“Yes, I just…don’t know why you’re affecting me like this,” I said, barely audible—and slightly irritated at the control he seemed to have over my body.
“Affecting you?” he asked, his confusion slowly turning into a smug grin.
“Affecting you, really?”
“Hey, don’t get a fat head, now,” I teased.
Robbie studied me cautiously. “Do you need to rest?” His hands were holding me now, secure.
“I am resting.”
“I mean off the bike, before we leave again.” I looked around at the shadowed stillness in the vacant church parking lot and couldn’t see anywhere else I wanted to be. The church, from what I could see of it, looked ancient and condemned, ominously towering over the lot, shadowing it even in the dark. Its high steeple tilted, so old that it struggled to stand straight anymore. It was as if it wasn’t stable, like it would crumble at any minute with the right amount of wind.
“No, I’m fine,” I said.
“Okay.” Robbie pursed his lips, still watching my every movement. “Are you ready to head back? I don’t really want to, but I know you like to get up early and I don’t want to be the reason you don’t.”
“Let’s go.” I sighed.
The bike awakened and we were off, the spiral road carrying us into the darkness, the moon’s silvery glow lighting our way. It was a slow, smooth ride back to my house. The cool night air lulled my body into his. My hands slithered around Robbie’s torso until our fingers intertwined and he held my hands on his lap.
In bed that night I tossed and turned, unable to get the ride off my mind. And the kiss! The mere memory of it made my heart pump faster. Then the most horrible thing occurred to me.
Robbie had just cheated. That made me the other woman! So not a fairy-tale romance! His poor, sweet, innocent fiancée. First the bike, now an affair… What had I done to her?
Never mind that for a second. If just one person at work learned about tonight, word would spread like wildfire, especially in that office. The entire building would devour the gossip by noon and I would be the office whore. My stomach sank at the thought and I rolled over, burying my head in the pillow.
Tomorrow was going to be a normal day, I decided to myself. I would go to work as usual. We would all have lunch as usual. Talk in the break room as usual. Why should anything change because of one little kiss on a bike in an abandoned church parking lot? Okay, two kisses.
I thought about that for too long. When I still couldn’t sleep, I emerged from my empty bed, reached for a tattered love story—one with a happy ending; I couldn’t bear the vampire romance right now, not after what it had put me through earlier today—and settled on the couch until I drifted into a dreamless sleep.
I woke before my alarm as usual. As I dried off from my shower, a sweet melody blared from my cell. I checked the time. The digits were at 6:01 am.
“Wanna meet for tea this morning?” Robbie asked.
“Sure,” I said without thinking.
Chapter 6
I STUDIED MY reflection behind my bedroom door, staring at the plain sight wearing a baby-blue cami and black slacks. This was the same face I saw every morning, but today something was different. More color, maybe? I tried to add even more color by outlining my eyes. I wanted to look good for Robbie. That was the thought that frightened me.
Last night replayed in my mind. Had I just fallen in love? Or was that…just lust? Yesterday Robbie had been no more than a friend…hadn’t he? Maybe, on some level, I’d always known there was a connection between us. Never mind—Robbie was engaged! Had he forgotten this? How could I fall in love with a guy that was okay with this? No, I decided. It couldn’t be love.
There was still time to back out. I could shoot him a text, tell him I couldn’t meet for tea. I had to. Then I’d go on alone, as usual, and keep a professional distance from him. But I couldn’t bring myself to pick up the phone. As wrong as it was, I couldn’t turn him down. It was as if he’d captured me and I was under his command. I wanted nothing more than to see his angelic face, if only just to ogle, which seemed to be the only thing I could do in his presence anymore. That thought frustrated me beyond measure.
I was too strong for this! After last night, it had to be said. I had standards. I wasn’t about to be a…mistress.
