Page 54 of A Twist of Fate

Kane always took care of me, and when we were both sated, he took me to the bed and gently laid me down before going to the bathroom to get a washcloth to clean us both up with. “What if I can’t give you a family? The doctors said…”

He leaned in and kissed the words away. “Don’t care what the doctors said. If it’s meant to be that we grow a baby together in here,” he told me as he placed his big, warm hand over my belly. “Then that’s what happens. If not, we’ll grow our family another way, Sweet G. The only thing I need is for you to be there doing it all with me.”

Tears pooled in my eyes as he spoke. I truly couldn’t have asked for a better man. I’m not sure what I did in life to deserve the two wonderful human beings who had both loved me so fiercely, but I was thankful. Toby had been perfect for the woman I was when we were together. Having him taken from me, becoming someone different as a result, made me perfect for Kane too. I would always be grateful that I had both of them in my life. I just hoped that my life with Kane would be a lifetime instead of being cut so short.

I had originally asked Anna to come out to Vegas and be a witness for me, but her daughter, Tabby, had an ear infection that made flying impossible. Instead, we had Zeke and Sully fly out with us. They closed the shop down for the weekend without telling anyone why. I felt a little bad about not inviting Ever to come along, but while we had been working on a new friendship, I just wasn’t as close to her as I had been with her sister. I think a part of that was just because I knew that Kane failed to see me for the longest time because she shined brighter for him at the time. I wasn’t bitter, because it led me to a short, but beautiful love with Toby. That was something I would never want to wish away or forget. Still, no matter how thankful I was for that time with Toby, as a woman, the last person I want standing up for me in my wedding was the woman who my man initially overlooked me for. Life was like that sometimes. Besides, it felt right for it to just be me and the guys. They had been a part of my family since the beginning. My sister would have been a realistic choice, but she had fallen head over heels in love with a man, and she refused to talk about it just yet. I already knew she had a week long vacation scheduled with him before Kane proposed to me. There was no way I was interrupting her sexy time getaway. Beth deserved a little happiness in her life too.

As we were standing there, waiting for our turn to say our vows, Kane pulled me aside. “I need to ask you if you’re sure about this.”

“Of course I’m sure. Why would you even ask me that?”

“I know Toby was the love of your life. I hope I can come in as a close second, but I just want you to be sure about this. About me.”

My heart burned with the words he was speaking. I knew he felt that and it must have been difficult carrying around the burden of being second best. That meant I hadn’t done a good enough job letting him know how I really felt. Placing my hands on his cheeks, I tilted his head down so that he was looking at me. I needed him to see the truth in my eyes as I spoke.

“Toby was the love of my life,” I admitted. I could feel the tug on my fingers as he attempted to pull away from me. “He was the love of my life then. That was a different life for me. I am not the same person I was when Toby was here. I’ve been through things, I’ve died inside, and as ridiculous as this may sound, I was reborn into a new me. I don’t make the same decisions that would have ruled my world back then.” As if knowing some of this already based on my physical changes, his hand shot out and pulled some of my straight, silky-smooth locks into his fingers. I used to wear my hair and clothes in a way that honored 1950s pinup fashion. The new me put all that stuff away. They belonged to a girl who no longer resided in my body. For a while, she was leather, black, and wore her sadness as a part of her skin. Now, I was jeans and t-shirts, flowy skirts and flirty shirts. Sometimes a cute, flirty summer dress and sandals would get thrown in the mix, and my hair was nothing to brag about. I wore it in a simple, sleek style with the long tresses cascading down my back like a sheet of white-blond silk.

Once he let my hair fall through his fingertips, I continued on. “My heart has a new beat. In this life, the one I’m living now, you are it for me. That new heartbeat I have is synced to the rhythm of yours. When you step in a room, I feel it before I see you. You have taken up residence in here,” I told him as I reached down and took his hand to place it above my heart. “You feel that? It’s the song my body sings for you. It’s just as real. Just as profound. And it’s in the here and now. It’s us. It’s our forever that my heart is singing. You are my new forever, the love of this life that I’m living now.”

While still holding his cheeks in my hands, I had to reach my thumb over and swipe away the tears that fell from his beautiful eyes. He started to say something to me, but I moved a finger to cover his lips. “Save it for up there,” I told him as I tilted my head toward where we would soon be united as man and wife in the eyes of the law and before our two very best friends. That’s just what he did.

As our turn was announced, as if marriage was fast-food made to order in this place, we moved into position with Zeke and Sully standing just slightly behind and off to the side of us as Kane made his vows to me. He kept it simple, repeating the pastor verbatim until the end when he tacked on, “As long as we both shall live – because you are my everything and always will be.” My heart belonged to him before he spoke those words, and after, well, if it was possible to own it any more, he did.

Once our weekend was over and we returned home as a married couple, we were not prepared for the angry mob that awaited us. The moment our plane touched down in Columbia, our phones were blowing up with messages that we needed to get to the clubhouse immediately. The giant ball of dread that settled in my stomach with that summons nearly ruined the cloud-nine feeling I had been floating on since saying, “I do,” to Kane two days ago.

We had a two-hour drive to sit and wonder what the hell could be happening in the MC that we were summoned to go there before anywhere else. “What do you think this is about?”

“If I had to guess?” Kane asked. I nodded my head for him to go on. “I think maybe they got wind that we got married, and they might be a tad upset that we didn’t let them in on it.”

“Shit! Can you get in trouble for that? Is that something in the bylaws, that your club has to be present for a wedding or something?”

“Not unless they added it recently.”

“Are you sure?” I asked again, my worry not settling well on my stomach.

“I’m positive, G. I had to know every single one of the fucking bylaws by heart as a prospect.”

I scrunched up my nose at that. “Ew, why?”

“Can’t be a very good club brother if you don’t know what the club is about, who happens to be in charge, or what the fucking rules are,” he insisted.

“I guess so, but I still think it’s weird that an MC has so many rules anyway. Aren’t they supposed to be all about shunning the rules and living free?”

Kane chuckled at that. “Everyone has to have rules, sweetheart. I think they just dislike other people telling them what the rules are.”

“Well, that’s hypocr…”

“Don’t finish that sentence!” He said as he cut me off. “I know what you’re thinking, and it isn’t like that. The rules of the club are there for the members’ and their family’s safety. Remember the recent rule about the club whores no longer being welcome? That’s one. Do you want them to remove it?”

“No. I get it,” I replied sullenly. You’re right. That’s something I didn’t even think about before I let my mouth run away with my thoughts.”

“Babe,” his voice had thickened with emotion as he reached over and put a hand on my thigh and gave a reassuring squeeze. “I didn’t say that to make you feel bad, just so you’d understand why.”

“I know. It just…”

“Brought up bad memories,” he finished for me.

“Yeah,” I whispered. Then I started wringing my hands in my lap. “I don’t want anyone to be mad at me when we get there. I love that I’m married to you! Nothing should dim that right now.”

---