Page 7 of Tuck & Roll

“Um, yeah.” She pushed her hair behind her ear, his gaze dropping to her neck. He frowned for a moment and she wondered what he was thinking.

“Where are you going? Didn’t see your car out there.”

“I was going to call an Uber so I could go home.” She started digging for her phone again, thinking she definitely needed to downsize her purse. Getting more frustrated by the second, she could feel the urge to cry creeping up on her and she was determined not to cry until she got home. She growled when she still couldn’t find her phone. Seriously? Where was the stupid thing?

“Tuck’s not taking you?” His frown deepened.

“No. He’s passed out. I thought I’d let him sleep.” She blinked her eyes several times to hold the tears back and took a deep breath. What the hell was wrong with her? She never cried. Well, almost never, but still. This was ridiculous. Why couldn’t she find her Goddamn phone? The urgency to get as far from here as possible grew the longer it took her to call for a ride. And was it really too much to ask that she escape with a small amount of dignity?

“Come on, Kylie. I’ll take you home.” Her head popped up at his directive. He didn’t give her time to protest. He took her by the elbow and steered her outside to his motorcycle.

“Wait. I don’t know your name. And how do you know mine?”

“I’m Darren and I remember you from when you helped out with Trick’s old lady.”

“Oh.” Well this just got more embarrassing.

He placed his helmet on her head and adjusted the strap. She’d say she needed to learn how to do that for herself, but the point was moot given she’d never be seeing any of these people again.

Darren got on first and offered his hand so she could swing a leg over the seat. She was completely mortified at the thought of leaking hers and Garrett’s combined juices on his seat. Without panties and the way she was forced to sit on the motorcycle, there was no way around it. For fuck’s sake. She mentally slapped her forehead as it dawned on her that they hadn’t used a condom either time they’d had sex tonight. FML.

Darren interrupted her inner monologue to get her address. Familiar with the area, he started up his motorcycle and they were off.

On the ride to her house, she replayed the last couple of hours over in her head. Never in a million years did she think Garrett would ever make her feel so cheap and small. She’d naively thought the way he was treating her tonight, he was finally seeing her as more than just his nerdy next-door neighbor. That maybe he could actually be interested in her as a woman. Then he’d messed that all up and shattered the illusion by calling her by another woman’s name.

Darren pulled into the driveway of her rental property and shut off his bike. The immediate silence was almost deafening. He gave her a hand to assist her getting off. Removing his helmet, she handed back to him. “Thanks for the ride.”

“Not a problem.” He looked like he wanted to say something to her, but couldn’t decide if he should or not. That was her cue to get in her house.

Before she could turn to leave, he chose that moment to speak up. “Did something happen with Tuck? Did he take things too far?”

“No! No. He didn’t do anything I didn’t want to do.” She absently swiped at a stray tear before it could travel all the way down her cheek. Her action didn’t go unnoticed.

“Then what’s going on?” He seemed genuinely concerned which surprised her. From everything she’d heard about bikers they weren’t touchy-feely kind of men. Not that he was being touchy-feely. She was actually touched that he cared enough to ask.

Her face flushed hot and another tear slipped free. She was so embarrassed, she couldn’t look at him. She looked everywhere but at him.

The feel of his hand under her chin, tipping her face his direction stunned her. So did his concern. “Kylie?”

“This is so embarrassing.” She covered her eyes and wouldn’t look at him. He pulled her hand away and waited.

“Is this something you’re going to discuss with your friends back at the club or with Garrett? I mean Tuck?”

“No, babe. Whatever you have to say stays between just the two of us. You have my word.” For some reason she believed him.

Taking a deep breath, she rushed to explain. “He was asleep and I was trying to wake him up by, you know, waking up something else.” He grinned at her description. “And he said ‘gimme a minute, Taylor.’”

There was a long pause which was quickly followed by a “Well, fuck.” He rubbed his mouth with his hand. “I’m sorry, Kylie. If it helps, he’s been over that bitch for a while. She’s been trying to reach out to him lately and it’s been messing with his head.”

“Oh.” It didn’t help. If it was the same Taylor Green dated in high school, it didn’t help at all.

“Still hurts, doesn’t it?”

“Yeah.” She looked past his shoulder then back. “I don’t know why it should bother me so much. It’s not like we’re dating or anything. I mean, we haven’t even seen each other but that once at your club when your friend’s wife went missing. Before that, it had been months and the rare times I do run into him, he either teases me about being a nerd or treats me like a little sister. Should have known something was up when he asked me to dance.” She mumbled the last part to herself, took a deep breath and released it. “Please don’t say anything to him or his friends. I’ll eventually get over it. It’s really no big deal.”

Darren didn’t look like he believed her. “I gave you my word I wouldn’t say anything to him or my brothers and I won’t.”

“Thanks, Darren.”

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