Page 20 of Apex of the Curve

Chapter Five

Aspen…

“So…” Amber trailed off and gave me an impish look and I rolled my eyes.

“Out with it,” I ordered my lone employee. Her grin widened and motorcycles went by outside the shop. She waited for the roar of the engines to dissipate into the distance before she picked up where she left off.

“I totally know it’s none of my business,” she said, holding up her hands. “And you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to, but…” and she made an adorable, skeptical little face and squeaked out, “Fenris?”

I gave a light little laugh that edged on nervous and sighed.

Amber was a bright girl. She’d attended a round of my pottery classes, had a natural talent at it, and so I had hired her when she’d said she was looking for a part-time, after-school job. She was a student at South Seattle Community College and I needed someone to run the counter for walk-ins while I ran the evening paint nights and classes.

She was nineteen, mature for her age, and I found myself surprisingly desperate for someone to confide in, so against what should have been my better judgment…

“I don’t really know what to say,” I told her. “I went out with Lindsay—” She wrinkled her nose in distaste and I frowned but glossed over it for the time being. “And the next thing I know, it was the next day and I woke up at the bouncer’s house.”

Amber’s dove gray eyes went wide and her mouth dropped open.

“Aspen!” she cried. “That is totally not your scene! What the hell?”

“I know, I know!” I cried. “I don’t know what happened, I swear. I only had a drink or two, but Lindsay went off with these couple of cowboys and I know I had to have been a total drag with everything going on with—”

“Stop!” she cried and held up a hand. “With he-who-shall-not-be-named,” she said firmly before I could utter Charles’ name. I rolled my eyes but smiled.

“Yes, with everything going on with him,” I said and sighed. “Anyway, the bouncer thinks they maybe slipped me something to make it easier to take Lindsay or for the three of them to get away from me but it was really bad, I guess. I mean, I don’t remember any of it at all.”

“Oh, wow… was Lindsay okay?” Amber dropped onto the stool I kept behind the register while I counted the money.

“Oh, yeah,” I said following it up with an explosive breath. “She had the time of her life, apparently.”

“Yeesh.” Amber made a face, and I nodded.

“My sentiments exactly,” I said. “I mean, don’t get me wrong – I know how awful that just sounded and oh, my God! Not how I meant it to come out, I just mean—”

“How could you leave your vulnerable and emotionally shattered friend to her own devices so you can go off and ride a couple of cowboys?” Amber asked, and she winced adorably as she said it.

I winced too. “Yeah, and I know exactly how pathetic that makes me sound but, I mean, I guess I am.” That awful bereft feeling swept through me and I held back the flood just barely.

“You’re not pathetic!” Amber said sternly. “You’re just going through a lot. All at once. And it’s ridiculous.”

I nodded, at a loss for anything else to say and she finally prompted me, “So… Fenris?”

“Right, sorry, he’s the bouncer that took me home with him,” I said.

Her mouth dropped open. “Is he hot?” she asked. “Because he sounded hot.” She fixed me with a look and said, “I bet he’s hot.”

I blushed and said, “He’s definitely… different.” It took me a moment to settle on a word that didn’t sound judgy, rude, or whatnot, but I honestly didn’t know how to describe the man.

“Okay, dish,” she demanded. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Well, he’s a biker,” I said and Amber’s gray eyes widened and she swept her long auburn French braid over her shoulder and gripped it with both hands.

“Like an actual biker?” she asked.

“Like, a Sacred Heart biker.”

She froze and her eyes grew impossibly wider still and she asked, “Are you for real?”

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