Dirty Biker (An MC Motorcycle Romance) (The Maxwell Family)

by Alycia Taylor

  Chapter Twenty

  Brock

  My whole left side was numb. It was like right after my first surgery on my head, I couldn’t move my left arm, and my left leg was completely uncooperative as well. Except that time I had a brain tumor and this time I have the most beautiful girl in the world laying on me, naked. This time wasn’t like that one at all. I just wanted to mention the part about the most beautiful girl in the world being naked in my bed.

  “Good morning,” she said with a sleepy smile.

  “Good morning beautiful,” I said, kissing her on top of the head. Even first thing in the morning she was gorgeous. She looked happy and peaceful. I was glad. I had been afraid that she would be having regrets after last night. I ran my fingers up and down her arm. Her skin was so soft. She was lying against me and I took my hand and started running it down her back. When I got to the lower right side, I could feel a tiny little scar. I wasn’t thinking, just running my fingers across the texture of it and she said, “That’s where they took my kidney out.” I didn’t say anything; I just kept rubbing her back. I had seen the scar on her chest last night from her Meta-port. I knew that’s what it was, because I had the same one. Mine had refused to work how it was supposed to though, and after a while they had just taken it out and started using PICC lines or IV’s to give me my chemo. It ruined my veins and scarred up my arms. As far as surgical scars go though, I was lucky…once my hair grew back.

  “Hey Molly,” I said. “Can I ask you a personal question?”

  She propped herself up on her elbow and looked at my face. Smiling she said, “Since I’m naked in your bed, I certainly hope so.”

  “Have your doctors ever thought about putting you on the transplant list?”

  Her face changed…just slightly, and I was afraid I had upset her. Then she said, “They haven’t talked about it yet. As long as one kidney is functioning, I’m not really eligible anyways.”

  “Is the other one okay?” I asked her.

  “So far,” she said. She looked away from my eyes and down at the pillow on the bed when she said it. I suspected there was more to it, but she didn’t seem to want to talk about it. Then she said, “Actually, the one I have left is acting up a little, but we’re taking care of it.” I hugged her tight and said, “Good. I’d like you to be around for a while…a long while.” She smiled then and said, “What about yours? Are you doing okay?”

  “Yeah, not bad,” I told her. “It goes away and comes back. Right now, it seems to be shrinking some, so not bad.”

  “Good,” she said, making my stomach flutter with her next words. “I’d like for you to be around for a long while too.”

  I hugged her again, God she felt good. “Do you have class today?” I asked her.

  “Yeah,” she said, “But not until noon. I have Physics lab this afternoon. That’s the only class I have, but it’s three hours long, ugh!”

  I smiled. “You can go to my Music History class and I’ll go to Physics lab for you,” I told her.

  “Really?” she said.

  “Yeah,” I told her. “I think I really would. It would do you absolutely no good though. I blew up every beaker I touched in high school. My science teacher was not amused.”

  Molly laughed, “I was the nerd that everyone wanted to partner up with. Then they’d sit back and let me do all of the projects.”

  “That’s terrible,” I told her.

  “That I was a nerd?” she asked.

  “No, that you didn’t go to my high school so I had someone to do my projects for me.”

  She laughed and said, “So what was Jake like in high school?”

  “Exactly like he is now,” I told her. “Jake is good at every sport he ever tried out for, just naturally, and for whatever reason the girls all loved him too. He does nothing for me. Anyways, somehow he never let any of that go to his head though. He was just always Jake, and he was the only one who never treated me different after I got sick.”

  “Megan was like that for me. She would come to the hospital every day and tell me what was going on at school and who was dating who and who hated who and who was wearing what. She made me laugh and forget about everything that I was going through for a little while. She loved me, but she didn’t feel sorry for me. She just always stayed close until I was better, and then once I was we went on with life as we had always known it.”

  I laughed softly.

  “What?” she said.

  “I was just thinking how weird it was that it seemed like we were living parallel lives all of those years before we even knew each other.” She thought about that for a minute and said, “Maybe it was all leading us to here.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Molly

  While Brock and I lay talking in bed, I could hear Jake moving around in the apartment.

  “Does he have class today?”

  Brock looked at the clock, it was seven forty-five. “He must,” he said, “or he would never be up this early.”

  “Can I stay in here until he leaves?”

  I knew he would know, because since I didn’t go home last night, Megan will know. What Megan knows, Jake knows…for the most part.

  Brock kissed me. I hated thinking about all of the kisses I’ve missed by holding out for so long. I loved his lips, and the rest of the body they were attached to. He was so kind and gentle, but at the same time he was all man. I shuddered, just thinking about last night.

  “You can stay forever,” he said. Then he quickly changed the subject, like he hadn’t meant to say that out loud. “I’ll go make breakfast and see if I can hurry him up. I’ll let you know when it’s all clear.”

  I kissed him back. I really liked this whole kissing thing and I hoped I wasn’t developing a dependency on it. What if I suddenly became like Megan and I couldn’t go five minutes without one?

