Page 30 of Moving to Love
They stood talking and watching people mill about. Soon, JT and Ryder came over to say hello, and not long after that, Bryce and Angie stopped by.
Angie was very pretty, as were the other sisters-in-law. The Sheppards were a beautiful family. Angie had short blonde hair and light blue eyes. She was about Joci’s height. Bryce was smaller than Jeremiah in height and weight. He had darker hair—a light brown, unlike Jeremiah and Dayton's blond—and he had brown eyes. They were a striking couple.
Jeremiah leaned over to Joci. “I’d like to go in and say hello to the manager and thank him. Would you come with me?”
Joci smiled. “Sure, I’d like to use the restroom anyway.”
Saying goodbye, they walked hand in hand into the resort. Once inside, Jeremiah maneuvered them to the bar and asked the bartender where he could find Smitty. The bartender nodded to a door at the other end of the bar, and Jeremiah waved two fingers in thanks, and off they went, weaving their way in and out of people.
As soon as they were able to get to the door, Jeremiah knocked and was greeted with a terse, “Yeah.”
Jeremiah opened the door laughing. “Hiding out?”
Smitty quickly stood up, shook hands with Jeremiah, and nodded to Joci.
“This is my girlfriend, Joci. Joci, this is Smitty.”
“We have over eighteen hundred people today, Smitty. Best turnout ever. Eighteen hundred and three!”
“Holy shit, Dog. This thing keeps growing; we’re going to be too small for you. It brings a lot of money to us. The guests here just love looking at all the bikes and cars. The past couple of years, guests ask when the ride is going to be here because they want to come and see all the bikers.”
“Great to hear. We’ll manage with the numbers, no matter what. We need to run, but I wanted to stop by and thank you and introduce you to Joci. See ya around.”
“Yeah. Nice to meet you, Joci. Ride safe.”
They turned to leave the little office, and Jeremiah leaned down to Joci’s ear. “The restrooms are right over there. I’ll wait right here at the bar for you.”
She made her way to the restroom and waited in line for a short while. She loved looking at all the women and their clothing and jewelry. She used the toilet and washed her hands. As she walked out of the restroom, she was making her way to where Jeremiah said he would be. Joci froze.
Jeremiah faced her direction. LuAnn stood between his legs with her arms wrapped around his neck, and they were kissing. Jeremiah looked up and saw Joci staring at them. She was frozen in place. She and Jeremiah stared at each other for what seemed like forever—though it couldn’t have been more than a few seconds. Joci two-finger saluted him and weaved her way in and out of people to get out of the bar. She would not cry, she would not cry, she would not cry. Tears threatened, but she refused to let them fall. She’d been down this road before. She could handle it.
Once she got to the door, she took in a deep breath and walked over to lose herself among the cars.
“Hey, what’s up with you?”
Joci turned to see Sandi walking toward her. Joci couldn’t help it— the tears started flowing.
“Oh, Sandi, I don’t know what to do.”
Sandi hugged Joci to her. “Tell me what happened.”
“I walked out of the bathroom and saw Jeremiah and LuAnn kissing. I’m devastated, Sandi. I can’t compete with LuAnn. She has everything a man like him wants. I don’t. What am I going to do now? I’m stuck on the back of his bike until we get back to the shop.”
“It probably wasn’t what you saw, Joci. Did you ask him to explain?”
“No. I didn’t want to cry in front of her. I just turned and walked away as quickly as I could.”
Sandi grabbed Joci’s hand and held it. “Maybe it’s a good thing you have to ride with him. You’ll have to talk to him. You at least owe him the opportunity to explain what you saw. And he owes you an explanation. From there, depending on the explanation, what you do will be clear. I love you no matter what, and I doubt that Jeremiah is interested in that slut. I would bet she set it up for you to see. She’s been dogging you guys all day, pardon the pun.”
Both women giggled.
“Joci?” Jeremiah called. “I’ve been looking all over for you.” She looked over to see him quickly walking toward them.
Sandi squeezed her hand and smiled. “I’m going to find Jon. Call my cell if you need me.”
She kissed Joci on the cheek and began to leave. Sandi looked at Jeremiah with her brows up in the air as she walked away.
Jeremiah sighed loudly. “Joci, baby, I know it looked bad, but it wasn’t what it looked like. I saw you coming out of the bathroom in the mirror behind the bar and turned to face you when LuAnn jumped in front of me and kissed me. I swear to you that’s what you saw.”
