Jess nodded her head and reached for her purse.
“They seem like a lovely little family,” she said. “And there’s no mom in the picture?”
She knew her father would be suspicious now for asking, but if he was, he didn’t show it.
“Nope,” he said. “Not by the sounds of it. Looks like it’s just the three of them trying to make it in this crazy world.”
Jess held his eye for a moment and could see a similar sort of sadness pass through her father. He knew what it was like to be a man on his own raising a child, and it was clear that he had a lot of affection for Tank for this exact reason.
“I better get going, Pop,” she smiled as she leaned in and kissed him on the cheek. “Kiara is coming over this evening and I’ve only got an hour to make sure the house is tidy.”
“I’m sure Kiara wouldn’t care if you were tidy or not,” her dad laughed.
“I know but that isn’t the point,” she smiled. “I like to always keep a tidy home. Tidy home, tidy mind and all that…”
Her dad nodded and hugged her before he shooed her away.
“Thanks again for the help,” he said. “With the accounts and the kids.”
“Like I said,” Jess called back to him as she headed out the front door. “It was no problem. Catch you later, Dad!”
She wandered out of the courtyard where all the vehicles and bikes were stationed, and she made her way back out of the alleys and onto Main Street. It had been such a strange couple of days, but she was finally feeling as if something big was about to happen.
She raced home with a spring in her step and a fire in her heart. She had such a good feeling rippling through her that she felt on top of the world. It was a feeling that she hadn’t experienced in some time, and it was making her smile wider than she ever had, while also making her feel ready for anything.
As she pushed open the door to her house and stepped inside, all she could think about was the way Tank’s eyes had taken her all in. The way he had looked at her hungrily, from the waist right up to her own eyes. When he had locked in on her, a spark had fired between them. It wasn’t just her who was feeling it, she could tell. He could sense it too, and it was making him intrigued.
She flicked on the lights and wandered through to the kitchen where she uncorked a bottle of Rioja and poured herself a big, hearty glass. Kiara would be with her soon, and she was going to enjoy listening to music while she pottered around the house and lit some candles. She had so much to talk about that it was practically ready to burst out of her.
“Have patience, Jess,” she coached herself. “All good things come to those who wait.”
“So, come on, the suspense is killing me. What is all this stuff you have to tell me then?” Kiara said as she popped a cashew nut into her mouth and chewed before she took a great big slug of her wine.
The two girls were sitting out back in Jessica’s yard, lounging on sun beds and enjoying the last couple hours of the summer sun.
“Oh man,” Jess began. “This has just come out of nowhere, but I’m really excited about it.”
Kiara leaned up on her elbows and stared at her, as she waited for an explanation.
“Do you remember when we went out for my birthday and my pop said something about hiring a new guy?”
Kiara thought on it for a moment as she sipped her wine and then slowly nodded her head.
“Vaguely,” she said. “Did it have something to do with your car breaking down?”
Jess nodded.
“He’s worried that a stranger broke in and tampered with it so it spurred him on to find an extra set of hands that he’s really needed for as long as I can remember.”
“Okay….” Kiara said with a smirk. “And have you met this new guy?”
Jessica raised her eyebrows and took a deep breath.
“I have,” she confirmed.
“And I take it he’s hot?” Kiara laughed with a glint in her eye.
“Devastatingly hot,” Jess exhaled.
“I love it!” Kiara squealed as she clapped her hands together. “Okay, who is he? Where’s he from? Do we know him already? What’s his story? Come on spill, I need to know everything.”
Jessica scrunched up her nose and gritted her teeth and shrugged.
“This is where it gets complicated,” she said as she closed her eyes and covered them with her hands. “He’s a little bit older…”
“How much older?” Kiara asked as she popped another nut into her mouth and chewed loudly.
“I’m not sure, maybe late thirties, early forties?” Jess tested the water.
“That’s hot… and also, nothing wrong with it. Carry on.”
“You think?” Jess asked as she sat forward on her own lounger. “I was worried you would think he was too old for me?”
“He’s in his late thirties or early forties… he’s not exactly seventy! Plus, men at that age are in their prime! Oh, I can imagine it now… he’ll be so sexy and rugged, and he’ll be mature and grounded.”
She looked off into the distance and moaned a little, as if she were thinking she would quite like to meet someone who fit that description herself.
“He is,” she smiled. “He’s great… a little guarded, but great.”
“Guarded?” Kiara asked. “Oh no, he isn’t married, is he?”
She closed her eyes and shook her head furiously.
“No, he isn’t married,” Jess reassured her. “But he does have extras…”
She smiled as she remembered the children and how lovely and sweet they were. They had had such a good afternoon wandering down Main Street and buying ice cream, and then back at the car shop. It was as if they had all clicked instantly and everything felt very natural and normal.
“He has two kids,” Jess finally said, and she waited for Kiara’s reaction with baited breath.
Her eyes widened momentarily, but then she leaned back against the back rest of the sun lounger and shrugged before she took another sip of her wine.
