Page 5 of Rider

That’s why I couldn’t get over Rayleighn. I was obsessively thinking about a woman that I had met briefly and randomly and couldn’t get enough of her. I wasn’t into drugs but if I was she’d be my new favorite one. Naturally, I had already become addicted. After our kiss, I kept her in my grasp for a few extra beats wanting to feel her in my arms, feel her heart beating against mine. I reluctantly pulled away from her body so she could get into her car. I stood there watching her get her seat belt on, turning on the engine. I motioned for her to roll down the window.

“Day after tomorrow, my club is having a winter toy drive for charity. There’s going to be food and live music and should be a good time for a good cause. I thought you might like to come and if you’ll have me I’d like to have you there as my date.”

I thought she would immediately say yes, but she started looking at everything but me. It took her a few seconds but she finally turned to me, giving me a small smile. “I’d like that a lot, but I can’t say yes until I know if my neighbor can watch Colton, my son.”

I let the breath go that I didn’t even realize I was holding. I thought she was going to flat out tell me no. “I get that. Hand me your phone so I can give you my number. If you can make it let me know and I’ll send you a text with the info and come pick you up.”

She handed me her phone and I put my number in and dialed it. I felt my phone buzz in my pocket and she must have heard it too because she sheepishly avoided my gaze. She knew I had her number now. I handed back her phone and gave her a smug smile. “If I don’t hear from you by tomorrow afternoon I’ll call you.” I wanted to hear her tell me yes, she’d go but I’d have to wait at least another day to know. From the way our kiss went, I’d say I had a good chance.

She smiled and gave me a little wave as she started to drive away. Just like that I already missed her. She felt like sunshine to my dreary rain and I wanted more of it. A lot more of it but I couldn’t let her know that, at least not yet. I didn’t want to freak her out any more than I probably already had. I walked back to my truck and started up the engine to head home. I had a club meeting to attend later tonight. I had big plans for that meeting and I wasn’t going to be late.

I walked into the club a few minutes early to shoot the shit with all the guys. The meeting wouldn’t start for another few minutes but everyone was already there hanging out in the clubhouse. The club had been around for going on five decades and a lot of our patched members were considered legacies. That meant their dad, grand dad or uncle had been a previous or current member. Since my asshole dad wasn’t good for anything I wasn’t a legacy and had to work twice as hard to become patched in. It took me a full year of doing grunt work and proving myself to the club. It took another five years before I worked up the nerve to ask for a loan to start my business. I was only a few months out from hitting my sixteenth year in the club. I joined at nineteen and never looked back. To say I was respected in the club would be an understatement, I was an officer and beloved. And I wasn’t just saying it to say it. It was true.

I went over to the club’s bar and sat down on a stool. Eaden, our resident bartender and newest member came over to ask me my drink of choice.

“Bring me a Balvenie tonight.”

He slapped the dish towel he had been wiping the bar down with in front of me and smiled. “Someone’s in a good mood tonight. What’s the special occasion?”

“Ha. Very funny. Just bring me the scotch.”

Before Eaden could even bring me my drink the stools on both sides of me filled up. I turned my head side to side and smiled at the two guys now sitting beside me. “Fellas didn’t we see enough of each other at the garage today?” I laughed at my attempt to joke with Griz and Ink. I had just spent all day with them at work, elbow deep in the engine of a vintage muscle car. I had known I was going to try to see Rayleighn so I had left a little early to get cleaned up. They didn’t know that though, because I was still keeping a tight lip on anything to do with her. It was too new, too fresh and I didn’t want to jinx it.

Griz, who got his nickname for exactly how it sounds, he’s as big as a grizzly bear, kept eyeing me like I had stolen the last piece of cake at his birthday party. Out of everyone in the club, he’s known me the longest. We had prospected together and then when I opened the garage, he came with me and I made him the manager. It wasn’t a surprise that he had picked up on the change in my mood. If I had to pinpoint his sour mood towards me, I would guess it’s the fact that I was keeping something from him and he knew it. He was good at picking up on things people were keeping to themselves. It was one of his special abilities, and since he was also our club enforcer it was like he had a sixth sense about anyone hiding anything in the club.

