Chasing Strength: A Harper Family Romance

by Stopper, Nancy

  “Oh, nothing.” Serena’s car was still parked at the curb. Hopefully she’d wait until Alexis left before scooting around the house. Other than that, there weren’t any unfamiliar cars on the street. Where was Chris’s truck? Her question was answered when Chris led her to… a motorcycle. Hot damn. Put another check in the plus column. “You ride a motorcycle?”

  “Yeah.” A sheepish smile crossed his face, as if he was afraid of how Alexis would respond. “Is that okay?”

  “It’s more than okay. I can’t wait to go for a ride.” The motorcycle explained the leather jacket. And the request for jeans. It had been a long time since Alexis had been on the back of a bike. Since she’d tossed the loser high-school boyfriend out on his ass.

  “That’s the plan. The weather is perfect, and I thought we could head into the country.” He opened one of the saddlebags and withdrew a shiny black helmet. “I hope this fits.”

  He settled the helmet on her head and tightened the straps. His eyes widened and he ripped something off the strap. A price tag, maybe?

  “Did you buy this helmet for me?”

  He tucked her purse into the saddlebag but wouldn’t meet her gaze. She couldn’t believe strong, confident Chris was nervous. And knowing he was as nervous as she was helped. “You needed one if we were going to ride. And… I haven’t taken anyone out on my bike in a long time.”

  With just a few words, Chris chipped a hole in the barriers protecting her heart. But Chris wasn’t like the bad boys she’d dated in high school—the way he’d helped her at the bar, and then agreed to be interviewed for her book, proved he was one of the good ones. Maybe with a little rebel on the side. She could so deal with that.

  “Let me climb on first and then I’ll set you behind me.” Chris slid his helmet on and fastened the strap under his chin.

  She tried not to laugh at his assumption that she hadn’t ridden a bike before. She had, but not with him. She didn’t want to burst his bubble, and besides, she appreciated that he wanted to share something special to him.

  After Chris mounted the bike and she settled herself behind him, he righted the motorcycle and fired the engine. The roar, the rumble, everything about the bike had her heart beating a little faster and a thrill building in her chest. But that was nothing compared to when Chris reached one arm behind her, grabbed her hip, and tugged her flush against him. She wasn’t complaining. It was no hardship to press her body against his.

  He grinned and then nodded for her to hold on.

  If he insisted. She snaked her arms around him, her fingers drifting to his waist where she hooked her fingers into his beltloops.

  After a quick check behind him, Chris pulled away from the sidewalk. Alexis threw a glance toward her house as Serena stepped onto the sidewalk holding two thumbs up.

  Chris wound his way through town, passing some of her favorite haunts, barely slowing as he rolled past FitzGeralds. She suppressed a shudder at how bad she’d been the night they met… and how her life had changed in just a few days since.

  As though he sensed her turmoil, he curved his arm around her, pulling her tighter against him.

  Before long, the main streets of Cedar Hill gave way to wider open spaces, the distance between intersections growing. And then the trees thickened as they drove through some of the most spectacular areas of Pennsylvania. Time had no meaning as their wheels ate up the pavement, mile after mile, weaving their way past farmlands and through small towns.

  She leaned into Chris, taking comfort from the strength of his body, the steadiness with which he grasped the handlebars. He’d glance back at her from time to time, and she’d smile, trying to convey without words what this day meant to her.

  She allowed herself the luxury of living in the moment, something she hadn’t done in a long time. The voices in her mind, the ones that told her she was worthless, had gone silent. And for that, she was thankful.

  As they arrived in another small town, Chris slowed, the engine torquing down as he rolled to a stop in front of a row of shops and cafes along the main street. After he parked, he gestured for her to climb off before him. She pulled off her helmet as he did the same.

  She ran her fingers through her hair and shook it out. “Wow, that was great.”

  “Really? I wasn’t sure you’d like it.”

  She handed over her helmet. “Oh, yeah. I uh…”

  He studied her for a moment. “What?”

