She said he didn’t have to come, but there was no way he was letting her come back up here alone.
Holding Daisy’s pink-mittened hand, Cassie guided her to the casket and helped her daughter put a flower on the top, then placed her own on there, also.
His woman, wearing a black dress and long black winter coat, turned and spotted him. Even from where he stood, he could see her eyes and nose were red since she’d been crying during the whole service.
She was still so damn beautiful even with her face ravaged with grief. Knowing that she could forgive the man that fucked her over and could come here today and pay her respects to him and his family killed him. But he understood it and supported her in doing so.
She didn’t think it would be good for him to stand by her and Daisy’s side at the service or the gravesite, so he didn’t. He stayed close but just far enough away to not intrude.
Even so, he had a difficult time not going to her and curling her into his side when she had been surrounded by Lange’s family and they pretty much ignored her. They mostly spoke to Daisy. He got it. She had left her husband a while ago and they probably didn’t consider her part of the family anymore. Or they blamed her for not sticking by his side during his troubled times.
Normally, he might agree with that, if she hadn’t asked Lange to get marriage counseling and help for his gambling. She gave him that shot, that way back in, but he’d turned it down. Cassie leaving his ass was all on him.
As was his choice of death over prison. He chose to take what he thought was an easier route, not caring his decision wouldn’t be easy for everyone else around him. The living left behind had to grieve and make sense of it all.
After Lange’s parents said a few more words to Daisy, Cassie squeezed her daughter’s shoulder and turned her in Judge’s direction. Without pointing him out, Daisy spotted him anyway, and her little tear-stained face lit up. She broke free of her mother’s grasp and ran across the rows of snow-covered graves, darting around headstones to get to him.
Daisy came toe to toe with him, dropping her head back and staring straight up at him. Seeing her red-rimmed eyes, he was reminded that Lange had done this to her. The man had made his daughter cry.
“You said you were stayin’ in the motel.”
He was being scolded by a five-year-old. “Yeah, I did. Missed you two, though.”
He didn’t want to be too far from Cassie in case any of Lange’s family gave her shit. If he had to, he would’ve stepped in. With him being the club’s Sergeant at Arms, and now that Cassie and Daisy were what he considered club property, it was his job to protect them.
He took that job very seriously.
Before the little tyrant could demand it, Judge scooped her up into his arms and she took a hold of his beard like she always did.
Using a knuckle, he wiped a stray tear off her chin. “You okay?”
Daisy nodded. “I’m sad. I miss my daddy.”
“I’m sure you do, kid. You will for a long time. Sometimes I still miss my daddy, too.”
Shiny blue eyes blinked at him. “Did he die?”
“Yeah. A long time ago.”
“How’d he die?”
Judge wasn’t sure how to answer that. “He went to prison, Daze, because he did a bad thing. He died when he was in prison.”
“Oh. Someone said my daddy did a bad thing, too, an’ was goin’ to prison. But he died ‘fore he got there, right?”
Christ. “Yeah, kid.”
“Momma said he got reeeeeeally tired an’ just went to sleep. An’ when he was asleep, he flew aaalllll the way up to heaven. Just like an angel.”
Judge knew that wasn’t exactly the explanation Cassie told her, but today was not the day to correct her. “Yeah, that’s what happened.”
“Is your daddy in heaven, too?”
Judge doubted it. “Yep. He’ll be waitin’ for your daddy there.”
“They can be friends.”
He gave her a squeeze. “Yeah, baby, they can be friends.”
Judge lifted his gaze to where Cassie broke herself free from saying her goodbyes and headed in their direction. He was relieved to see she was no longer crying as she stared at the two of them waiting for her.
When she reached where they stood, she pressed her forehead to his shoulder and he curled his free hand around the back of her head, holding her close.
“I shouldn’t cry for him,” came muffled from his thick leather jacket.
“Yeah, baby, you should. You loved him enough to marry him and have his baby. Things just got twisted is all.”
“I don’t even know if I’m a widow or a divorcee.”
“Free. That’s all you need to know for now. The rest we can figure out later,” he reminded her, adjusting Daisy’s legs around his waist more securely. The little girl’s cheek pressed to his other shoulder.
Cassie tipped her face up to his, her blue eyes red-rimmed and her mascara a little smudged. Still beautiful as fuck, though. “Free to be yours.”
Yeah, he wanted to shout that, but he didn’t. “To start new.”
“Free to put down fresh roots. Settle in and get our life in order.”
He knew she meant her and Daisy’s life, but he was pretty damn sure “our life” also included him.
“Sorry it happened this way,” he whispered into her hair which had been pulled back into a tight bun and not loose like he normally preferred it.
“Me, too.” Pulling her head back, she looked up at him again. “Let’s go home,” she whispered, running her fingers over Daisy’s fist which was still gripping his beard tightly.
If the kid needed that, he’d let her have it. He wanted to give both of them whatever they needed, whenever they needed it.
“Yeah, baby, let’s go home.”
Epilogue
The Beginning
Almost six months later
It didn’t go unnoticed that the nails on Judge’s hands and toes were painted several different colors. Someone had gotten into Cassie’s nail polish again and Judge, as patient as he was with her daughter, had suffered through Daisy practicing on him.
“I guess I need to stock up on more nail polish remover. I hope I have enough for you to remove that before your uber-manly poker run today. Otherwise, the guys won’t miss all those shades of pink and red. I have to say, though, those colors do look good on you.”
“If you can talk, woman, ain’t doin’ my job,” came the low rumble from his chest into her back.
“What job is that?”
“Of making you come.”
“Work harder, then.”
She bit her bottom lip when those brightly colored nails disappeared from her breasts and a thick arm wrapped around her hips as those fingers dipped between her thighs.
She braced one hand against the shower wall and the other gripped the strong arm across her belly, which held her like a vice. His nose was pressed into her wet hair, and the hot water beaded on their eyelashes and ran in wide rivulets down their connected bodies. They had installed a large hot water heater for this very reason. It was worth every penny because they took a lot of showers. Especially since the bathroom was a good place to muffle the sounds of them having sex.