“Oh, right. I forgot they were here,” she says as she brushes a few long strands behind both ears.
“Don’t worry. I’m not following you or anything,” I assure her. “In fact, my brother and my MC president told me specifically not to see you again.”
“Oh yeah?” she asks, her shoulders relaxing as she rests her backside against the bumper of what I’m assuming is her silver Honda Accord.
I take a few more steps, closing some of the distance between us.
“Not to mention that your father will probably shoot me if he sees us talking.”
“Ah, yeah, probably. Last night, he forbade me from seeing you too. So, um, I moved out.”
“You really moved out of your house because of me?”
She shakes her head, sending her long hair flying. Once she brushes the strands out of her face again, she says, “No, not because I wanted to see you again or anything, but because it was time, you know, to get my own place. I’m staying with my friend Holly for now.”
“The same friend who dropped you off and drove away without waiting to see if your car started?”
“It’s no biggie.”
“It is a biggie, Lyla. Especially after last night.” When she glances at her feet, the shoes with the little dogs on them, I begin to think I was right about her running from someone. “Who were you running from last night?” I ask her.
Her eyes lift in surprise. “H-how did you know?”
“I didn’t put it together until this morning. What happened, and why didn’t you tell me last night?”
She shrugs. “I’m not even sure there was someone. I could’ve imagined it. I didn’t have my glasses on. I still don’t…crap, I’m not supposed to drive without them. Fucking Laurel…” She pushes away from the car and paces away from me.
“What did you think you saw?” I ask since I don’t think it was her imagination or bad eyesight.
“I thought it was a man, but I’m not sure. I couldn’t see much of them or their face.”
“And they were following you out to the parking lot?”
Lyla nods with her back still to me, arms wrapped around her waist.
“You should’ve told me. You should’ve told someone. What if I scared them away? What if I hadn’t been in the parking lot?”
Now she turns and flashes me a small smile. “Then I would’ve felt really stupid getting killed because I tripped and fell.”
“Lyla…”
“You didn’t see anyone else around me, did you?”
“No, but…”
“Then I was probably just being paranoid. Either way, I’m glad you were here.”
“Me too. And I’m glad I got to see you again today.”
Like some sort of buzzer telling me our time is up, a motorcycle, hopefully my motorcycle, cranks up behind me. When I glance over my shoulder, RJ gives me a thumbs-up.
“So, I guess my bike finally cranked,” I tell Lyla.
“Is that RJ?”
“Yeah.”
She lifts her hand to wave at him, and I glance over to catch my brother waving back enthusiastically, then flexing his bicep like a jackass. “He’s the second youngest of four boys, born just thirteen months before me. I’m not sure what our parents were thinking,” I joke.
“I know what you mean,” Lyla replies. “There’s only eighteen months between me and Laurel, so I’ve sort of always assumed I was a whoopsie baby…”
“Let’s go!” RJ shouts over the engine as he mounts his own bike.
“So, I guess I should get going.”
Her father made it clear that he won’t ever approve of me and her, and I don’t want to be a wedge between them.
“Yeah, me too.”
“See ya, Lyla.”
“Bye, Barrett,” she says.
I’m halfway back to my bike when she calls my name again, stopping me in my tracks.
“Yeah?” I turn back around to face her, second-guessing my intent to stay away from her already in case she makes the offer to see her again.
“Why did you sleep with me?”
“Ah, what?” I ask in confusion since that wasn’t the question I was hoping she would ask.
“Was it…did you want to get back at Laurel, or was it because I look like her?”
“No. God, no. Neither of those things!” I assure her. She didn’t seem to think I had any ulterior motives last night, which means… “Let me guess – your father put that shit in your head?”
She shrugs without responding.
“You don’t actually believe I would do either of those things, do you?”
“I don’t know. I wasn’t thinking much last night, but everything did happen so suddenly on the same day Laurel remarried…”
I start walking back to her as I tell her, “Lyla, I swear the only thing I was thinking about last night was that I wanted to be with you. Just you.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
We both stand there, staring at each other, neither of us saying anything, neither of us trying to leave. And I’m finding it nearly impossible to make my feet walk away from her again. That’s why I find myself blurting out, “Are you busy? Like right now?”
She shakes her head no.
“Do you want to do something? Hang out?”
“Hang out?” she asks with a puff of laughter.
“Yeah.”
“Ah, sure, I guess. What exactly did you have in mind?”
“No clue. Think about it while I go tell RJ to go on home without me.”
“Okay,” she says with a shy smile before I leave her.
“Remy told you to keep your dick away from her,” RJ reminds me loudly from his seat on his bike.
“How was I supposed to know we would be in the same place at the same time?”
He narrows his eyes at me. “I’m not that stupid, bro. You went by her house hoping to see her there but got her father instead.”
“I swear that’s the truth. I don’t even have her number,” I say before I remember her putting it in my phone when we had lunch. “Okay, so I did have her number, but we didn’t make plans. I was going to stay away from her after talking to Isaac. This is just a happy coincidence, being here at the same time. That’s why I decided I don’t care what Remy or her father says. We’re going to hang out.”
“Bear, bro…” he starts.
I hold up my palm to stop him. “I need to do this. Lyla thinks…she got the wrong idea about last night because of her damn father. She thinks I was using her to get back at Laurel or something. I just need to clear the air. Remy doesn’t need to know.”
I can’t leave her wondering if her first time was with a man who used her.
“Fine. It’s your funeral,” he mutters. “Do you want me to stay?”
“No. You can go back to town. I’ll be back when I get back.”
“Just be careful. If her father or one of his guys sees you with her in broad daylight…”
“I know. I won’t let that happen,” I tell him before I start walking back to Lyla. On second thought, I decide it would probably be best to leave my cut in my saddlebag just in case someone sees us, so I take it off and stow it.