  “I started to say something and decided it wouldn’t be a good idea.”

  He tucked their helmets in the saddlebags and shoved his keys into his jeans pocket. “You can say whatever you want. I promise I won’t laugh, and I won’t judge you based on anything you tell me.”

  She didn’t know if he could keep that promise if he knew some of the things she’d done. But that wasn’t what this was about. “I was just going to say that I dated a boy in high school who rode a motorcycle.”

  “And you acted as though you’d never ridden before?” He wrapped his arm around her playfully, but the feelings it stirred in her were far from playful.

  “I didn’t say anything about it. You assumed I’d never been on the back of a motorcycle.” She chuckled. “As a matter of fact, I spent a lot of hours riding with my boyfriend. Mom and Dad would be furious when he’d pull up. I’d hop on the back and he’d tear out of the driveway before they could stop me. I didn’t care. It was as if I was thumbing my nose at them.”

  He lowered his head so he was nose to nose with her. “Like every teenager since the beginning of time.”

  “How long have you owned a motorcycle?” Her knees wobbled as he steered her onto the sidewalk, and they strolled in front of the shops. Too many hours working with her butt in a chair and too long since she’d been on a bike, but she found her land legs quickly. The smell of baked muffins wafted in the air and she snapped her head around, looking for the bakery. There had to be one in this perfect little town.

  “Gosh, most of my adult life. I used to love taking the bike up into the mountains. It’s just that, uh, I haven’t had a lot of extra time recently.”

  He paused long enough that she glanced over at him. His brows drew into a frown. “What is it? It was almost as if you wanted to say something else.”

  He hesitated, as though he was going to elaborate, but then shook his head. “It was nothing. Maybe another time. We’ve been riding for almost two hours and I thought we could use a break. Besides, I’m starving.”

  Just then, her stomach decided to join the conversation and rumble. Her hands flew to her belly, but she couldn’t cover the sound. Embarrassing for a first date.

  “Sounds like you agree. There’s this great little café that I found on one of my trips through town. I think you’ll like it.”

  “Where are we, anyway?” Alexis had been so absorbed in the ride that she hadn’t noticed which of the many small towns that dotted the Pennsylvania landscape they’d landed in.

  “West Chester.”

  Wow, she hadn’t realized their trip had taken them so far from Cedar Hill. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d been to the picturesque small town.

  Chris steered her down a side street as the late spring sun shone on her face. In just a few minutes, they stepped up to a restaurant at the end of a row of shops. Picnic tables beneath bright red umbrellas filled a patio along the side of the restaurant, and a waitress exited a door with a tray overflowing with meals for the diners.

  She chuckled and pointed at the name. “The Couch Tomato?”

  “Great name, isn’t it? Makes it hard to forget. They’re only open for breakfast and lunch, but they have soup, sandwiches, and pizzas. You can’t go wrong.”

  If she had met Chris under different circumstances and he’d asked her out, was this what it would be like? Long rides on his bike, sharing a meal together, finishing off the day with a kiss… or more. Most of the men she spent time with, she met at a bar. Their dates consisted of drinking and dancing and meaningless sex.
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br />   The prospect of something more significant put a spring in her step as she followed him to the patio.

  Several of the tables were occupied on this beautiful spring day, but they were quickly seated. A few minutes later, they placed their orders with a peppy waitress in a tight T-shirt who stared at Chris longer than Alexis liked.

  A gnawing feeling built in her gut. Jealousy. That was a new one. But who could blame her when the sexiest man she’d ever met was sitting across from her?

  She leaned her head on her hand and studied Chris. Unlike many of the men she knew, he didn’t turn away or shudder under the attention. He simply watched her watching him while she tried to dig down and discover the Chris that was hiding beneath the surface. “I didn’t picture you as a motorcycle kind of guy when I met you. What got you into bikes?”

  He smiled. “What was your first impression of me?”

  Chris was a master at answering a question with a question. It must be the reporter in him. “Oh, no, you don’t. Just answer the question.”

