Page 116 of Savage Ends

Pat nodded.

“You have my blessing,” Hazel said.“And I know you would have had her father’s.”

“Mom?”Ava asked.

Pat looked toward his woman.He stroked her cheek, seeing the redness around her throat.“This is not the way I wanted to ask you, babe, but I love you.I fell in love with you a long time ago, the moment I walked into that coffee shop.There is no one I want more than you.I love you.”

He sunk down onto one knee, aware that a couple of feet away, there was a dead body.

“Marry me, Ava.”He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a ring.

“Are you for real right now?”Grant asked, stepping into the fabric shop.He was not the only one either.Bull, Rip, Sweets, Rusty, and several of the other guys walked right in.There were even the three prospects.None of them had crumbled under the pressure of Bull’s questioning.He already knew the three men would be initiated.

“This is not romantic,” Grant said.“You should tell his sorry ass to back the fuck up, and ask you over a candlelit dinner.”

Pat saw his dad enter the shop as well.He also noticed that Violet went to his old man, and the two shared an embrace.He didn’t know if that was a friendly embrace or a loving one.

“I’m sorry,” Ava said.

At first, Pat thought she was about to reject his marriage proposal, but her gaze was toward the other club brothers.

“I couldn’t let this place go.My dad—”

“Stop,” Bull said.“We all do crazy things for family.We get it.You don’t have to apologize for that.Even Ranford there, he broke doing what he needed to for his family.”

Ava turned toward him and smiled, that smile he had first fallen in love with.The same smile he spent a great deal of time thinking about.“I love you too.You’re all I could think about as he choked me.”

“That is some weird porn shit,” Grant said.“Ouch, what was that for?”

“Stop ruining his proposal,” Bull said.

“What, it’s weird.She was getting choked by another guy and hey, don’t hit me again.”

“Yes,” Ava said, but she chuckled only to then groan and he realized it was going to hurt her for a short time because her throat was going to be bruised.

Pat kissed her neck.“I am so sorry.”

“It’s not your fault.”

He should have gotten here a lot sooner.

“I love you, Ava, and I promise, I’m not going to let anything like this ever happen again.”

She cupped his face.“Stop, this was not your fault.”

And then he kissed her.

The club, the shop, all of it, faded into nothing as he kissed his woman.Pulling her in close, running his hands down her back, hoping to just hold her and create new memories with her.

“Hey,” Hazel said.“Seeing as you’re all here, and you seem intent on helping out, how about you get started in putting this shop back to some normalcy?I’ve got a business to run, and now gasoline to get out of the carpet.”

Pat wrapped his arms around his woman and looked toward her mother.Hazel had finally given him her blessing, and for that he was thankful.He knew it would be a lot easier being with Ava.She loved her family, and he would never make her choose between the club and her family.

She could have both.

****

Three Weeks Later