Total pages in book: 61
Estimated words: 60268 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 301(@200wpm)___ 241(@250wpm)___ 201(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 60268 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 301(@200wpm)___ 241(@250wpm)___ 201(@300wpm)
“I’m not normally a bitch,” she said, feeling the tears start to well in her eyes.
“I know, and I’m sorry for everything that has happened.”
“But you think there has to come a point where I forgive?”
“Don’t you think you should? I mean, it was ten years ago. Your time for playing the pissed off woman was then. You must have forgiven him at some point. No woman leaves it ten years.” He held his hands up. “Shit, this is not my area. I’m sorry.”
Rose moved toward the table, taking a seat in front of him. “Don’t go. You don’t have to be upset for what you’re saying. I appreciate you being frank with me. It’s refreshing even though it hurts at times.”
“What I say to you is not meant to hurt you,” Fighter said.
“I know. Ten years ago, I thought I couldn’t have kids. I was such a young and stupid fool. Anyway, it affected Hardy’s and my relationship. We pretended it didn’t, but it did. It was my fault. He tried, and I just kept on pushing him away. We shouldn’t have done that. It was our mistake, and one we didn’t take the time to talk over, or to change our outlook on life. We went on, and on.” Glancing down at her hands, Rose found it hard to talk about their mistakes. “Over time, Hardy started spending more and more time at the club. He didn’t want to have sex, and I put it down to him being tired. Stupid, anyway, I caught him actually fucking one of the sweet-butts. He was there, in front of my eyes, fucking her.” She cringed recalling the scene as if it was yesterday. Rose talked about finding out about the sweet-butt being pregnant, then the loss as she was killed along with the baby.
“Fucking hell,” Fighter said.
“It was hard, and then I just stopped. I didn’t talk to Hardy about it. I went on, and I became the woman at his side, changing myself to suit him, not myself, even though he didn’t ask me to. I just changed because I thought that it was what he wanted. I’ve made a lot of mistakes.” She’d even convinced herself that it was what Hardy wanted of her, to change.
“What brought on your sudden anger?”
Rose tucked some hair behind her ear. “The growth of the club. Angel, Eva, Sophia, Kelsey, they were all having babies, and their men were devoted to them. None of them cheated on their woman, and it was like they were living the life I always wanted. I was jealous, but the Band-Aid that I’d put over my own wounds, tore off, exposing all of that pain once again.” She licked her lips. “Once it was ripped off, there was no going back. I couldn’t change what was happening, and I couldn’t make it better even though I wanted to. Everything that happened only seemed to highlight everything that I’d lost, and that didn’t help either.”
“How are you feeling now?”
“Now? I’m shocked, scared, worried. I’m going to be a mom, and I don’t have a fucking clue if I’m ready for this. I’d resigned myself to a life without kids.” She pressed a hand to her stomach. “Everything is crazy right now.”
“You’ll get through it. Why didn’t you and Hardy consider adopting like Lacey and Whizz are?”
“He didn’t want to raise a kid that wasn’t his blood. I wasn’t going to make him do something that he didn’t want to do.”
“And maybe that was always your problem. You weren’t prepared to fight, either of you. Hardy wasn’t about to let you go, and you weren’t prepared to fight him for what you wanted,” Fighter said.
“Are you some kind of shrink?”
“No, I know things.” He gave her a wink. “You don’t go around getting your ass kicked for nothing, without understanding.”
Rose frowned.
“I was a psych major before I was a fighter.”
“I never knew that.”
“Not a lot of people do,” he said.
“You were in college?”
“I was in college, and I dropped out. It wasn’t worth what I wanted out of life.” The sound of another biker coming had Fighter standing up. “That’s my sign to leave.”
“Have you ever thought about going back to college?”
“No. I don’t want that life. I became a fighter because I was good at it, Rose. I don’t like working hard for what I want in life.” He turned and left. She followed him down the long corridor to the door. Baker was standing behind the door with his hand raised in the air.
“Take care of her, man,” Fighter said.
She watched the two hug and change places.
Once the door was closed, Baker gave her a smile. “I hear congratulations are in order.”
“Does everyone know?” she asked.
“Yes. Hardy’s telling everyone who’ll listen. He’s so happy with himself.”
“How are you handling it?”