  He threw his head back and laughed. She’d never been one to spend so much time noticing the little things about another person, but Chris intrigued her. “My dad used to ride motorcycles. He was in a motorcycle club when I was a kid.”

  Her eyes widened. “Your father was in a gang?”

  “Oh, no. Not a gang. A motorcycle club. A big difference. Motorcycle clubs are groups of guys and gals who like to ride. Gangs are, well, exactly what they sound like. Dad’s club hosted rides to raise money for charity, protected people that needed protecting, things like that.”

  That explained Chris’s white knight complex. He came by it honestly. “So, your dad used to take you on rides?”

  The smile fell from his face. “A few times when I was little. But my parents died when w-, uh, I was eighteen. Before I had a chance to join his club and ride beside him, I inherited his motorcycle. It makes me feel closer to him every time I climb on.”

  His verbal stumble was brief, but she caught the correction in his statement. What else had he wanted to say? She remembered Larry mentioning a sister. Maybe that was it? Regardless, his parents’ death had to be tough for him. She rested her hand on his, and after a moment, he flipped his hand over and linked their fingers together. A bold move, sure, but she’d want someone to reach out to her when she had to talk about the hard things. Even though she didn’t have a great relationship with her father, she still understood the impact of losing a parent. And he had lost both.

  “Tell me about one of the outings you took with your Dad?”

  His eyes lit up and he dove into a story about a camping trip he had taken with his father when he was twelve. His love for his dad shined bright as he described the disaster they’d experienced trying to set up a tent and cooking over a makeshift fire. She envied the relationship he’d had with his father, however short.

  The waitress slid their orders on the table in front of them and scooted out without another word as Alexis asked Chris about some of the stories he’d written for the Gazette. It had been a long time since she’d really wanted to get to know someone the way she wanted to get to know Chris.

  She laughed at some of the less-than-serious articles he’d been assigned, and she regaled him with stories of growing up in Cedar Hill—where the teens had hung out, the trouble she and her friends had gotten into… or avoided. Long after the last bites were eaten, he focused his attention on her… and only her…until some shouting on the sidewalk interrupted their conversation.

  A tall dark-haired man and a shorter blond woman were arguing, their voices growing louder with each word. Alexis immediately flashed back to when she was a child and the people arguing were her parents… or Justin and her father when her brother would step in between them to draw Dad’s attention. Alexis curled her shoulders, trying to hide from the noise and the turmoil.

  A few of the other diners noticed the ruckus on the sidewalk, but nobody seemed as bothered by it as she felt.

  The man shoved his finger into the woman’s chest, and before Alexis could cry out, Chris leapt to his feet, his long strides eating up the sidewalk until he inserted himself between the two. Was that how he’d separated her from the creep at FitzGeralds?

  “What the hell, asshole?” the man yelled. “Mind your own f-ing business.”

  Alexis was frozen in place, her brain mingling the woman on the sidewalk with flashes of herself from the other night at FitzGeralds, all the while mixing in a few images of Alexis as a teen, hovering in the corner, her hands over her ears, hiding from the turmoil. But she didn’t have time to freeze like a hunted rabbit. She should keep an eye on the woman in trouble in case she needed more help than Chris could give.

  Chris turned his back on the jerk and lowered his head to talk to the woman in question. “Are you all right?”

  The woman nodded, her arms wrapped around her middle as if they could protect her from the abuse. Alexis knew that nothing could protect the woman’s heart from the damage.

  If only the man would have left it at that, she and Chris could have gotten back to their conversation, but no. The guy scoffed and whipped Chris around. “She’s just fine. Now leave. Before I make you.”

  By now, the hostess was on the phone to 911, while three customers held their phones up taking video. Idiots. They’ll video an argument but do nothing to stop the man from harassing the woman in the first place? That was what was wrong with the world today.

  Chris nudged the woman behind his back and widened his stance, staring the man down. “You’re a jerk. You shouldn’t be treating women, or anyone, like that.”

