Page 32 of Moving to Love
Joci was surprised at this revelation. As soon as they pulled into his garage, he shut the bike off, closed the garage door, and got off. Before she could climb off, he was standing right there.
“We need to talk, Joci.”
Joci looked at him and sighed. He held his hand out to help her off the bike. She looked into his eyes; her mouth turned down at the corners, but she took his hand and allowed him to help her off the bike. He held her hand and led her into the house. He led them to the sofa, then sat and pulled her down next to him.
He turned to face her. “Tell me what you need. I’m at a loss here. What you saw was not what it looked like.”
Joci stared at him. “I can’t give you the answer you want, Jeremiah. I don’t have it. You know what I’ve been through. I just can’t turn it off.”
Her lip trembled, but she refused to cry. He leaned forward and lightly touched his lips to hers. Feathery light. She felt his lips tremble, and she softened, just a bit. Then it dawned on her that he was so worried, he had brought her home to his place while there were two thousand people at his shop partying and celebrating a great ride, listening to music, and having a few drinks, but he was here with her.
“Jeremiah, I’m sorry. I told you last night you might want to walk away.” Joci took a deep breath and then said, “We should get back to the shop.”
Jeremiah slid his hand behind her head and held her close.
“I’m not leaving here until I know we’re okay. I want to know that tonight, you’re coming home with me, and I’m going to sleep with you in my arms. I need to know that you’re not running from me.”
Gray eyes met green. For several heartbeats, they sat that way.
Joci sighed. “I don’t know, Jeremiah. It’s too much. My stomach is in knots. I don’t understand your connection with LuAnn, and you don’t seem to want to explain it. It’s suspicious. I don’t want to venture into this relationship any further to find out you’ve been lying to me. I just can’t go through that again.”
She swallowed the lump in her throat and slowly let out a long breath.
“Joci, LuAnn means nothing to me. I swear it. I owe her brother a favor, so I keep her employed as a way to repay that favor. That’s it. I swear it.”
Jeremiah never looked away from her. She stood and took two steps away, turned, and walked a few steps in the other direction. Placing her hands on her hips, she looked out the large window to the street and saw a younger couple walking their dog, while their child rode his bicycle in front of them. The flowers in the neighbor’s yard were blooming, and the brilliance of the new spring grass made her think of fresh starts.
Joci sighed deep and long. She turned to see he had stood up, fingers tucked into his pockets, trying to look casual, but his rigid posture and shallow breathing proved him anything but. The shit of this whole thing was, she knew he was different than the men in her past, but she reacted badly to situations like the ones LuAnn insisted on throwing her way. It didn’t absolve LuAnn from her behavior, or Jeremiah for tolerating it, and by ignoring it, allowing her to continue to behave as she had been.
Looking into his eyes, she pursed her lips briefly, then said, “I’m coming home with you tonight.”
He took a step toward her. “But.” He halted. “I will try to monitor my reactions to situations like today’s. However, you also need to work on this. It can’t be one-sided.”
Chapter 13
They pulled into the parking lot and tried to find a place to park the truck. The place was packed. There were hundreds of cars, so either a lot of the bikers had gone home to get vehicles or more people had decided to come late, listen to music, and eat burgers and brats. Either way, it was good for the veterans and Rolling Thunder. Jeremiah drove around to the back and hit the garage door opener, then pulled into the back garage. There were many perks to owning the business—great parking being just one of them. He hit the garage door button again, and the door closed, but he made no move to get out of the truck.
Instead, he turned toward Joci. “Listen, I want you to know that I’m sorry about the way things went down today. We had a great day going, and I let it get ruined. I’m sorry, Joci.”
Joci shrugged. “It’s over now, so let’s move on. But think about this. How would you feel if Connor pulled that shit on me? Would you like it if I just shrugged it off, or would you expect me to cut ties and keep him away from me?”
Jeremiah let out a long, slow breath. “I would kick his ass, and there would be nothing left for you to cut ties with.”
“I see, so that’s what you want? You want me to physically kick the shit out of LuAnn?”
They stared each other down, testing, measuring. Joci knew if she continued to allow Jeremiah to have this kind of relationship with LuAnn, she wouldn’t be able to tolerate it for long. She would become bitter, angry, and jealous. She would never be able to trust Jeremiah like she was going to need to if they were to have any kind of relationship. On top of that, he refused to explain to her why he put up with her flirting, other than a favor he owed her brother. The only conclusion she could come up with was that he liked it.
* * *
Jeremiah wasn’t sure where to go from here. On one hand, it was good business, in a sense, to keep LuAnn around. If she stayed in the back where the bike parts were sold, she flirted with the customers, and they liked it. Plus, he felt he owed it to LuAnn to give her a job. What would she do if he fired her? She had no skills; she wasn’t cut out for any work other than what he had for her at the store.
Despite owing Lance—LuAnn’s brother—he wasn’t going to let LuAnn chase Joci away from him. He had never felt like this before in his life, and dammit, he liked how he felt about Joci. It was scary to need someone so badly, but also, the way she made him feel was indescribable.
When she looked at him and smiled, he would do anything for her.
“No, I don’t want you to kick the shit out of her or have to fight with her in any way. She’s really harmless. She’s always been very flirty with everyone. Since you’ve been coming around, she has gotten more…possessive, but I’m in no way interested in her. She works for me, and that’s it.”
Joci let out a determined breath. “Tell her to keep it that way, or you’ll be able to spend ALL of your time with her…I won’t be around.”
