“All the Coeur d’Alene boys are here,” Darcy went on. “We know whatever’s going on is some dark stuff because the prospects have been our living shadows, and the whole crew being down from Idaho is very rare.”
“How do you explain all this to the kids?” I asked.
“It’s a normal existence for them,” Darcy said. “They don’t know anything else. They just know there are times we go to the woods, and then we go back home and it’s all okay again.”
I nodded slowly.
“So, this proposal,” Joni said. “I want more details.”
“There aren’t that many details,” I said with a chuckle. “I was standing in his house with sledgehammered holes in the walls and ruined furniture, and he said he didn’t want to live there anymore. So, I told him we’d move. That turned into a conversation about living together, which brought up the marriage thing.”
“He brought it up, or you brought it up?” Allison demanded as she put baby Tank to her shoulder.
“I don’t even really remember.”
“It doesn’t sound very romantic,” Rachel said.
“Do bikers and romance usually go together?” I asked.
“Well, maybe not romance per se,” Rachel relented. “But my proposal definitely included food and sex.”
“Mine too,” Mia said.
“Yep,” Joni said with a nod. “There was a lot of sex and a lot of food with Zip.”
“You guys are making her sad,” Allison said. “Look at her face.”
“I’m not sad,” I protested.
“Yeah, you are,” Darcy insisted. “It’s okay to admit you wanted something different in a proposal.”
“Everything has been happening so fast anyway. There wasn’t really time for him to—it’s not like we’d discussed a life together.” I frowned and then sighed. “Darn it.”
“You wanted a good proposal story, didn’t you?” Mia said gently.
I nodded. “Now that I’ve had time to think about it, yeah. A real proposal would’ve been nice.”
“Ask him for a do-over,” Joni said.
“Demanda do-over,” Rachel said. “You’re worth it.”
I smiled at her. “Thanks. It feels stupid, though. You know? Because there are so many other more important things going on now.”
“Matters of the heart are important too,” Allison said.
“Even when the world is falling apart?” I asked quietly.
“Even then,” she assured me.
“It feels selfish. They’re about to go to Mexico and…” I shook my head and fell silent.
The Old Ladies looked at one another and then Rachel asked, “They’re going to Mexico?”
Shit.
I exhaled slowly and then nodded.
“Cartel stuff,” Joni said. “Right?”