by Amy Lamont
I slid my arms into the worn leather, zipping it up over my winter coat. I was right. I had room to spare.
“Is this yours?” I asked.
“Yeah, it’s my extra. You got gloves?”
I lifted the edge of his jacket to dig my black gloves out of my coat pocket.
He waited until I had them on and then held the helmet out to me.
“Sal, you’ve got the bar,” he called out.
The waitress watching the game turned and lifted a hand in acknowledgement.
He turned his attention to me. “Come on.”
I didn’t think twice about following him out the door. Truth is I’d probably follow him to the ends of the earth if he so much as crooked his little finger at me.
We stopped next to a Harley that was all black and chrome. Definitely not the beater of a bike he’d ridden all through high school. I stood there watching while he pulled on a helmet and swung a leg over the bike. And then it hit me.
I was about to get a ride on Hunter’s bike. The fourteen-year-old girl inside me started jumping up and down and squeeing like a fan girl seeing her favorite boy band for the first time. It took every ounce of energy I had to keep from doing it on the outside, too.
“Hop on, Kate. I have to get moving. I need to get back before the temperature drops.”
I didn’t waste another second. I slammed the helmet in place and swung my leg over the bike as if I’d done it every day for the last ten years. And the moment I dreamed about for years arrived. I wrapped my arms tightly around Hunter’s waist, reveling in the feeling of his strong back against my front and imagining I could feel his hard abs through his layers of t-shirt and jacket.
Before I knew it, he’d started the bike and we rolled out of the parking lot onto the road.
Chapter 3
The ride gave a whole new meaning to the term “seven minutes in heaven.” I pressed myself against Hunter’s back and tucked my helmeted head against his shoulder to avoid the frigid chill. He was right. Once we got moving, the sharp whip of the wind stung my skin even through all my layers.
I didn’t care. It gave me an excuse to tuck myself close to him and inhale his scent mixed with the cold winter air as we shot down the street. The road unfurled below us, and the bike ate it up at an exhilarating speed. This was every fantasy I’d ever had about Hunter come true. Well, maybe not every fantasy. But still…
Pure. Bliss.
I clutched his middle and reveled in every single second, a quiet prayer in the back of my mind that the ride would never end.
But that wish went unfulfilled. All too soon we rolled into the parking lot of the train station. Hunter stopped the Harley at the curb. He lifted the shield that protected his face from the punishing gusts and looked over his shoulder at me. “Here’s your stop, princess.”
I rolled my eyes at the nickname, but even stupid names leftover from our childhood couldn’t wipe the grin from my face. I pulled the helmet off, but didn’t get off the bike. “That was awesome. Even better than I imagined it’d be.”
His eyes raked my face. “You spent lots of time imagining being on the back of my bike?”
He couldn’t erase my smile, but that didn’t mean my cheeks didn’t burn at his question.
“You’d be surprised,” I said softly and sank my teeth into my bottom lip, trying to dredge up some courage before I asked what I most wanted to ask. “Can’t you take me with you? I know you have to get back quick. But if you take me with you, you can bring me right back here after.”
He stared at me, his eyes narrowed, roaming my face for long moments. It took everything I had in me to hold his stare, not to look away. I wanted to stay on the back of his bike more than I wanted my next breath.
“Please.” My voice came out on a breath.
His eyes closed and if I didn’t know him better, I’d swear he sighed. He turned his face up toward the sky, and then his shoulders dropped. He turned back to me. “Put your helmet on.”
I had to resist the urge to clap my hands. But I didn’t fight the next impulse. I leaned forward and gave him a quick, tight, one-armed squeeze around his middle.
“Thank you, thank you!” I tugged the helmet back on and inched forward, ready to wrap myself around him once more.
His gaze searched my face for a few beats, looking for God knew what. He shook his head and pulled the shield down over his face again, mumbling something about a need to have his head examined. Then he started the bike and we were once again on the road.
The ride to the cabin was even better than the ride to the train station. I kept my head tucked close to him, but this time I turned my face toward the passing scenery. As we climbed into the mountains, I could feel the air around us getting colder. I shivered underneath all my layers, but I didn’t care if I froze solid. I wouldn’t miss this for the world.
The roads were clear and the late afternoon sunlight bounced off the snow piled high along the roadsides. Barren trees stretched high overhead, branches swaying just a little with the breeze.
I closed my eyes briefly, imagining for those seconds that we’d been transported to a different time and place. It was breathtaking and magical and otherworldly all at the same time. Add to it the fact I got to take it all in while I sat behind Hunter Lawson, my arms around him, his warmth seeping into me, and it was beyond anything I could ever imagine.
My friends might think this moment way too tame to win our bet, but I couldn’t think of anything that could ever top it.
In less than an hour, we rode up a well-plowed driveway in front of a cute cabin that looked like someone put it together with a giant set of Lincoln Logs. I reluctantly swung myself off the back of the motorcycle, wanting nothing more than to continue hanging onto Hunter as if my life depended on it. But I managed to let him go and follow him up onto the wide front porch and through the door of the cabin.
