Free A Rebel In The Roses (Black Rebel Riders' MC Book 8) by Glenna Maynard

under the impression I’m just some dude their dad knows. It smarts, but it’s for the best.
    “Look me, look me!” Sara whines splashing on the steps.
    “I see you baby girl,” Baby coos with a proud smile. I refuse to call her Karly. It sounds to foreign on my tongue.
    Everything about saying goodbye today seems so wrong. I wish I could just say fuck it all and stay. Live here and watch them grow up even if it’s from a distance.
    I can’t do that though.
    I won’t desert my club.
    It’s who I am.
    It’s the life I chose.
    Nash and Romeo are over at the bar locked in a heated discussion. I shouldn’t involve myself, but they are attracting attention.
    I start to go to them, and Baby takes my hand. “Let me. They need to move on. We all do.”
    I nod.
    I’ll be on standby if she needs me.
    It’s still hard to accept that she’s a grown ass woman who can handle her own, a woman who can fight her own battles.
    In my eyes she’s still that spoiled little brat with red pigtails and pink shoes, begging for me to take her to the Dairy Bar for a milkshake and hotdog. 
    “No running by the pool,” I yell at Colt, Cole whatever in the fuck they are calling him now. The redheaded shit sticks his tongue out at me and does a cannonball splashing water all over my jeans. Can’t believe how much he’s grown; he’ll be a teenager in a few years. I just chuckle and enjoy it, soaking it in with the Florida sun.
    He doesn’t even look twice at me, I’m not anyone special in his eyes. I used to be when he was a baby, even wiped his ass a time or two.
    These kids won’t ever know me.
    We’ll never spend a holiday together…Foxie would kill to be here right now. I know I shouldn’t do it, but I pull my phone out and snap a picture of Sara and Cole and text it to her.
    My phone rings.
    “Speak,” I grunt knowing it’s her.
    “I hate you right now.”
    “I love you too, so nice of you to check in on me.” I love giving her shit, makes me hard.
    “Can I talk to them?”
    “Fuck no you can’t, you gone crazy?”
    Silence.
    “Woman, don’t be mad.”
    “I’m not mad,” she snaps in my ear so damn loud I think the damn fish in the ocean can hear her.
    “I gotta go.” I end the call and power off my phone, before she can say anything more.
    Karly
    I step next to my husband and wrap my hand in his as he grits in Romeo’s face, “Told ye once, won’t fuckin’ tell ye again. Stay the fuck away from my family. I don’t want my kids to ever remember your face. As far as they know you don’t exist.” There goes his Kentucky twang again.
    “Nash,” I say squeezing his hand.  He draws back giving Romeo space. “You don’t like each other and never will. After today, you’ll never see him again. But you need to make peace with what has come to pass. He gave you life, twice.” Romeo winces at my words, and my husband tries to take his hand back. “Just hear me out. Both of you need closure. It’s time to let go. This may be the only chance you have. You don’t have to say you love each other or even like one another, but you’re father and son. You can’t deny it, either of you. We’ve all made mistakes.  We have to let all of that go.”
    I wait and they are both being standoffish hardass pricks . I try again to reason with them.
    “Romeo you’ll never visit on the weekends or attend birthday parties. My dad won’t either. I know despite what you and Nash both say, someday , it’s gonna hurt that you won’t have the chance. This is the last time you will say goodbye.”
    I kiss my husband on the cheek and give Romeo the last smile he will ever receive from me. I don’t wait for him to smile back. I won’t give him the satisfaction. Once upon a time, I would have loved just to see him smile, but now I don’t care what he wants. I only care about doing right by my husband, and making sure he has no regrets.
    I walk away leaving the two of them to try. 
    I hug my father one final time. See