I glanced at the clock. Five minutes left. I inhaled some turkey bacon, grapes, and a few almonds, then scoured my room for my white slippers, which were buried at the bottom of shoe pile in the closet—though I wasn’t sure how they got there when I’d just worn them to work the other day. At the last minute, I decided I needed a hug and slipped my bare feet into the sparkly red shoes instead. Then I ripped a business-looking blouse off a hanger, hoping it matched, stuffed it into my bag, and bolted out the door, clicking it behind me. I immediately turned around and opened the door again to grab the protein shake I’d made earlier out of the fridge, then left again.
The cloudless sky wrapped me in its warmth. The breeze was a light and soothing song whispering in my ear, harmonizing with my heart. I couldn’t help the skip in my step. It felt as if the planet had aligned itself for our meeting. Robbie was seated at the table on the patio, ever so patient, coffee in hand, reading a thick, black book. Wait a minute…was Robbie really reading…the sparkly romance?
He bolted from his seat and rushed to me so fast it took me a moment to realize he was pulling the chair out for me.
“Thank you,” I said, startled, as I took my seat. “What part are you at?”
“She still has no idea he’s been in love with her from the moment they met.” Robbie held up the book, mocking frustration. He had the same edge I had seen in him yesterday, his auburn hair blown back from his ride into town, the rugged shadow outlining his face. It made me want to caress it. My heart thudded. His stare pierced through his obsidian sunglasses. I could feel it on my every move. Then, as if wrenching from a trance, he said, “I got you a green tea since that’s what you’re always drinking at work. I hope that’s okay.”
I tried to concentrate on the words behind the velvety voice. He knew my drink! “Um. Thanks, you didn’t have to that.” My shoulders slumped. He was going to make this difficult.
“Don’t worry about it. I didn’t give you much notice. How is your morning?”
“Great.” I nodded. “Yours?”
“Good.” He tilted his head.
I took a sip of the tea. It scalded my tongue and I almost spit it out.
“You okay?”
“Hot,” was all I could say.
A breeze swept across the table. I inhaled the silence, studying my captor. His expression was enigmatic. An SUV rolled by in the parking lot, blaring Eminem. Yet it couldn’t penetrate the silence between us. I gulped too fast and burned my tongue. Again. Seemed I couldn’t learn.
Robbie grabbed my tea faster than I could look. “Why don’t I hold that for you until it cools?”
He was patronizing me! Really? “It’s not that hot.”
He leaned in. “I wanted to ask you something.” He paused to read me. Then he scooted around the table, so close our knees touched. Suddenly the simplest things, like breathing, required the greatest concentration. I couldn’t respond. “Would you mind if…I take you for another ride?”
And there it was—out there in the open like a bright, red pimple.
His eyes were liquid in the sunlight, almost ochre. They met mine and I forced myself to look at something—anything. I picked a raven perched on the cast iron patio railing, its beady eyes fixed on us. I had to recover my thoughts. When I finally managed to face Robbie, he asked again, and I heard nothing but the ribbon of velvet in his musical voice.
He watched me with palpable concern.
What was wrong with me this morning? Besides last night. I was too strong to let someone affect me like this. I steeled myself. “Robbie…aren’t you, technically… still…engaged?”
He paused, then said, “Technically, yes.”
&n
bsp; Okay… “Well…er…” What was I supposed to say to that? What did it mean?
He sat back in his seat, reading me, his eyes furrowed.
I swallowed. “S’just…I don’t think this is right…do you?”
He was quiet for a long moment. “You’re right,” he finally said. He leaned in so close I could count the freckles draped across his nose. His sweet breath teased my senses. “Lucy and I, it’s…complicated…”
Really? He didn’t just say the oldest, most cliché thing in the world to me! I really was older than him. As if he could read my mind, Robbie’s shoulders slumped like a little kid forced to clean up his room. I suppose I should have been worried that he wanted to continue…to have a hot and steamy affair…or that he thought of me as the other girl…but I couldn’t help but feel that Robbie really was a good guy. He meant well, right? I mean, this was the same old Robbie, wasn’t it?
“What are your plans this weekend?” he asked.
I shrugged. No plans. This weekend was a whole week away.
