“I don’t know the first fucking thing about raising kids, Jamie. You’ll have to teach me as we go.”
“I guess I don’t either or Adam wouldn’t be in that place in his head I can’t reach,” Jamie whispered right before she yawned. “I’m so glad I have you, Daughtry. I didn’t want to think about sleeping without you tonight, so I planned on working on my new bike until I dropped.”
“Your new bike?” I asked her and then remembered that she rode home from the cookout on her brother’s. “You ride, don’t you?”
“Yeah,” Jamie snuggled up closer to me and yawned again. “I do. I have a show bike I love more than my own skin and right now I’m working on an everyday ride.”
“The knuckle?”
“Yeah,” Jamie whispered slowly. “That’s the last show bike I built by myself.”
“Holy fucking hell,” I shook my head ready to kick myself for not realizing that this little badass could have built the damn thing herself. I’d just assumed there was a man around because once again, I’d underestimated her. “What else have you built?”
Jamie didn’t answer me and I moved my head to look down at her. She was fast asleep, tears still drying on her dirty face.
“You love her,” I heard my mom whisper from the doorway. “I can see it.”
“Mama,” I whispered with a smile. “I’m okay; you didn’t have to come.”
“That’s bullshit and you know it,” Mama shook her head as she walked closer to my hospital bed. “You’re my baby boy, Daughtry. I needed to be here with you to make sure they’re taking care of you the way they should.”
“I’m going to be okay.”
“No, son. It’s going to take a lot of work on your part to get you back to okay. And even more work to get you healthy.”
“Yeah,” I nodded. “There’s going to be a specialist here tomorrow about my blood sugar and another about my kidneys. I’ve got to take some classes to teach me how to eat and take care of myself.”
“You’ll listen to them.” Mama nodded. “And you’ll let us help you.”
“Yes, ma’am,” I nodded. “I will.”
“You have to take care of yourself, baby.” It broke me to see tears in my mama’s eyes. “There would be so many people with a part of their heart missing if we lost you. So many people.”
“I’ll listen and take care of myself from now on,” I promised.
Mama reached out and put her hand on my cheek. As she gently stroked my face with her thumb, she smiled. “That’s my good boy. You’ll be just fine.”
◆◆◆
JAMIE
“What’s that all over her face?” I heard a woman’s voice ask. I opened my eyes and saw an older man and woman sitting beside the bed I was lying in with Daughtry.
“Engine blood,” Clem laughed softly. “Remember when we were kids and me and Dot thought that the truck was bleeding?”
“Yeah,” the silver haired man chuckled. “I’d forgotten about that.”
The beautiful woman who I could only assume was Martha Forrester said with a smile, “That was when Daughtry took to engines and anything to do with them.”
“I liked engines, too,” Clem argued.
“Until you discovered girls,” the woman scoffed. “Then you were too busy thinking with the head in your lap to put your mind toward anything else.”
I bit my lip to keep from laughing and saw that Daughtry’s dad was staring at me. He winked at me and then turned his head to rejoin the conversation, letting me observe quietly again rather than let the room know I was awake.
“Tell me about her,” Martha said softly and I instantly felt guilty that I was eavesdropping.
“She’s funny,” Clem told his mom. “And a complete smart ass. She keeps him on his toes because she doesn’t put up with much.”
“She’s smart, too,” Bird added. “He doesn’t know it yet, but she’s much more of a mechanic than she lets on.”
“Yeah, did you see the latest Windrider, Dad?” Clem asked, referring to the magazine that had featured my bike this past month.
“Yeah, the one with the knuckle on the front? That was fucking sweet,” Smokey nodded. “I’d give a pretty penny to see that one.
“It’s in her garage,” Bird told him. “She’s Jamie Grayson.”
“The Jamie Grayson?” Smokey whispered. “The one who built that custom panhead that won the Chrome Award a few years ago?”
“Yep,” Clem nodded. “That’s his girl.”
“No fucking way,” Smokey turned and looked right at me, his eyes wide, before he looked back at his sons. “She doesn’t sell her stuff either - did you know that?”
“Really?” Bird asked. “She could make a fucking mint.”
“That’s what all those new containers out at Noah’s farm have in them. Got to be at least 10 of them, maybe more,” Smokey told his sons and he was right. All my cars and bikes were stored out at my dad’s farm now until I decided what to do with them or could buy a warehouse to store them in. And Smokey was wrong. There were 18 containers out there with the cars and bikes I’d built through the years, starting with my very first one I did with my grandpa when I was just eleven years old. “Holy shit, she’s a badass.”
“She’s strong, too,” Kale interrupted them. “She tried to help me, but I scared her. When we went to go get her, she was terrified we were going to hurt her. She backed up into a corner and was ready to fight all three of us if she had to.”
“Why in the holy fuck would she think you were going to hurt her?” Smokey Forrester growled. “Why would she assume that?”
“It’s a long story,” Kale sighed.
“Do you see me looking at the clock?” his father snapped. “I’ve got nothing but motherfucking time here, son.”
“Yes, sir,” Kale started. Then I listened to him explain about Eli receiving my text message and then what he remembered happening in the waiting room of the ER. His brothers filled in when Kale’s voice faded and soon Smokey was pissed over something else.
“It was so bad that Eli thought you’d hurt his little sister?” I could tell by the calm tone in their dad’s voice that he was enraged and it worried me just a little bit. I saw his wife put her hand on his arm and watched him visibly relax before he spoke again.
“It was a misunderstanding,” I whispered from beside Daughtry. I glanced around and saw all heads turn toward me. “I know in my heart Daughtry would never hurt me, sir, and realize now that your other sons wouldn’t either. My brother was just going on emotion. He’s never been good with seeing me sad and when I told him I was scared, he lost it.”
“He felt like he had to make a choice and he didn’t hesitate,” Kale told Smokey. “He’d give up everything he’s worked for, everything he’s dreamed of all his life, for his sister.”
“That says so much about the man he’s become,” Bird added to the conversation. “He was always a good man, but a little flightier than Luke and Levi. I worried, you know.”