Page 46 of Ask Your Mom If I'm Real

My old lady had to drive home because I was crying like a fucking baby.

And late into the night, when Silas called to tell me my dad was gone, I started right back up again.

Chapter

Twenty-Four

It’s not just the ornaments that are well hung…

—Dixie’s secret thoughts

DIXIE

Present

“You okay, old man?”

I looked up to find the young man I’d all but helped raise standing in front of me.

He wasn’t looking so young anymore.

“Hey, Silas,” I said softly.

“You were just gonna go?” he asked. “Without telling us?”

I shrugged. “I figured it’d be easier for us all.”

“Absolutely not,” I heard Kettle say from behind him.

I looked up, my heart melting.

We’d been through so much together, this club and I.

“What are y’all doing here?” I asked.

He looked at the clock mounted on the wall, then at me. “Came to see if you wanted to go for a ride.”

I grinned.

Or tried to.

I was really fucking tired.

“Sure.” I hesitated. “But I don’t think I can hold that bike up even if I wanted to.”

Silas grinned. “Lucky for you, old man, I know how to ride with a bitch beside me.”

I chuckled.

It felt odd coming out of my chest.

I stood up, my bones aching as I did, and said, “Let’s go.”

“Here,” Sebastian said as he held out my coat.

Trance caught it and helped me into it.

Loki stepped up and had my cut waiting. “Can’t forget this.”

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