  “Thank you,” I told him, truly grateful that he was such a sweet guy.

  Brock slipped on a pair of sweatpants and a T-shirt and then he took a long-sleeved shirt out of his closet and said, “If you don’t want to get all dressed up in your pretty skirt and blouse for breakfast, you can wear this.”

  “Thanks,” I said. After he had gone, I rolled on my back and stretched. I couldn’t stop smiling. I rolled over onto his pillow and breathed in his scent. I suddenly wanted to kiss him again.

  I finally forced myself to get up a little bit later. I put on the shirt he left for me. It was long, stopping just below my knees and definitely more comfortable than putting my skirt and blouse back on would have been. I heard Jake call out, “See you later,” and then Brock said, a little too loudly, “Okay, Buddy! Have a good day.” That’s okay though, Jake probably wouldn’t get it anyways. I poked my head out the door and said, “Is the coast clear?”

  “All clear,” he said. He was standing at the island in the kitchen slicing something or other. I came out of the bedroom and went into the bathroom. I had to at least finger-brush my teeth. I wanted to be prepared in case the opportunity arose again for a kiss.

  Once I was looking vaguely human, I went out to the kitchen. Brock was still chopping and he looked up at me as I came down the hall and grinned.

  “Mm, that shirt sure does look a lot better on you than it does on me,” he said. I felt my face flush and mumbled some kind of thank you. It was silly, I told myself. A girl who just woke up naked next to this guy shouldn’t be acting shy about wearing his shirt.

  “It smells good in here,” I said, deftly changing the subject. “What are you cooking?”

  “I made egg-white omelets with mushrooms and bell peppers and fat-free cheese,” he said.

  “Wow, maybe you should be a chef instead of a musician,” I said, taking a seat at the counter.

  “Quick, which would you rather, me sing to you or cook for you?”

  “Sing,” I answered without hesitation.

  He grinned, “I was hoping that would be the answer. I like to cook, but I live to sing.” To prove it, he started
singing. I don’t even know the name of the song, or who the artist was, but it was once again, beautiful. As he sang he worked and when he went to the refrigerator to get something out he grabbed a bottle of water and handed it to me.

  I smiled. “Thank you. You don’t have to take care of me, you know.”

  “Oh, I know. I’ve seen you do a mighty fine job on your own. Sometimes it’s nice to have a little help though, isn’t it?”

  “Yes,” I told him as I opened the water and took a healthy drink of it. I think I needed it. I had barely been able to pee this morning. Dr. Harris was not going to be happy with my output unless it got better than this.

  Brock put our omelets on a plate and added a side of toast. He sat one plate in front of me, and the other in front of the other barstool. “You want some juice?” he asked me.

  “Is it green?” I asked. I wasn’t heartily against green juice, but I wasn’t what you could call a fan of it either.

  “No, it’s peach mango,” he said with a grin.

  “Then yes please,” I told him.

  He sat down and when he did, he just reached out and lightly touched my hair. It was barely even a touch, more like a breeze from the motion of his hand, but it gave me goosebumps nonetheless. It was the intimacy of it. The fact that we had made love last night had forged an already forming bond even deeper. I liked it. While we ate, I asked him about his family.

  “Do you have any brothers or sisters?” I asked him.

  “I have a half-brother,” he said. “He’s a great kid, but I don’t get to see him that often. He lives in London with our mother.”

  “How old is he?” I asked him.

  He’s ten. He plays rugby already, and from what I’ve seen in the videos my mom sends me, he’s pretty good.” I could see by the way Brock’s eyes lit up that he was proud of his little brother.

  “What about you? No siblings to torment you?” he asked.

  “None that I know of,” I said. “With my mother unfortunately, who knows? She may have five more out there somewhere that someone else is raising. I don’t know who my father is, so he could have a hundred that I’ll probably never meet.”

  I hoped after I said it, that I didn’t sound too bitter. I really wasn’t…most of the time. My mother had left me in a better place than she had ever lived in as an adult, so for that I suppose, I am grateful.

  We talked for another half hour or so and then I helped him clean the kitchen. It was after nine now, and his first class was at ten. I went to put my skirt back on, thinking I would just throw my coat on over and walk home. When I came back out, Brock said, “It’s freezing out there. You’re not walking.”

  “No offense to Suzie, but don’t you find it colder on her?”

  He laughed. “I’m sure she would take none,” he said. “She likes you, and that can’t be said of most women. But I do see your point. I have to go that way anyways, for class. Will you at least wait and walk with me?”

  “That sounds good,” I told him, honestly.

  While he was gone getting dressed, I picked up one of his bottles of medications. I didn’t mean to snoop, I was just curious if it was one they had tried on me. Brock said it was to shrink the tumor. I wondered if it had to be only tumors in your brain, or perhaps it could work for a kidney or two. I put the bottle back before he came back out.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Brock

  When I got home from school that day I was still smiling. My class had been boring, but I had smiled straight through it. As I was walking back to the apartment, I got a text from Jake telling me that he and Megan were driving out to see his parents for the day and night. I smiled even broader, hoping that meant Molly and I could spend some more time together tonight.

