Page 10 of Biker Daddy

“What?” She hurried up the porch after him.

“Nothing,” he replied from inside, scratching at his beard. “Just a gift I gave him that had him chasing me clear across the camp with a pellet gun aimed at my ass.” She bit her lip to hold back her laughter at the image of her small uncle chasing the very big man in front of her and picked up her bags to bring them inside.

“Oh, no. You’re staying in your cabin. We’re just at Ray’s to feed his fish.” He pushed his glasses up onto his head when he got inside, and even with the low light she saw he gave her a look that said, ‘don’t argue’ and yet it made her want to, twice as hard.

“What do you mean my cabin?” How the hell did he know about her cabin?

She looked around the inside. She had been fooled by the outside. Inside, it was run down and creaky and even smelled a little like mildew. Fitz was testing the floor with his large booted foot in a spot where it looked to be sinking.

“The yellow one with the clematis. It’s yours,” he said, not looking up from his task.

“Oh, I forgot all about that thing,” she lied. It was where she had really bonded with Uncle Ray early that summer. Fitz shot her a look that told her he knew she was full of shit, but she only continued looking around Uncle Ray’s cabin.

“What are you doing to the floor?”

“Checking it. The roof was leaking and Ray wouldn’t let me in to check for water damage after I fixed it.”

“Oh.”

There were two bedrooms: Uncle Ray’s and a guest room with a bathroom between them. Besides that, there was a kitchen area with a scarred two-person table open to the living area with an old checkered brown sofa and threadbare chair and an ancient, but not antique, coffee table. The only luxurious thing about Uncle Ray’s cabin was the massive rock fireplace—oh, and… Holy crap, an enormous almost wall-sized fish tank.

Both were meant for a fancy million-dollar cottage in the Muskokas, not some camp cabin and certainly not one that looked as run down as Uncle Ray’s on the inside. By the look of the floor, that tank and the huge fish in it were living on borrowed time.

Fitz scooped some smaller fish from a bucket on a table and dumped them into the tank. The big fish stilled a moment, flicked its tail in a sharp movement, darted, and gulped all but one.

“What is that?” She pointed a finger at the thing that would surely give a barracuda pause. Fitz looked up at her question and in the light of the window she saw his eyes were blue. He smiled and her heart skipped a beat. It wasn’t one of his flirty or sarcastic smiles, it was genuine and it went right up and crinkled the skin around those stunning blue eyes.

She frowned, staring. Those eyes. She’d only seen eyes like that once before. She mentally took away his beard and shortened his hair. Chewing her lip to hold in her gasp, she blinked. Andrew Trigger—hero, first kiss, first love, and first heartbreak. Addi’s mind was pulled back in time to when he’d broken her heart.

Addi stood, rooted to the spot in front of the cabin that was deepest into the woods. Four older boys occupied it, but it was the one standing in the doorway—filling the doorway, actually—that she was there to see.

“What do you want, Addi?” His voice, normally warm, was achingly cold. She immediately felt a shiver.

“I haven’t seen you today.” She paused, watching his mouth firm. He looked around disinterested, so she continued. “I wanted to see you.” Her words sounded lame even to her own ears.

“I’m busy.”

“Oh.” Her eyes watered but she blinked them clear, annoyed at her own vulnerability. “What are you doing? I thought you might wanna teach me how to swim today like you promised.” She shoved her hands in the pockets of her shorts.

“I’m packing.”

“Packing?” Her breath stuck.

“Yes, Addi. I’m finally leaving this dump.”

“It’s not a dump.” Anger flared. It was one thing to treat her badly, but her uncle worked hard to make the camp a fun place. Her face heated and she crossed her arms both from the upset and to hold herself together. Why was Drew being so mean?

“My family’s here to get me. I was forced to be here, so I made the best of it.”

“What are you saying?” she demanded, frustrated by the quiver in her voice.

“God! Do you need me to spell it out?”

“Actually I do, ‘cause you’re not making sense.”A tear slipped down her face and she angrily brushed it off. For a flash she thought she saw his eyes soften. It was only a second but it felt like years as she read his face. He was sorry. Sorry he was saying the things he was. He didn’t mean them. Then again, she loved him and was probably imagining it to lessen the crushing pain he was causing.

“Addi, this job was my first step to being integrated back into society after four years in a young offender detention facility. Your uncle reported directly to my caseworker. When he asked me to watch out for you, I did. I had to. But if you think I felt anything beyond an urge to be out of the system, you’re wrong. It was just a helluva a lot easier to keep an eye on you if you were following me around like a lovesick puppy.”

“But… Are you teasing me? Is this a joke? I love you.” Her voice shook, so she took a breath and added to her statement in an accusing voice. “You said you loved me too!”

---