Page 24 of The Voices are Back

“I have a hat you can wear, and some sunscreen.” He caught my hand in his. “Let’s go.”

I left my buggy full of nonperishables right there in the middle of the food aisle.

We made it out to the car just as my heart started to race.

“Grab whatever you think you’ll need,” he said. “I’ll bring the bike over here and pick you up.”

His bike.

God, I remembered the first time I’d gotten on that bike, too.

• • •

“Come on, nobody will even know it’s you,” he said, wiggling his eyebrows. “Please?”

I was nervous as hell.

And I knew that if my dad found out that I’d gotten on the back of a motorcycle, he might very well kill me.

But how the hell would I be expected to ever say no to a man like Aodhan?

“Okay,” I said. “Let’s do this.”

He helped me onto his bike, and though it was stupid as hell, we took off with no helmets, protective gear, or cares.

We rode around for hours, wasting gas and enjoying the wind in our hair.

I would never be able to look at a motorcycle the same way again.

• • •

“You know,” he said, “no one has ever been on the back of my bike besides you.”

I blinked, surprised.

Turning to him, I said, “You have a wife!”

“Had, past tense,” he shrugged. “She didn’t like bikes. And I never really cared enough to get her on the back of it.” He winced. “That sounds callous, but the bike was always my escape.”

He didn’t say that “you were my escape.”

I read it loud and clear through his stormy eyes.

“Aodhan…” I started, but he held his hand up and said, “No. Today is about having fun and fishing. Let’s go.”

Aodhan failed to mention that the man going on the boat by himself for a twelve-hour guided fishing tour was a man in a wheelchair. A man that had absolutely no desire to actually fish, or even interact with anyone.

When I got there, I expected it to be all awkward.

But all he really wanted to do was sit there and enjoy the sights, so that was what we left him to do.

I climbed up the tower thing and sat in the seat next to Aodhan, smiling to myself when I watched the familiar movement of his fingers tapping on the wheel.

CHAPTER 6

Thank goodness my book arrived. I almost had to start cleaning the house.

-Text from Aodhan to Morrigan

---