They were smiling.
Under it, it said, You can’t have bikers without biker babes. Steele with his fiancée, Carissa.
“Moomah,” Travis mumbled and Joker looked to the kid to see his eyes on the magazine, his fingers twiddling his lip.
“Yeah, son, that’s your momma.”
Travis looked to him. “Moomah.”
“Yeah, boy.”
Travis took his fingers from his lip and curled them around Joker’s. “Joejoekah.”
“Yeah,” Joker whispered. “I’m your Joker.”
The boy wobbled a second then dropped forward and landed a sloppy, open-mouthed kiss on his hand and Joker’s mouth.
He wobbled back.
“Love you too, kid,” Joker whispered.
Travis giggled.
Then he twisted and reached to the floor.
Like he would do if he could do it for as long as he could do it, Joker gave Travis what he wanted and put his ass on the floor.
* * *
“This shit fuckin’ rocks,” Boz declared, scooping up his third helping of Carissa’s chili and dumping it on a bed of chili cheese Fritos.
Watching his brother do that, Joker thought it was good his woman had made a vat.
He went to the fridge, nabbed a couple of cold ones, popped the tops, and walked them out, going straight to Linus, who, in the crush of people, was standing by the window in the dining area, Candy perched on his hip.
Joker handed a beer to his friend and got a mumbled, “Thanks, Car.”
“No probs,” he replied, turning to the room where all his brothers, their bitches, and Chaos friends, including Elvira and Malik, Lawson and his family, Lucas and his family, Delgado and his family, and both Nightingale brothers and their families, with the additions of Linus’s family, Mrs. Heely, and Keith, Megan, and Dora Robinson, were shoved in his and Carissa’s house.
Luckily, some of them were shooting the shit in the kitchen and others were out in the cold on the back deck, or there wouldn’t be enough room.
Even if there wasn’t room, the shit-ton of kids currently in their pad found ways to run around, which they were doing.
Joker felt something light touch his shoulder.
He turned and saw Candy doing a lean his way.
He looked to Linus as he took her weight, heavier than he was used to, and settled her on his side.
She wrapped her arm around his neck and rested her head on his shoulder.
“My baby’s got a crush,” Linus said under his breath.
Joker turned his head and grinned at him.
“Excellent spread in that magazine, Car,” Linus said louder. “Kamryn bought five of ’em. She wants you to get your brothers to sign them.”
Hearing this, Joker wondered if there was a copy left in Denver, considering any women remotely associated with Chaos were hoarding them. Stacy had bought ten (and made the brothers sign them). Elvira had bought twenty (and bossed the brothers into signing them).
“Proud,” Linus whispered.
Joker lifted his beer and took a swallow, but didn’t look at him.
“All I’m gonna say but that runs deep, Car,” Linus kept at it. “And not just because you’re famous.”
With all he was feeling, the only thing Joker had to give he gave.
He nodded.
Linus, as always, took what he had to give happily and clapped him on the back.
Joker felt that light in his chest as he felt something else.
His eyes moved to the couch and he saw his girl sitting close to Mrs. Heely, Indy Nightingale, and Gwen Delgado, all of them gabbing like they weren’t being crawled on by kids or casually dodging toys flying.
But Carissa’s eyes were over the back of the couch and she was looking at Candy.
Her gaze shifted to him.
“Soon,” he mouthed.
She smiled.
The most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.
She pursed her lips and blew him a kiss in a way, with their house chock with people, he’d accept.
And then that was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.
She turned away quickly when Suki Nightingale landed in her lap.
He heard her laughter as he watched her do it.
His chest got even lighter.
Because that was when that was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen and he knew he’d get that again and again and again.
Easy.
Steady.
Beauty.
She gave him what she’d promised he’d have.
A beautiful life.
The best part?
He got to give it back.
Epilogue
Oh Yeah
THERE WERE MILES of cream, pink, and peach streamers twisted and stretched from Ride the store to Ride the garage.
There were tents set up. At their corners, ribbons were waving from under big, shimmering peach and pink butterflies.
There were tables under the tents covered in cream plastic cloths that glinted with sprayed on glitter. On top were pink plastic cake plates and peach plastic forks, and down the middle, bouquets of cream, pink, and peach roses with scrolled and twisted bits of green spiraling around the blossoms, little glittery butterflies sticking out.
Suddenly, when the background music of Godsmack doing their cover of “Rocky Mountain Way” ended, a rough voice sounded over a loudspeaker, saying, “Carrie, your biker wants your ass on the dance floor.”
That was when a woman in a strapless lace dress with what looked like diamonds sparkling all over walked toward the dance floor. The full, poofy skirt that went almost to her ankles swayed against her legs over high-heeled peach sandals.
She had a diamond on a chain around her neck. Her honey curls were pulled back in a loose bun at her nape. She had pearls in her ears.
But she had little butterflies stuck in her hair.
She also had a small baby bump at her belly.
She was smiling at a man with black hair that was cut short at the sides and was a mess at the top. He had a thick beard. He was standing on the dance floor wearing a pair of jeans and a cream shirt.
He was smiling back.
She lifted her hand toward him when she was a few feet away.
He took it when she got close.
He wasted no time pulling her into his arms, and the woman didn’t quit smiling at him as he did it. In fact, her smile got so big, it near on split her face.
Then the opening strains of Louis Armstrong singing “What a Wonderful World” started playing.
The woman threw her head back and her peal of laughter could be heard over the music.
It was laughter even if it also sounded almost like a sob.
The man watched her and the white of his teeth that shone through his beard didn’t disappear as he did.
Then she tipped her head forward and buried her face in his neck as she wrapped her arms around his broad shoulders.