I snorted. “Get on the bike, Medina. I even brought you an extra helmet.”
I held it out for her, and she eyed it skeptically.
“Um, you know, maybe…maybe we shouldn’t do this.”
She was nervous. This wasn’t me. This was the bike. “You said you’ve never been on a motorcycle. Are you…scared?”
“No,” she blurted so fast and then cringed. “Well, maybe a little.”
“Hey, look,” I said, moving to her side. I tilted her chin up to look at me. “Would I do something that would endanger you?”
“No.”
“Haven’t I taken care of you and made sure you felt safe?”
“Well, yes.”
I nodded. “That’s right. So, this is going to be fine. Better than fine. It’s fun. You’re going to like it. And if you don’t, we can come back and take your Jeep.”
She swallowed hard, as if debating, and then nodded. “All right. Yeah. I’m being silly.”
“It’s not silly to express your feelings,” I said automatically. “If you don’t feel safe with me, then I don’t want to do it.”
“Okay,” she said with a little more enthusiasm.
I handed her the helmet, and she fitted it onto her head. I buckled it for her and dropped my leg over the side of the bike. She took a fortifying breath. I heard her mutter under her breath, “I can’t believe I’m doing this.” And she hopped on behind me.
Having her weight against me on my bike felt fucking incredible. I had to shut down half of my brain as she settled in firmly against my back, wrapping her arms around my waist and drawing her thighs up to the sides of my legs.
“Ready?”
“Sure.”
I turned on my baby, and the deep, vibrating rumble of her engine reverberated through my bones. This was the sound of fucking joy. Pure freedom. Just me and my Harley out on the road with nothing to do but drive. A smile came to my face, even as Piper gripped tighter. Then, we were off.
Riding my Harley through Lubbock was a specific sort of bliss. Having Piper with me to enjoy it was next level. I was almost sad when we arrived at our destination ten minutes later.
Piper clung to me for dear life even after I brought the bike to a stop in a parking spot and killed the engine.
“You okay, babe?”
Her limbs went to jelly. She jumped off and passed me the helmet. Her face was flushed and she had a wide smile.
“I thought it was…great,” she admitted.
“Yeah?”
She bit her lip and ran her hands down her dress. “Mildly terrifying but exhilarating.”
“You’d do it again?”
“Yes. Can we do it again?”
Her eagerness made me want to take her right then and there over my bike.
“After dinner.”
She stuck out her bottom lip, and it took everything in me not to drag my teeth along it and suck it into my mouth. Ever since that kiss after Easter lunch, I’d wanted nothing more than to be physical with her. But if I was doing this right, then I was doing this right. We’d proven that sex was no issue. We were fucking excellent at that part. I’d never been great at more. So, here we were.
“Come on,” I said with a laugh and dropped an arm over her shoulders.
“Where are we anyway?”
I pointed at the sign for Hill Barbecue. They were a local barbeque joint that had started as a downtown food truck. I’d loved their food and been happy for them when they opened their own restaurant. It meant business was good.
“Oh, Dad loved their food truck. He was sad when they closed. I had no idea they’d opened a restaurant.”
“It’s recent.”
“My dad is going to be so happy. This is right down the street. I have a feeling we’ll be eating here a lot for lunch.”
I grinned. Good. Now, every time she showed up here, she’d think about our date.
We bypassed the large fence with Hill Barbecue scrawled in white paint on the side. The venue was entirely outdoors with picnic tables spread out around the area and their food truck relocated to a permanent locale. I’d checked the weather a dozen times before deciding on it. In a Lubbock spring, it was as likely to rain as for a dust storm to crop up, and we wouldn’t have wanted to be caught outside with nothing but my motorcycle in either.
We crossed to the food truck and put in our orders. I got the brisket, and Piper went for ribs. I was impressed. They were the messiest thing on the menu. Not something I’d think most girls—any girl—would go for. She winked at me when I mentioned it and brought her Coke over to a picnic table.
I settled in across from her with my Topo Chico. “Bold choice, Medina.”
“You’ve been inside of me. I don’t think you’re going to care if I have barbeque sauce on my face.”
I nearly choked on my drink. “Point made.”
“Tell me about those,” she said, pointing to my sleeve. “What do they mean?”
“Ah, well, some have meaning, and some I think are cool as shit.” I pushed up the sleeve of my shirt so that she could see the swirling shape of the dragon scales that traveled through the clouds and up into wings. Interspersed within the elaborate pattern were images for all of my family.
“This one is for Campbell.” I showed her the music notes that scrawled up a row of clouds. “It’s the chords for ‘I See the Real You.’ And this one is Nora.” A rose in full bloom with deep, piercing thorns. “My dad. I got this one first and built the sleeve around it.” It was an old-fashioned clock, almost steampunk, with the time set to the time I’d been born. I pointed out the cigarette smoke for Vail and the ribbon that twined with it to represent Lori. The cancer bow hidden in the clouds on my elbow was for Helene.
“And your mom?” she prompted, marveling at the stories I’d hidden inside the sleeve.
I froze at the words. I should have known they were coming. I rarely talked about her.
Her eyes swept up to mine at my silence. She must have read my unease. “You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want.”
I pulled my shirtsleeve back down and flipped my wrist over. A dove in flight was inked into my skin. “This is for her.”
She traced her fingers over it. “It’s beautiful.”
“One of my last pieces. I don’t talk much about her.”
“How old were you when she died?”
“Twenty-two. Campbell was about to turn eighteen and Nora had just had her fifteenth birthday.”
“I’m sorry. That’s terrible.”
I glanced down at the dove. It said so little about the person my mother actually was. “We had a…conflicted relationship.”
“How so?”
“Well, Campbell and mom were really close. He was her favorite, even if she never explicitly said that. Dad and I always got along better. When I was around twelve, I guess, something happened. I’m still not sure what, but after that, my parents argued non-stop. I tried to shield the others from the constant bickering, but it never worked.”
Piper listened but didn’t make a face or anything. She waited patiently as I told the story.
“The fighting got worse and mom moved out. Campbell wanted to go live with her. He cried for a month straight because he couldn’t see her. He’d called and begged her to let him go with her. So, she showed up one day to do just that. I’d never seen my dad so mad as when she tried to break us all up. He told her it was all or nothing. She couldn’t show up, unannounced, and break us up for no reason. Mom went away empty-handed.