Page 34 of Jigsaw
“I know it’s crazy, but those things don’t worry me,” I remarked as Charlie, Animal’s aunt, walked up behind me.
“Would it be okay if I gave you some advice?” she asked my reflection in the mirror, and I smiled and nodded. “Go to bed angry. You’ll be less willing to meet in the middle if you’re tired. And let him fix his own plate and wash the dishes. You weren’t put on this earth to serve him or any man, unless you choose to. And most importantly,” she leaned over and whispered softly into my ear, “don’t suck his cock until he eats you out. Get yours first and then take care of him.”
She stood and smiled, and I tried and failed to keep the laughter contained.
“What did she say?” Jackie asked, and I shook my head, dabbing a tissue into the corners of my eyes to keep the joyous tears from leaking down my face and ruining my makeup.
“Just wisdom from someone who grew up like Willow did. Us club daughters have to stick together,” Charlie remarked, and my eyes grew wide as the rest of the ladies stopped moving tostare at her while she worked on a curl in the back of my hair, not responding to the silence.
It was obvious no one knew Charlie’s father had been a club brother, and I knew instantly that she and I would be spending time together. A knock on the door broke the silence, and Paige walked over and cracked the door to peek outside and see who it was. She looked over her shoulder and said, “It’s your brother, Willow.”
I turned in my seat and stood as she opened the door and let him inside. He stopped, and his eyes grew soft as he looked at me. It wasn’t until the door closed that I realized all the ladies had left the room, leaving us alone for a few moments. I’d been honest with them over the last few days, so they knew he and I were working on repairing what Popeye had fucked up in our family.
“You look so beautiful, Willow. You remind me of your mother,” Ghost said. I didn’t want to cry but felt my nose burning as he took a step closer to me. “I know we’ve had issues throughout our lives, but I wanted to give you something.” He reached into his cut and pulled an envelope out of the inside pocket. It had been well handled, with my name on the outside and the words ‘when it’s important’. He placed it in my hands before he explained, “I found this inside Dad’s safe after he died, and I feel like this is what he meant by that.”
Looking at the sealed envelope, I asked, “What’s inside?”
“I don’t know, and it’s not my business to know. I wanted you to have it, and you can decide what to do with it,” he reasoned. “I think it may have been his way of saying he was sorry for Jigsaw leaving, but that’s just my guess.”
I reached up and hugged my brother as I said, “I love you, Marcus. Thank you for being my big brother.”
He returned the hug as he replied, “I love you, little sister. I’m glad you finally got your man. I’m just sorry I didn’t stop Popeye from letting him walk away.”
I pulled back and remarked, “I’m not.” He looked confused, so I expounded as I turned and started touching up my makeup. “Everything happens for a reason, I think. And everything with Dean happened the way it needed to so that we were here, now, ready to say yes to forever. I stopped questioning fate a long time ago, and the universe delivered the perfect person to spend eternity with.”
“You really are an egghead, aren’t you?”
I smiled and asked, “Are you really that dense?”
He bopped my nose with a chuckle at the old insults we used to hurl at each other then walked to open the door. He offered me his elbow and asked, “Can I escort you to your future?”
“Please,” I returned and slipped my hand into the bend of his arm.
I glanced at the full-length mirror near the open doorway and smiled at my appearance. The ladies and I found a beautiful, gray slip dress with various shades of blue flowers climbing up the front from the hemline and dropping down from the sleeveless top. The only area without flowers was the waist, which is cinched with a belt.
It wasn’t a wedding dress, but it was stunning, and as soon as I saw it, I knew it was what I wanted to wear. It showed off my tattoos, which Dean requested, it was beautiful but comfortable, it cost less than a hundred dollars, and it could be worn for another occasion. Spending thousands of dollars or more for something that you wear for a few hours and is only admired in photos was crazy. At least, I thought it was.
Ghost helped me walk into the foyer of the house, where Cheyenne, Jackie, Claire, Paige, Charlie, and Laura were waiting for me. He smiled as he slipped my hand from his arm and gaveme a kiss on the forehead before he winked and walked out the front door.
“You look beautiful,” Laura said, and the ladies all nodded in agreement.
I felt beautiful, but I was trying to keep my cool. It wasn’t panic I was feeling, but I had butterflies filling my stomach. I didn’t want to run away. I wanted to runtoDean.
“Are you sure you don’t want your brother or even Pappy to walk you?” Claire asked.
“I’m sure. I know it’s unconventional, but it’s just the way I want to do it,” I reasoned.
“Let this strong woman walk herself down the aisle,” Charlie said to the group and then added, “We’ll see you out there.”
Nodding, I watched my friends walk out the front door, leaving it open so I could follow in a few minutes. As I stood there in the foyer of the hundred-year-old ranch house, feeling the breeze blow through the open doorway, I thought of what came before us all and what will come after. Not in the religious way, but in the grand scheme of the universe.
Out of the millions of years and vast, uncountable expanse of the universe, somehow, in some mysterious collision, Dean and I made a connection deeper than the cosmos and wider than the imagination of the human mind. We found each other in all the bleak darkness and overpowering light. We loved on a level that few experienced, and in the years we were apart, we grew as humans but remained interlocked.
Two ever-changing people, bound by the unpredictability of life, had found forever.
As I took a step out of the front door and onto the wide porch, I saw what Dean had prepared. I told him to do whatever he wanted, and as I walked down the steps, I was assisted at every step by an Phantom Renegades offering me a hand. Ghost wasstanding at the bottom, and as I walked past him, he handed me a single red rose.
Continuing down the path between the group of friends, I saw Dean standing at the end of the aisle, wearing a pair of black jeans, his black cowboy boots, and a light blue dress shirt. He was wearing his cut, and I saw mine hanging on a hook next to an old biker holding what looked like a Bible.
