Where We Started (Stone Riders MC, #1)

by Ashley Munoz

“I think he loved her because she wasn’t lost, she just wanted an adventure. She was always sure of who she was. She knew what her role was in Neverland…and with Peter.” “But he rescued her so many times…” Callie argued softly. I shook my head, knowing she couldn’t see me. “Sometimes rescuing someone can lead to a pretty fun adventure. I bet Peter enjoyed it.” She didn’t ask anything else, and I started to drift off. Right before I fell asleep, I heard her whisper. “I think Wendy loved Peter more.”

“I’m not his girl.” Sasha paused and threw me a look over her shoulder. “Yes, you are, honey. The sooner you accept that, the easier all of this will be.”

“You fish for the thrill, to hold it in your hand for a pretty photo. A memory. Then you toss it back, never to think of it again. I think I’m something you’ll remember one day when thinking back over your youth, while you sip expensive wine with your fancy wife. I’m the memory you’ll have, not the moment you want to keep.”

“You think I want to get rid of you, or throw you back.” I shook my head. “Callie, if you want to use a fishing metaphor, then you’d be the river, not the fish inside it. You cut a path through me, filled it, and now it’s always shifting and moving. I can’t wait to see what our life will look like someday, but for now, I’m happy taking it one day at a time.”

“If I could ink it into my skin and carry it as a constant reminder that one day we’d be married and a happy family, I’d do it, Wes. For now, it hangs out on my keychain.”

I wanted all of you, everything you touched, all the air you breathed, the fucking dirt under your nails. I wanted it all.

Once you love someone so thoroughly, there’s pieces of you they claim, and whether you work out or not, the tear in your soul can’t be mended.

“You’re always cognizant when you’re with me. You clawed me open, Callie Stone, and demanded a position inside as queen of my heart. We can’t be apart. Even in death I’m pretty sure I’d follow you.”

I just let her dream, holding tight to the fact that she was the dream I was following.

“And she’s my entire fucking soul. We’re bound, her and I. In this life, and even in the next. She will haunt me for eternity, and when the devil tries to pry my soul from her grasp, he’ll realize there’s nothing to claim because it’s hers. All I fucking am, and all I ever could be belongs to her. There is nothing inside me that would have tolerated waiting. You’ve never once asked if I loved your daughter, and I know it’s because you already know. What you don’t know is that she’s my ending, Simon. She was my first love, there when I just barely started in this world, and she’ll be the only thing on my mind when I leave it.”

I left so I’d have a chance to chase my own dreams, free of the club and all the trauma from it, but my biggest dream was always being yours.

You were a little thief, sneaking in and taking my heart, staking a claim to my entire future.”