Total pages in book: 83
Estimated words: 78024 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 390(@200wpm)___ 312(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78024 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 390(@200wpm)___ 312(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
“I could get used to you being right up close like this.” His chuckle vibrates under my hands. “Hold on tight, baby.”
What kind of trouble am I getting myself into? My fingers curl into his shirt, and I slide even closer. When he suggested a motorcycle ride, it didn’t occur to me how intimate it was.
And then he starts the bike.
The roar of it coming to life has me digging my fingers into Priest’s tight abs. It shakes me from my core and all the way up like a giant vibrator. I’m starting to see why a woman might get jealous if her man started picking up other girls like this.
“You good?” He glances over his shoulder to where I’m clinging to him like a nervous backpack.
“Uh huh.” Did my voice crack? I’m not sure I trust myself, but I trust him, so I’m going to hold on for dear life.
To his credit, he gives me time to adjust, starting slow and smooth before picking up speed. And as I learn the languid motions of the motorcycle, it’s not long before I stop spending all my time terrified of falling off, and actually start to enjoy the feel of the wind blowing by and the rumble of the asphalt beneath us.
He takes us for a lap around downtown, weaving through traffic between the tall office buildings, then up over one of the high bridges that gives us a view of the glittering ocean beyond. It’s not like I haven’t seen these places a thousand times before, but it’s different like this. There’s no box made of metal and glass to separate us from experiencing the world. I squeeze Priest harder, and while I can’t hear his laugh, I can feel it through his back.
It’s not long before I recognize where we’re going. Me and Axel lived with Mom in this neighborhood. Heath lived a block away in a different apartment building. It looks about the same. A little more worn, but still the same blue-collar area full of people who had more than some, but never quite enough. There are a lot of memories here. I’d ask what his plan is, but there’s no way he’s going to hear me over the roar of the motorcycle and the air blowing by, so I’m forced to wait for my answer.
He doesn’t ride past our old apartment, and I’m kind of glad. After Axel died, I was more than happy when we finally got kicked out.
Instead, he pulls into the park behind the local middle school where the three of us would hang out. Well, he and Axel would hang out, and I would be there, because it was better than being at home. He puts us right up onto the sidewalk and rolls onto the grass, parking the bike under a tree.
“What are we doing here?” I ask as I slide off the bike, missing the feel of him close to me, and my legs a little shaky.
He pops open the saddlebag on the back right side of the bike. Two sodas and a brown paper bag appear in his hands after he rummages in it. “I didn’t have time to do anything fancier, but I picked up a couple subs on the way from DiMarcellos. Turkey and ham okay? Probably shoulda asked. You on some kind of fancy diet?”
I shake my head. “Not really.” I’ve never needed one, not with my mother’s voice in my ear about it for as long as I can remember.
“Here.” He motions for me to follow.
I balk for a second, knowing where he’s heading, but now that we’re here, I want to see it, too.
We stop in front of the biggest oak in the park. As a bunch of kids with nothing to do and no adults who cared, we spent a lot of time doing nothing, especially during the summer. This was a good spot. Plenty of shade, and sometimes in the summer someone would bust open the hydrant on the corner.
I run my fingers over the deep cuts in the bark. “Still here.”
He nods. “Yeah. I come by every once in a while. To think, and look. Been a long time since last, though.”
Carved deeply into the tree are three sets of initials. Heath’s, Axel’s and mine. I still remember that day. Axel’s mom had just taken off, and I’d said something dumb about him not being able to get rid of me. Heath had a pocketknife and we made it official. No matter what happened, our names would be there, proving that we’d existed. Now they’re just a snapshot of how things used to be.
He laughs. “You were such a pain that day, you know that? Axel scored some weed off a guy he knew, but we couldn’t do shit with you around.”