Page 71 of Biker's Property

“What are you looking at?”Joslin says, grinning from ear to ear. “Hand me the dress.”

“You look happy for a woman about to marry an ex-con.”

“Are you getting cold feet?” Joslin asks, reaching for my cut herself when I take too long to give her the black bag holding the dress. We have ten minutes until our last minute appointment. Ten minutes until I get to call this womanmineuntil the end of time.

“Hell no,” I tell her. “No cold feet. You?”

“No,” she says. “It helps that this is only the second craziest thing I’ve ever done.”

“Come here.”

She holdsthe dress bag to her chest and edges closer to me so I can wrap her up in a much needed hug.

“This is the easy part,church girl. The part where I promise to love you forever. Now come on…”

I don’t knowwhat I expect from the place, but Joslin seems excited, which makes me like it. Everything is pink and white everywhere. There’s a pretty archway of white flowers with a few seats in case the elopers brought guests. Which we didn’t. A host meets us at the front.

“Areyou here for the Sinclair appointment?” he says, scanning a computer screen over silver glasses.

“Yes, sir. Me and Joslin…”

“Perfect. All your documents and payments are settled. Pastor Barry will be with you in ten minutes. Will that be enough time?”

Joslin nods enthusiastically,bringing an unconscious smile to the host’s face. Joslin has that effect on me too. She could make an angry grizzly bear smile, she’s that type of woman. I’m already in a suit. With my cut over it. I take the cut off and loosen the tie a bit. Joslin insisted I wear a tie. My neck wasn’t built for any constriction but… I want her to be happy with the pictures.

Pastor Barry leads us to the dressing rooms and even if I don’t have to change, I could use those ten minutes to tie up my loose ends… make sure everyone in my life knows that after tonight, this is it. I’m a married man. No longer on call to do the club’s dirty business. The best thing to do with this kind of news is to not make it sentimental.

I type out a thorough,explanatory text message and send it to everyone on my list of contacts.

Getting married.Heading out East with my wife. No phone calls.

It’sthe perfect wedding announcement. My phone makes that little whoosh sound – they didn’t make all those sounds before I went behind bars and it took some getting used to – and then all hell breaks loose. Can nobody in my family fucking read? I saidno phone calls.

I ignore Hunter’s phone calls first. Three in a row. Then my mom calls.

I don’t havemuch time but… I can’t ignore my mama’s calls. Not unless I want her to take aim at my fucking toes with a rifle again like she did last year. Never mind the fact that I was in federal prison and fighting for my goddamn life. Karen Sinclair’s sons know better than to ignore her.

“Hello, mama. I’m busy getting married.”

“RYDER SINCLAIR HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND?”

I holdthe phone away from my ears.

“What’s wrong?I don’t have too much time.”

“Where are you!? I’m in Flagstaff, Arizona. I’ll be there.”

“Mama, it’s in ten minutes.”

“I’M GOING TO WHOOP YOU SO HARD YOU LAY AN EGG, RYDER.”

I’m tooscared to ask if she’s been drinking. Sure, I knew my marriage might surprise her but… she sounds angry.

“Mama,she’s a good girl. She goes to church.”

“You think my problem is whether she goes to church or not?”

She sounds like she’s going to kill me. Unlike most of the other times I’ve dropped my ass into hot water with my mother, I can’t blame this on my brother.

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