I faced my best friend once more. “So, you aren’t going to wipe her off the face of the earth?”
She punched me in the shoulder. “Of course not! Honestly, she won me over when she turned down the Times job. I know Jill loves you, and that is all that matters.”
Sabs was right about that. It was hard for me to figure out why Jill loved me so much, but hey, I wasn’t complaining.
“And since you are my best friend,” she continued, a sly smile on her face. “I wanted you to be the first to know that I am pregnant.”
I picked her up, hugging her carefully. “Oh shit. I’m gonna be an uncle. Congratulations! How did Crankshaft take it?”
She pulled back. “I’m telling him tonight, but since you will be on your honeymoon, I wanted you to find out from me.”
I looked at Sabrina, the glow now visible on her face. “He’s gonna be ecstatic, trust me.”
She straightened my jacket, smoothing out wrinkles that weren’t there. “Oh I know, and I hope that you give him or her a playmate soon, all right?”
An image of Jill pregnant with my kid popped into my mind and I grinned. That wouldn’t be a bad idea and with all the trying we had been doing over the past few months, I was surprised that she wasn’t already.
Not that we were trying to get pregnant. No, we were just having fun practicing.
“It’s almost that time,” Sabrina said, stepping back. “I’m going to find my seat. You look … well, you look happy, Keith.”
“I am,” I answered, winking at her. “So do you.”
She smiled before disappearing through the door and I adjusted my cuffs, taking one long last look at the man staring back at me. This was who I was now.
A biker, a computer geek, and about to be a husband to the woman I loved more than anything on this earth.
Life was good.
It wasn’t long before the wedding planner came to retrieve me and I was stepping out into the church, decorated in everything that was spring-like. I had let Jill have her dream wedding, not caring as long as I was the groom.
What she had dreamed up was pretty sweet, I had to admit. My eyes roamed over the crowd waiting in anticipation. I received nods back from every member of the Rough Jesters in attendance. The council sat in the front row, all honorary best men. We had both decided not to have anyone stand with us at the altar, instead anointing the entire damn club with the honor.
Now, looking at them with a grin hovering on my lips, I knew we had made the right decision.
Widow Maker gave me a thumbs-up, her hand resting on her protruding belly, and I nodded in her direction. Rumor was that she was ready to pop and by the worried look on Chains’ face, it couldn’t be soon enough.
Hell, I think the entire club was ready for her to pop the kid out.
The music swelled and I cleared my throat as the doors opened at the back of the church. This was it. I was about to get married.
When Jill made her appearance, I choked on the emotion clogging my throat. Damn, she was beautiful in a white dress that showed off her shoulders and clung to the body I knew all too well.
It was the smile on her face, the way she was fighting back the same tears I was, that struck me the most, however, and I counted the steps with her as she made her way down the aisle to where I was waiting. “Hey,” I said as she took her position beside me.
“Hey, yourself,” she whispered back, looking up at me.
I saw the love in her eyes, and despite the fact that we weren’t married yet, leaned down and brushed my lips over hers, needing to taste her.
“Hey, now! That’s not how this works.”
There was laughter as I turned toward Mama Bear, who was clutching a Bible in her hands and frowning at me. “Sorry, I couldn’t help it.”
“If this wasn’t a Bible, I would hit you with it,” she muttered, though the grin on her face gave away her true feelings. “Why don’t we get this shit on the road?”
“Yes,” Jill said, reaching out to grip my hand. “Please do.”
***
An hour later, I hung back and watched my wife dance with the president of the Rough Jesters, a drink in my hand. It was apparently customary for each member of the council to dance with the new bride, and Chains was the last one in a long line of men wanting a moment with my wife.
I had had my fair share of dancing as well, from Sabrina to Siren and everyone in between.
Now I was counting down the hours until we would blow our own reception and head to Jamaica for an entire fucking week. Already I could picture the little bungalow over the water that we had picked out, Jill naked on the bed as I kissed my way down her body.
Damn. If I didn’t watch it, I was gonna be walking around with a hard-on for the rest of the day.
“Well you look lonely.”
I looked over to see Widow Maker next to me, her eyes on her husband and my wife on the dance floor. “I’m just trying not to throw this beer at your husband’s head.”
She laughed, knowing I was just joking. “Well then, why don’t we give them something to be jealous about?”
I eyed her stomach. “You think you are up to it?”
Widow Maker rolled her eyes as she plucked the bottle out of my hand and grabbed the other. “Come on,” she said, pulling me toward the dance floor. “They say dancing is good for the baby.”
I caved, mainly because I wasn’t about to say no to a pregnant woman, one who could no doubt kill me with her bare hands.
Widow Maker laughed as I carefully spun her around, drawing the attention of her husband. “Jealous?” she called out to him, blowing him a kiss as we danced by them.
“Hell, no,” Chains replied, a grin on his face. “Wires wouldn’t be able to handle you.”
He was right about that.
The grin came naturally as I winked at Jill, my heart stuttering in my chest as she blew me a kiss. Damn, I was a lucky man with a gorgeous wife.
“Hey now, lover boy,” Widow Maker laughed, patting my face. “There’s gonna be plenty of time for that on the honeymoon. Come on, show me what you got.”
The music grew faster and I gave her my best white boy moves, letting go for once. Everything was going to be okay. The Jesters were stronger than ever, and I had found happiness.
Our lives would be okay.
Widow Maker stopped all of a sudden, grabbing her stomach. “Fuck.”
Oh shit. “Are you okay?” I asked as a weird look crossed her face. “Do I need to get Chains?”
“No need,” he growled from behind, his arm coming around his wife’s waist. “Kris, what is it?”
She bit her lip. “I think my water just broke.”
Epilogue
Kris
I gazed down at the perfect little face, my chest squeezing painfully. I was a mom to a beautiful baby girl.
I couldn’t believe that Rex and I were parents, and I didn’t think he could believe it either.
Well, that, and it was quite entertaining now that the labor
was over with to think about my husband’s chalk-white face as I was pushing and how close he had come to passing out. In fact, the doctor had kicked him out of the birthing suite, replacing him with Mama Bear instead.
I was grateful to have my oldest friend at my side as I brought my first child into the world, thinking back to the time that I had saved hers. We had patched things up between us and though the Hell’s Bitches would not be the same, our friendship was going to withstand anything that was thrown at us.