He nodded, then he pecked my cheek, his sweet scent lingering long enough to leave me bereft when he stood. He proffered a hand, and I accepted, following him to my car, where he opened the door and closed it behind me.
In my car, I followed his bike out of the parking lot. At the first intersection, Robbie turned around. His lips puckered a kiss through my windshield and I couldn’t help but blush. I shivered at the rush it gave me.
The Philips had set up camp across from our building again today. I could see their signs above the mob of employees as I pulled into the parking lot, following Robbie’s bike. Robbie and I walked by silently, avoiding their big, mean signs. The rest of the day, I avoided Robbie, as hard as it was. I couldn’t let myself fall for him…not with his current…status. It seemed to be working, other than a close call on our morning break.
Carrie and I were doing our usual coffee/tea run in the break room. Pete was pouring his soda. When Robbie came in, his eyes locked with mine. But it was only for a second before Oliver blew in, wearing the most unusual getup: a red handkerchief hanging from his neck, a belt the size of Texas plating his pelvic area, and a ten-gallon hat shading his head. His boots clacked on the floor. But none of that compared to the disgusting bulge protruding from his lower lip.
“Quick!” he said through a drooling mouthful. “Hand me a platoon!”
“Platoon?” Pete asked, lifting a brow. No one knew what he meant.
Oliver pointed to the tin can on the floor behind Robbie. “That! Trash can! Pass it here! Hurry!” His arms flailed and his face turned the shade of ripe avocado.
“You mean spittoon?” Pete asked, his lips curled in amusement.
Oliver grabbed the can from Robbie, who was trying to hand it to him. He leaned his head over the can and let something mud-colored and slimy ooze from his mouth. Everyone in the room turned away in disgust.
Next time I looked up, Robbie was gone.
But he caught me in the parking lot before I could slip into my beetle. “You can’t ignore me all day. We do work together. We’re still friends, aren’t we?”
“Of course,” I said, but if he’d cheat on his fiancée, what would he do to his friends?
“Just wanted to tell you…you won’t hear from me this weekend because I’ll be in Kansas City.” That was where Lucy lived. Why was he telling me this? “Are you…has Angel called you back?”
“No, not yet.” And why not? I wondered, sure by now that it had something to do with the whole “friending” thing.
“Right,” he said, relaxing his jaw. “I’d still like to take you on another ride.”
“You know we can’t do that, Robbie.”
He nodded and walked away.
I watched him straddle his bike, but he didn’t start it yet, regarding me instead, as if waiting for me to leave first. I could feel his eyes on me. Fine, I thought, I’ll leave first. But it seemed the universe had other plans.
I settled into my bug, the same bug that had gotten me through high school and college, closed the door, and…for some humiliating reason, she chose this particular moment to not cooperate. I turned and turned and…nothing. She had warned me and I hadn’t listened.
Robbie’s sudden appearance in my window gave me a start. His grin was too much. Was he actually happy about my distress? After calling in a rescue for the beetle, Robbie insisted on taking me home, which meant he’d also take me to work in the morning, since my only means of transportation would be sleeping over at the garage. I could always call Carrie for a ride in the morning, I thought as I straddled the seat and let my chest melt into Robbie’s back.
Chapter 7
THE BLACK COWBOY boots looked a little out of place with a tank top and cut-off jean shorts, but Robbie had insisted on real shoes so I slipped into them, still wondering how I’d let him talk me into another ride when he dropped me off. But how could I have said no to him when he’d had me under his charm, pinned against my front door? Instead, I had invited him in. He was waiting for me in the foyer.
“Better,” he said as I descended the stairs in the boots. His lips curled in a crooked smile. I could feel his eyes gliding down my body. At the bottom of my purse, I found my license and cell phone and stuffed them into my pockets. He followed me out, waiting patiently—as always—as I turned back to lock the door behind us. He straddled the bike and I followed. (This was becoming too familiar!) And we were off into the late afternoon sun.
