Page 7 of A Love So Hard

“Did you ever get in touch with her again?”

“What for? We had already said our goodbyes.”

“To apologize for their bad behavior?” I asked as if he should already know what for, because he should have.

He shook his head. “I couldn’t have even if I had wanted to. She was gone the next day, as planned. I had already warned her about the club, the guys, and why it wouldn’t work between us. She knew. I think maybe she had been testing herself by coming there that day to see if she’d be okay with the lifestyle I lived. Her running was proof that I had been right all along. Nothing against Patty, it just wasn’t for her.”

“I often wonder why my daddy keeps trying to warn me away from bikers,” I said purposefully leaving him out of it.

“From me,” he returned with a smile knowing what I meant and calling me on it.

“Anyway, he has no problem with Johnny and he’s a prospect for the club.”

“Maybe your dad hasn’t realized he’s prospecting for us yet?” Double-D surmised. I hadn’t thought of that. Johnny may very well have been hiding his affiliation with the club from my parents. Maybe if I told my parents he was part of the club they would finally leave me alone about him.

“So tell me a little something about Lucy Carter that I don’t know,” Double-D suggested.

I chewed on my bottom lip for a minute tasting the cherry Chapstick I’d swiped across them earlier. “I have a little more than a year and a half left of high school. I hate baking with a passion.” He chuckled at that admission. “I like to work in my dad’s garage with him, but that isn’t my dream either. I think I really just want to help people. I might become a nurse or something one day.” I shrugged my shoulders. “I haven’t really thought it all out. My mom is of the opinion that the only thing college is good for is to find your husband, but she says I don’t need to do that since she already found him for me.” I blushed as I admitted that to the man seated beside me.

“Johnny boy?” He guessed and I nodded my head in agreement. He pursed his lips together tightly as he stared out into the ever darkening sky. “How do you feel about that?”

“I don’t see him that way. We’ve grown up together as neighbors, but he’s only ever been a friend to me. I guess I see him as more of an older brother I’ve been forced to spend time with,” I admitted. Double-D grinned and I followed his line of sight to see a figure moving away in the dark. As soon as I heard the motorcycle start up I knew who had been standing there listening to me. I glanced over at Double-D and saw the challenge in his eyes. He was waiting to see if I would be upset that Johnny overheard what I told him.

“He already knows. It hasn’t deterred him yet, but he knows exactly how I feel. I blame our mothers for the hurt it puts him through. They put all these unrealistic relationship goals on our shoulders since early childhood. Who knows, maybe if they had just left things alone I would have fallen madly in love with the boy next door, but for all their pushing I just ended up resenting being thrown in with him all the time.”

“You would have never fallen in love with Johnny boy,” Double-D informed me.

“Why not?” I asked.

“Because you were meant for me all along.” He didn’t even look at me as he spoke the words. He sipped from his bottle again before glancing my way to see that my jaw had darn near come unhinged just before I managed to pull it back in and offer up a beautiful smile in its place.

“We’ll see,” I challenged.

“I know,” he insisted. “How did you end up here anyway? Wasn’t there a dance at your school tonight?”

I was taken aback that he’d known that. “There was, but…”

“But what? Don’t all high school girls live to go to those things?”

“Not all,” I muttered as I glanced down at my shoes. Then I took a chance and lifted my eyes to meet his curious gaze. “Embarrassingly enough, no one asked me to go.” I shrugged my shoulders. “Besides, I don’t actually know how to dance.”

His brows furrowed in on themselves, nearly meeting in the middle at the top of his nose with the gesture. Then he tipped his head to the side, taking me in, before he shot his hand out toward me, palm up. “C’mere.” One word. I followed his direction and placed my hand in his open palm. He took it and squeezed a bit in reassurance, and then he tugged me behind him until we were down on the grass beside the house. A window was open there and the music was streaming through, only slightly muffled. It was some sweet song that I had no doubt everyone inside was making out to. Not me though. Nope. Instead, Double-D used that same hand that held mine to pull me close to him. He wrapped his other arm around my waist and we stood there beneath the window with the music washing over us as the slight chill of the air sent tingling little shivers through my body.

“What are we doin’?” The question left my lips on a breathy whisper.

Double-D smiled at me and then the hand he had at my waist traced a path up my side until he got to my shoulder then up to tuck an unruly piece of hair back behind my ear. He then slid his fingers right back down the same path to my waist and gave a little push. I flowed with the movement, and spun out into the yard while he held tight to the same hand that had yet to leave his own. Once I had spun out completely he tugged and pulled me back into him. I fell into his chest in a fit of giggles. “Thought you said you couldn’t dance, sweetheart?” He spoke into my neck and I felt his smile against my skin as he did. Oh boy. Something heavy settled in my chest in that moment just before I tipped my head back and our eyes met.

“You must be magic,” I explained. His bluest of blue eyes dropped until he was watching my lips. I didn’t miss the fact that he licked his own, almost in anticipation of what I would taste like. I was sure of that even without being a mind reader, because I found myself wondering the same thing.

“If magic made it possible for you to be mine, then I’d welcome that shit no matter the consequence,” he admitted. His lips trailed closer and ghosted over my own before he dipped his head and placed a sweet little kiss just behind my ear instead. When he pulled back and saw the question in my eyes he simply smiled. “Your lips aren’t meant for me yet, Lucy Carter. They will be though.”

I had no clue what to do with that. I wanted so much for my lips to be on his in that moment. This sweet man, who also happened to be a bad boy biker, had the magical ability to have me dancing and wishing on stars. Double-D took a step back from me so that our bodies were no longer in contact. “Come on, we should get you home since staying with your friend isn’t an option anymore.” I didn’t even bother questioning how he knew I was supposed to be staying with Angie tonight.

Double-D saw me home that night. He had been smart enough to park his bike at the end of the road so the pipes wouldn’t draw my parent’s attention. After all, it wouldn’t do to have the biker my father was so worried about suddenly dropping me at home when I was supposed to have been with Angie tonight. Not that I lied about that part of my night, just that it hadn’t turned out the way I thought, and my father wouldn’t understand that Double-D had basically rescued me from that situation.

“I’ll watch from here until you get inside,” he confirmed as I slid my leg from the bike and attempted to stand on my own two shaky feet. I had ridden on the back of a bike before with my dad and with Johnny, but I’d never felt so unsteady getting off of one in my life. It was like even my body knew where I belonged and it was protesting the fact that I wasn’t staying there.

“Thanks,” I offered up on a soft exhale of breath before turning to face him. “For everything tonight, not just the ride.”

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