by Megan Lowe
Somewhere along the way I must have fallen asleep, because I wake to find we’re pulling into the car park of a diner, Wheels emblazoned on a sign on its roof.
“Hey,” Mav says, as I sit up.
“Are we here already?” I ask.
He nods. “Yep, this is home. Well, next door and over one, but this is our diner.”
We get out of the car and Mav holds my hand as we walk to the front door. I can feel his excitement at being back and it spreads to me, putting a smile on my face. Mav pushes open the door, and I barely have time to look around before a small boy, I’d say maybe five, and a toddler race towards us.
“Uncle Mav!” the boy shouts.
“Unca Mav!” the little girl babbles.
He bends down and picks both of them up, squeezing them tight and kissing their cheeks. It’s a heartwarming sight and gives me insight into how Mav would be if we have children. You know, like way, way into the future. If we’re still together. And if he wants kids. And I’m getting myself worked up over something that isn’t even on our radar.
“Aubrey,” he says, turning to me. “I’d like you to meet my nephew, Christian”—he jiggles the boy in his arm—“and our princess, my niece, Avery. Can you guys say hello to Aubrey?”
I wave at them and get waves back. A line of people has formed to welcome Mav home. The first one takes Christian and puts him on the floor. He’s probably the same height as Mav but older, with the same dark brown hair I’m guessing is a Ryan trait. They embrace for a long time before finally breaking apart. The older Ryan pats Mav’s cheek as his eyes find me. Mav reaches for my hand and gently pulls me to his side.
“Park, this is my girl, Aubrey. Aubrey, my eldest brother, Parker.”
I stick out my hand for him to shake, but like Jax he pushes it aside and hugs me instead.
“Thank you for looking after my little brother,” he whispers in my ear.
“No worries,” I manage to choke out through the lump in my throat.
I’m then introduced to Reed and Bria, Avery’s parents; Mav’s middle brother Liam and his partner Mason (can I just say oh. My. God!); and his Pa, Jay, and Pop, Nate, both of whom insist I call them Pop and Pa. We walk back to a long table at the end of the restaurant where a heavily pregnant McKnley Rhodes, I mean Matthews, sits with her husband, Cole. She starts bouncing in her seat when she sees Mav. He rushes over to her and envelops her in a hug—as much as he can. I’ve got to admit it’s surreal seeing my boyfriend embrace my rock idol like she’s just a normal person. I mean, she is, but she’s also McKnley fucking Rhodes, bad girl of rock ’n’ roll. She’s also squealing my name and thrusting her arms at me like we’re BFFs. I think I died and went to heaven.
“Aubrey!” she squeals.
“Er, hi,” I say nervously.
“You are every bit as beautiful as Mav said you are. Come here and give me a hug.”
I bend down to hug her; you know, one of those faux-friendly hugs where you gently pat the other person on the back, but she pulls me down, her belly poking mine, her boobs smashing against my own. When we break apart she’s crying.
“Oh, I’m so sorry. Did I hurt you?” I ask, panicked. Great, I broke my rock idol. Well done, Aubrey.
“No,” she sobs, “I’m just so happy Mav found someone so lovely.”
“Oh,” I say, my cheeks heating. All the Ryans have said similar things to me, but hearing it from McKnley is just surreal.
“All right, now that you’ve all sufficiently embarrassed my girl, can we sit down now?” Mav asks his family.
They all nod in agreement. Seeing Mav’s family, so different to my own, gives me a better understanding of why he tortured himself with thoughts of leaving for so long. Dinner is a rowdy affair with so many people, yet it never descends into chaos, nor is there a dull minute either. For dessert, Roman and Grayson, Bria’s best friends and Ryan Racing’s head mechanic and his partner, join us. Rome also provides us with the only moment everyone is silent when he asks Mav a question.
“So am I building you a bike for the Extreme Games?” he asks.
I swear you could hear a pin drop. Everyone freezes while they wait for Mav’s answer.
