“Why don’t you help Cass paint the sun?” he suggested.
“Okay,” he said, reaching for the paint brush. His chubby, little fingers wrapped around the brush and a wide smile spread across his face as he started painting. He took his time, and when he was done, he started on the blue planets. It’d only been a few minutes when he got bored with the paints and started in with the questions.
“Where are the lights?”
“They’re still in the box. We’ll put those on last,” Clutch told him as he glued one of the planets on the box.
“Where we gonna put ‘em?”
“They’ll go on the back, so they’ll look like stars when we turn them on,” Clutch explained.
“Can I blow up a balloon?” he asked.
“They’re all yours, buddy,” Clutch smiled.
Dusty grabbed a handful of balloons and started blowing them up, one right after the other. Clutch quickly realized Dusty was more interested in playing with all the junk he’d bought instead of actually working on the project. It’d only been fifteen minutes or so when Dusty asked me, “Can I take a balloon to Wyatt?”
“Sure, honey. We’ll let the paint dry, and we can finish this up later,” I told him, and the minute he got the okay to leave, he grabbed his balloons and he was gone.
We continued to work on the project, and when everything was almost finished, Clutch turned to me and said, “Thanks for helping me with this, Cass. I wouldn’t have been able to do it without you.”
“I don’t know about that, but it does look pretty amazing.”
“It does, doesn’t it?” he said proudly.
“It does. You did good. I’m sure Dallas will appreciate it, too. She’s been working so much with her new job, and she hates not being able to spend as much time with Dusty. I’m sure it means a lot to her,” I told him while I started to clean up the mess we’d made.
“Just glad I could do something to help. I’ve gotta check in with Guardrail. Just leave the rest, and Dusty and I will finish it up later.”
“Okay. Just give me a shout if you need me,” I told him as I looked down at my hands and clothes. I was covered in paint and glue, so I decided it was time for a hot shower.
When I got to my room, I immediately headed for the bathroom and turned on the hot water. I stepped into the shower and methodically started scrubbing away all the dried paint and glue from my fingernails. It was the first time I’d been alone since my night with Cotton, and I finally had time to let everything that had happened sink in. An involuntary smile crossed my face when I thought about our night together. He’d taken that step, and I couldn’t remember a time when I’d ever been this happy. He was different from any man I’d ever known, and I’d often wondered why I felt such a pull to him. It didn’t hurt I found him to be devastatingly handsome, but it was so much more than that. Maybe it was the fact he was older, more mature and confident than men my age. Or maybe it was his loyalty to his family, always putting them before himself. It was everything about him. It was all the little things he’d do or say that made me fall for him, like watching raindrops fall one by one, never realizing I was about to be caught in a storm.
After Big Mike walked Guardrail and me through all the information Sara had uncovered about Derek, I called church so we could discuss our next move. We needed to make our move before Derek had time to build his resources. We decided to leave for Anchorage first thing in the morning. Driving thirty-eight hours in the bitter cold wasn’t an option, so Big booked flights for me, Stitch, Maverick, and Sara. I wanted extra eyes on the club while we were gone, so I put in a call to Rip. He agreed that his club, the Forsaken Saints, would secure our territory while we were gone, ensuring that no one entered the area without our knowledge. Knowing that Derek’s threat against the club was no longer imminent, we decided to lift the lockdown, but all members were expected to be on high alert. It was important for all of us to keep our families under close watch.
Once the meeting dismissed, I headed over to my mother’s loft to let her know I would be leaving. Over the years, she’d become accustomed to the club life, but that didn’t mean she was happy about it. I wanted her to be comfortable whenever she was forced to join our lockdowns, so I made her a small apartment over the main garage, giving her a space of her own whenever she was at the club. When I walked in, she was sitting on her sofa, drinking a cup of coffee. She watched quietly as I poured myself a cup and joined her in the living room.
Sensing the tension I was carrying, she asked, “Hey, sweetheart. Is everything okay?”