Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 74794 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 374(@200wpm)___ 299(@250wpm)___ 249(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74794 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 374(@200wpm)___ 299(@250wpm)___ 249(@300wpm)
“Or a moment of destiny, which is why you couldn’t say no.”
I’m not a big destiny man, even though I have argued the favor of fate before when it comes to where I ended up. I don’t want to go down a philosophical, existential rabbit hole, so I steer away from that. “Anyway, the thing is…there was an…well, there were unexpected consequences.”
Alden’s hands jerk on the tabletop. “She’s pregnant?”
“Yeah, but that’s not…we could have just been friends or co-parented or whatever, but that…it didn’t…it wasn’t in the cards. We’re still… um, romantically involved.” Alden just nods sagely. God, the guy has seriously turned into a woodsy wizard out here. He doesn’t even look that surprised or ask me if I’m afraid things won’t work out or if shit will get messy. Maybe he knows me and knows that when I put my mind to something, I won’t let myself fail or go down without one heck of a fight.
“I just know that when you meet the right person, it feels right, and even if there isn’t a lot of explanation around that, sometimes things happen, and sometimes they actually work out. It can be one hell of a ride along the way. We’re still on that ride. I guess we’ll always be on that ride, and that’s the way I was just talking about. That way is life. Together. It starts somewhere, and it ends somewhere, and all the stuff in the middle is quite fantastical.”
Holy shit, he’s a wizard and a poet.
“But I bet that complicated things with the mission,” Alden goes on.
“It did, and then it didn’t. It turns out the club wasn’t up to anything fishy at all. They’re just a bunch of guys who like to ride bikes and who have regular jobs and do regular things. The prez started the place. He had some money from the two garages he owned, and he used that to invest in a few run-down nightclubs, which were fixed up and now make tons of money. With that money, the club helps their members out, takes care of their clubhouse, and does some pretty good things for their community.”
“Wow. So…so Granny was wrong?” Alden’s disbelief is understandable. Granny isn’t often wrong about anything.
“Well, the guy really did flip her off. Turns out he was going through a rough patch. The club is also extremely private, and they like to keep their business and inner workings that way, so they do have a crazy good tech guy. Anyway, it all worked out.”
Alden’s frown deepens. He doesn’t believe me for a second. For one, if everything were fine, I would have called or sent a message in some cryptic way that only he would understand. I wouldn’t be here right now, in person, when I plan to be gone before morning.
He waits, and I sip the tea. He waits longer, and I sip more tea. Then, he sips his tea. Outside, an owl or some other bird makes a funny-sounding call. Alden slurps his tea while he waits, just to annoy me. Finally, I feel like I have my thoughts put together enough to turn them into words.
“I guess I’m here because everything worked out on the surface, but now everyone’s in Switzerland, and I’m not.”
“Don’t worry. I’m sure Granny will send someone back to keep an eye on you in short order and make sure you’re doing okay.”
I snort. “You’re right. Probably Lennox, since she’s still on a kick, punishing him for kidnapping the wrong girl. Uh, never mind. He was trying to pull a you by kidnapping her, but it didn’t really work. He’s still in the shit-eating doghouse for that one.”
“Ha, well, I’m going to have to call in sick to work in the morning, and you’re going to have to stay a bit longer and tell me everything. I want to hear all of it, and I know Azalea will too.”
“How do you do it?” That’s what I honestly wanted to ask. That one simple question that was so hard to get out. “How do you…how do you get by each and every day living like a regular person? And without everything we’ve known for the past half of our lives. How did you leave it all behind? I don’t want to stop. I liked the way we lived, and I always had a good life even though we moved around a lot. I worked those ink jobs and had friends, as far as friends could go, but I always had the one thing that gave me purpose, and that was…that was our family.” Not the job. Our. Family. Us. As a unit. Living as a unit.
Alden pushes back his chair and stands. At first, I think he wants to go somewhere, but then he waves me down and peeps out the window. “Owl,” he says, and I suppose that was the call I heard earlier. He sits back down, hyper-vigilant and aware, even out here. Old habits, as it turns out, die hard. “Thing is, it’s hard, Ransom. It was hard to leave, but it’s also not hard. I had Azalea. For her, our life together, I wanted to try something different. I would never put her at risk. Yes, I miss hanging out with all of you. Yes, I miss Granny like crazy. I miss doing all that good. But a purpose? Something to live for? I have that with Azalea. Our jobs might not be saving the world anymore, but we do make a difference in our own way. We’re there for each other. And leaving didn’t mean I wouldn’t have my brothers or Granny. You all visit when you can, and there are ways to communicate. We’re good at that, people not being able to track our communications. I do miss the old times for sure, but Granny always knew we’d grow up and become men and that we’d leave and have families and our own lives.”