The inside was dim. Little of the winter sunlight leeched inside to allow a good glimpse of the interior, but I could make out furniture covered in sheets in a big room that made up the kitchen, dining room and living room all in one.
“Do me a favor?” Hunter went into the kitchen area like he’d been here a thousand times. He reached into a tall cabinet next to the refrigerator and grabbed an industrial sized flashlight. “I need to go check the fuse box in the basement. Can you stay up here and yell down when you see any of the lights come on?”
“Sure.”
He moved swiftly, opening the door to a bedroom and then a bathroom before he pointed up to a dark loft space. “There’s an overhead light up there so you should be able to see it from here if it goes on.”
“Okay.”
I stood in the middle of the shadowy living room, huddling deep into Hunter’s jacket, as he clomped down the stairs. The air in here wasn’t much warmer than outside.
I heard a few vague clicks and then Hunter called up from the bottom of the stairs. “Anything?”
I took a quick inventory to make sure I hadn’t missed a light flash on somewhere. “No. Nothing.”
“Shit.” More shuffling came from the basement before I heard his feet heavy on the steps again. “I may need to change out a circuit breaker.”
He leaned back into the cabinet where he got the flashlight and pulled out a red and silver toolbox. “Guess it’s a good thing you wanted to tag along, princess. Would you mind coming down and holding the flashlight for me?”
In two sentences he’d managed to make me feel like the gangly little girl who wanted to follow my brother and his cute, strong best friend all over creation. The sad part was I still wanted to follow anywhere he wanted to lead. As evidenced by the fact I followed him into the dank basement of some cabin in the middle of nowhere. Good thing I trusted this man with my life.
The basement was a basement, pitch black except for the bouncing beam provided by the flashlight as I tromped down the steps. From what I could see after a quick flick of the flashlight, the basement was one big room the
size of the entire house. The walls and floors were concrete and a damp, musty odor hung in the air. Jumbles of boxes and heaps of dusty old junk sat on the floor and tables around the room.
Not exactly the romantic setting I’d always imagined when I’d pictured riding off on the back of Hunter’s bike.
I held in the sigh that wanted to escape and moved over to where Hunter set down his toolbox. He pointed to the breaker box, and I kept the light steady on it as he bent his head to concentrate on the task at hand. I rolled my eyes, knowing he’d never see me, hidden as I was behind the light. But holy cow, some things never changed. He couldn’t even be bothered to speak to me to tell me where to hold the flashlight.
The silence stretched between us as Hunter dug into his work. As he hunched over his work, toolbox at his feet, vague discomfort swirled through me in slithery curls, scenes from the dreams of him that had filled the last few nights drifting through my head.
As each second passed with nothing but the click and clang of tools against plastic and metal, I could feel a bit more discomfort and desperation welling up inside me until it all but clogged my throat. The minute we finished here, he’d bundle me back on his bike, take me down the hill and leave me at the train station. And unless I made a habit of showing up here like a stalker every day, who knows how many years would pass before I saw him again.
My mind grasped for something to talk to him about, some way to get his attention. I sighed. Not for the first time, I wished I was more like Paige or Jade. Heck, even Emma ended up going after what she wanted. And look what that got her.
My soft sigh must have reached Hunter’s ears because he twisted his head to give me a small smirk. “You must be wishing you let me leave you at the train station. You’d be halfway to the city by now.”
I held back a snort. He couldn’t be more wrong. I’d stand in this dank, musty, dusty basement for the next six months if it meant I got to be with him. But I wasn’t about to share that bit of information.
Why not?
I wasn’t entirely sure that voice in my head was mine. Sounded an awful lot like Paige. But…there might be something there. I didn’t know how to flirt to save my life, but maybe starting with a little hint of the truth couldn’t hurt.
“Nowhere else I can think of I’d rather be right now,” I said in a voice so soft, I was surprised it reached him.
But it definitely did. His head whipped around, and I swallowed hard.
I shrugged. Could he even see me? His eyes stayed trained my way a few long seconds before he turned back to fiddle in the breaker box.
“City must be boring,” he muttered.
“Not really. I still live with Paige, Jade and Emma. Things don’t usually stay boring long with that bunch.”
A small chuckle broke from Hunter. “The only times Logan ever mentioned you getting in trouble was when you were mixed up with those girls.”
I took a step closer to the breaker box, and the circle of light spread so I could see Hunter’s face clearly. My heart picked up speed at the small, warm smile tipping up the corner of his lips.
“We did have our moments.” I smiled at the memory of some of our high school exploits—all silly stuff, but we always had a blast.
His gaze moved up to mine and a quick grin transformed his hard face, leaving me a little breathless, my pulse pounding hard enough I could feel the blood rushing through my veins.
“I seem to remember a moment you all had that involved my dad and his beloved lawn.”
I couldn’t help the laugh that escaped me. “Oh my God, I can’t believe we finally got caught. And before we really got to do anything.”
“What were you trying to do anyway?”
“We knew how much your dad loved his lawn. I think Jade had read something where if you write a word in fertilizer on the lawn, when someone washes it away, the grass grows fuller and darker than other parts of the lawn. So it wouldn’t kill any of the lawn, but the word would keep growing back into the grass.”