  I stopped at the sandwich shop before I got home and got myself a sandwich for lunch. As I turned to leave with it, I literally bumped into Tammy.

  “Well hello there,” she said. “Long time no see.”

  Yes, stalking someone else? “Yeah, I’ve been busy. How are you, Tammy?”

  “I’m just peachy,” she said. “I’m getting ready to go home for winter break. I was thinking about one last big hurrah before I do. Are you busy this weekend?”

  Busy staying as far away from you as I can get. “Actually, yes,” I said. “My girlfriend and I already made plans.”

  She raised a freshly waxed eyebrow as she said, “Your girlfriend? The little brunette I’ve seen you with?”

  I really hope that Molly won’t mind. I actually really hoped she would never meet Tammy, just for her own sake. “Yep, that’s the one.”

  “I thought you said she was just a friend.” Jeez this woman should be a cop. She’s practiced at the art of interrogation.

  “It turned into more,” I told her. “Take care Tammy, okay? I have to run.” She stood looking after me as I went out the door. I was still smiling.

  When I got to the apartment it was only one o’clock. Molly was still in class so I didn’t want to call or text and bother her, but I couldn’t stop thinking about her. I decided I could kill two birds with one stone and got out my guitar. As I worked on writing some new songs to add to my portfolio I thought back to the first day I met Molly. I hadn’t let myself admit it right away, but I think as they said on Jerry Maguire, she had me at hello.

  It’s not often that you meet someone who makes you happy by just thinking about them. I get a warm feeling throughout my body when I just picture her smiling face. It’s not a sexual thing, although I couldn’t wait to do that again, it was more spiritual I guess. I felt like we were connected somehow, even before I really knew her.

  The night at the haunted train ride was when I knew that I was probably going to fall in love with her. I didn’t say it out loud, not even to myself but in my heart I knew. Dancing in the rain with her was the most romantic thing I had ever done with a girl. It’s going to be a memory that I have and treasure for the rest of my life.

  I loved talking to her. I felt like I could tell her anything. I never told any of the other girls that I dated about Paul, my little brother. I was super proud of what a great kid he turned out to be, and I liked talking about him, but not to just anybody. I watched the animation in Molly’s face this morning when I was telling her about him. She genuinely cared what I was saying about him, and before we left the apartment she actually asked to see a picture of him. I had one in my wallet that I showed her and she smiled and said, “Lucky guy, he looks just like you.” That had made me feel good because Molly was saying that I looked good, and because I liked the idea of my little brother looking like me. I said something about maybe Molly going out with me the next summer to visit him. She had actually seemed enthusiastic about that. If she was just faking it for my benefit, then she was pretty darn good.

  I strummed my guitar and wrote down a few notes as I thought about her. She was good for my music, shaping it without even being aware that was what she was doing.

  I looked at the clock again…only one more hour until she’s out of class.

  I killed some more time cleaning up the apartment and changing my sheets. Just in case she stayed with me again tonight, I didn’t want her to think I was a slob. When my phone finally rang before I even looked at it I thought, “If this isn’t her, I’m not even going to answer it.” It was her.

  “Hey,” was how I answered. It’s no wonder women want me.

  “Hi,” she said. “I’m out of class and on my way home. I just called to see how your day was.”

  “Productive,” I told her. “How was yours?”

  “It was long and excruciating, and I’m glad it’s over,” she said.

  “Oh…but it’s not, even close,” I said. While I was cleaning house, I’d had a brilliant idea.

  “Oh it’s not?”

  I could see her smiling, and even over the phone it gave me chills.

  “Nope, I have big plans for you. That’s if you can stand another evening with me, and a little bit of cold.”

>   “The evening with you sounds great…but, the cold, not so much. What do you have in mind?”

  “They have an outdoor skating rink set up in the park in town. I thought I would make us a picnic and we could go skating and have a picnic dinner under the stars. What do you think?”

  “I think the cold can be damned,” she said. “I’m there.”

  I arranged to pick her up in a few hours. She wanted to shower and change and I still had to plan a picnic for two people on a strange diet, and I realized I would have to run down and buy a picnic basket since I didn’t have one of those either.

  I went to the super center in town and picked up things to make a Caesar salad, some fruit cups, some yogurt covered strawberries and some organic juices in plastic containers. I got two bottles of water too. I had become obsessed with her drinking enough water. I couldn’t stand the thought of her getting sick again. When it was time, I had Suzie’s saddlebags all packed up and ready to go.

  Molly’s dorm mother Debbie called up for her and then sat and waited with me until she came down. That was fun. She kind of reminds me of the talk show hostess Ellen, only on steroids. Debbie is a big girl, and by big, I don’t mean fat. I mean she could probably bench press me. She cross-examined me while we waited, “Where are you from? How do you know Molly? How old are you? Have you met her grandmother?” Like I said, it was fun, and when my beautiful Molly came down the stairs I was sad that it had to come to an end…Not at all.