He stops me outside the club. “I had a great time tonight. Thank you for letting me take you out.”
“Do you wanna bathe Oakley?” I ask. He smiles, nodding and following me inside.
When Oakley is asleep, Grim goes to his room, and I head downstairs. Meli catches my eye, so I join her on the couch. “How’s things?” she asks.
We don’t often talk, not properly, just in passing or when she asks about Oakley. “Good. You?”
She nods. “Good. I got a modelling job,” she says, and I smile, happy she’s finally found something she enjoys doing. “Is Grim helping you out with Oakley?”
My smile fades. This should be a conversation I can share with my sister, but I feel myself pulling away. “Yeah, he’s good with her,” I mutter.
“I’m glad. You both have the best daughter.”
I nod. “We do.”
“Can I say one thing?” she asks. I agree reluctantly. “He’s not a bad person. He messed up because he was scared of losing the one thing he loved. He’s a good dad, and let’s face it, we never thought we’d see the day he’d settle down with a kid, but he’s rocking it. And you love him, Hads. It’s so bloody obvious. You’re right to make him work for it, but don’t keep him begging too long. He might get bored, and I really want to see you guys make it. You deserve happiness, you both do.” She gets up and leaves, and I stare after her, gobsmacked.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
GRIM
Our second date is to the coffee shop she loves the most. We sit in silence, enjoying the ambience of the place. Eventually, we talk about past times we’ve shared, laughing at some of the stupid things we once did. “Do you think Oakley will stay in the club?” she asks.
“I hope so. It would be nice to see the next generation grow up in the club.”
“What if she marries a biker?”
I shudder, and she laughs. “Can we just concentrate on getting her to her first birthday?”
“Meli wants to organise a party,” she says. It’s the first time she’s mentioned her sister to me. “I don’t have time, and I guess it wouldn’t hurt to let her help.”
“Good idea,” I say. “Set a budget and I’ll cover it.”
We take a slow walk back to the club, and once Oakley is in bed, I sit on Hadley’s chair in her room while she lies on the bed and I read chapter two in the book. I don’t see the hype, but she seems to like it and that’s all that matters.
Afterwards, I head downstairs to the kitchen where I find Meli alone, making tea. She looks up just as I’m about to leave. “Don’t go,” she says.
“Look, I don’t think it’s a good idea to be caught alone in a room with you.”
“I just wanna talk.”
“I’m working my arse off to win Hads back, and I don’t want her to catch us talking and think we’re up to no good.”
“Relax. Stay over there, if it means so much to you. I just wanna say, I hope things aren’t weird for us. It was in the past and I’ve moved on. I hope you can forgive me for any trouble I caused.”
“Meli, you didn’t cause trouble. It was my fault. All of it. I should have owned up straight away and made it clear we’d been together. I was selfish, thinking about what I wanted and not what mattered. I hate myself for ripping you two apart, but in time, I hope I can bring you back together.”
The door opens and Hadley steps in. My heart drops, and Meli winces. But Hadley breezes in holding a notepad. “Right, should we make a start on this birthday party?” she asks, sitting at the table and waiting for us both to join her. I exchange a relieved look with Meli. It feels like progress.
Wednesday’s date is at the bar I always go to when I need time alone. It was the first place I shared with her when we were starting to spend time together. It was also the place she watched me get arrested sixteen months ago, and so I’m nervous as to how this date will play out.
Inside, it hasn’t changed. We share a smirk as I order our drinks. It’s the same faces still here enjoying the silence. Even the barman is the same. As we sit down, I look around and take in the stale air and the dirty carpets and see the place for what it is—a rundown local with depression oozing from its walls. “I don’t know why I ever liked it here,” I begin. “Looking back, it suited my mood, but these days, I’m a little more upbeat.”
She nods. “I notice that about you.”
“Oakley gives me reason to keep going,” I admit. “I was in a dark place before and I don’t even know why. A combination of feeling trapped at the club and facing shit with Mum, I guess. And maybe the stress of doing what I did with Meli . . .” I trail off, watching for her reaction. “I knew it was wrong.”
“I heard you last night,” she confesses, “talking to Meli.”
“Right.”
“You were the first man to hurt me, to break my heart so completely and utterly, that it’s taken me this long to begin to heal. But holding on to all the anger and hurt is tiring. Meli has moved on, probably several times.” We both laugh. “And we have a daughter. So, for her sake, I forgive you. I understand why you lied about it, that it wasn’t to intentionally hurt me but because you were scared of losing me. I get that now.”
I feel the weight of guilt lifting from my shoulders. “Thank you, that means so much to me.”
“Last time we were here, you were saying goodbye.”
“Seems like forever since then.”
“What was it like, being inside?”
I laugh. “Awful. If I thought the club was a cage, it was nothing compared to prison. It gets easier the more times you go, though.”
She smiles. “Well, don’t make a habit of it. I didn’t like Oakley having to visit her daddy there.”
“She was a hit with the inmates. They loved her.”
“Cambridge stuck to his word,” she says. “He left Harriett and Ivy alone. She’s got a nice place in central London, and she’s opening a boutique selling children’s clothes. She’s doing really well.”
“That’s a great outcome for her and a success story for the club. It’s good knowing we can help these women get back on their feet.”
“I think Ghost misses her. Nothing happened between them, but I think he secretly liked her.”
Right on time, the door opens, and Ghost comes in with a huge bunch of red roses. He makes a show of approaching the other tables and repeating the same line in broken English that the rose seller did to us all those months ago. “You buy rose?”
After a few of the men blank him, he makes his way to us and smiles. “Aww, a beautiful lady need beautiful rose.”
Hadley laughs. “What are you doing?”
“You buy rose?” he asks, looking at me.
I roll my eyes. He’s taking his role far too seriously as I dip into my pocket and pull out my wallet. “I’ll take the lot,” I say.
“Good. After what you did, she deserves so much more. A house, maybe a dog . . . a wedding—”