Page 123 of Lake
Epilogue
Bridget
Ed was gone.
And not to drag the sad shit out, but it sucked.
I may not have known him all that long, but he left a mark on my heart. One that I would carry with me through a lifetime.
It was happy one though. The kind that would help keep me in line, if you will. Keep me hopeful for what was around the corner. Keep me from letting the bad get me down. Keep me from ever letting my life grow stagnant.
We laid him to rest a few days later. He looked so right in that old man sweater and button-up shirt.
The funeral was small but I think he would have liked that it was that way.
The whole club surprised the shit out of me by showing up even though they didn’t know him.
Yeah, that made me cry.
Lake whispered in my ear that this was what family did for one another and it made my chest feel warm inside.
Then, wearing his cut over his old man sweater, he stood up to say a few words.
“Ed was a funny old man. And he was cranky as fuck.”
There were a few chuckles that floated in the breeze.
“He taught me a lot and I will take that with me everywhere I go. He showed me that love shouldn’t grow old, it should simply always grow. And that memories keep the heart alive. He’d be disappointed in me for keeping this short because he was a man that liked stories. But I think that stories should be savored and enjoyed, so I’m going to keep them for another day.”
Lake paused and cleared his throat. I sent him a small smile in hopes that it would give him a little bit of strength.
“So Ed, this one journey may have ended but I know we both have a million more to find. I love you, old man.”
Instead of laying roses on his casket, we filled the thing with little trinkets and whatnot that meant something to us. Things that had our own memories and adventures attached to them.
That had been Iron’s idea, knowing a little bit about the man from the things that Lake had told him over the last year.
Then we all went back to the compound and partied. There was tons of food and alcohol. And even though things were tense for the club, they all took one night to celebrate life. Just the way Ed would have wanted it.
As I looked around at all the faces that I was still getting to know, I felt the sense that I’d found my new home.
Lake
One night I walked out of the bar and an ugly-ass car parked in front of the garage caught my eye. It hadn’t been there when I closed up shop and with all the shit surrounding the club, I was a little paranoid-suspicious.
With my Prez and a few of my brothers at my back, I went to find out what the fuck was up with that.
There had been someone in the back seat, bundled up under a bunch of blankets, but I knew the shape of a body when I saw one.
So, thinking that I wasn’t going to take any chances, I pulled out my gun.
Next thing I knew, I had a fucking black eye.
And that was the beginning of how I fell in love with the woman of my dreams.
I married her four years later and took her on a honeymoon like no other. And not in the sense that it was an escape to some secluded island where we had our own private section of beach and some dude serving us drinks and shit.
I’m talking about the adventure of all adventures— for now at least. I was still working on topping it.
