Total pages in book: 62
Estimated words: 61723 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 309(@200wpm)___ 247(@250wpm)___ 206(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 61723 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 309(@200wpm)___ 247(@250wpm)___ 206(@300wpm)
Whatever it is growing between us, I feel it. This strange, steady awareness that something in my life has shifted so hard I’ll never get it back to where it was before.
Lucy steps closer, fingers smoothing down the front of her denim jacket. She’s got jeans on, boots, and one of my old black t-shirts. The sight of her in my shirt nearly took me out when I picked her up.
Now I’m pretending I’m handling it better than I am. Because it makes me wonder what she would look like after a night deep inside her and waking with her wearing only my shirt. It makes me want to take her to bed not a club family function.
“You sure you’re good?” I ask for probably the third time in ten minutes.
She glances up at me, amusement flickering in her eyes. “You’ve asked me that six times.”
“Five.”
She laughs, “Six.”
I step closer and tug lightly on the chin strap of her helmet to make sure it’s secure. “You’d tell me if you changed your mind.”
“Yes.”
“You’d tell me if you got uncomfortable.”
“Yes.”
“You’d tell me if—”
She puts a hand on my chest. Just flat there. Warm through my shirt. And every thought in my head gets derailed.
“I’m okay, Tucker.”
The way she says my name is quiet, certain, meant to settle me.
It does. Mostly.
I look over her shoulder at the growing line of bikes. Brothers from our chapter are pulling in one by one, engines rumbling low through the predawn air. Old ladies climb off behind them, tugging jackets straight, laughing in clusters, swapping greetings and gossip before the ride even starts.
Gainz pulls in next to Stunt, kills his engine, and pulls off his helmet.
One glance at me and Lucy standing too close and he grins like a bastard.
“Look at that,” he says loud enough for everyone in the county to hear. “Mellow’s gone domestic and social.”
Lucy laughs softly beside me.
I glare at him. “Morning to you too, sunshine.”
Gainz swings off his bike and nods toward Lucy. “You survive him yet?”
“Barely,” she says.
He points at her. “See? I like her.”
“I’m right here, ya know.” I mutter.
Lindsey arrives a minute later clinging to the back of Looney’s bike, her helmet crooked and her laugh already carrying before the engine’s even dead. She hops off and heads straight for Lucy.
“Thank God,” she says. “A face I actually want to spend all day with.”
Lucy smiles, visibly relaxing the second she sees her friend. That does something good to my chest.
Looney yanks off his gloves and jerks his chin toward Nitro, who’s standing beside his bike pretending not to watch Lindsey. “You keeping your hands to yourself today, or do I have to remind you this one’s my baby sister?”
Looney flips him off. “She’s thirty, you prehistoric asshole.”
Lindsey snorts. “And still not interested! Calm your shit, Nitro. Looney is just my friend.”
Nitro beams at his sister reassuring him that she isn’t tying herself to one of the brothers. “That’s my girl.”
Lucy laughs outright this time, the sound bright in the cool air, and I catch the way some of the tension leaves her shoulders.
Good. That’s the point. This ride was never just about taking her out. It’s about letting her see the other side. The one outsiders don’t get.
The one that matters. The one that is the ease after the chaos that can be our lifestyle. I touch the small of her back lightly and guide her toward the group as more bikes roll in. “Come on,” I murmur. “Let’s get you introduced before Looney tells everyone I’m in love and ruins my reputation.”
Her brows lift.
“Would that ruin it?”
I look down at her. “Absolutely.”
She smiles in a way that says she doesn’t believe me for a second. Probably because she’s smarter than I am.
By the time the sun starts cracking over the horizon, we’ve got a good twenty bikes lined up and ready. The Kings from Freedom Falls are meeting two other Alabama chapters up north for the day—ride, food, bullshit, some actual chapter business if Chux has his way. The women coming along make it feel less like official club work and more like one long family trip with louder engines.
I bring Lucy through the line one step at a time.
Introductions matter.
Not because the club doesn’t know who she is. At this point half of Freedom Falls knows who she is. But because there’s a difference between being seen around and being brought in.
That difference isn’t lost on anybody here.
Chux arrives last because presidents like making an entrance even when they claim they don’t. His Road Glide rumbles into the lot with Alaina behind him, one arm around his waist, the other hand holding down the bakery box she’s somehow brought to a group ride before breakfast.
He kills the engine and glances once over the crowd.
Takes in everything.
Always does.