Hunter laughed out loud. My stomach felt like a swimmer was spinning somersaults in there. How many times had I dreamed of making this man laugh? I couldn’t pull my eyes from his face.
“Didn’t you get grounded for two weeks for that?” he asked, shaking his head. “All that trouble and you didn’t get to finish. What were you going to write in the lawn?”
I wrinkled my nose. “That’s what got us caught. We were arguing about what we should write. If I remember correctly, Jade was pushing for ‘douchebag’ and Paige thought it would be too long and we should just write ‘douche.’ They got a little loud and your dad caught us red-handed and called our parents.”
Hunter yanked something out of the breaker box. “Seems like a big punishment for not committing the crime.”
“Well, it was more that once we got caught, our parents realized we were responsible for a few other pranks we played on your dad.”
I dropped my gaze to the uneven concrete floor and pretended to find the toe of his scuffed black boot fascinating.
“You guys played other pranks on my dad?” The laughter left his voice only to be replaced by something else. Maybe it was just curiosity, but it seemed like there was something deeper there.
I risked a quick look up at him from under my lashes. He’d stopped working on the box, and his attention was totally focused on me now.
I pressed the pad of my thumb against my lips and the other hand, the one holding the flashlight, dropped a little, moving the two of us into shadow. “Umm, there were a couple of others.”
“Like what?”
I wished I could move the light straight to his face so I could scrutinize his expression. “Well, there was the ad we put online that he had a mint condition, vintage motorcycle for sale. We sort of added your address and the times people could come see it.”
“Holy shit. My dad was pissed. People rang our bell all day long. He thought I had something to do with it.”
I pressed my lips together. I knew he’d gotten into trouble. Which was not at all what we’d had in mind. “Well, after that we stuck to less obvious stuff.”
His brows moved together forming an adorable wrinkle between them. “What kind of stuff?”
I blew a breath out. Shit. I didn’t want to admit all this to him. Next he’d want to know why. But the way he was looking at me, there’s no way I’d be able to avoid blurting out the truth. “There was the time we signed him up to get all kinds of mail offers for things like medication for erectile dysfunction and penile implants.”
Oh my God, did I just say erectile dysfunction and penile implants to Hunter Lawson? My face heated so fast I felt a twinge of fear that I might burst into flames. Of course, that might be preferable to standing here talking to Hunter Lawson about erectile dysfunction and penile implants.
He threw his head back and burst out laughing. His broad shoulders shook and even in the dim basement, I could see the flash of his smile.
And suddenly my mortification was gone. Every inch of me was completely riveted to the sight of rugged, wild Hunter Lawson. Laughing.
“What else?” he asked when his laughter subsided.
I wracked my brain, now wanting nothing more than to keep Hunter’s rapt attention on me. And to be the cause of his laughter.
“One of the girls poured some dishwashing liquid in the top of the hose. When your dad went to water the lawn, big gushes of suds came out instead of water.”
He snorted.
“And then there was the time we ordered three hundred dollars worth of Chinese takeout and had it delivered. It was all egg rolls.”
He laughed and again my heart jumped for joy. I’d spent too many years watching him and I could count on one hand the times I’d seen him laugh like this.
His laughter faded to a deep chuckle as he snapped something into place in the breaker box. “I don’t remember any of this.”
I shrugged, the beam of the flashlight dipping with my movement. “I’m guessing yo
ur dad didn’t advertise the fact someone was getting to him.”
“That I can imagine.” He dropped a flathead screwdriver into the toolbox and fiddled with something else, his shoulder blocking me from seeing exactly what he was doing. “What I can’t imagine is why you girls did it. Were you pulling pranks on all our neighbors?”
This conversation was suddenly headed in a direction I didn’t want to go. But I managed to answer with one simple, quiet word. “No.”
He chuckled again. “It just doesn’t seem like something you’d do.”
And it wasn’t. It took a lot to get me to the point where I felt the need to exact revenge on Mr. Lawson. But that was one time in my life I didn’t let being a goody two-shoes stand in my way. And as I thought back on that time, I realized something.
It felt good.
“So what, did you guys pull names out of a hat? Or did my dad do something in particular to incur your wrath?”
Oh, crap. How did I answer that question?
“Hey, a little more light please.”
Oops. I hadn’t even realized I loosened my grip on the flashlight. I steadied the light, keeping the beam pinned to the breaker box.
“So, my dad?” he prodded.
Shit, shit, shit. I blinked and tried to figure out a way to tell the truth without actually…well, telling the truth.
“I guess you could say he was on our list.” There, that should do the trick.
Hunter grinned at me over his shoulder. “Your list? That sounds ominous. Just how many names were on your list?”
I tilted my head back, staring at the ceiling as if some answer would present itself in the dark shadows there. But nope, no answers, just lots of cobwebs.
“There was just the one.” I all but whispered the words. I shut my eyes, praying he wouldn’t question me anymore.
The rustling of his clothes and clack of metal tools at work ceased, and a lump of dread formed in my chest. I knew without a doubt I wasn’t about to get the answer to my prayers I was hoping for.
I sighed and opened my eyes, dropping my chin so I could look at Hunter. His attention was fully focused on me.