“Just wait,” Crim called out from the other side of the trailer. “In about ten days, you’ll get to experience every single one of us on our periods. They’re all synced.”
I looked at the woman at my side. Not every one of them.
Simi’s eyes twinkled as if her thoughts were in tandem with mine.
“Yeah,” I grumbled at Val. “She can ride with me.”
Simi visibly relaxed at the news that she could ride with me.
Which made me feel even worse.
“I hope you know what you’re doing, man,” Keene grumbled as he passed. “Because this is going to suck thinking about her for the next four hours.”
I completely and utterly agreed.
“A helmet,” Val said ten minutes later. “Pants, jacket, and boots. They’ll be a little big on her since she has fairy feet, but they’ll work.”
Then she was gone, hurrying toward a porta-potty that was set up for the family only.
The door slammed behind her as I held out the clothes to Simi. “Head into the food trailer and get changed. We’ll leave when you’re dressed.”
“You don’t want to follow behind us all?” a worker asked.
The one that would be driving the food trailer with his camper truck.
“Uh, no,” I said, thinking about how horrible it would be if I had to follow behind the convoy, adding likely hours to our trip. “But thank you for offering, Kristoff.”
Kristoff was six foot eight, two hundred and ninety pounds, and presented himself like a teddy bear. But last night, I’d observed him crush a watermelon with one hand. Not to mention, I’d seen him react when Sheriff Bright had made his way into the camp.
He may try to act like he was a teddy bear, and everyone might think he was one, too, but I saw the truth. Man had a temper, and he also had the skills to pop your head with one hand.
I would definitely be nice to him, given the choice.
Warm, tiny fingers slipped into mine, and I was startled enough to look to my side. Then down. Down, down, down.
To the tiniest little girl that I’d ever seen standing. Most children that size were infants.
She looked up at me and smiled.
“Uh, hi,” I said to her. “Who are you?”
“That’s Ulitza.” Simi paused, frowned really hard, and then smiled wide.
“Hey! I remembered her name!” she cried.
So she was getting her memory back more and more, a little bit at a time.
I’d take it.
“Well, hello, Ulitza,” I said to the little girl.
She smiled a toothy smile at me.
“Itza,” Kristoff called. “That’s not me.”
Ulitza, or “Itza” for short, looked over to where Kristoff had called her name.
She looked back to me, then back at her dad, then back to me.
Then she took off screaming.
I couldn’t stop the chuckle from leaving my mouth.
It was cute, that was for sure.
Even if I’d inadvertently made her cry.
“Do you remember anything else about Ulitza?” I asked curiously. “Or Kristoff?”
She jiggled her clothes at me, and I nodded my head, indicating for her to go change.
She disappeared, and Kristoff wandered toward me. “She remembers my Itza?”
I nodded. “She did.”
“She and Itza get along great. She’s been working with her on the silk.” He paused. “Not like working with her, working with her. But more like playing with her, letting her explore.”
“Ah.” I nodded again. “I didn’t know there were any kids in this camp.”
Kristoff grinned. “We have a full-blown day care, man. That orange-and-blue tent. It also happens to be where the practice stuff is set up. Gets the kids’ energy out, allows them to play and have fun, and then everyone can go get an hour or so of work done while simultaneously watching the kids. Though we do have a full-time nanny now.”
“Well, that’s ingenious,” I admitted, thinking how convenient it would be when our own child came. Though I doubted our child would be spending as much time in day care when there were six ready and willing siblings to Simi walking around. “How old is Ulitza?”
“She’s a little over thirteen months.” He paused. “And before you ask, I’m her father. We look nothing alike. Her mother was blonde-haired and blue-eyed. Meanwhile, she came out with the iciest blonde hair I’d ever seen.”
I studied Kristoff some more.
He had dark hair that was nearly black but had just enough brown in it to know it wasn’t a true black. He had a beard, like me, though his was much fuller and thicker. He had no visible tattoos.
But Kristoff and I were dressed nearly identically.
Black shirts, black boots, faded jeans. Beards and dark hair.
“I can see why she got us confused. I guess when you’re looking up, everything seems really tall.” I chuckled.
Ulitza, who’d been in his arms, faced fully away from me, still sniffling, finally turned to study me.
I felt my heart melt.
“I don’t feel like I know you well enough to ask this, but is her mom around here? Does she work for the circus, too?” I asked.
“She did,” Simi’s voice chimed in. “And Kristoff is too nice to tell anyone that she’s a twat and left about six months after Itza was born because she couldn’t hack being a mom and working in a circus. Now she’s moved to our competition, Worth Circus Brothers, and does the trapeze there.”
Kristoff sighed. “She’s not our favorite person. Can you tell?”
“I can tell,” I drawled. “I’m sorry to hear that, man. My mom did much the same, though I was a lot older at the time, but it didn’t make it any easier on my dad.”
Just as I said that, I turned and took Simi in completely.
Her leather pants were tight. So fuckin’ tight that I wanted to peel her right back out of them.
The t-shirt from earlier was tied at the waist, and her top button was undone, revealing the smooth skin of her belly.
The finishing touch was the cutest biker boots I’d ever seen.
My mouth instantly watered.
“Um.” I paused when I finally caught up to my brain. “Wow.”
Her mouth kicked up. “I was about to ask if you liked my biker attire. I guess I don’t need to do that now.”
“No.” Kristoff laughed as he walked to his truck. “You don’t.”
No, she definitely didn’t.
“All right, children!” Keene called to his sisters. “Shitter’s empty. Who else needs it?”
There were two sisters that raced toward it, Tony and Crim.
Crim got there first and slammed the door in Tony’s face.
Tony stomped her foot like a child would who didn’t get their way.
I turned back to my bike and mounted it. “You’re good, right?”
Simi walked up to the side of my bike and stared at it, her eyes searching.
“Here,” I said, pushing her pegs down. “Keep your feet on either side, right on these. If you get tired, you can lean back into the seat pad, but not much is really gonna help. I hate to say this, but you’ll probably be uncomfortable since this is your first ride.”
As in... her very first.