He scratches his cheek, and I can tell everyone is dying to know his answer. “Ah, yeah, that’d be good,” he says finally.
Cheers break out, and several of the guys nod.
“Come see me tomorrow and we can get started,” Rome says.
“Thanks, man,” Mav replies, and they do that manly back slap thing.
Eventually the kids and Knley get tired, and the party breaks up.
“So how long will you be staying?” Pop asks.
“Not very long. We needed to get away for a bit, but we’ll have to go back sooner or later,” Mav says.
“You aren’t in trouble, are you?”
Mav shakes his head.
“My brother got himself in some trouble with his bookie,” I answer.
Pop raises an eyebrow. “Are you in danger?” he asks.
“Hopefully not here I’m not,” I say.
“But at home?”
“Josh’s bookie is Aubrey’s ex, and he’s not keen on letting go, so yeah,” Mav says.
Pop sighs. “And your brother will be able to handle him on his own?”
I bite my lip. “I don’t know, but Josh said he’d handle it, so we have to trust he does.”
“Hmmm,” Pop grumbles. “I don’t like it, but if you think it’ll be okay I’ll leave it up to you. If you need anything, you come to me, you hear?”
Mav and I nod. “Thanks, Pop,” he says.
“It’s good to have you home,” Pop says as he hugs Mav.
Pop kisses me on the cheek, then Mav leads me out of the diner and heads towards a house behind it.
“That’s where I grew up,” he says to me. The house is nothing fancy, your typical colonial-style house with a wide verandah and screen door that has rips in it, but I can tell it was filled with love and laughter. I assume that’s where we’re headed, but we bypass it and go through a gate. “That’s Bria and Reed’s house.” He nods to the newer home. This one is more reminiscent of what you’d see in the newer subdivisions that are popping up all over the place. We turn right, go through another gate, and stop. “This is my house. Well, mine and Jax’s. We bought it together.”
“You live next door to your brother and across from your pop and pa?” I ask.
He blushes and scratches his cheek, which I’ve noticed he does when he’s nervous or embarrassed. “Uh, yeah.”
I wind my arms around his waist and kiss his jaw. “I think that’s adorable. I love that you all want to be close to each other.”
He nods. “Park and Chris live with Pop and Pa, and Liam and Mase are over the road.” He points to a house across the street. I shake my head. “Come on,” he says, and grabs my hand. We go in the side door, straight into the kitchen. It’s small but surprisingly tidy. “It doesn’t get used much,” Mav says, reading my mind.
“Right.”
He pulls on my hand and leads me down the corridor. “Living room is through there.” He points to a set of doors, then pulls me up the stairs. “Jax’s room is down the other end of the hall,” he says as we stop in front of a door. “I’d advise staying away from there as much as possible. You never know what or who is going to come out.”
“Got it,” I say, nodding.
He takes a deep breath. “This is my room.” He pushes the door open, flicks on the light, then steps aside to let me in. It’s different to his room on the Coast. Up there there’s only a few pictures of his family, and his computer. This one is the epitome of Mav’s conundrum. A large desk with a similar computer to the one he’s got on the Coast takes up one corner of the room and most of the wall. Two bookcases line the other wall, filled with trophies, medals, and books. Hundreds of paperbacks, textbooks, and magazines fill the shelves. The remaining wall space is covered in pictures of guys on bikes doing all sorts of crazy tricks, many
of which I’ve seen Mav do the times I went with him when he went riding.
I turn and walk towards him. He has an apprehensive look on his face, like he’s worried about what my reaction will be. I try to hook my arms around his neck but can’t quite reach, so I rest them on his chest instead. Beneath my palm his heart is racing.
“I thought I knew who you were,” I say, and his heart speeds up even more. “I thought I loved that guy, but seeing you here, in your own environment, with your family, I think I fell in love with you even more.”
A smile breaks over his face and lights up the room. “Really?”
