“I love you, Claire. I won’t go home without you.”
I raised my chin and Malcolm lowered his face to me, we met in a passionate kiss that told us both just how desperately we’d missed this.
Malcolm dropped to one knee and I put my hand on my heart. Then I covered my mouth with my hands when he presented with a small box. I could hear my mother gasp clear across the room and I sent a little prayer up that she taking her heart pills. When I opened it up, inside was a silver key.
“That’s completely symbolic and doesn’t work at all. In fact, I might have stolen the lock to the men’s john from the club.”
“And they say prosecutors aren’t romantic.”
“D. A. now, Baxter. But what you use is either a smart card or a code. That house is, and always has been, way too fucking big for just me.”
I dove into Malcolm’s arms and he caught me midair. I wrapped my legs around him and clung to him delivering a million kissed to his gorgeous face.
“I love you, I love you, I love you,” I said between kisses. “But wait, what about Skylar? I told her she could live at home to save money and honestly, I don’t think she’s emotionally ready to be on her own.”
Malcolm set me down and picked up our dance. “Claire, I brought three keys tonight. Stole the women’s bathroom key as well as the back door in the kitchen. A bunch of hungry grunts won’t be able to pee or eat until I return to the club.”
I kissed him hard for allowing Skylar to live with us.
“Wait, who’s the third one for?”
“Skylar’s new car out front. She’s got early classes on her schedule and I’ve never been much of a morning person.”
Just then, I heard Skylar scream and soon she appeared, running at us full bore. She flung her arms around our necks and repeated thank you’s of gratitude.
A gracious Isla offered to drive my two confused parents back to my apartment. Sybil promised to fill them in and assured me they would be happy for me.
Skylar drove her new car back to Malcolm’s and I climbed onto the back of his bike and wrapped my arms around the bravest man I’d ever known.
Epilogue
10 Years Later
Malcolm
It’s ironic how we become slaves to our fears. How just the idea of something frightening can guide our decisions and actions, even our instinct. Conquering my fear of losing the ones I loved was what gave me a family. And I never would have had one to lose if I’d let the fear rule my life like it did.
Claire Baxter became my wife, Claire Miller, exactly two years to the day after I’d met her. We were married on my newly acquired land I’d purchased, a stunning picnic spot right next to a canyon. Someday, I wanted to build a house under those pines and settle into old age and grandparenthood with Claire by my side.
By the time, Alex and Ava were born, I’d given up smashing in faces and seeking any kind of vengeance except for the legal version which is what the city hired me to do. I’d given up my firearms and in a lot ways, felt freer for the fact.
As for my Harley, she wasn’t going anywhere. And although the Valor Brotherhood meant the world to me, I barely spent any time at the club. I didn’t miss it. I didn’t need it. They had my loyalty, but family meant more to me than anything else. My eldest daughter, was expecting herself. She’d gone on to med school and become a doctor, a family pediatrician to boot, and made her chosen parents the proudest in the world.
Alex and Ava were smart and energetic and looked just like their mother.
“Go help Mommy in the garden,” I told them. They’d just come running in from their playgroup. Besides opening two more shelters for troubled teens, Claire had gotten into gardening and had turned our backyard into a vegetable and flower garden.
I walked out into the bright sunlight and watched the twins scramble toward Claire. She wiped her brow, moving wisps of hair out of her eye and waved a dirt covered gardening glove at me.
“Babe, can you move that giant planter? I swear it weighs three hundred pounds.”
I walked over to the large pot filled with wet dirt and lifted it. “Where do you want it, honey?” Claire pointed, but her expression had changed.
The twins tumbled in the grass and Claire stealthily ran over to me. She threw her arms around my neck and kissed me hurriedly with tongue. I opened my mouth to her and eagerly grabbed her butt.
“Miller, you’re so strong that it turns me on. You dwarfed that giant planter, carried it like it was made out of Styrofoam. I want you so bad, I’m wet.”