Free Eternal Ride by Chelsea Camaron Page A

of our lives to be at a court house. That doesn’t work for me, Tessie. Second, your mom had one daughter. Baby, little girls dream of the dress, the man, the day, and so do their moms. What’s the problem with you having all that?”
    She sighs. “Shooter, weddings are expensive.”
    “Fuckin’ money. Why does everything come back to money, Tessie? I may not be rich, but damn, I’m not poor.”
    She reaches up, placing her hands on my chest. “Shooter, this isn’t about your money. I know you provide well for us. I know you want to give me the wedding of my dreams. It honestly has nothing to do with you. It’s me, Shooter. I can’t see spending some crazy amount of money on one day, even if it is the biggest day of my life outside of having Axel.”
    Tears pool in her eyes. God, I hate when she cries.
    “There was a time not so long ago when I counted pennies just to get by. There was a time when, yes, I went to the grocery store to use the coin machine just to be able to get milk and cereal for Axel.” As the tears fall, I reach up and run my thumbs under her eyes to wipe them away. “I can’t forget my struggles, Shooter. You make everything feel so easy it scares me sometimes. You take care of me in a way I’ve never been taken care of before. Even when I was a kid with Momma, we struggled. I’ve never known how to relax and not worry about having enough to get by until my next night with good tips or my next paycheck.”
    “What can we do so we aren’t at the court house, but you don’t feel like you’re breaking the bank? Tell me what you want.”
    “I want memories. I want family, friends, you, me, and Axel to have this together. I don’t want a church. I don’t want some big shindig. I just want simple.”
    “Baby, if it’s memories you want, it’s memories you’ll get.”
     

C HAPTER T WO
    M IAMI
     
    ~Shooter~
     
     
    Sun, surf, and sand. Never would I have imagined Brett ‘Ice’ Grady coming to Miami and settling down. Things aren’t always what they seem, I guess.
    There is an anxiousness inside me as we make the drive southbound.
    Tessie is cute when she gets all nervous about meeting someone close to me. She has talked to Ice and Brooke here and there on the phone calls we have managed, but the whole meeting them is different. Hell, I thought she was going to cry when she met Fred, Tracie’s dad, for the first time. My woman feels deeply, loves harder, and takes on everything for everyone. She has brought Fred into our little family as if he is one of our own. He lost his wife and daughter, but he still has me, my girl, and our boy.
    Axel spends time out at the garage with me, learning everything from the man who taught me when I wasn’t that much older than he is now. Life is good for a change, for all of us.
    Since the day we got the graduation announcement in the mail from Brooke, Tessie has been a little on edge. She fires away question after question daily about Ice and the rest of the guys. All of it takes me back.
    Throughout the years, we have done the best we could with our situations. I will never forget watching Ice hit his knees when our command gave him the news of Erin’s accident and death. He went home, sorted his shit, and carried on, even though he has never been the same. Then, when Tracie killed herself, he left little Brooke with his mom to help me sort my shit and try to figure out how to carry on.
    Over the years, we have kept in touch, and I have always been around to watch Brooke’s milestones. Time is passing by so quickly. It seems as if it was just yesterday we were trying to make it home in time for her kindergarten graduation. Yes, Brooke had eight Army Green Berets all side-by-side at her kindergarten graduation, watching her pig-tailed little ass get a blank piece of rolled up paper while wearing the tiniest cap and gown ever. While she smiled brightly at us, we all proudly smiled right back alongside Ice’s mom.
    That little girl captured all