The Biker's Fate Chapter 130

Cassidy

ONE WEEK LATER, I arrived home to find my apartment spotless, organized, and filled with flowers. There were enough meals to feed the three of us for over a month, and my parents were staying in town for another two weeks to help.

I would have limited mobility for several more weeks, but it didn't worry me because, not only did I never have to go back to work again, the company was covering all of my medical bills and Mack was working on a settlement which would set us all up for life. Admittedly, it was a really shitty way to get set up for life, but I was alive and I was grateful.

We'd managed to fill Maverick in on as much as we could without completely freaking him out, but he was a smart kid and he didn't like to see me in pain, so he hovered a lot. I was glad it was summer so that he could just hang out with me and watch me heal. He wouldn't have done well if he'd had to go to school every day and function.

Something I hadn't been prepared for were the nightmares. I would relive the incident over and over again, several times a night, and I hadn't slept well in quite a while.

A few days after I arrived home, I was planted in the recliner my dad had bought since it was too painful to stretch out flat, and Carter walked in from walking the dog. Maverick was on the sofa and we were watching a movie. "Hi, honey," I said.

"Hey." Carter leaned over to kiss me. "Do you need anything?"

I shook my head with a smile. "Mav's got it covered."

The pain was beginning to get worse, but I wanted to try to wean myself off the narcotics, so I tried to wait longer each time.

Carter sat next to him. "Thanks, buddy."

"No problem."

"You okay?" I asked.

Carter nodded. "Yeah. Just got a weird phone call."

"Weird good or weird bad?"

"Good," he said.

"Club business?"

Carter shook his head. "The house next door to Hawk's is for sale."

I widened my eyes. "The cute little blue one with the basement?"

"That's the one."

"And?"

"Wondered if you wanted to buy it," Carter said.

I gasped. "Seriously?"

"Yeah, babe."

"But what about your house?"

"Aidan can rent it from me. Or buy it if he wants it. He's open."

I blinked back tears. "You'd do that for us?"

"Babe," he said with a sigh. "I'm not sacrificin' anything. I like it up here and Mav's already in school right down the street. We'd be close to a brother, and you'd be close to Payton. It's an ideal situation."

I grinned. "Hunt and gather, man of mine. I want that house."

He laughed and nodded. "I'm lookin' at it tomorrow. If I like what I see, then you can check it out and we'll make it happen."

"Can I come with you, Dad?" Maverick asked.

I laid my hand over my chest. It was the first time Maverick had called Carter 'dad,' and it was precious.

"If your grandma can come hang out with Mom, then yeah, of course you can. Maybe Grandpa can come too," Carter said.

"Awesome!" Maverick sat up on his knees. "Does that mean I get to live next to Lily?"

"If we buy the house, yep, that's what it means."

"Cool," he said. "Now that Dad's home, can I please play on my DS?"

"Yeah, honey. Thirty minutes," I said.

"Okay." Maverick scrambled from the sofa and headed to his room.

Carter checked his watch and rose to his feet. "You're due for meds, babe."

"Oh, good," I said, the pain getting stronger with each minute. "I hope this doesn't go on forever. I feel really great for a while and then it just hits."

"I know, baby," Carter said, and grabbed my pills.

I took them and smiled up at him. "I'm okay, honey."

"I know that here—" he tapped his temple, "but here—" he laid his hand over his heart, "I don't like it."

"I get it."

He leaned over me, bracing his hands on each arm of my chair. "If you really got it, Cassidy, you'd quit waiting longer for relief."

I sighed. "I was hoping you hadn't noticed that."

"I notice everything when it comes to you."

"I'm picking up on that," I admitted. "I just don't want to get addicted."

"Cassidy, you were shot less than ten days ago. You got a whole lotta time before you run the risk of getting addicted. Take the damn pills."

I reached up and stroked his cheek. "Okay, honey. I'll take the pills."

"Thank you." He leaned in and kissed me quickly, then rose to his full height. "Can you eat somethin'?"

"I could try. Something small, though."

He smiled. "Okay, babe. I'll find you something."

Carter fixed dinner and the three of us ate together in front of a movie.

Six weeks later, despite the fact I wasn't allowed to lift a finger, the three of us moved into our new house next to Hawk and Payton. It was perfect. The top floor was a ranch style with three bedrooms, two and a half bathrooms, an office, huge kitchen and great room, and a basement with another two bedrooms, a bathroom, a kitchenette and a bonus room that Carter wanted to convert into a media room.

I could never have imagined living somewhere so nice, not on my salary and living as a single mother, but as I watched (from my place on the recliner in the great room) the club and my family carrying in boxes and furniture while I sipped water and directed the flow, I realized the dreams I had so long ago were happening right in front of me. They might have taken a little longer than I expected, but they were no less sweet.

We'd been married now for two weeks. Our ceremony took place at the courthouse as Carter had suggested at the beginning (with Torbig in attendance, but not presiding over the event). However, Carter made up for the low-key event by making the club organize a major party. We'd have to postpone our honeymoon due to my health issues, but I was happy to bask in the glow of him for the moment, the honeymoon could wait a few months. Within all of the drama, Maverick celebrated his birthday, and he was happy that we'd rented out Chuck-E-Cheese for the day and filled it with club kids and friends from school. He loved being the center of attention.

Carter had made the difficult decision to cut ties once and for all with his mother. He left the door open, but there were specific stipulations to her being let "back in." And the biggest one was that she had to accept me completely, which right now, she wasn't ready to do. I would have tried, but Carter said that I shouldn't have to. She was the one with the problem, so she had to be the one to fix it. Again, he was protecting me, and again, I let him, because the alternative wasn't particularly pleasant. I didn't want to be at family gatherings and feel as though I wasn't welcome.

A surprising friendship with Josh's wife, Melanie, had come out of Carter's ultimatum to his mother, and I found Mel to be warm and giving, and extremely funny. But she'd been the first to deal with Sheila's passive aggressive nastiness, and had borne the brunt of all of it. Melanie had confided in me that she hoped Josh would stand up to Sheila one day, but until then, she would live vicariously through me.

As I sat in my recliner and guided traffic, I decided supervising was fun, especially while relaxing and being fussed over by my man in between him utilizing his gorgeous muscles to move heavy stuff. Yum.

I knew that it would take some time to come to terms with not having Carter's children, but he was right, life apart was torture, but together we could face anything. So, I settled in and took my man's advice, to not worry so much. I had been blessed beyond measure and it was more than enough.