  “You don’t think so, huh? Who are you to tell me what in the hell to do?” The guy thrust his arm past Chris, snatching the woman’s arm and attempting to yank her toward him.

  Chris shoved him back. “I told you to leave her alone.”

  “And I told you to get the fuck out of my business.” The man swung his fist and Chris ducked out of the way. He raised his hands, but he didn’t retaliate. If that had been her, she’d have decked the guy by now. Or at least tried to.

  The asshole took another swing that Chris easily avoided. About that time, a quick whir of a siren sounded as a police car whipped up to the curb and two police officers hopped out. Though they presumably hadn’t witnessed much of the fight, these two didn’t have trouble identifying the aggressor. They shoved the bastard’s face into the wall, jerked his hands behind him, and restrained him with plastic ties.

  The entire incident lasted no longer than a couple of minutes, but Alexis felt every harsh word out of the asshole’s mouth as if they had been said to her.

  She might have fallen a little bit in love with Chris right then. Anyone who would risk himself to protect someone else was all right in her book.

  She wished she’d had someone like Chris when she was growing up, when the arguments and the insults became more than she could handle, and she’d retreated into her journals.

  Maybe she’d finally found that person.

  Chapter 7

  Chris willed his heart to stop racing as the female officer snapped plastic handcuff ties on the asshole. From listening to the officers, this wasn’t the first time they’d picked him up for abusing his girlfriend. Hopefully it would be the last.

  He tasted the bitter flavor of copper on his tongue, a sure sign of the adrenaline coursing through his veins. What he wouldn’t give to have landed at least one good punch on the asshole before the cops showed up, but it was better this way. He didn’t want to spend the next two hours being interrogated. He finally caught his breath and willed his hands to stop shaking when the officer approached.

  He glanced over at Alexis while he gave his statement to the officer. She stared almost blindly at the woman who was now being comforted by a friend who had rushed up about the time the officers arrived.

  “Are we done here?” he asked the officer.

  She nodded, and Chris hurried to the table. He sank onto the bench opposite
Alexis and downed the rest of his iced tea, conscious of her gaze on him the entire time.

  “Go ahead, say what you’re going to say. That I should have stayed out of it and let them deal with their own issues.”

  She shook her head as the color returned to her cheeks. “I wasn’t going to say that at all. What I was going to say was that most people wouldn’t bother to try.” She motioned to the customers around them who had resumed their lunches as if nothing had happened. “They’re more inclined to take a video and post it online than they are to help someone in need. I’m proud of you for doing the right thing. That girl needed help.”

  Was she remembering a few nights ago when she had been the woman in question? He couldn’t bear it if another woman ended up like Robin, but he wasn’t ready to tell her that. He dropped his gaze to his hands on the table. “I’m not like most people. I couldn’t let that bastard treat her that way.”

  “I’m learning that.”

  He smoothed his finger over the straw wrapper, folding the paper in half once, and then again. He had to set her straight about any hero worship on her part. “I wasn’t always this way.”

  She covered his hands with hers, and the simple touch calmed the nerves and loosened his tight muscles. He flipped his hand palm up and threaded their fingers together. A simple gesture, but a major jolt shot through him and settled into warmth in his chest. Being with Alexis calmed him in a way he hadn’t expected but craved more of.

  Damn, he was turning into a freaking romantic.

  “If you’re putting me on a pedestal, you need to take me right back off it. I used to be disrespectful to women, and I hate that I was.” Alexis would have run screaming from the guy he used to be. Chris was embarrassed to admit it, but she needed to know the truth.

  She shook her head violently. “I don’t buy it. You could never be a jerk, no matter how hard you tried.”

  “Let’s just say that I was arrogant and full of myself.”

  She didn’t respond, her tacit agreement lurking in the silence. Looking back, he hated the man he was then. But in his own defense, he’d been young and stupid. He never abused a woman, but he didn’t always treat them like they deserved to be treated.