“Well, that sounds like a nice couple of extras to have,” she said with a smile.
“They really are,” Jess said.
“What? So, you’ve met them!?” now Kiara’s interest had piqued again.
“Oh yes, literally just this afternoon. Their nursery closed, and he was stuck for someone to look after them while he finished up some work at the shop with my dad, so I offered.”
“Yikes!” Kiara said with a wide grin. “This is all pretty full-on.”
“Well, it isn’t,” Jessica reassured her. “I don’t even know if he likes me. It’s just me crushing on him and finding his kids totally adorable.”
“How does he look at you?” Kiara asked with a cheeky grin.
Jessica took a deep breath and bit her lip.
“Like he wants to rip my clothes off,” she admitted.
Kiara squealed with delight and clapped her hands together.
“Oh my god, I love this so much!” she said with glee. “I want to meet him! When the hell do I get to meet him?”
“Jesus!” Jessica flapped. “Calm down! You won’t be meeting him until I know what the hell is going on and I know I’m just going to have to play it cool. Plus, I don’t know what happened to the mom of these kids… what if she is still in the picture?”
“We need to do some investigations,” Kiara said as she raised her eyebrows. “It’s time to go full-on FBI.”
Jessica laughed and shook her head.
“No way,” she said. “I’m sure if I get to know him any better then I’ll learn all I need to know in good time.”
Kiara looked momentarily disappointed, but she reluctantly nodded and agreed.
“Okay, spoil sport,” she said with a pout. “I will follow your lead.”
“Thank you,” Jess said as she rolled onto her side and looked out across the yard. “I do like him, though,” she said warmly. “I don’t know what it is about him, he just has this pull. It’s intoxicating.”
&nbs
p; Kiara smiled and sighed.
“It sounds like love at first sight to me,” she said.
Jessica felt warm inside and she knew more than anything that she wanted to agree with her but didn’t dare.
“Oh, and there is one more thing,” she said nervously.
Kiara leaned up and looked down at her with a stern expression. Jessica let the statement hang for a moment between them and Kiara raised her eyebrows with frustration.
“Well? Come on then?” she demanded.
Jessica bit her lip and tried to hide her grin.
“The kids aren’t the only extras,” she said almost in a whisper. “He’s also a Forsaken Rider…”
Kiara’s eyes widened even further, and she raised her glass to her lips and took a big glug of wine.
“Holy shit,” she exhaled. “You really do like to make things complicated, don’t you?”
Jessica shrugged her shoulders before the two girls looked at each other and started laughing.
She sure as hell did… But this time, she knew it was going to be worth it.
7.
The following morning, Jessica woke with a bit of a sore head and the feeling that she could drink a gallon of water and still be unbelievably thirsty. She clutched her forehead as she tried to slowly open her eyes, and she pushed herself up in bed and looked around her room.
She barely even remembered Kiara leaving, but she knew that they had had a wild, fun and hilarious night as always. She smiled as she remembered the discussion surrounding Tank, Ella and Jacob, and then she slowly lifted herself out of bed and wandered into the bathroom.
She splashed her face with some cold water, pinned her hair high on top of her head and climbed into the shower. With each beat of steam and water she felt revived and awake, and finally, her headache began to subside.
She wrapped herself in a towel and moisturized her entire body, before she pulled on a pair of jeans and a black, cropped Bardot t-shirt and she slicked on some pink lip gloss and let her blonde hair flow in waves down her back.
“There,” she sighed as she finally felt more human. “That is much better.”
She threw open her curtains and quickly made her bed before she skipped down the stairs and wandered into the kitchen. Thankfully, she had had the peace of mind to tidy everything away the previous evening when Kiara had still been there, and she laughed to herself as she saw the two wine bottles by the door.
“I hope we didn’t drink all of those,” she whispered. “I hope I tipped at least half of each down the sink.”
But the headache she had experienced when she had initially woken told her another story and she crunched up her nose in disgust.
She opened her laptop and made herself a coffee, and as she read her emails she remembered back to the day before and couldn’t help but think about what Ella and Jacob must have been up to. They were such good kids, and she was beginning to wonder which school in town they went to. There were two elementary schools in Slate Springs, and she had the feeling that Tank would have sent them to the most popular one, rather than the smaller one on the less desirable side of town.
She stretched and yawned and saw an email ping into her inbox from the big boss in the city and she wished she just had the day free to play with as she wanted.
She opened it, dreading seeing the long list of things he had planned for her, but to her complete surprise, she was delighted to see just a few lines of text…
I’m on top of things and heading home for the day, I’d like you to take the day off too. Full pay for a morning’s work! Catch up with you on Monday before I head to Boston.
Jessica couldn’t believe her luck and she grinned as she slammed the lid of the computer down and jumped to her feet. It had been a while since she hadn’t had to spend the morning working, and so she was determined to make the most of it.