I nod. “You are so many things, Mav Ryan. You’re an IT geek, a hot FMX rider, a brother, an uncle, a son, a grandson, a best friend. For so long you put everyone else before you. I know you were worried about coming back here, about everyone’s reactions, but you needn’t have been. Everyone I met today loves you and wants the best for you, just like I do. Seeing you with them today reminded me of what a real family is like. It warmed my heart to see you so happy.”
He wraps his arms around me and brings me flush to him. “You’re right. I was nervous about coming back here, but then I’d look at you and those nerves would disappear. Then seeing you with my family? You slotted straight in, just like Bria did when she first met Reed, and I knew then that I made the right choice.” Choice? What choice? Were there other girls he dated before me and didn’t tell me about? “I made the right choice in leaving here,” he continues, “in breaking away from my family and going to the Coast and Hale. If I hadn’t, I never would’ve met you, and my world wouldn’t be complete.” Tears prick my eyes and I have to pinch myself to make sure this is real. “I love you, Aubrey James. I am so glad you gave me a chance, that you looked beyond my image and let me into your heart.” The tears I was trying to hold back now flow down my cheeks.
Mav bends and picks me up, and my legs automatically wind around his waist. He walks to the bed and lays me down gently. I keep my legs wrapped around him and pull him down to my mouth. He moans when our lips touch, and I take advantage, my tongue sweeping inside his mouth, gently wrestling with his own. One of his hands moves under my shirt to my breast. He pulls down the lace cup and pinches and pulls at my hard nipple. I break the kiss, gasping for air, while he moves to my neck, licking, kissing, and biting.
“Mav,” I moan, my hands in his hair, my hips grinding against his.
“I never thought I’d have this,” he says, pulling back.
“Have what?”
“Happiness.”
I swear to God my heart explodes when he says that.
I cup his face. “You can have anything you want, Mav, it’s no less than you deserve.”
His blue-grey eyes flash before he smashes his lips back to mine. Gone is the gentle, sweet Mav, and in his place is the fierce, determined Mav who knows what he wants and is going to take it. My clothes are ripped off, thrown all over his room, I’m sure, his following moments later. He reaches into his bedside table and grabs a condom, hurriedly rolling it on. After what seems like an eternity but probably wasn’t even a minute, he’s sliding into me. We both groan.
“I don’t think anything will ever feel as good as it does when I’m inside you,” he pants, sweat beading on his forehead.
“I think you may be right,” I say, enjoying the sensation of my body stretching to accommodate him.
After a minute I lift my hips to let him know I’m good. He starts moving within me, slow at first before going faster, harder.
“Mav!” I yell as he almost pulls out entirely before slamming back into me. I rake my nails down his back, and he throws his head back. This time when he pulls back, he pulls out entirely and flips me over so I’m on my hands and knees. He slams into me so hard I can’t help but scream. Grabbing on to my hips, he starts to really pound into me. He reaches around and rubs my clit, and seconds later I’m coming hard. Vaguely I hear him shout my name before I collapse on the bed, spent. He rolls us to the side so he’s not crushing me, removes the condom, and comes back to me.
From down the hall we hear clapping.
“Oh my God!” I say, and bury my head in the pillow.
“Fuck,” Mav says.
“Did you know he was home?” I ask.
I feel him shrug. “The car was gone. I assumed he found some uni chick.”
“Apparently not.”
Mav pulls me so I’m lying on my back. He presses a kiss to my forehead. “I’m sorry he heard us.”
I smile wickedly. “I’m not.”
He just smiles and shakes his head. It seems our stay in Booker is off to a good start.
Chapter 32
Mav
In the time I’ve been away, I’d forgotten what it was like to be home, how comfortable it feels, how naturally being here comes to me. I thought I felt at home on the Coast, and to an extent I do, but Booker will always be my home. Aubrey seems to like it here too. She slotted in seamlessly with my family, and nothing could make me happier. Because we’re all so close, it’s important that any girl we bring home is able to do that, just as Bria and Knley have done.
