Wild Christmas (Wild Heart Mountain: Wild Rider’s MC #17)

Epilogue

NATE

Christmas Day

M aisie nestles into my chest, her small arms tight around my neck. How she’s still awake I don’t know. There are beds for the kids made up in one of the rooms upstairs, but despite the big day and the late hour, they’re all still awake. Dora is with Rose and some of the other kids playing with her new Barbie doll, Science Barbie. They don’t have a tech start-up barbie, so it was the best I could find. The computer coding device for kids is discarded, left at home, not deemed a must show at the clubhouse.

I have one hand around Maisie and the other firmly holds Freya’s hand under the table. Since she came back to the cabin with me, I haven’t let her out of my sight.

This is the first time she’s come with me to the clubhouse, and it’s one hell of an introduction. The Christmas Day dinner always is.

The remains of Maggie’s latest dessert creation sit on the table. It tasted so good that I had seconds, and now my stomach is so full I can’t move. Luckily I don’t want to.

Davis made a round of coffees and Raiden poured brandy into mine, and now the adults sit comfortably around the table while the kids are off playing.

I was anxious about introducing Freya to the club, but I needn’t have worried. She has way better social skills than me.

On her other side is Specs, and they’ve been talking all night about books. I had to give him a warning to keep his hands off her when she went to the bathroom, but Specs just shook his head, bemused. The guy knows nothing about love.

Even so, the sooner I put a ring on Freya’s finger the better. I want the whole world to know she’s mine.

We spent Christmas morning with the girls tearing into their presents. With Sydney and Freya there, Christmas has never felt so fun.

In the afternoon we came to the clubhouse, and it’s been absolute chaos with all the kids, old ladies, and anyone else with nowhere to go for Christmas.

I glance at Sydney to check in on how she’s getting on. It’s been a few years since she last set foot in the clubhouse, and as we walked in I saw the strain on her face as the memories must have flooded her.

But now she’s laughing with Dani and Maggie, and even Isabella, Prez’s queenly old lady, has a smile on her face.

Next to Maggie is Isla, a young woman who I haven’t met before. She nurses a baby and keeps her head down so her hair falls half over her face, keeping it in shadow.

Maggie introduced her as the sister of a friend from her pastry school days. No more needed to be said. When a woman turns up looking as furtive as she does and clasping a baby to her chest, we’re not going to turn her away. We have the women’s refuge center that Lone Star’s old lady opened but sometimes it gets too full, so Isla is staying at the clubhouse.

Across the table, Luke keeps glancing at her. He hasn’t been able to take his eyes off Isla since she turned up with Maggie. He sat opposite her at dinner and was attentive, passing her the potatoes before she even asked, but as far as I can see he hasn’t spoken a word to her yet.

But I see the way his eyes track her every movement. Isla gets up now and paces with the baby to the bar and back. The baby cries, and she jiggles it in her arms. A muslin cloth is flung over her shoulder, and as she walks it drops to the ground. Quick as the lightning painted on the side of his wheels, Luke pushes off from the table and almost runs over one of Danni’s kids in his eagerness to get to the cloth.

He holds it up to Isla, and she looks at him properly for the first time. The first smile I’ve seen since she tuned up here crosses her face. They exchange some words I can’t hear, and she takes the cloth and turns away .

Luke watches her like a lost puppy. Poor guy’s got it bad.

“What are you grinning about?” Freya squeezes my hand.

“Just watching Luke.” Freya follows my gaze. “Seems we’re not the only ones falling in love.”

I maneuver the now sleeping Maisie to my other arm so I can pull Freya closer to me. “You ready to go home yet?”

She leans closer and nibbles on my earlobe, sending a wave of longing straight to my dick. “I’m ready to be alone with you.”

I push the chair back abruptly, startling Maisie awake. “Dora, time to go.”

My oldest whines as I knew she would, and it takes some cajoling and a lot of goodbyes, but finally I have everyone in the car and heading home

Sydney lets out a long sigh, and I wonder if the night was harder on her than she let on.

“Can you put the kids to bed?” I ask her when we get in the house. She barely has time to answer before I’m dragging Freya upstairs. Since our first time together we’ve made love in the shower, against the wall, and finally in the bed. I’ll never get tired exploring her body or hearing her laughter.

Freya’s the best Christmas present my family needed.