She wandered into the hallway and threw open her storage cupboard and pulled out her gym bag. Inside, she gave a quick look and could see that she had a clean swimsuit, towel, and leggings and sports crop for the gym itself. She slung it over her shoulder, grabbed her sunglasses and headed toward the front door.
“Time to make up for all of those wine calories you consumed last night,” she smirked to herself as she slammed the door behind her, locked it and began to walk down the driveway.
Her health club was dated, much like many things in Slate Springs were, but she still loved it all the same. She enjoyed the feeling of walking into somewhere and knowing people’s faces, the same men and women had worked there since it had opened, and it was always nice to be welcomed by name.
The building was stationed on Main Street, and it took up a huge corner of one block and was several stories high. She wandered through the big, double glass doors and into the cool air-conditioned lobby. The familiar smell of chlorine hit her as she walked through and found her fob to let herself in through the gates.
The girl at reception was chatting on the phone, but Jess still waved to her with a smile and headed through to the long corridor that led her down to the changing rooms. All around her music was blasting, and she tapped her foot along to the music when she opened her locker and started to unpack her bag. She decided she was going to swim rather than work out. Her mind was still groggy, and she still couldn’t keep a thought together for a long period of time, so the idea of trying to calm herself and wash away the stress was more appealing than getting sweaty and hot upstairs in the gym.
She changed quickly and then put her bag in her locker and closed it tightly before she jumbled up the built-in code. Her swimsuit was black and simple with a racer back and she always felt like she was going to compete in the Olympics when she wore it. It wasn’t the kind you would wear at the beach, but she didn’t mind. She wasn’t there to impress anyone, she was there to work out and feel good.
As she walked through to the other side of the changing rooms that led out to the pool, she pinned her hair up and checked her reflection out in the mirror once more. She hadn’t been for some time and she promised herself that this would be the last time she left it so long.
“You should be here every week,” she told herself as she opened the door and stepped onto the warm tiles around the side of the pool.
For a Friday morning, it was relatively quiet, and she could only assume it was because most people would be out at the community pool or at other more exclusive health clubs that were out in the middle of nowhere in the desert, sunning themselves outside and drinking green smoothies.
She lowered herself into the cold water and gasped for a moment until her body had a chance to acclimatize, and then she pushed off the back of the pool’s edge and began to swim. She set herself a goal of fifty lengths, and then she would get out, get changed and head home to do some housework.
She left the gym feeling fantastic, and it wasn’t until she was walking down Main Street that she realized she hadn’t checked her cell phone. She reached into her bag and dug around until she found it. When she tapped the screen to life the first thing she saw was that she had a missed call from her father which had happened around an hour before.
She pressed redial and held the phone to her ear. He answered on the third ring.
“Hi, Pop,” she said cheerfully. “Sorry I missed your call, I was at the gym.”
“Morning, love,” he said. “Not working today then?”
“No, I’ve been given a rare morning off. I couldn’t believe my luck.”
“Must be nice,” her dad said without a hint of sarcasm.
“Oh, it is. Is everything alright?” she asked.
“I was just wondering if you could pop on over to the shop?” he asked, and Jess had the terrible feeling that something was wrong.
“Of course, I can, I’m just around the corner. Are you there now?”
“Sure am,” her dad said cheerfully.
She furrowed her brow.
“Okay,” she said almost in a whisper. “Well, I’ll see you soon then.”
<
br /> Her pop hung up and she looked down at the cell suspiciously.
He rarely called her like that and asked her to go over there without any kind of explanation, and now her mind was racing even more.
But then she remembered, her father wasn’t there alone.
Tank.
He should have been working the day too.
Suddenly, she wasn’t as worried. She smiled and picked up her pace and headed toward Durrett’s.
The collection of motorcycles seemed to have gone down from the previous evening, and she felt relieved for her dad that it at least appeared that quite a few of the jobs had gone out the door.
She instinctively scanned her eyes around, looking for Tank and his truck, but there was nothing to be seen and she felt a sag of disappointment.
She approached the big sliding doors with caution and looked inside, where she could see her dad sitting on his big chair at the back in the office.
“Hey, Pop,” she called to him as she stepped inside. “Is everything okay?”
Her dad looked up and waved at her through the glass, and she continued walking toward him.
“Everything’s fine,” he said as he slowly got to his feet and gave her a hug. “But I’m afraid I think I’m going to have to ask for your help again.”
“Where’s Tank?” she asked as she looked around and her dad sighed and nodded his head.
“Ella’s had to come home from school, she’s not very well and was crying all morning.”
“Oh no,” Jess said, genuinely upset for her. She didn’t like to think of that lovely little girl suffering in any way.
“So, in a nutshell, Tank had to take off. But the thing is, we’ve got so much to do around here and he’s anxious to get it boxed off just as much as I am. It’s for the club, you see.”
“The club?” Jess asked with trepidation.
“Yes, Jessica,” her dad gave her a warning look. “It’s for the Forsaken Riders.”
She swallowed and felt her stomach dip.
TANK_Forsaken Riders MC Romance Page 6