“I have a surprise for you,” I tell her, smiling. “You have to come with me.”
“What is it?” she asks, glancing around. “Where is it?”
I simply smile and take her hand, leading her out the front, where I tie a blindfold around her eyes, then put her in the car. She asks me a million questions on the drive to the house, but I tell her nothing except that she needs to be patient. I park in our new driveway, walk around to her door, and help her out, making sure she can’t peek. I walk her to the front of the house, then stand in front of her. Just before I take the blindfold off, I say, “I’ve thought about this for a few months now, and this is what I want too. Okay? So don’t question it. I love you, Shay.”
She opens her eyes and looks at the huge house in front of her, and then the SOLD sign.
“Oh my god,” she whispers, tears filling her eyes. Everything makes her cry nowadays with all the hormones. “But, Vinnie, I thought—”
“Things change,” I say, resting my hand on her stomach. My tattooed knuckles look out of place against her pink floral dress.
“You bought this for us?” she asks, looking shocked. “Vinnie, I don’t even know what to say.”
I take her hand, palm up, and place the key in it. “Should we go have a look at our new house?”
She nods and kisses me, a tear dripping down her cheek.
“Don’t cry, Shay,” I tell her, kissing away the tear. She’s crying because I bought her a house; I’m sure she’s happy, but it makes me a little sad, because she probably wasn’t sure this day would come, that we’d probably live in the clubhouse forever because that’s the place that I considered home. Home is wherever she is though, and it’s not like I’ll lose the clubhouse. I’ll just have two homes now, and I’m perfectly content with that. Making her happy makes me happy, because she does everything in her power to make me happy too. That’s what love is. We explore the house from bottom to top, and just watching the way her eyes are lit up lets me know I made the right choice. Sure, I’d stay in the clubhouse forever and be happy about it, but I know she wouldn’t be. I’m not going to be that selfish, and being so close to the clubhouse is having the best of both worlds.
“When do we move in?” she asks, hugging me from behind.
“Whenever you want to,” I tell her, turning and wrapping her in my arms. “We can go furniture shopping tomorrow if you want, so maybe think about what you need, what colors and stuff, and then we can go have a look.”
“That sounds perfect, Vinnie,” she says, looking up at me. “I know you did this for me and the baby, and thank you.”
A kiss, and then she’s gone to see what exactly we’ll need for the place. I watch her, remembering this moment. With members of the Kings arrested, Shay is safe once again.
And I just know that everything is going to be okay.
* * *
Two weeks later, we have a housewarming party. Everyone comes to see the new place, including Talon and Tia, bringing presents even though I told the women not to bother. Shay cooked a huge meal for everyone—my favorite of course, lasagna and chicken, but also ribs, garlic bread, and salad. She did some fancy platter as well, with cheese, salami, crackers, carrots, celery, pickles, and different dips.
“The house is beautiful,” Faye says to me, looking around animatedly.
“Why are you pretending you haven’t been here already?” I ask, lips twitching in amusement.
“Because everyone else hasn’t been here yet,” she whispers to me. “I don’t want them to feel left out.”
“Why? It’s not like we invited you, you just showed up.”
We hadn’t told anyone where the house was, we were waiting to surprise them all, so imagine our surprise when Faye rocks up at the front door. The woman has no boundaries whatsoever. She’s lucky we love her, and that she’s the president’s wife, or I wouldn’t put up with half her shit. Who am I kidding—yes, I would. The woman is worth her weight in gold, but there are times she can be frustrating as fuck.
She elbows me playfully in the ribs. “I wanted to help Shay choose the colors for the house. So yes, I followed you back to the house, what’s the big deal? If you can’t stalk your family, then who can you stalk?”
“Preferably no one.”
She waves her hand in the air. “Where’s the fun in that?”
“You’re insane.”
“You love it.”
“I hear you want to work with the feds to bring down more bad guys,” I say to her, after Sin had a talk to me about it yesterday.
He’s not happy.
“I do,” she says, nodding. “I think it will be a good experience, and I can help bring down the real corrupt assholes. The world needs people like me.”
“You realize we kind of are the bad guys, right?” I say, raising my brows.
She waves her hand again. “You’re all the best men I know. And with me working with the feds, I will make sure nothing ever touches you.”
“That sounds a bit corrupt,” I tease, making her shrug.
“Loyalty and family first.”
“Always,” I reply, my tone sobering.
“Remember when you had a thing for Allie?” she blurts out, wincing. “I accidentally brought that up with Shay once, but I didn’t say her name. Isn’t that an awkward story?”