Page 5 of Enemies to Lovers on Biker's Path

And I don’t want to be angry at him anymore.

“I don’t want to hate you,” I whisper. “Please… give me something.”

I can see the pain in his eyes as he steps forward. “I’m sorry, Zoe,” he says softly, “I can’t.”

Then, he kisses me. It might be the sweetest and most gentle kiss I’ve ever experienced. I don’t mean just with Grant. I mean ever. I start crying just a little. “Please,” I whimper, “just give me something I can… Please, Grant.”

He holds me as I cry and I finally pull away. “Fine,” I stay sharply. “Fucking fine.” Then, I kind of stomp out of his house. I get into my car, and I’m so damned grateful that I actually drove to his place even though it’s an easy walk. Hell, everywhere in Pinecrest Peak is an easy walk. I’m happy I drove my car because I can drive just to the end of the street and pull over. I do that and start ugly crying like crazy.

And my phone rings. I feel a surge of excitement because for a moment, I think that it’s going to be Grant. It’s not him. It’s Allison. I look at my phone. We talk every Wednesday. It’s a Thursday. I force my tears to stop and answer. I do a damned poor job of sounding normal and not like a weeping idiot when I say, “Alli. How are you doing, Honey?”

She says, “Grant isn’t Tori’s father. He covered for me so I wouldn’t have to tell anyone the real father was Kelcey Franks.” Mr. Franks. Our English teacher. Holy… Holy shit. He was forty. She was sixteen and a half! I mean, she had the baby at seventeen but…

“Oh, Alli,” I say softly. “Oh, Honey. I wish I’d known. I would have been there for you. I would have…”

She laughs lightly. “I kept it from you. I kept it from everyone. I didn’t want anyone to know and I wasn’t protecting myself.” I let the words sink in.

“But you moved away.”

“It’s a little town. Grant’s family was Midnight Avenger. There would be a little gossip but after a while nobody would say anything. Nobody would think anything.”

“You know that, um… Mr. Franks left town.”

She says, “I heard. I never saw him again. I think after a week or two of having Tori, I fell right out of love with him. I don’t know. Having a baby makes a girl grow up.”

“I can understand that,” I say.

“Zoe, you’re the person I love most in all the world except for my daughter. I’m sorry that I kept this from you.”

I giggle a little. “Well, with the way I’ve treated Grant, it’s a good thing I didn’t know it was Mr. Franks. I bet I’d be in prison serving a life sentence. I’d… Oh my… Holy shit! Grant!”

She chuckles and says, “I’m hanging up. Call me later and I’ll give you the whole story. You go back and make up with him.”

“You know about that?”

“That’s why I called you. He called me and asked me to un-swear him to secrecy. I told him I’d tell you.”

“Allison, why Grant? I mean, I never would have believed it if you didn’t tell me.”

“Well, that’s a whole other thing. Okay, I guess it’s secret time. He’s my brother, my half-brother. My mom was a sweet butt. That’s what they call the…”

“The club girls,” I say. They’re kind of like biker groupies.

“And his father put Mom and me in a house. She stopped being a club girl and started being a mom. We both knew about it from elementary school. We were both forbidden to talk about it, of course. I mean… well, anyway. You get an hour of being a total mean girl to me to make up for the secrets.”

I giggle. “I’m taking at least a weekend for that, bitch.”

She laughs. Me saying that tells her that we’re okay. “Okay fine but why don’t you turn your car around and go make nice-nice with Grant, for fuck’s sake?”

“Grant!” I cry. I hang up and turn around. I pull into the driveway and then call her back. “Okay, bye!” I say when she answers. I hang up again and run to the door. I bang on it and when he answers, I just launch myself at him.

Afterward, barely able to move, I manage to say, “Don’t think me coming over here from now on means you don’t have to still find me on the path.”

I’m sure he responds but I’m too far gone to do anything other than cuddle and fade to sleep.

Chapter Six

Eighteen Months Later

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