Smoke and Steel (Wild West MC #2)(112)

And there it was again.

I was going to start crying.

“Hey,” he whispered, cupping my face. “None of that. Not for me. Look at what I got.” He gave me a squeeze with his arm around me and then dipped his chin to where Nanook was sitting. “I’m not there anymore. I’m here. Every day, I’m grateful. Because I learned not to live in the past. I wake up with you in my life and stay the course and it’s all good.”

“Okay,” I mumbled. “I’m glad. And you can vacuum all you want.”

He chuckled.

That sound died as he swept his thumb along my cheek and said, “I’m sorry about Tigger.”

“Me too.”

“And I’m sorry your dad is such a dick.”

I felt my lips quirk. “Me too.”

“You wanna talk about your pup?”

God, he was so amazing.

I shook my head but said, “It happened just like that. He came home after a long business trip, and he wanted us to dance attendance. I was playing with Tigger, and he got enraged that I was more into my dog than my dad coming home. So he grabbed him and took off and then…”

I didn’t finish because I couldn’t finish.

“Yeah, a fuckin’ dick,” Core snarled.

“Well now, I wake up with you and Nanook in my life every day, so it’s all good.”

He stopped looking pissed.

“Right,” he said, “Now he’s gone, and we don’t have hot chocolate and I don’t know what cookies you wanna bake so I gotta go to the store. And I’d love it if you went with me.”

That was when I felt my lips curve fully because my day turned on his words.

“That sounds perfect.”





It would be later, when Core got a text and said he had to take off for half an hour, which he did, I called her.

Janna picked up right away.

I didn’t beat around the bush.

“I get excruciating care too,” I told her.

She already knew.

“Mm-hm.”

“I don’t want him to think he has to do that.”

“Hon, you just gotta keep a finger on the pulse. When is it him doing what he needs to do? When is it going too far? When it’s too far, talk to him. One thing these boys have learned is how to listen and hear.”

That was very true.

“Do you want to meet up with me and my girls at Fortnum’s for coffee sometime?”

It was her turn not to beat around the bush.

“I’d love to.”

Core





They met where they often met, in the parking lot of the grocery store.

Core was waiting for him, and Beck approached on his bike from the front and stopped to Core’s side, so they were facing.

Beck cut power and looked at Core.

“We got a problem with Eleanor Moynihan,” Core announced.

Beck’s lips thinned.

Then he nodded.





EPILOGUE





THE MAN HE NEEDED TO BE





Hellen





“I feel the need to have a thing,” Janna announced. “And I think I should kick it off with a New Year’s Party, but I don’t know what that thing should be.”

It was the Sunday before Christmas and the new girl gang was at Fortnum’s, that gang including Marcy, Kyra, Janna, me and my two sisters, Li and Archie.

We were hanging on the couches and armchairs at the window and were deep into coffee number two.

“A thing?” Marcy asked.

“Like Chaos has hog roasts, Resurrection needs a thing,” Janna answered. “The guys, they get together. The whole club, women, kids, we sometimes do, but mostly it’s whoever is hanging in the clubhouse at any given time. We don’t have our thing. A bonding thing that we can invite our friends to and just let loose, be together and make memories. We need a thing.”

Chaos’s hog roasts were the bomb, so I thought Janna was right.

Resurrection needed a thing.

It came to me.

“Smoke,” I declared.

Li perked up. “A weed fest?”

“Jag and I would be all over that,” Archie joked.

I shook my head, laughing. “No.” I turned to Janna. “Beck loves to smoke meat. You told me you got him that smoker a couple of years ago, and now he smokes his own meat all the time. When we were over for dinner the other night, he smoked that pulled pork for us. It was amazing. The club needs to buy a big smoker and have smokes.”

“Oh my God, that’s the perfect idea,” Janna breathed.

“I’d be all the way down to attend a smoke,” Marcy said. “And as an aside, calling it a ‘smoke’ rather than a ‘barbeque’ is badass.”

I smiled proudly because I thought so too.

“You could have all sorts of yummy sides. It can be potluck. Everyone can bring something.”

“A New Year’s Smoke. I dig it,” Li agreed.

“Resurrection’s First Annual New Year’s Smoke,” Janna corrected. “Sisters, you’re in on it. We’re making it a tradition.” She was already on her phone. “I’m going to text the women, get it on their calendars right now. New Year’s is just around the corner. We’re a family.” Her eyes moved to rest on me. “Our family is expanding. We should have family gatherings.”