"Sure, honey," I said. "Hammer, did you want to say a few words first?"
He cleared his throat. "April, not a day goes by that we don't think about you." He was silent for a moment, and then the corners of his mouth turned up as he looked at MacKenzie. "Your mother says she's going to haunt your ass if you don't get your grades up."
"Dad!" MacKenzie said, her eyes wide. MacKenzie looked at me. "Do you see what kind of a man you married? The kind who uses his only daughter's dead mother as a way of getting her to study more."
Ben laughed. "I thought it was funny."
MacKenzie shook her head in mock disgust. "Boys," she said. But she couldn't hide her smile. "Okay, I'll say something for real. Mom doesn't want to know how my grades are, dad." She cleared her throat, holding the lantern in both hands. "Mom, I miss you a lot. We all do."
I felt my eyes get misty, thinking about the way that little girl had suffered after April died. About the way Hammer had suffered.
Hell, we all had. I reached for Ben's hand, holding it tightly in mine. I was content, happy, surrounded by my family.
Surrounded by love.
MacKenzie's words broke through my thoughts. "We're doing great, mom. You'd be really proud of all of us. Even dad. And you'd like Meia and Ben." She paused, and I thought she was about to add something, but she let go of the lantern, and we watched it float, in a zig-zag pattern, up into the sky. "I love you, mom," she said.
We stood silently for a few minutes before Hammer spoke. "I know I don't say it enough, but I should say it a hell of a lot more. I love you guys."
I smiled as MacKenzie hugged him. "You too, dad," she said. "And not just because you got me a horse."
"Oh yeah?" he asked, rubbing her hair with his knuckles as she squealed in protest. "Okay, smartass."
"Dad! You're going to mess up my hair!"
He laughed and let her go. "Let's go get some barbeque," he said, sliding his arm around my shoulder as we walked.
I looked around at the crowd gathered together in the parking lot of the clubhouse. For a moment, listening to the music in the background, the chatter of the brothers and their families, kids running around in the California sunshine, it was just like old times. I reminded myself that it wasn't. It was better now. The club was better, no longer poisoned by Mad Dog. With Blaze at the helm, things were good. Working with Benicio was a solid gig, and the club was the kind of place I'd imagined before that it could be.
It was clean. Not legal clean, exactly, although having Dani on our side was making things a lot more above board in that department. She had passed the bar, was the club's attorney now, working for us and Benicio. She didn't care that we weren't ever going to be totally above board, but she was keeping us out of real trouble. Keeping Blaze on a semi straight-and-narrow path.
There were new faces now, new blood. But the old guard was still here, the brothers who still remembered what we'd gone through with Mad Dog. I thought that was important, remembering what happened. In life, you had to know where you came from. You had to know your history. If you didn't, you were lost.
Beside me, Meia slid her arm around my waist. "Look at them," she said, pointing toward Ben and MacKenzie running around with the kids of the other brothers here. "They're really happy."
"They are, aren't they?" I said. "And what about you?"
She leaned against me, and I pulled her in tight. "I thought I was lost," she said. "But all of this, it's beyond what I could have ever hoped for."
"I know exactly what you mean," I said.
"Okay!" I said, loudly. Then I yelled it. "Listen up!" I waited a moment until the chaos subsided, and motioned for Dani to join me. Pausing for a minute, I soaked it all in, looking around at the sea of faces, the brothers and their families. That's what all of this was about. Family.
"Got an announcement, and then you all can go back to eating and drinking," I said. "I want to thank Axe and June for coming by, all the way from Colorado, giving us a chance to see the kids and all. If you haven't seen what Axe can do, make sure he shows you some of the paint jobs he's doing now. He's hot shit." A couple of the brothers that knew what I was talking about hollered.
"Anyway," I said, looking at Dani, then back at the group. "Here's the news. Wanted you all to be the first to know that I knocked up the old lady!"
Amid the chaos from the crowd, Dani laughed as I drew her in close to me. "Classy as fuck, Blaze," she said.
"You know me, baby," I said. "Nothing but class here."