When I made the decision to go to Hale a large part of me thought that I didn’t need my family around, that I didn’t need their support. Being back here proves just how wrong I was. My family is a part of me and I need them as much as I need my hands or my heart. I was nervous about their reaction, but I needn’t have been. It was stupid to think they’d do anything but welcome me back with open arms and give me shit about how long I’ve been gone. I feel a little embarrassed by the way I handled the whole thing, especially that it took me so long to make the decision to leave in the first place. It’s like I told Aubrey last night; I went to Hale at the time I was supposed to because I was supposed to meet her there.
A smile crosses my face when I think of her, of who I am when I’m with her. I like to think I’m lighter, less brooding, less tortured when she’s around. She’s always so happy and doesn’t take any shit, which is a good thing for me. I want nothing more in life than to keep her safe and happy. She wants the same things for me too; at least, I hope she does.
I leave her in bed with a note telling her to go to the diner once she’s up. There should be enough people around to occupy her while I’m sorting things out with Rome.
I walk into our garage, imaginatively named Wheels as well, and smile when I see Liam’s two NRS trophies prominently displayed. Cole’s giving him a run for his money this season, which is good for both the NRS and us.
“You ready to get back into it?” Rome asks as he comes out of the office.
“Yeah, man,” I say, a massive smile on my face.
“You sticking with the four-stroke?”
I nod. “Yeah. I’m only doing Moto-X and Best Trick, so for Moto-X I’m gonna need the traction it gives and the power management it provides. I don’t need those wheels spinning at the wrong time.”
“Solid choice. I know the two-strokes are lighter, but for the course they’ve got over there, the four is the better choice,” he says.
“How long until we’re up and running?” I ask.
“A week maybe?” Rome says. “We have most of the parts here. It’s just getting them set up to your liking.”
I nod. I figured that would be the case.
“Your girl mind you doing this sort of stuff?” he asks while we get to work.
“Nah. She hasn’t seen me crash yet though, so it might be a different story then.”
“You haven’t shown her the clips?” he asks.
I throw him a look. “Would you show Gray those clips if she didn’t know about them?”
“Yeah, maybe not,” he says after a minute.
“You using Tom’s compound?”
“When I can. It’s hard to juggle everything up there,” I say.
“You don’t have to do this, you know.”
“I know, but I missed it. I didn’t realise just how much I did until my bike was delivered and I g
ot back on it.”
“So what are you doing about that?”
“About what? Being back or my bike?” I know Rome works in a garage and all the fumes that come with it, but he’s only twenty-four; they can’t have gone to his head that quickly.
“Nah, about your bike being stolen and all that,” he says.
“Oh, um, the cops came around and took photos and fingerprints, but they haven’t had any luck,” I say.
“You know who did it though.”
“Yeah, Aubrey’s ex. He’s her brother’s bookie. Josh got into a bit of trouble and saw my bike as an easy way out.”
“Bet the bookie was pissed when he found out the bike wasn’t worth nearly what he thought,” he says.
I nod. “Gave Josh a nice touch-up.”
Rome stops what he’s doing and looks me straight in the eye. “I know the temptation is to go it alone and get your own back, but I’m telling you, don’t do it. Sure, the cops don’t have a lot of luck most of the time, but if you can help them and stay out of it, do it.” Not so long ago, Rome had his own problems with a rival team of ours. He got pretty roughed up, but Bria and Reed, with the help of the police, helped him out of it. “Think about it. You’ve got a lot to lose: your career, your education, your girl. He wins if you sink to his level,” he tells me.
“Yeah, thanks, man. If he’s still causing problems when we get home, I’ll go to them.”
Rome nods. “It’s the only way you stay clean.”
We work on the bike for a bit before my phone rings. I smile when I see it’s Aubrey.
“Hey sweetheart, what’s up?” I ask.
“Ohmygod Mav,” she says in a rush. “I was with Knley, which in itself is insane, and we were chatting like we were old friends. She was telling me all these stories about when she was on tour with Places. Let me just tell you, that woman has seen some stuff, I mean, wow!”