“Why keep in Florida, Star?” he demanded, his voice booming within the stillness of my cabin. “You’ve obtained household, Sunny and Arizona, your stepmother, all again in Tucson.”

My love for my siblings and stepmother however, I stood my floor. “That is my life now, Dad,” I countered, feeling the outdated tug of familial responsibility clashing with my chosen path. “The Hell on Heelz, they’re my household too.”

“Your mother misplaced her method, misplaced her life due to this membership.”

“I’m wondering who killed her?” The argument that began was fiery, a conflict of wills between two robust personalities, every with their very own imaginative and prescient of what household and responsibility meant.

“Star, we’ve been over this too many instances,” he began as we rehashed outdated wounds.

However because the preliminary storm of grievances handed, we settled into the guts of the matter. Riptide and his intentions.

Dad’s demeanor shifted once we broached the topic of Riptide. “So, this biker’s obtained your coronary heart,” he mused, his tone a mixture of skepticism and curiosity. “What does he actually need, Star?”

I hesitated, figuring out the depth of my emotions for Riptide but additionally understanding my father’s want to guard me, to make sure I wasn’t strolling right into a scenario evenly. In any case, he handled my relationship with Marco earlier than who wished greater than my love. “Riptide loves me, dad,” I mentioned, my voice regular with conviction. “He’s proven me repeatedly.”

Dad checked out me, his expression softening, the exhausting strains of his face enjoyable right into a resigned kind of acceptance. “If this boy’s severe about you, about becoming a member of our households,” he started, his voice gruff however not unkind.

“Boy?” I began. “He’s a person. And we’re the identical age. I’m a flipping grownup.” I didn’t dare to curse in entrance of him.

Dad utterly ignored my rant. “He’ll have to show it, to me, to the golf equipment, to everybody. He’ll have to make an trustworthy girl out of you.”

“An trustworthy girl? What’s that purported to imply?” I whined.

“It’s a saying. Means he’ll do the best factor. Marry you.”

The revelation from my father that marriage was his situation for a truce between the Hell on Heelz and the Seville Slayers not solely added a fancy layer to an already intricate scenario. It was downright insulting.

“Dad, marriage can’t be a bargaining chip,” I argued, my fingers clenched at my sides, frustration boiling inside me. “Riptide and I, our relationship, it’s actual, not some technique to be negotiated.”

My dad’s expression was unreadable, his years of main the Asphalt Gods MC etched within the strains of his face. “Star, you understand how this world works,” he mentioned, his tone softening barely. “It’s not nearly love. It’s about alliances, power, and the way forward for our golf equipment.”

I paced the small confines of my cabin. The partitions seeming to shut in. “Riptide hasn’t proposed, dad,” I admitted, extra to myself than to him. “I don’t even know if that’s what he desires, or if he’s prepared for that step.”

“If this biker is severe about you, about bringing our golf equipment collectively, he’ll step up,” he said.

The concept of Riptide proposing, of us formally uniting our lives and by extension our golf equipment, was each thrilling and terrifying. I cherished him, greater than I’d thought doable, however the notion of our relationship getting used as a linchpin for a membership alliance was daunting.

As dad expressed his disbelief on the notion of Riptide inviting him all the way in which from Arizona with out the intention of formalizing our relationship. “He had me come all the way in which right here only for y’all to play home?” His voice was spiked with astonishment.

I shook my head, frustration mounting. “That’s not how issues work anymore,” I retorted, realizing the hole of generations and ideologies between us was large. “We don’t stay in a world the place a wedding has to seal a deal or validate a relationship anymore.”

Dad’s insistence on marriage as a cornerstone for the truce between our golf equipment felt archaic, a remnant of outdated biker traditions clashing with the current’s complexities. “Should you’re right here to stress us into marriage to seal some membership deal, then possibly it was a mistake so that you can come,” I mentioned, my voice rising.

The unstated frustrations of years colliding with the present turmoil hardened dad’s face. He set his jaw stubbornly, similar to me. “If that’s the way you see it, Star,” he growled, his disappointment evident. With out one other phrase, he stormed out, leaving me alone within the simmering silence of my cabin.

The door slammed shut with a finality that echoed by means of the small area, a loud reminder of not simply the membership politics we have been navigating, however the private stuff. Issues had been strained with my dad after I mentioned I wished to depart Tucson to stay with my mom’s household in Florida for highschool, and I by no means got here again.

Standing there, amid the remnants of our heated speak, I felt a weary sense of isolation. The hole between my father’s expectations and my very own wishes wasn’t insurmountable. They have been the identical. They’d nothing to do with the tough realities of our biker world. However the truth remained, Riptide hadn’t requested me to marry him, and I didn’t count on him to as a result of my dad demanded it.

That night time I contemplated the tough path forward, the fragile stability between love, responsibility, and the fierce independence that had all the time outlined me. Dad’s go to, meant to bridge the space between our worlds, had as an alternative underscored the challenges we confronted in reconciling our previous with the long run I hoped to construct with Riptide.

Mendacity in mattress, staring on the ceiling, I resolved to have an trustworthy dialog with my biker, to uncover the depths of our wishes and the potential of our future collectively. The idea of matrimony, as soon as a distant thought, now loomed as a pivotal level in our journey and the potential for a united entrance towards the challenges we confronted.

Amidst the silence of the night time, the concept of strolling down a path that led to an altar and an alliance felt like an attractive prospect. With Riptide by my facet, I believed we might navigate the complexities of our world, forging a brand new period for the Hell on Heelz and the Slayers collectively.

Chapter 19

Riptide

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