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They all look pleased with themselves, but a shadow hangs over all their faces regardless, even Blade’s. Maybe it’s the memory of their beginnings and Ghost that I brought up. On Rogue’s face, that shadow is darkest.

He and Angel were as in love as Blade and I were back then.

He might have avenged her now by finally killing Ghost, but did he ever find love again?

For all his hard words to me today and back then, and even despite his less than joyful welcoming me back today, I still want him to find love and be happy again.

“So how many members do you have now?” I ask looking around the room.

More of the tables have filled up, there’s dancing and pool playing now and I count at least fifty people in the room.

Men and women both. Most of them dressed like bikers.

Except the brunette beauty over by the counter who looks like she could be a club girl, but is wearing what looks like surgeon’s scrubs.

“We’re up to thirty,” Rogue says. “Our numbers swelled up after we brought down a trafficking ring about a year ago and we became sort of famous.”

“Famous as a crime fighting biker club?” I ask. “I guess your dreams came true then.”

Rogue looks at me, the sharpness in his bright green eyes clearly telling me he thinks I’m making fun of him.

And back in the day, before anything bad happened, I did have a habit of doing that.

Just for kicks. Because that’s how I was raised in my dysfunctional mafia family, with just a dad and two older brothers. I’ve grown out of that since.

“Yeah, a lot of them did,” Rogue says, clearly seeing that too. He was always good at reading people. And being a leader others loved to follow. I’m sensing he’s grown into that nicely.

“So you’ve found the bastards who killed your parents, Creed?” I ask.

He gulps at suddenly being the center of attention. Or maybe at my blunt question. Then he shakes his head and a sadness so deep washes over his eyes they turn from the usually dark blue to black.

“Haven’t been able to do that yet,” he says. “But at least I’ve been able to put all the money they left me to good use. It’s going towards funding the MC.”

“Every member of this MC is looking for justice in one way or another,” Blade says, squeezing my hand. “And I’m sure we’ll all find it.”

He means me, that I’ll find it. But I’ve stopped looking a long time ago. Just having him back in my life is so beyond my wildest dreams I don’t need anything more.

“And you? What have you been up to these past ten years?” Trinity asks, breaking the silence that followed Blade’s words.

I shrug, no idea how much they need to know right now. “I never really found my feet out East. But I did find my calling. I’m a tattoo artist now.”

“Oh…” Comes from all around the table.

“And she’s damn good,” Blade adds.

“Well, you’ll have no shortage of work here,” Rogue says and smacks Zane on the back. “This one alone needs a lot of tats fixed.”

Zane grins at him sourly then looks at me. “He’s not wrong though.”

“And I’ll be more than happy to fix them for you,” I say, then smile at the rest of them too. “And anyone else’s for that matter.”

The conversation takes off after that, the years we spent apart and the things holding us apart melting away the way they only can between people who have known each other for their whole lives. And I have known them all for that long, since before I can really remember.

We all attended the Sacred Heart Academy, some of us from the time we were babies. Raised by nuns, they were always more my family than any of my blood relatives. Maybe I didn’t have to stay away. Maybe I should’ve come home sooner.

Rogue suddenly claps his hands and stands up. “Well, this little reunion was nice. We’ll have to do it again some time. But I have places to be now.”

The beauty in the surgeon’s outfit is smiling at him, and he’s smiling right back, walking to her as though attached to an invisible rope she’s holding the ends of and using to reel him in.

“Rogue is in love again,” I whisper and wouldn’t even know I spoke aloud if everyone else at the table hadn’t laughed.

“I was beginning to think it would never happen,” Bianca says. “But it seems he finally managed to lay Angel to rest.”

“I’m so glad,” I say and look at Blade.

He reads my mind correctly, as he gives me a quick hug then announces we’ve had a long day and need some much-deserved rest now.

We still haven’t had sex, waiting for the perfect moment perhaps, or simply needing to go through all the motions of falling in love all over again before, but I think tonight might be the night.

Seeing everyone—even Rogue—get their happily ever after makes me think that maybe I can finally reach for my own too.

Blade takes my hand and starts leading towards the back of the room, but I don’t follow, pulling him back until his lips are so close to mine it seems impossible not to kiss him.

“Take me for a ride,” I ask in a whisper. “I want to see the stars.”

There are very few places in LA where you can see stars, but we found all of them. And going by the smile he gives me, he remembers that as well as I do.

“Let’s go,” he says and pulls me in the other direction, back to the door and into the night.

The night that will be ours in all the ways all the nights of the last ten years weren’t. And maybe afterwards, I’ll ask him if we can just keep riding.

Because I’ve seen so much contentment here tonight, so many things having fallen into their proper place, that I’m afraid to stay.

Afraid I’ll find a way to destroy it all like I always seem to.

But that’s a conversation for later. A pain to deal with later.

A truth to face later. After I get just a little taste of what could’ve been for all these years. To wash away what was.