Leave a Trail (Signal Bend #7)(141)
Lilli hadn’t known Gia had brought the binder with her to the clubhouse today.
“Hey, cara. What are you gonna do with that?”
Gia shrugged, releasing her shoulders with a sigh. She was so lovely. Dark, wavy hair, long and thick, her father’s eyes behind long, dark lashes, a sweet bow of a mouth. She was tall and coltish, all slender legs and arms, and just the tiniest hint of breasts—not yet enough to warrant more than a camisole, but of course, upon the first inkling of swelling on her chest, she’d wanted a full complement of bras. Lilli had laughed and told her than one day soon, bras wouldn’t be so awesome to have to wear, but she’d bought her the underwear anyway.
“I brought it because I wanted to ask Daddy to tear it up and set it on fire with me.”
At the same time her eyes blurred with a glaze of tears, Lilli laughed. That was such a perfectly Gia thing to want to do—sweet and fierce all at once.
“Wow. That’s pretty badass. It’s actually kinda Viking, if you think about it.”
Gia nodded. “Yeah. But…this is weird.” She opened the binder and flipped through the pages—page after page filled with red Xs. She flipped to the last page, where today’s date was still unmarked. Gia had always marked the date just before bed. “I kinda want to keep this. I hate it. But I don’t want to burn it. I don’t know why.” She looked up at her mother. “That’s weird, right?”
Lilli reached out and laid her hand over Gia’s on the book. “No, cara. It’s not weird at all. I think that book is how you’ve been staying close to him all this time. I wouldn’t want to get rid of it, either. The pain in it is part of your love.”
Gia’s lower lip pooched out in a small pout, and her eyes glittered. Lilli swallowed her own emotion back down. She’d been pushing her emotions away for years. If she gave over now, she’d just dissolve, and she had big plans for the day. Big. Plans. “It’s over now, baby. He’s almost home. Any minute now.
He’ll be with us. And he’ll stay. We won’t let him go again.”
Their little girl dropped her head with a nod, and Lilli squeezed her hand. When the roar of an army of Harleys rose in the distance, Gia looked up, and they both grinned.
He was home.
oOo
The last nearly three years had been endlessly horrible. Although by then, they’d achieved a routine at home that worked, Isaac’s prison life had gotten massively harder, seeing him so rarely, and in that place, the way he’d been changed, lines deepening on his face, his hair greying, scars appearing—every visit, every letter more despairing than the last. Even as his time had grown short, he seemed to go deeper into a darkness she hadn’t seen since he’d been paralyzed. It was like he’d been waiting to have his salvation ripped from him the second he believed it was real.
But it was real. He was home. And now, he was here. Everybody in the clubhouse—Prospects, old ladies, children, townspeople—came out and made a crowd as the bikes pulled in and parked. Isaac, grinning hugely right at her, took off his helmet and sunglasses and then dismounted. God, he looked so happy. She’d forgotten what he looked like when he was happy.
With Bo at her side, Lilli stayed back, her heart thumping so hard her ribs ached, and let Gia go to him first. She watched as Isaac lifted their girl right off her feet and swallowed her up in a bear hug. She was glad to see that his back allowed it. He stood in the lot, Gia in his arms, their heads tucked together, and everyone waited, paying a kind of quiet respect to this love between a girl and her daddy.
He set her down and took her hand, and they walked together toward Lilli and Bo. With every step he took closer, Lilli’s heart raced faster. She was lightheaded.
He stopped in front of Bo and squatted. Bo was tall, so Isaac’s change of position made him a little taller than his dad. “Hey, there, Bo.”
Bo cleared his throat. “H-hi. Dad.”
The muscles of Isaac’s face went through a tumult of spasms as he reacted to hearing Bo’s voice for the first time in…Jesus. Four years? Longer?
“Hey. Good to see you, son.” His voice was suddenly hoarse and rough. Then Bo leaned in for the required hug, and Isaac just lost it. Right there on the gravel lot, surrounded by the Horde and Signal Bend, his son in his arms, he held on and sobbed.
There was only so much of that Bo could take, even for a trip to the art store, and Isaac let him go as soon as he went stiff. Still squatting, he wiped his face with both hands.
And then he rose and went to Lilli.
“Hey, Sport.” Smiling, his face still damp, he raised a hand to her face and brushed the tips of his fingers over her cheekbone. “You are beautiful. My dream.”
Lilli laid her hands on his chest, splaying her fingers over the leather of his kutte, hot from the summer sun. He was so big and broad. So hard. So warm. So real. “You’re home. You came home to me.”
He nodded, his eyes locked with hers. Then he fed his hand into the hair behind the band of her ponytail, clutching her head hard. His other arm went quickly around her waist and brought her whole body against his. “I’m home,” he growled, and then he kissed her.
His mouth came down so hard and fast that, though she was ready for him, he mashed her lips against her teeth, and she tasted her own blood. She didn’t mind—in fact, she reveled in his force and brought both hands up, cupping his bearded jaw with one and reaching back to grab his braid and wrap it around the other. When she pulled, he made a long throaty sound, like a swallowed roar, and thrust his hips hard. The crowd around them erupted in cheers and applause, and she laughed into his savage kiss.