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With a sigh, she faceshole in this family since you left and I’ve prayed for years for your return, but now that you’re here, I fully understand why your o home, tell her that foryou to Snowflake again For all of our sakes You need to go ho you to not drag his off his bike and he’s immediately on the move toward us, but his dad steps in front of him A slow dull throb pulses inat ins to evaporate

Everyone’s so paranoid, so terrified, that I’et swept up in the erous thing I’ve experienced is ines and I suck in a breath when bike after bike, too many to count, race past the car I press into the seat as a sea of black vests leave the clubhouse and swarm Oz and his father The newcomers park their bikes and create another layer around thelares atout of the eye sockets

"They’re patching Oz in tonight," Izzy says quietly

I jolt as if electrocuted "But he’s not a prospect yet Oz said that he has to go through that period before he can officially join the club"

"If it weren’t forthat Oz not be allowed to be a prospect until he graduated, Oz would already be through his prospect period and patched in They took a special vote because of Olivia’s declining health and everyone agreed that she should see him as a member before she passes They also felt that thanks to the pastyou, he’s served his time"

Served his tiainst anything I’ve wanted," she says, "Oz has been a prospect of this club for eighteen years Sos are so inevitable that they don’t need to be made formal"

Izzy departs the car and I follow her as she goes up the steps of the porch I blink as Olivia exits the house The screen door shuts and the yard plummets into silence Every e her

She nods to me as if the last time I saw her she wasn’t in thefor Oz to help Her blue scarf covers her head Her jeans as tight as nors that alain that rese and radiates kick-ass

But as I step closer to her, there’s a slow deliberateness to her moveresses up her arers underneath hers and she grasps on to ht shake of her body would only have been noticed by so near She knows this and so do I

Olivia inclines her head and alk together on the porch, past myand the seat Oz has used as a bed for too ainst the wood Hand in hand we reach the corner of the porch and there’s a part of me that feels self-conscious that everyone stares

A breeze rushes through the trees The leaves clap against each other and a few round There are so hty A hundred So many Too many And Olivia and I have their undivided attention

The wind dies and this moment is too intense with silent expectation I search the crowd for Oz and when my eyes meet his, he imperceptibly nods at ain