BULL

The pounding on the door was Gunner coming to let us know that Aspen had the baby.

“What’d she have?” I ask him as we walk to Master’s place.

“They’re keeping it on the down low until we’re all together in one room,” he answers.

“That’s exciting,” Dottie mewls, her eyes dancing with exuberant joy.

“It’s fucking annoying,” Gunner murmurs.

“It really the fuck is,” I concur.

“It is not, stop being so grumpy you two,” Dottie chides.

“We’re not,” I argue.

“Yes, y’all are,” she decrees as we step up onto the front porch of the new parents’ home.

Being polite, I raise my hand and knock on the door. A chorus of “come in” echoes through the door.

When we enter, Nash has a blanket-wrapped bundle held in his arms. He’s sitting on the bean bag between Oakley and Juniper. The three siblings look down at the newest member of their family with so much love shining in their eyes.

“We voted,” Aspen says from her perch in the recliner where she’s wrapped in a blanket, a heating pad settled on her belly, and a protective biker hovering above her. “And Nash, as the oldest sibling, will be letting everyone know the gender.”

“Oakley and Juniper, as the baby’s sisters, will be sharing the name. Oakley will say the first name and Juniper will share the middle name,” Master concludes.

“It’s a boy!” Nash hollers out of nowhere, the second his father stops talking.

“His first name is Killian,” Oakley adds.

“And his middle name is Reed,” Juniper squeaks.

We each get a few minutes to welcome our future DreamCatcher member to the fold before we’re ushered from the house so the family can bond and relax.

“One day, that’ll be us,” I confess.

“You want kids, Bull? Don’t you think we’re past our formative baby making years?”

“Nah, baby. We’re still young at heart and healthy.”

“I don’t know, I think I need to think about it before making any definitive plans,” she sighs. “But I have always wanted to be a mother.”

“I never wanted to be a father until I met you,” I tell her.

“Well shit. Now I’m thinking we should get in a lot of practice time until I make up my mind, Bull.”

“I can make that happen, Dot.” Leaning down, I toss her over my shoulder and jog to our home where we practice well into the next day.

* * *

Pops delivered every item on our shopping list. As I sit with everyone around the firepit in the community park, I can tell the difference between the packages the men wrapped and the ones the women did.

Laughs are shared as crude holiday jokes are told by Texas.

Kids roam through the courtyard as they play with their new toys.

The women pass Killian from one to the other as they take turns watching the children and help keep them in line.

It doesn’t matter what we unwrap, we don’t give a damn if someone’s gift was more extravagant than the other, every damn one of us is grateful to be alive and have one another that we could just be together and happy.

Pops has been working hard on finding the Crumley brothers, the price on our heads hasn’t been withdrawn which has us wondering if since there were no bodies found among the ashes, if they’re keeping the kill order up just in case we pulled one over on them, which we did, but we were praying they were too damn dumb to figure it out.

Considering the concrete slab the clubhouse was built on didn’t survive, where the building used to be, there is nothing but a crater ten feet below the surface. The crime scene crew stated and documented that there was no possible way anyone survived, and that the intense explosion demolished everything into such fine particles that there was nothing left for testing.

We’ve all been presumed dead, the few items we buried on the premises with the purpose that they’d be found were located by the detectives working the scene. Our licenses, in the vicinity of our bedrooms, were left, as were cheap replicas of our wallets and the ladies’ purses. Clothing items were also left so that charred pieces of belts, bras, boots, and jeans were unearthed beneath the ash. Plus, our vehicles as well as the replicated bikes were all parked either out front or in the back pasture as if we’d settled in for the night.

Pops and Luca smuggled copies of the local newspapers down to us and the front-page articles alone should’ve taken the contract down since multiple experts claimed there was no way for anyone to survive and when they were questioned about the fact no bones were found, the forensic scientists advised that the fire flashed so hot, it was more than what a crematorium was heated to so the bones disintegrated.

“Merry Christmas, Bullheaded,” Dottie whispers in my ear, bending over me and wrapping her arms around me from behind.

“Merry Christmas, Polka Dot,” I return.

The twelve-foot lit tree in the midst of our town is the backlighting to our perfect holiday. Pops has summoned all the kids there where he reads the Night before Christmas then afterward, Luca sits them down and sings carols with them.

We are still missing one of our brothers and Master’s sister. I send a silent prayer that they are safe and that we will find them, or they will find us.

“Watch over my brother, please. Bring him and Hemmi back home safely to us.”

None of us are comfortable with them out there on their own, but at this time, our hands are all but tied.