Hack: Asshole didn’t keep his end of the deal. Went to check on Paisley. She’s gone.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
Me: Be on the road in twenty.
I didn’t want to imagine what state I’d be in if Lucy up and disappeared on me. So I quietly slipped out of bed and left her a note with a quick explanation. Then I dressed and headed out to my bike. It was time to take another motherfucker down.
Epilogue
Lucy
“I wanna ride with Daddy,” Kate whined, stomping her foot on the ground as she crossed her arms over her chest.
I pressed my lips together to stop myself from laughing. She was just too darn cute, and I couldn’t blame her for being envious of her big sister. Not when I loved being on Dom’s motorcycle with him just as much as they did. He went slow when the girls rode with him, never taking them far, and they each had their own little helmet—pink for Alice and purple for Kate. He was also careful to make sure they got the same amount of time on the motorcycle, or else we’d never hear the end of it. “You’re up next, baby girl. Let’s get your helmet on so you’ll be ready to go when Daddy gets back.”
My suggestion was the perfect distraction. She raced into the garage as fast as her little legs would take her and grabbed her helmet off the peg where we kept them. Then she ran back over to where I was standing in the driveway and thrust it toward me. “Help me put it on, Mommy.”
“Sure thing.” I carefully put the helmet on her head and pulled it into place. Then I flipped the face shield down and gently rapped my knuckles against the hard plastic surface. “Don’t forget your gloves.”
Kate skipped back into the garage to get her matching purple gloves. By the time she worked them onto her small hands, Dominic and Alice pulled into the driveway. He lifted her off the bike and held out his hands when Kate ran straight toward him. Once he had her safely in place in front of him, he grinned at me. “Be back in five minutes, doll.”
My lips curved down in a teasing pout. “You better make up for the fact that I didn’t get a turn later.”
“You know I will,” he promised before roaring away.
“Silly Mommy,” Alice chided as I helped her take her helmet off. “You know you can’t ride the bike with Daddy when you’re pregnant.”
My husband hadn’t managed to find a way to knock me up again when I was already pregnant, but he came pretty close. Born only eleven months apart, Alice and Kate were what some people called Irish twins, but I liked to refer to them as my little handfuls. Having them so close together meant I was always running after one or the other, so we’d held off on having another until they were both in school.
This past August, I’d cried my eyes out when we dropped them off for their second day of kindergarten and first grade. My independent little girls had insisted they didn’t need their mommy or daddy to walk them inside like we had the day before. I sat in the passenger seat of the truck and watched with tears streaming down my cheeks as Alice led her little sister down the sidewalk and through the doors of the school. I was still crying when we got home, but Dom carried me to our bedroom and fucked the sad out of me. He’d also knocked me up again and loved to brag that it had taken him no time at all once I got off my birth control.
Rubbing my hand over my rounded belly, I smiled at my oldest daughter. “I know, sweetie. But I can still be a little sad about missing out since I love to ride with Daddy, too.”
She nodded and grinned back at me. “I bet a cookie will make you happy!”
“I like the way you think, sweetie.” My newest craving of the week was chocolate, and we had a fresh batch of double chocolate chip cookies in the kitchen that I’d just baked that morning. Following her into the garage, I waited until she put her helmet and gloves away before heading into the house. After she washed up, Alice made a beeline for the cookie jar while I grabbed a carton of milk from the fridge. We’d each devoured two cookies by the time we heard the roar of pipes when Dom and Kate returned.
I grabbed two more glasses out of the cabinet and filled them with milk. As I was setting them on the table, my husband and youngest daughter walked through the door that led from the kitchen to the garage. Kate saw the plates with crumbs on them and yelled, “I want cookies, too!”