Page 4 of The Locksmith's Promise

Over the past week, the three of them helped me pack up my house, and last night they brought pizza and beer for an impromptu goodbye party. I hadn’t known them all that long, but they’d quickly become brothers.

Would the past ten years have been different if I’d found them earlier?

I shook my head. Nothing would be worth it if it meant I wasn’t going home to Maggie now.

With a final look around the neighbourhood that had been more home to me than any other, I rounded the hood of my truck and readied myself to leave it all behind. I had just opened the door when the deep rumble of a motorcycle drew my attention.

Pulling in behind me, Lucky swung his long-ass leg over the seat and pulled off his helmet.

I quirked an eyebrow. “You miss me already, asshole?”

He grinned as he walked toward me, “Fuck you, motherfucker.”

I gasped in mock dismay. “Is that any way for a man who’s teaching the next generation to speak?”

He laughed. That sound, joyous and free, divided us in ways he couldn’t fathom.

“I have something for you.” Reaching into his pocket, he withdrew a small package and gave it to me.

I dipped my chin and opened the case to find a Hohner 64 Chromonica harmonica. My eyes stung suspiciously, as if I’d contracted a sudden case of hay fever.

“I know you don’t like accepting gifts,” he began roughly. “And I know you had a shit dad. I don’t know what that’s like, but I do know how much it means to have someone believe in you.”

Unable to look at him, I turned the harmonica over and over in my hands until something caught my eye.

My hands froze in place.

He had engraved the back.

Write your own song.

My mouth went dry while shame crept up my neck. He knew what I came from.

I cleared my throat and rasped, “Are you my daddy now?”

His laughter rang out and it pierced me.

Write your own song.

I grinned at him.

“He actually has teeth,” he teased.

Just then, a little red sports car pulled up behind Lucky’s bike.

His eyes lit up before he even turned around. The driver’s side door opened, and a shapely leg tipped in sky-high heels stepped out onto the pavement.

“I don’t know how you managed to land that,” I joked.

He smiled softly. “Fuck if I know but I’m not complaining.”

Minty smiled at me before opening the back door and leaning in.

Lucky’s head tilted to the side as he watched her round ass wiggle as she struggled to pull something out of the back seat.

“You better not have your eyes on my wife’s ass, fucker,” Lucky murmured.

I barked out a laugh and averted my gaze.

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