One Rule

Chapter 33

The next morning, I woke up when the sun streamed through the curtains. I turned over and buried my face in his chest, biting lightly. "Good morning," I smiled against his body.

"Good morning," he smiled. "We've survived one year of marriage."

"Yes we have."

"Last night was fun," I said. "What do you want to do today? I have the day off, so it's just you and me," I smirked, trailing my fingers down his stomach.

"Oh yeah? I think of a good way to start our day." He leaned over and kissed me hard, eventually coming to hover over me. It didn't take much for us to go for a couple more rounds that morning.

About an hour later, we were both out of breath. "Oh my god. I think we actually have to be a little bit productive, don't you?" I teased.

"Bare minimum," he laughed. "You want breakfast?"

"After that? Yes, please."

He got up and found a pair of boxers and slipped them on. "What are you doing?" he asked when I got up too.

"I'm going to help you," I said as I grabbed clean underwear and one of his shirts. I got dressed and we headed out to the kitchen. "Make this process go faster," I winked. "Um, not to kill the mood, but I told Jax about my miscarriage last night. I felt like that was the only way he'd give me the space to deal with Tara in my own time."

Kozik turned to look at me, "What did he say?"

I stretched up on my toes to get the pancake batter mix down off the top of the fridge. "He thinks that I should tell Tara, but he understands that it should be my choice about when and how she gets told about the full extent of the damage."

"That's good."

I started on the batter, "What do you think about Gemma wanting to throw us a party."

"What do you think about it?" he countered.

"I asked you first,"I replied, sticking my tongue out at him. "Honestly, I have a feeling if we wait too long, she's going to do with or without our blessing."

"Can you play nice?" he asked.

"I can play nice. I just want to make her work for it a bit," I admitted.

"Ever the diplomat," he teased, kissing my neck.

"The diplomat wants to know if you're going to start cooking bacon, or what?" I replied.

"Yes ma'am."

Later, I texted Gemma and told her that she had our blessing to throw us a party if she still felt so inclined. We didn't have much planned that day, except to keep things relaxed.

That evening, Jax called and asked us to come to the clubhouse. He hinted that it was for the party Gemma had thrown together. I knew she worked fast, but damn! I wasn't expecting her to throw us a party that night.

The party was short lived - if basically non-existent. We'd barely made it in the door when the sheriff brought what looked like the entire department down, along with the fire department. We were all detained while they looked for a "fire" or "other code violations".

I caught a piece of glass in the arm when the sheriff started smashing windows. That was when the yelling started. One of the firefighters tried to patch my arm up.

"Get off me, I can deal with this on my own," I snapped and went for the first aid kit behind the bar. "You've all done enough."

Kozik followed me, "What can I do?"

I softened up, "Nothing. I don't think it needs stitches, just cleaning and a bandage." I picked up the tweezers and plucked the glass out of my arm. "Actually, can you hand me some alcohol?"

"Any particular variety?" he teased.

"I'll take whatever you give me."

He handed me a bottle of vodka and I dumped some on my arm. "Fuck," I swore quietly. I pressed a cloth to the wound and applied pressure and went to go sit down.

"Do you want me to look at it?" Tara asked, coming up to me.

"No, it's fine," I replied quietly.

Eventually we were forced outside to wait while they finished. I just wanted to go home. Kozik was sitting on one of the picnic tables, with his feet on the seat. I sat in between his legs, and he rubbed my shoulders. "Happy anniversary baby," he said quietly.

"I was going to ask Happy to add to my crow, but I don't think today's the day to do it anymore," I sighed.

"What were you going to add?" Kozik asked.

"The date we got married," I replied quietly. "Maybe if they let us go soon we can go home and just have a quiet dinner?"

"Let's just play it by ear," he said, dropping a kiss to my hair. "How's the arm?"

"It's been long enough. It should be done bleeding. If not, I'll let Chibs give me a stitch or two," I yawned, leaning against his knee. I pulled the cloth away, and looked. It was basically done bleeding. "It's fine."

Thirty minutes later, they told us we could go back inside and that they were done. "You've got to be shitting me," I mumbled when we walked back inside. The place was utterly destroyed, and there was glass and debris all over the floor.

I walked back to the storage room and managed to find a broom that was still in one piece. Just as I came back to the main room, Tara spoke up, "I have some good news." She slipped a ring out of her pocket and put it on, "We're engaged!"

The room seemed to brighten up. I found a corner that was less densely populated and started there. A couple of the girls came over, "Can we help?"

"Once I get manageable piles, you guys could get it into the trash? I think I saw another broom back there," I said quietly. And that is how three crow eaters and I ended up cleaning the clubhouse on my anniversary. Our party was completely forgotten, replaced by Jax and Tara's engagement party.

Once the floor was done, Kozik came up behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist. "You shouldn't have had to that," he said in my ear.

"Someone has to do it, or everyone is going to get glass stuck in their shoes," I said, trying to remind myself that he meant well. "Can we go home?"

"Yeah, let's go."

We slipped out of the clubhouse and sprinted across the lot to his bike like we were teenagers sneaking out of the house. We got out of the lot before anyone realized we were gone.

When we got home, I went to my nightstand and pulled out a box. I'd told him to wait downstairs, and that I had a surprise for him. I came back downstairs, to find him sitting on sofa. I sat down on his lap, and he wrapped his arms around my waist.

"I know this last year wasn't always easy, and I know I'm your personal pain in the ass, but I wouldn't have it any other way. I love you, and I can't wait for whatever life has in store for us on this adventure." I smiled, and leaned down to kiss him. "This is for you." I handed him the box.

"I love you too, baby." He opened the box to find the skull ring I'd had made for him. I'd had, "1 year down, eternity to go" inscribed on the inside. "This is perfect," he said, putting it on. He kissed me, cupping my cheek with his hand. "I got you something too," he said when he pulled back.

"Oh yeah?" I asked.

He produced his own jewelry box. I opened it to find a blue quartz pendant necklace.

"Flip it over," he told me.

It had "You're my always and forever" etched into the back.

"I love it." I leaned down and kissed him again.

After that, we went upstairs and went another couple of rounds before passing out for the night.