The Thunder Wolves MC - Petal (Book #12)

24

Petal

It has been a month since our first date, and not once have I felt like Finch wasn’t all in when it came to the two of us. Since the first morning of his sending a good morning text, he hasn’t missed a day. And I have come to look forward to them, along with the many texts we share throughout the day. Between the texts and the conversations we have every time we are together, I am surprised we haven’t run out of things to talk about already. But we haven’t, and I don’t think we ever will. There always seems to be something. It was honestly refreshing. Our relationship was all s*x. Not that we didn’t find time to have plenty of it, but that wasn’t all we did. Anna didn’t even have to be around for the two of us to find other things to do.

In the time Finch and I have been together, I haven’t met his family. Well, really, I haven’t met his mom or sister. I know who his dad is and have talked to him before. But not while Finch and I have been together. The only times I have interacted with Gears, his dad, was when my car was having problems, and he fixed it for me. Besides that, I haven’t talked to him, so I wasn’t really counting that as having been introduced to Finch’s dad. But that was going to change today. Currently, we were on our way over to his parent's house. Finch picked me up from my apartment with Anna in his car and was driving us over. I was more nervous than I think I ever have been. I have never felt the need to impress a guy's family as much as I felt like I needed to impress his. I never really cared if a guy's family liked me or not. They either did or they didn’t. But for some reason, I wanted nothing more than Finch’s family to like me. And I am sure my job choice wasn’t something his mother was going to be supportive of. Since starting at the club this was the first time I was rethinking my job choices. What mother would be happy with their son dating a stripper? Finch has tried telling me not to worry about it. I found it hard not to.

The ride over to Finch’s parent's house didn’t take nearly long enough. Before I knew it, he was pulling the car into a driveway with two other cars already there, along with a motorcycle I had seen plenty of times while working at the club. Taking a deep breath, I let it out slowly, then repeated the process a couple more times while Finch helped Anna out of the back seat before opening my door. That was one thing I have learned over the last month. A lot doesn’t bother Finch, or at least he doesn’t seem bothered by a lot, but me opening my own door anytime he is around. He never says anything, but it wasn’t hard to see it bothered him. So I stopped doing it. Could I open my own doors, absolutely, but if it made him happy to be the one to open my door then why should I stop him. Besides, I found it kind of sweet. And right now, as I took another deep breath, waiting for him to open my door was a good excuse as to why I hadn’t gotten out of the car yet. Though, that changed only seconds later while Anna ran up to the front door and Finch opened my door.

Slowly, I climbed out of the car. Finch stepped in front of me so I couldn’t move out of the way for him to close the car door. Both his hands lightly grabbed my face, tilting my head so I looked up at him. Leaning forward, he softly kissed my lips.

“Just be yourself. They will love you.”

Nodding, I took one last deep breath, letting it out slowly, just as I had all the others. When I was done, Finch leaned forward, softly kissing me again, then let me go, taking a step back. He waited for me to stop around him before closing the car door and taking my hand. The two of us walked up to the house together. Anna was already through the front door, leaving the two of us behind.

Reaching the front door, Finch opened it, letting me walk in before him. Inside, he walked me through the living room and into the kitchen. There, we found everyone. To my surprise, Finch’s mom wasn’t the one standing closest to the stove cooking. Instead, it was his dad with Anna in his arms while both his mom and sister were placing items on the table. Everyone stopped what they were doing as the two of us walked in. Finch took advantage of the silence, introducing all of us.

“Mom, Dad, Emilia, this is Petal. Petal, my mom Clara, my sister Emilia, and then you know my dad, Gears.”

As if those words were magic, they all began moving again. Clara set down all the cups she was placing on the table and came over to give me a big hug.

“Welcome, dear. Dinner will be done here shortly. In the meantime, come on over here and have a seat.”

As she talked, she shooed Finch away from me, pointing over to the table where she left the cups. Without a word, he walked over and picked up where she left off. At the same time, she steered me away from the table and over to where there were a couple of stools sitting on the other side of the counter from where Gears was working.

It wasn’t hard to relax quickly as I began talking with Clara and Gears, even with them asking all the questions you would expect from your boyfriend's parents. I never felt like they were judging me based on my honest answers. Actually, talking with them was a lot like talking with Finch. Even Emilia was easy to talk to. She and I quickly became friends. She was a lot like her brother. Yet so different. She was a little more outspoken than him. And yet, at the same time, just as laid back as he was. She said what she wanted, and if she didn’t agree with something that was said, she didn’t seem bothered at all, shrugging whatever it was off.

Before I knew it, we had eaten dinner, which was amazing. Everything was made from scratch by Gears. It was honestly better than anything I have ever had before. Even eating at a nice restaurant wouldn’t even come close to how good the food was. And then, before I knew it, the sun had long gone down, Anna had long fallen asleep, Gears had taken her into one of the bedrooms, put her to bed, and Emilia had already said her goodnights and left. It was so late that Finch and his parents decided to let Anna sleep and not wake her to take her back home. Finch planned to take me home, and he would come back in the morning and pick her up before noon so they could do something they had planned.

Once everything was decided and we said our goodnights, we headed out. Finch, driving us back to my place for the night. As we got going, I was glad we were in his car and not on his motorcycle because it was starting to rain. And it didn’t take long for it to be raining hard. We maybe made it a mile down the road from his parent's house, and the rain was coming down so hard it was almost impossible to see farther than the front end of the car. Thankfully, my apartment wasn't that far away. Maybe another mile or so. We would be there in no time.

Or so I thought one moment, and then the next, I could only think I was glad the decision to leave Anna with Clara and Gears was made, and she wasn’t in the car. Everything after that thought happened as if it was in slow motion. As we drove through an intersection, headlights lit up the inside of the car. The sound of the other car hitting the back driver's side didn’t even register with me. My focus was on the pickup truck that was now inches away from my side of the car. The momentum from the car hitting the back driverside of the car having turned our car sideways in the intersection. The truck that would have passed beside us through the intersection was now slamming into us. The airbags in the car went off and I couldn’t help but think how useless they were as the truck pushed our car through the intersection completely before coming to a stop. I remember waiting for pain to take over from the truck hitting my side of the car. But it never came. I remember thinking how strange it was I wasn’t in pain, especially since the truck hit my door almost head-on, but I wasn’t. I remember hearing someone say my name a couple of times. I am almost positive it was Finch, but I couldn’t be sure. Everything sounded like it was moving through a funnel. Everything was so far away, and I couldn’t help but think how now there was rain coming into the car, and there was no way I wasn’t getting wet. The last thing I remember was thinking how strange it was that I couldn’t feel the water hitting anywhere other than my face. It was an odd feeling, and still, my eyes closed on their own. At first, it was because the rain was still coming down hard, and I couldn’t stop it from getting into my eyes. Well, besides closing them, that is. But then whoever was saying my name started yelling my name and it was too late my eyes where already closed, I couldn’t get them open again. Besides, whoever was yelling my name sounded like they were moving away from me, so I didn’t try too hard to open them. Instead, I let the sudden, intense feeling of going to sleep win out.