“Don’t tell me what to do, you...” I paused, trying to think of an effective insult.
“Just fucking do it,” he snapped. “I won’t leave the porch until I hear the door lock.” He strolled out closing the door behind him, I heard his footsteps stop.
“Fuck’s sake,” I mumbled under my breath, hopping over to lock the door and arming the alarm. Only then did I hear his heavy footsteps walking down the porch steps.
What an infuriating arrogant asshole, I thought, trying as hard as I could not to feel any warmth over the fact he wouldn’t leave until he knew I was secure inside the house.
Chapter Three
After finally getting to sleep after four, and only after taking care of the dull ache in between my legs while unwillingly thinking of Cade, I woke up and looked at my phone.
“Fuckstick,” I muttered in my sleep zombie voice.
“Well hello, sleeping beauty,” Amy chirped, leaning against my door. She looked fabulous in her white sundress with a huge turquoise necklace and matching wedges, two coffee mugs in her hand. “I thought I might have to organize a herd of elephants to storm through here to wake you from your slumber,” she joked, coming to lay beside me in bed and handing me sweet, sweet coffee.
I groaned as the previous night’s events washed over me. “I was supposed to go into the store today and sort things out for the opening next week.” I started to stress, taking a huge gulp of the precious nectar in my cup, letting it soothe me.
“It’s Sunday, girlfriend, the day of rest and hangovers,” Amy said. “Let’s just chill out today, go grab some brunch, or more definitely late lunch, explore the town a bit more and enjoy a carefree day.” She jumped out of bed and waltzed towards my wardrobe. “You grab a shower and I’ll sort you an outfit.”
“Okay,” I sighed, pulling the covers back to get out of bed, forgetting about my foot until the pain reminded me. “Shit,” I cursed, hoping Amy wouldn’t notice the bandage. No such luck.
“What did you do to your foot?”
“Ummm…” I tried to think of some convincing lie, even though I knew Amy would sniff it out a mile away, we never lied to each other.
“Ohhh, I smell something interesting.”
Damn our unnaturally close bond.
“Spill,” Amy demanded.
“Fuck it,” I grumbled. I then proceeded to relay the events of last night, in detail. After I finished, Amy sat at the end of my bed, wide eyed.
“Well, fuck me,” she breathed.
Wow, my best friend was actually lost for words. That was an absolute first. She always had some response to any situation, even when we bumped into Karl Lagerfeld in the Hamptons one summer. She managed to get us invited to dinner with him. It was awesome.
“Fuck me!” she yelled and I jumped, her tone bringing my thoughts back from the Hamptons.
“No thanks, you’re not my type,” I mumbled back.
“Yeah, sounds like your type is tall, dark, and delicious,” she replied sarcastically. “This is amazing. I seriously can’t believe you were enacting some kind of scene out of a fucking romance movie right downstairs while I was asleep.” She smirked. “I mean…shit.”
“There is nothing to smile about, Ames, last night was a huge fuck up and I’m going to make sure I never see him again,” I said, wondering how the hell I was going to avoid the sexy biker in a town this small.
“Newsflash, babe, we are in Siberia, you can’t exactly avoid him, he’s like one- tenth of the population,” she argued reading my mind.
“Maybe a slight exaggeration, Amy.” I rolled my eyes, gingerly testing out my foot. The pain wasn’t bad enough to stop me wearing heels. It would take amputation for that to happen.
“You get the point.” She waved her hand. “Anyway, why would you want to avoid that delicious hunk of stud? I mean, this is brilliant, you have come out of the nunnery,” she exclaimed, clapping her hands and disappearing into my closet.
I followed her and sank into the chair in the middle of my closet. “This is most certainly not brilliant,” I groaned. “Don’t you remember last night? Not to mention the last time I hooked up with a sexy biker? Didn’t end so well.”
Amy flinched and I regretted my harsh tone. “For starters, Cade,” she moaned his name, “is like a zillion times hotter than He Who Shall Not Be Named, and you can’t just automatically assume everyone who rides a motorcycle is a psychopath. Just like you wouldn’t stop wearing Prada if they came out with one bad collection.” She flipped through my racks, pulling out a Givenchy tee.
“Well, men who are in outlaw motorcycle groups certainly aren’t involved in church circles or neighborhood watch,” I replied.
“Honey,” Amy said softly, looking up from my shoe selection. “You don’t know this man or anything about his club, and from what you’ve told me, he seems decent. I’m the first one to want to protect you from ever getting hurt again, but don’t let what happened to you turn you into someone who judges people before you even know them. That isn’t you.”
Her words cut me deep and I knew she was right. I shouldn’t be so bitter. But I also knew bikers and their gangs were trouble. Amy didn’t see what I saw, so she couldn’t know.
“Let’s just forget about last night for now and not let a man complicate my first proper day in my new town with my girl.” I gave Amy a smile.
“Okay,” she agreed. “But life would be no fun without men to shake things up now and then, and as much as I love my B.O.B, nothing compares to the real thing,” she advised before throwing my no doubt fabulous outfit at me.
The late afternoon sunlight, beginning to disappear behind the hills, kissed the horizon as Amy and I enjoyed a cold margarita on the back porch. I relaxed into my chair and let my head fall back, feeling the most content I had in a long while.
“That was an awesome afternoon, just what I needed,” I told Amy, keeping my eyes closed.
We had had a delightful lunch at a cute little café, then proceeded to walk up and down Main Street, perusing all the shops along the way and generally just enjoying the town’s atmosphere. And to my delight, we did not once hear the telltale rumble of Harley pipes, nor see a broadly built man donning a leather cut, so all in all, a great day.
“Yeah, it was actually kind of great, wasn’t it?” Amy replied. “This little hole in the road is actually kind of growing on me.”
I laughed. “That’s great to hear, since we might be here for a while, owning a home and business here.”
“Oh, I almost forgot,” Amy continued. “I got us invited to a party, well, the closest this town does to party anyway, a barbeque? Tomorrow night, hopefully there will be some man candy there.”
“What?” I spluttered. “When did you find the time to get yourself invited to anything? I was with you most of the day!” I sat up, turning to look at her.
“Remember when I went to get us some coffees when you were burrowed away in that bookstore?” she asked and I nodded. “Well, I got talking to the chick behind the counter, awesome girl and massive babe, she invited me and you to her barbeque tomorrow, you know since we are new in town and in desperate need of some friends?”