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Travis ran his fingers through his hair. His frustration at the caller rising with every word I couldn’t hear.

“It’s too early for this shit. I’m not discussing it anymore. You have my answer.”

Travis disconnected the call, setting his phone on the counter. It immediately rang. “GODDAMMIT!” he yelled and flung the phone across the room.

“Are you ok?” I asked quietly.

Travis spun around and sighed. “I didn’t mean to wake you.”

“You didn’t. I caught the tail end of the call. Can we talk about it?”

“No.”

He turned back to the stove, working on breakfast. “You want some coffee?” he asked without looking at me.

“Sure.”

Sitting at the table, sipping the coffee he made me, I watched him. His shoulders were tight. His movements didn’t have the same ease I was used to.

He was angry, and it was my fault.

“Was that King?”

“Princess, I don’t wanna talk about the call. Let’s just eat and get to the clubhouse so you can see Dani and I can pack up my room.”

Eating in silence was not enjoyable. I didn’t think anything could surpass the joy of crispy bacon on my tongue. Well, except maybe Travis on my tongue. I hated seeing him upset. I hated even more that I caused it.

Pulling into the clubhouse lot, there were a lot of bikes lined up. The weather was warming up, but I didn’t imagine winter was over in Nebraska at the end of February. Still, bikers were stubborn. Any slight elevation in temperature and they preferred the bike to a cage.

“Jesus Christ.”

“What’s wrong?” I followed his gaze to the line of bikes.

“Nothing. Come on.”

I hadn’t seen the clubhouse this full since the night I arrived. It looked like everyone was here.

“Mama!”

Dani ran over and I scooped her up, hugging her close. God, I missed her. “Good morning, baby.”

“Books.”

“Of course, we can read books.”

“Morning, sweetheart.” Travis kissed the top of Dani’s head and I swooned. Everything this man did made me love him more. It made me want to do everything in my power to make him as happy as he made me.

You know what you need to do.

Blah, blah, blah, I told myself.

I sat on the couch with Dani and grabbed a book from the basket by my feet. Before I knew it, the other three girls had climbed up too: Dani on one knee, and Tabby on the other. With Chrissy and Charlie looking over my shoulder.

When I finished the fourth book, Danny asked to speak with me. This was it. This was the moment I was dreading. I wasn’t sure I wanted to know what had happened in New York.

Dante took over reading the books, and the girls all swarmed him, allowing me to follow Danny into church. Sitting at the large table, just the two of us, felt ominous.

It was a large room, and the equally large wooden table took up most of it.