Page 28 of Moving to Love
Jeremiah smiled crookedly. “I texted him this morning to tell him. He has listened to me whine about you not going out with me for a long damn time. I couldn’t wait to tell him you were riding with me today.”
They walked into The Barn and strode to the far end. Jeremiah stood taller than most people in there, so he could see where they were going. Joci just hung on to his hand and followed along. She couldn’t see anything but the backs and fronts of the people they were passing.
Soon Joci heard, “Dog, you son of a bitch, there you are.”
Jeremiah pulled Joci to the end of the bar and then drew her behind the bar so she wouldn’t get lost in the crowd. Jeremiah and Kevin hugged like guys do—arms wrapped around shoulders and a lot of backslapping. As soon as they were finished, Jeremiah reached for Joci and pulled her forward.
“Kevin, this is Joci. Joci, this is Kevin. We’ve been friends for about eighteen years.”
Kevin leaned down and hugged Joci.
“I’ve heard quite a bit about you, Joci. It’s great to meet you. And I’m thrilled you’re finally with Dog.”
He winked at her and looked at Dog. “What’ll ya have? The usual?”
Jeremiah shook his head. “Water, one for each of us.”
Kevin smirked and turned to get their drinks. When he returned, Jeremiah took both water bottles, opened the first one, and handed it to Joci.
As he was opening the second one, he told Kevin, “I’ll bring Joci out this week one night, and we’ll sit and have a few. Today, I need to stay straight in case we have any issues.”
Kevin nodded. “Sounds great. Come on Tuesday. For some reason, that’s a slow night around here. I can knock off early, and we can sit here and drink without interruption.”
Jeremiah looked at Joci. “Good with you?”
She smiled. “Sounds great.”
Jeremiah looked at Kevin and smiled. He heard his intake of breath when she flashed that big smile. Who could resist the dimples in her cheeks? And, of course, those smoky gray eyes. Jeremiah had a difficult time not staring at her. As they stood there talking, Joci was suddenly pushed as LuAnn shoved herself into Jeremiah. LuAnn then elbowed her way past Joci and cut in front of her to throw herself at Kevin.
“How ya doin’, Kev?” Kevin gave LuAnn a quick little hug and looked at Jeremiah with furrowed brows.
Jeremiah wrapped his arms around Joci and whispered in her ear, “You okay, hon?”
She looked back at him. “Yes. Getting sick of this, though.”
Jeremiah nodded at Kevin and grabbed Joci’s hand. “Let’s go see how the boys are doing.”
They wove their way through the crowd and found Gunnar and Ryder talking to Connor. Jeremiah’s stomach rolled at that scene, but he didn’t want Joci to think he didn’t like Connor.
He didn’t dislike him; he just knew Connor was in love with Joci, even if she couldn’t see it. He was worried that Connor knew her better than he did and maybe would step up his game to try to win her. He was also a little worried that Connor would try and get to Joci through Gunnar. He was going to keep his eyes on that. Luckily, Jeremiah worked with Gunnar every day. Sheesh, listen to him—he was jealous! Jeremiah had never been jealous in his life.
They walked up to the boys, and Joci hugged each of them. Everyone was excitedly talking about the ride and asking Joci and Jeremiah how many bikes and riders there were. It was fun. After speaking with them for a little while, Jeremiah wanted to go and find his parents. He and Joci walked off to find Thomas and Emily.
“They’ll probably be outside with the old car club, The Good Times Roll. There are about thirty old cars from that group. My dad chums along with some of those guys.”
As they walked up and down the rows of old cars, Jeremiah found his mom and dad speaking to one of the guys from the club in front of an old truck. It was an orange 1937 Ford pickup with an oak box and oak box rails. It was beautiful.
Joci asked the owner a slew of questions. “Has this truck been in your family since it was new? Where did you find it? Did you refinish it? Do you take it out a lot? Is it easy to drive?” She was in love with that truck. The owner lifted the hood and showed Joci and the others the engine, explaining all that he had done to the motor and lines.
He loved watching her excitement; her smile was bright, and her giggle infectious. Emily caught his eye and winked. He was staring like a little schoolgirl, but this was so new and fun.
* * *
Soon Jeremiah’s family found them chatting and joined them. It was comfortable with his family. They were all very genuine people, Joci thought. Emily, Jeremiah’s mom, had a great sense of humor and ribbed his dad quite a bit. She called him an old coot more than once, and he feigned hurt, but his laugh gave him away.
Soon enough, it was time to get rolling again, so they all started back to their bikes to get packed up and ready to ride. Joci and Jeremiah finished their water, threw the bottles into the recycling bin, and walked arm in arm to his bike. When they got to the bike, Jeremiah pulled Joci in for a hug and a kiss.
“I have competition, I see.”
