Page 133 of Kings Don't Break

I grin and then stride forward to shake his hand. “Congrats, brother. Who would’ve guessed you’d be the first in our group to tie the knot? You think she’s got any idea?”

“I doubt it. She thinks we’re just having a small dinner. I swore everybody to secrecy. ’Cept Ozzie saw the ring. But I told him I’d beat the shit out of him if he said a word.” Mace pulls open the drawer to grab the ring box and tosses it my way.

I catch it, popping it open for a quick appraisal. I whistle. “Nice rock. I can see it shining on Syd’s finger.”

I congratulate Mace again before checking in on the bike shop. Moss is busy working on a custom order we got in last minute. Everybody else is either off today (it’s a Sunday) or not in for the day yet.

Half considering taking the day myself, Moss calls out to me from his garage. I follow the sound of his voice ’til I’m slowing up and my insides are twisting into knots.

“This woman said she’d like to speak to you?” Moss says, a clueless frown on his craggy, bushy-browed face.

Mom’s at his side. Her limp sheets of hair are even oilier and grayer than the last time I’d seen her. If I didn’t know any better, I’d guess she’s earned a few new smoker’s lines around the mouth and eye areas of her face. She flashes me a yellow-toothed smile that’s hesitant but manipulative in nature.

“Hi, Blake,” she says. Her tone’s meek. Nothing like the moments where she cusses me out or calls me her life’s disappointment.

Moss excuses himself on the premise he needs a coke break. Leaving us alone, we stand in tense silence for another few seconds.

“Your father and I have been trying to get a hold of you,” she says. “We heard the charges were dropped. That officer that had arrested you was dirty.”

I fold my arms over my chest. “You mean after you thought the worst of me, you want to pretend you were concerned?”

“We were always concerned?—”

“You said I was the biggest mistake of your life.”

“I was angry when I said that.”

“You’d think that’d be your piece of shit abusive husband who’s spent decades beating you—who spent my childhood beating me.”

“Your father’s always had a temper,” she says, her pitch sharpening. “If you’d just stayed out of his way?—”

“More like Bill’s always been a fuck up and you’ve never been able to accept it. So, like him, you put it all on me. You made it seem like I was the problem. I was the reason why you both were so damn miserable all the time. When, really, it’s got nothing to do with me.” I shake my head at the clarity I’ve reached. It’s like seeing things as they truly are for the first time. “It’s the two of you that are the fucked up ones. You’ve been so pissed Bill wound up in that wheelchair. Bill put himself in that fucking wheelchair. What happened to him isn’t on me and never was.”

Her mouth drops open. Her wrinkled, pallid face freezes. She’s at a loss for words.

“What’s the matter, Mom? Nothing to say?” I ask, tilting my head to the side. “That tends to happen when you’ve finally been called out on your shit. Get the hell out of my face. I’ve got nothing else to say to you. You’re not my family. Neither is Bill. I’ve found my family—and it’s everybody in the MC. It’s Korine and Sunny. The people who really care about me.”

Watching her go is priceless. She slowly turns and shuffles off as if in a daze, getting behind the wheel of her clunker of a station wagon and driving off in a plume of exhaust smoke.

I feel good. Better than I ever have. More optimistic for what’s to come.

Funny what letting go of baggage can do.

Day one hundred and five…

* * *

Mace proposes to Sydney in front of everybody at her birthday dinner. It’s being held on the patio outside the Steel Saloon. Mick, Bush, Big Eddie, and a couple of the other guys barbecued and smoked some meats. Ozzie’s volunteered himself as being in charge of the music again. Johnny Flanagan is a fucking annoying sourpuss like he always is; Silver sends him to the back of the bar to carry in more cases of beer and that shuts his whining ass up.

Sunny fits in like she’s a been Steel King her whole life. Everybody’s entertained by her and the stories she tells anyone who’ll listen.

Sydney beams and shakes her head. “Your mom is hilarious. She’s the cutest thing.”

“She’s a lot to handle,” Korine laughs. “But she makes everything better.”

I nod my agreement, my arm slung over Korine’s shoulders. “That she does.”

“When are you two going to move in together?”