We took the same route initially, but stayed closer to town. The turns were tight and low. My body naturally leaned with Robbie’s. We rode with no destination for a while.
“Do you mind if we take a break?” he asked, pulling up to a four-way stop. His head turned toward me and I think my face caught sprinkles of saliva. “We can go for a walk while Roxanne takes a breather.”
“Roxanne?”
“It’s what I call this old beauty.” He patted her tank.
“Sure, a walk sounds good,” I replied, resting my chin on his shoulder. He turned slowly onto the narrow, graveled path and parked just before a bridge over a small creek shaded by a cottonwood.
“I thought you couldn’t ride cruisers on dirt roads.”
“You shouldn’t,” Robbie said. “But what we did was safe enough.”
Off the bike, he took my hand in his and led me down the dirt road.
Pink and salmon swirls painted the western sky as the orange ball began to melt into the distant trees. On each side of the road, cottonwoods and split trees bordered fields of rustling prairie grass. We strolled in silence as their wild fragrances impressed the air surrounding us.
“You know this place?” I asked Robbie after we walked in silence for a while.
“You know that church parking lot we went to on our first ride?”
How could I forget? I nodded.
He pointed straight down the path. “Right up there is a side way in. I like to go there when I don’t want to be found. It’s a pretty nice walk from my house.”
It had just occurred to me that I had no idea where Robbie lived, but even more disturbing than that was, why wouldn’t he want to be found?
Soon, our walk slowed to a stop. Robbie turned to me and removed his sunglasses, nestling them in his chestnut mop. His finger drifted along my jawbone until his hand cupped my head, gently drawing me into his embrace. My eyes closed involuntarily and I felt his lips glide across mine, barely touching. His lips parted and he nipped on mine. My chest was floating, my knees nearly buckling. Then he withdrew. I opened my eyes.
I’ve wanted to do that all day,” he said, holding me now. I leaned my head on his chest and watched the orange ball in the sky sink, pulling with it a warm lavender blanket. My heart was suspended in the center of my chest, just like this…fling was suspended between us. Or whatever he wanted to call it.
Robbie took my hand in his again and led me up the road toward the horizon. He talked about his childhood spent in the Kansas country, and his family.
He had an older brother who worked for the state. Great, I thought, one of those. Okay, that was rude of me to think, but my experience with the state agency that had denied my kombucha brewing license had definitely left me biased.
Robbie’s parents wanted that for him, too, but he couldn’t see himself as a government official. He’d always considered himself more of an independent kind of guy. Independent! Passion burned in his speech. Occasionally, his lips twisted when he smiled, and I couldn’t help but melt.
“I like your smile,” I said before thinking, and it grew three sizes across his face. Robbie pecked me on the forehead.
“It only emerges for special people.” He wrapped his arms around my waist, luring my hips against his. Our lips touched again, subtly, tenderly. Energy flowed through our bodies, radiating a current too strong for either of us to resist. Then, again, he withdrew.
By now, the only thing left of the orange ball was the distant mesh of a salmon-colored blanket across the west. It brought with it a cool breeze—the kind of breeze that hinted at fall’s imminent arrival, reminding me summer was drawing to its close and would soon be gone.
“Looks like it might rain,” Robbie said. “I should take you home.”
I looked at the orange sky. No sign of rain. How could he know? Then we turned around toward the bike and I saw the ominous gray creeping in from the northeast, a shadowed vapor in the night, waiting for us to drop our guard. “What happens if you ride in the rain?”
“Pain.” Then, probably at the question on my face, he clarified. “First, it’s difficult to see. And the road can get pretty slick. Then, if you’re not wearing protective gear or leather, the rain hits you hard like a thousand needles all at once, over and over. It stings.”
Not an image I wanted to dwell on long. Hand in hand, Robbie and I strolled back the way we came.
“What about night? Is that dangerous?” I asked.
“No. It’s probably safer at night because of the headlight. Other cars can see you more easily. But it’s not safe in the rain.”
Innocent Ride Page 5