EPILOGUE

THOR

CROWTHORNE CHAPTER

DECEMBER 2014

It’s been a helluva ride, ten years on from when I first picked Maura up at the airport. Everyone was ten years older. We’d all mostly retired with the second generation taking over the businesses.

Maura and I still travelled between the three countries, I’m not sure if we’d ever settle in one, not with all our grandchildren spread far and wide around the globe.

This December we’d left the second generation at home to run the club, and the rest had decided that a Christmas in the sun was just the thing. Cash and his family had flown out to join us and he was in the pool with Maura, Lizzie, their youngest daughter and all my grandchildren, bar one.

She was currently sprawled out against my chest fast asleep. Hearing a tiny sigh, I looked down and smiled. It was like looking at Noni when she was a baby.

My heart was full, my baby girl was happy again, married to one of the best brothers in our club. They’d made a life for themselves here and were thriving. After Samantha’s birth we’d eventually had the conversation of her not being my daughter, there’d been a small medical scare that in the end had been nothing but as we had no idea who Noni’s biological father was, we had no clue on his medical history. It had surprised me to find out that Noni had known and had done so for years, but as far as she was concerned, I was her dad and always would be. I’d been relieved and happy to leave it at that.

“Hey, Dad,” Noni said softly, sitting down next to me on the swing with a happy sigh resting her head against my shoulder. Lifting my arm, I wrapped it around her shoulders, kissing the top of her head. “Hi, baby girl. Everything okay?”

Noni nods, “Yeah, just sorting out food for tomorrow. I want the staff to all have Christmas and Boxing Day off. We can barbeque on Christmas Day and have leftovers on Boxing Day.”

“Sounds like a plan to me,” I tell her, we swing for a little bit. “Are you happy now, baby?”

Noni tilts her head up against my chest to look at me and I can see that while she’s tired, she’s happy. Her words confirm it, “Yeah, Daddy, I’m happy.”

“Good, baby,” I let out a happy sigh as my gaze slid across all our people either laying in the sun, playing in the pool, or chatting in small groups under the shade of the large trees. My gaze came to a stop on Rogue, Julia and the two children that had come into their lives in an unexpected way. It was good to see Rogue so settled, he’d taken to fatherhood like a duck to water and Julia, well, Julia was in her element. It had taken them a while but now that the children’s paperwork for immigrating with them had come through, Rogue would be stepping up as VP and Dragon would step down as interim VP.

We all wondered if he’d stay here or go back to the UK. Cally had family here, it was looking likely that they’d move. Either way, none of us cared as long as they were happy.

Bull caught my gaze, and his eyes softened when he saw his wife and daughter both now asleep in my arms. With a smile, he got out of the pool, dried off and walked towards us. It was good to see him back to where he’d been before Gwen had passed away. We’d all worried and held our breath on more than one occasion when Bull had fallen apart.

“Do you want me to take either of them?” Bull asked quietly.

I shook my head, “No, I’m good, brother.”

“Okay,” he said, sitting down next to me.

“You good, Bull?” I ask.

He nodded, turning to look at me, “Yeah, Thor, I am. Never thought in a million years that I’d end up here or how it would come about, but yes, I’m happy. Noni, the children, the club, and the lives we are building here all make me happy. What about you, Thor? Are you happy, brother?”

With a contented smile, I relax further into the swing as my gaze finds the love of my life laughing happily, head thrown back. She must have felt my gaze because she turned, waved, and blew me a kiss before going back to playing with the kids.

“Yeah, brother, I’m fucking ecstatically happy,” I assure him.

And I was; life had handed me some knocks but, in the end, this was my reward and there was nothing better than the love of my woman and my family. So, yes, I wasn’t just happy, I was FUCKING happy!

THE END