Cocky Biker(51)
Jett
“She stickin’ to it?” Scratch asks me as we walk out after dinner to put the Harleys away. We’re not worried about theft. No one around would dare fuck with us. But wear and tear from weather isn’t necessary when you’ve got a garage like ours.
“Yeah,” I mutter, the smile I’ve been faking, gone now that she’s not around. “Can’t tame a feral animal, Scratch. You just get cut.”
Over the dull sound of rolling wheels as we walk the bikes around the side of the plantation, I can hear Melodi, Hannah and Mona chatting in the sitting room upstairs. Scratch looks up to their silhouettes through the gauzy curtains, too. He chuckles.
“What?” I ask him.
“She sure doesn’t fit in with them.” He shoots me a look to see if I agree.
“She wouldn’t stay here,” I argue, irritated.
“What dya mean?”
“If she stayed with me, she’d be with me. She’s one of us. She would hold her weight out there on the road.”
He frowns, the idea of a woman-Cipher foreign. We put the bikes next to the others and he still hasn’t said a word about my belief. But I don’t give a crap what he thinks. I know Sunshine. I know I’m right.
But it doesn’t matter.
She’s leaving in the morning.
“Your mother called.”
I step back like I’ve been hit. “What? Who is it? Who’s hurt?!”
He grabs my arm. “No, nothin’ like that. She wanted me to make you come to the wedding.”
Relieved, I chuckle and rub my jaw. “Does she think I’m still six? What the fuck, Ma?”
“Melodi talked to her since I was out. Nancy told her your dad doesn’t want you there—”
“—No shock there.”
“—but your family does. She thinks I have more pull over you than she does now.”
This hits me hard. “I’ll call her.”
“It’s two weeks away.”
“I know! I know,” I grate. “I know when my own brother’s wedding is. I’ll go. My mind’s been occupied.”
The truth is it’s a good thing. This couldn’t have come at a better time. I need to see them as much as they need to see me. It’s been too long and gettin’ over Sunshine is gonna be a fuckin’ bitch. Jaxson and I need to have some beers. I want to thank Justin in person for helping us find Matias. Can’t wait to tell him about Carmen and Tonk. Tell him he’s a matchmaker. Jason can razz him for days over that one, because Justin is anything but romantic.
And Jake…gotta see him on the most important day of his life.
Just wish Jeremy could be there, too.
Scratch is about to close the garage. It’s a manual door from the olden days, the kind with a padlock, so he’s pulling on it, his eyes miles away. He always looks like that when we’re here. He’s our V.P. He gets the calls. He runs this house. Our President is in Montana – stays there most of the time now that he’s old. I don’t think twice about it. I’m just waitin.’ So when Scratch throws the door back up and strolls into the garage with purpose, I just think he forgot somethin’ inside.
“Jett, what the fuck you doin’ out there? Get in here. I got something for you to see.”
Uncrossing my arms I walk over to where he lifts a tarp off a 1966 Triumph Bonneville T120R. Whistling at it, I nod. “That’s a nice ride.”
“Yeah, bought it for Laura.” He gravely meets my eyes. “She never saw it. Fuckin’ bitch.” He turns back to gaze at the bike. “It’s too small for the men. Why don’t you give it Sunshine?”
I blink in shock. “Scratch…”
“It’s just sittin’ here. What’s that girl got? Nothin.’ You say she can ride? Let her.”
“So she can ride out of here,” I mutter on a long exhale.
We stare at it. He waits for me to think a minute before he side-eyeballs me. “Set it free.”
“Yeah…but it’s not comin’ back to me. Kinda hard to let go when you know that.”
“Don’t I know it,” he says on a long exhale.
Upstairs I search for Luna but can’t find her.
“That girl’s stuck up,” Melodi tells me from her doorway.
“She’s just quiet, Mel. You’re the one who’s stuck up.”
“Thanks a lot!”
“Call ‘em as I see ‘em.” I continue the search until I find Luna in the backyard staring out at fog so thick you can’t see when the lawn ends. “Hey.”
Luna whispers, “I love the moss on the oak trees.”