Page 44 of A Twist of Fate

“We’ll have to make a habit of doing that then, because that look,” I told her as I indicated her smiling face, twinkling eyes, and giddy bouncing. “That is everything, G.”

She ducked her head, forcing some of her straight long locks to fall across the side of her face where she tried to hide a bit of embarrassment. “Sorry, I’ll tone it down a bit.”

“No, you won’t. You’ll get excited about the fact that I’m ordering at least one of everything so we can try them all.”

Gretchen’s eyes grew big as she took in the pretty hefty list of sushi on offer. “Do you have a favorite?”

“Sashimi is my usually go-to.”

“You like your sushi just laid out raw, huh?”

“I enjoy many things laid out raw,” I told her with a teasing lift of my eyebrows. Her laughter was like a prize I’d won.

“Gross! You sound like Sully now!”

I laughed at that. “That does seem like some shit he’d say. Still managed to make you laugh though.” I vowed to keep doing just that every day from then on. Gretchen laughing was like the most beautiful flower in full bloom. She just radiated that something special that you could never quiet put your finger on, but if you did, you know someone would try to bottle it and sell it to the masses. I wasn’t opposed to taking baby steps. Every day I got her to laugh was one day closer to her healing more and me being able to make her mine.

“Just so you know, we’re doing this again on Friday,” I informed her.

“So it’s like that? We aren’t even finished this date and you’re telling me we’re going on another one?”

“Yeah, babe. I have to do that, or else you’ll find a reason to back out, and in this case, ‘no’ is not acceptable. Tomorrow we’ll have lunch again. Friday, we’re going out.”

“We’ll see,” she hedged, but Gretchen wasn’t any good at hiding the smile on her face as she did. She liked being told we were going on another date together. Oddly enough, I was already anticipating our next outing and this one hadn’t even ended yet.

Chapter 16

Guilty Ride

Gretchen

Kane managed to wrangle three dates out of me as well as eating lunch with me just about every day that I worked for the past two weeks. We always walked for lunch, at my insistence, because it was part of my routine. I liked to burn the calories I was taking in. Our last official date we had actually driven together, in my car, so that we didn’t have to arrive separately. Things were different with our date for the night though. He insisted on picking me up so I couldn’t ruin the surprise of where we were going.

I don’t know what it was that made me so uneasy about riding with him. Maybe it made it seem more real? I couldn’t tell you. The thing was, I had fun on our dates. Kane made me smile, laugh, and forget about all the bad things that had plagued me for so long. It wasn’t even that he made me forget necessarily. That wasn’t the right word. He made it better. He eased the burden of the horrible memories and somehow managed to intermingle the good moments of my past with the beautiful present, and a hope for a better, more promising future. That was a huge step, because before Kane stepped up, I hadn’t given much thought to the future. Every day was a new part of the process of learning to breathe again. Then, one day, when I wasn’t paying attention, I didn’t have to think about how to do it. That was all down to Kane.

Imagine my surprise when my date arrived to pick me up wearing his leathers and requesting I do the same. He must have forgotten that the leather jacket I’d had and the boots were both damaged and thrown out after my accident with Toby. I just stood there staring at him, mouth agape, waiting for him to clue in. Then he smiled sweetly, pulled a backpack from his back and withdrew a beautiful black leather jacket that looked to be just my size.

“I figured you didn’t have one anymore. If you don’t have boots, throw on some sturdy shoes until we can get you a pair, but you are going on my bike tonight.”

“I don’t know if I’m ready for that,” I reminded him.

“You’re ready G, but you’ll never know it until you get your ass back on one.” He was right about that. There was no doubt in my mind that he was absolutely correct and that my own cowardice was keeping me from wanting to do it. I felt it already, that little hit of adrenaline, the anticipation of the ride, wind in my hair, salty sea air in my lungs. It was all waiting for me to come and take it again. I used to love riding with Toby. Those rides were often the best part of my day. As excited as I was, it didn’t stop the trepidation from trying to take over. Little flashes of memory from the crash, the initial numbness from the shock, the worry in Toby’s eyes as he lie there broken with a bike on top of him… I blinked and shook off the rest, not wanting to ever revisit my own personal nightmare again if I could help it.

“Okay,” I mumbled to Kane as I took the jacket he held out to me.

“Okay?”

“Yeah, I need to do this and I know you’ll keep me safe.”

“Won’t ever let anything happen to you if I can help it, G.”

I nodded as he helped me into the jacket. It fit like a glove, but I also noticed some differences.

“What is all this?”

“It’s a padded leather. I thought you might feel more secure wearing this your first few times back on the road.”

“First few times?” I questioned with a teasing grin tipping my lips at the corner. “That’s awful presumptuous of you, thinking I’ll ride with you again after the first.”

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