Page 49 of Always Yours

“Sasha has been cooking non-stop since she heard how many chapters were coming in. She appears to have gone into panic mode and started cooking,” he says with a chuckle as he follows me.

“This is great. She will be a great Old Lady,” I tell him.

“Yeah, she will. I was going to ask Prez when we got back,” he says, rubbing the back of his neck.

I head to my office remembering seeing another box like the one Lily’s was in.

I walk back out and hand it to him.

“It looks like he was prepared,” I say with a small smile.

He opens it and gasps at what he sees.

“Property of Bear” “Mama Bear”

“Sasha and I have purchased a cabin if you and Lily need some time alone together. I know that Nick wants to bring Lily up there to show her more knife throwing skills. It will be safer to do it there with no chance of hurting anyone,” Bear tells me.

I nod my head at his words.

“Maybe we will take you up on that once everything is settled. I know we could use some peace before the baby comes.”

“Sounds good, let me know. You’re as much family as Lily and Nick are,” Bear tells me.

Bear has always been like a blood brother to me. We had been close ever since we met, so it means a lot. Especially in this moment.

“There’s still no word on Bianca. There’s no footage on any trains, planes, or buses. I don’t know how she got out without anyone seeing her, unless she had help,” Bear tells me.

Defeat comes over me. I have this feeling of hopelessness that I can’t seem to get rid of. Lily comes to my side moments later, like she knew I needed her.

She’s the only light in the darkness.

“Let me get everything ready for tomorrow. I want to make sure everything is perfect,” Lily says.

I reluctantly let her go.

“Alright, I’ll be here if you need anything,” I tell her.

When she leaves, I grab the closest bottle of whiskey and pour myself a drink.

That’s how I spend my day, drowning myself in booze.

I watch Lily when she walks in and out of the room to make sure everything is as it needs to be. At some point, she brings me lunch. She watches me eat until it’s all gone when I make no move to eat whatsoever.

Bear joins me after he dealt with some stuff, and a couple other brothers start to pile in. We are all drinking more than our fair share of alcohol.

Everyone starts reminiscing and telling stories about my father. A lot of them are hilarious. My father was a troublemaker when he was young. His club name was “Cackle” before he became Prez. He had the most amusing laugh I had ever known anyone to have.

There was a snorting noise he would make, but then he always laughed like he was a cross between an evil villain and a hyena.

Stone tells me that when dad first met my mother, she wouldn’t give into his charms, so he tried serenading her. With him being tone deaf, I could imagine that it was very bad. He had tried sending her flowers and teddy bears, and they said they could tell she liked that.

At one point, he had taken her out on a date when he finally got her to agree. He decided to make a picnic in the forest. They were by a local waterfall and, as romantic as that idea seemed, they came across a bear and had to get out of there. What didn’t help was when she had come to the club, a spider was crawling on him. He moved her out of the way and ran out of the room, frantically trying to wipe it off even though it fell pretty quickly. She wouldn’t ever let him live it down that he could be taken down by a spider. Whenever she was mad at him, or wanted to play a joke on him, she hid fake spiders that looked real around so that he was always on the lookout for them.

It’s late and I’m very drunk when Lily comes back in saying that she’s done with everything until tomorrow. We are all laughing our asses off thanks to all the stories.

When Lily tells me it’s time for bed, I stumble along and plant myself face first on the bed before falling straight asleep.

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