Page 94 of Grumpy Sunshine

A feeling of warmth spread through me.

The more I got to see my father, the more I realized that he was a really good man.

It sucked that I’d spent so much time growing up without him.

I had a feeling he’d have been a great dad to have in my formative years.

I turned back to the grieving dad in the room and saw him take his seat and nod to the preacher in the front of the room.

Yet another man wearing a Truth Tellers MC cut.

The Truth Tellers was a big club.

Though this one I’d been introduced to multiple times.

His road name was Hagrid.

He’d been introduced to me as a part-time A/C repairman and part-time preacher.

At the time I’d thought it a weird combination, but as I saw him officiate the ceremony for a little boy, I realized that he truly had a gift.

Everyone in the room was enraptured as he told stories, talked about Tavi, and ultimately ensured that there wasn’t a single dry eye in the house.

When the song fromMoanacame on, I had to laugh through my tears.

It was a perfect song.

So was the song fromLion King, and the action songs fromTransformers.

When the ceremony ended, all of us went from one room to the next, where we sat through the funeral of Laney Ingram, the wife of Audric ‘Detroit’ Ingram.

Audric had walked from Tavi’s funeral to the one for his wife, his young infant daughter in his arms, completely asleep and unaware of how her tiny little world had just become much bleaker.

Audric sat down in the front of the room and shifted his daughter up to his shoulder, patting her little bottom as he stared straight ahead.

Hagrid came into the room and walked up to the stage, his eyes going around the room as he took everything in.

“The first time I met Laney, it was on the side of the road while this guy.”Hagrid jerked his chin toward Audric.“All but melted into a puddle of goo.I’d never seen love at first sight before, but Detroit—Audric—here…it was quite embarrassing…”

Audric made a sound in the back of his throat that had me closing my eyes as the tears continued to fall.

To say that I wasn’t in the best of moods when Chevy and I walked into that diner later that day would be an understatement.

My dad—even though I still couldn’t call him that out loud—had come with us, along with Cutter, his wife Milena, Keely, and her husband, Dima.

Copper had declined the invite and had left with Reign, which had pissed off the two brothers and sister.

They weren’t happy that their brother hadn’t joined them.Neither were they happy that their brother was with ‘that woman.’

“…can’t believe that he just left without talking to us first.This is all so messed up.”Keely shook her head.

Chevy grumbled something under his breath, and Cutter snorted in laughter.

I sat there, watching the table at large, feeling slightly uncomfortable.

These last two days had been a whirlwind.

From the moment that both Tavi and Laney had died, I’d been thrown into a very personal moment for them all, and I felt like an impostor.

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