Ink, on the other hand, sat there nursing a beer. Ink was by his name, covered in tattoos. The only places he didn’t have a tattoo was on his face and his dick. Only the ladies could confirm the latter. He had been with the club for the last five years and working in the garage right along with it. One of his best personality traits is that he never puts his nose in something that he isn’t invited into. So right now he was sitting content beside me, drinking his beer and not giving a fuck if I had something good going on or not.

Before I could even finish my drink, our club president, Charon, came through the room informing everyone the meeting was getting ready to begin. I stood and pulled my phone out of my pocket to double check it was on silent. The club had strict rules on no phones during meetings and I was always careful to check my phone beforehand. When I pulled my phone out, I had an unread message from Rayleighn.

Ladybug: I confirmed my sitter. Let me know what time and I’ll be ready.

Yes, fuck yes! The smile that spread across my face couldn’t be contained. Rayleighn was going to come into my world and get to know me better. If I was lucky she would have a great time, we would get to know each other and this attraction that I felt towards her would build. I could tell she was hesitant and bringing her to the club would give me quick insight if she really could fit into my life. I wanted this to work—badly. I had a genuine attraction to her.

My feet kept shuffling me towards the room we used for our meetings. As I started to enter the doorway, Griz bumped into my shoulder, hard. The look he gave me and the trail of his eyes to my phone made it clear he wanted to know what was going on. I figured I’d throw him a bone since he was going to keep nagging me till I gave in. “I invited someone to Saturday’s toy drive.”

“We know her?” he asked in his gruff voice.

“I like how you assume it’s a her and no, none of you dickheads know her. She’s young, real young and has a kid. She isn’t the kinda girl who just hangs out around here.”

Griz, being the man of many words that he is, simply asked me. “Is she legal?”

The look I gave him rivaled the one he gave earlier to me. “When I said young, I meant twenties young. Not teen mom young. I wasn’t trolling the high school looking for a date Griz, give me a little credit.”

“We’ll see.”

That’s all that mother fucker said to me before walking into our meeting. I had known him a long time and for him to give me shit for trying to date was something new. Usually he only got involved in things that were the more seedy side of the club. Things that I didn’t want to know anything about. Things that were nine times out of ten on the illegal side. He came to the garage day in and day out as an escape. He worked on the cars, did the administrative stuff in the office, and then went home each evening. He hung out at club events, mingled with the older members of the club but not the new guys. Since he was the enforcer and had to deal with a lot of the negative issues and the inner workings of the club I think he liked to keep a layer of separation between himself and a lot of the guys.

Hopefully he’d be on his best behavior for the toy drive. I didn’t have many close friends but he was definitely one of the people who I let know my shit.

Rayleighn

I couldn’t get my hands to stop shaking. I tried shaking out my wrists trying to relieve the nerves, but it wasn’t working. I clasped them together and that seemed to do the trick. Unfortunately, I needed them to figure out what to wear, do my makeup, style my hair and take care of my child. Mrs. Lopez was set to come over in about thirty minutes and I was nowhere near being ready; I was even less ready for Rider to show up in less than an hour.

It was cold outside and since I wasn’t sure if the toy drive was inside or out, I needed to dress appropriately for the weather. It had been so long since I had been on an actual date, I wasn’t sure what to wear. After debating and even holding up my outfit choices for Colton, I finally settled on a pair of curve hugging black jeans and a cream colored, off the shoulder sweater. Granted all of that would be buried under my red and black coat. I took the time to curl my hair and brush it out into loose waves and applied a little more makeup than what I typically wore for work.

By the time Mrs. Lopez showed up I was at least feigning a semblance of being put together. On the inside I was still shaking and trying to keep my hands busy.

“Dear, you look so pretty. I’m sure this fellow is the lucky one to be taking you out tonight.”

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