Gray called his brother the following day and told him that neither of us would be taking the job. He wanted to let them know right away so they could decide on our replacements and continue with production.
I had been excited about the possibility of starring on a television show, so you would think that my heart would be broken over it, but honestly, it wasn't. I really didn't feel sad about that whole thing not working out, and that's probably because the main reason I was excited about it in the first place was that it would get me closer to Gray. Now I knew I didn't need the show to be close to him.
***
It had been three days since the fall festival, and Gray was still in Memphis. He spent the nights in his upstairs apartment, and I went to work as usual, but we were virtually inseparable when we could manage it.
It was Tuesday afternoon, and I had just gotten off work. My mom had been watching Shelby, and I was on my way to meet them at my dad's motorcycle shop. Gray was up there as well. He had been helping my dad around the shop for the last couple of days, and I knew he'd be there with the others.
I was excited about seeing him and I was in the best of moods because of it. I cranked the stereo in my car, singing along all the way into the parking lot of Bishop Motorcycles.
There were a couple of garage doors open when I pulled around the building, and I parked my car near one of them. Mom's car was sitting there and so were a few others I recognized.
My brother, Jesse, worked at the shop, building motorcycles and running the business with my dad, so it didn't surprise me that he was standing there when I walked in.
I was, however, surprised to see Jesse's wife, Rose, my uncle Jacob, and Nana and Pa. They were all standing in the garage talking to Mom, Dad, and Shelby.
"Looks like I'm late for a family meeting," I called on my way inside.
"Come on in!" Elvis squawked, causing Shelby to crack up laughing and clap her hands together.
Elvis was a talking parrot, and it always really entertained Shelby to hear him speak. He was a little bit stubborn about when he spoke and how much he said, but you could usually count on him greeting a person when they walked in, so Shelby always loved it when people came in and went out.
"Did you heaw him tell you to come on in?" Shelby asked, running up to me.
"Yes, I did, that silly bird!" I said, scooping her up.
I carried her on my hip as I walked around giving out hugs to all of my family—first my mom and dad, then Jesse, Rose, and Uncle Jacob. "I didn't know y'all were going to be here," I said as I hugged Pa and Nana who were the next in line.
"You haven't brought Mr. Kennedy by our house," Nana said. "So we had to track him down and come meet him ourselves."
"I told Mom and Dad they should come by and meet Gray," Mom explained.
"Aww, good," I said.
I intentionally greeted Gray last so that I could stop and stand by him after greeting everyone else. I hugged him, and we smiled at each other. I wanted to stand there and take in his handsome face, or even stretch up to kiss him on the cheek, but everyone was standing around watching us, so I just gave him a little Shelby-holding, sideways hug like I had done with everyone else.
"Hi there," I added, talking straight to him since the little hug didn't seem like enough.
"Hi," he said. "How was work?"
"Good. I'm tired, but good."
He reached out for Shelby, who went to him easily. He settled her by his side, and I stood right next to them, looking and everyone else.
"Your daddy was just telling us about how Mr. Kennedy helped him yesterday," Pa said.
I shot Dad a curious look, and he nodded with a wide-eyed expression that said 'helped' was an understatement.
"What'd he do?" I asked.
"Engine stuff," my dad said. "He'd been helping Max and me on this rebuild all day, and he came to me with an idea about moving one little part in my engine design. He's really pretty much a genius for thinking about it."
I glanced at Gray who closed his eyes and shook his head modestly as if Dad was giving him too much credit. "Your dad was doing it in his earlier models anyway, I just pointed out that it might be good to go back to that."
"Yeah but I didn't understand how or why that was the case until Gray explained that the intake valve was about a half-an-inch…" my dad trailed off, looking around at all of us. "Never mind," he said. "It's kind of hard to explain. Just trust me when I say the boy's a genius."
I lifted my eyebrows at Gray who was still shaking his head modestly. "It's really an awesome place you have here," he said. "I've had fun."
"I heard you got to take out the Tornado," Rose said.
"The Tornado?" I asked, looking at Gray and then Dad with an amazed expression.
"The Townado?" Shelby asked even though she had no idea what that was.
"The big motorcycle parked in the front of the store," I explained, causing Shelby to nod.
Gray shrugged innocently.
"He didn't even know what he was riding," Jesse said. "That bike you took out today was the one from the tornado commercial."
Jesse thought this would explain everything, but Gray had no idea what he was talking about.
"A long time ago, my dad starred in a television commercial where he drove a Bishop bike through a tornado," I explained. "It was all fake of course, but it looked incredibly realistic, and he drove through the tornado and swirled around, then came out the other side, making sure his hair was in place and looking really cool and collected."
"It was super-popular," Rose said.
"That commercial change a lot of things for our business," Mom added.
"That bike you drove today was the one from the commercial," Jesse said. "Dad doesn't really let many people drive it. He takes it out to keep it running, but no one else does."
"I figured it was the least I could do after Gray's observation yesterday."
"Was his observation good for a ticket for me to ride the Tornado also?" I asked.
"You wanna ride it?" Dad asked.
I shrugged. "I might take you up on it if you're feeling generous." I looked at Gray. "Want to?" I asked.
"You mean you're gonna drive with him on the back?" Nana asked, looking a little concerned. "He's too big to sit back there, don't you think? Look how tall he is. Is it even a two-seater?"
I knew Gray would never, unless he was sick or hurt, ride on the back of a motorcycle that I was driving, but I thought Nana was cute for asking, so I winked at Gray.
"Do you wanna ride on the back?" I asked him.
Jesse and dad tried to hold back a laugh at this because they knew it would never happen. Gray was quite a bit bigger than me, and it would just be funny looking and funny feeling. Everything about it would be funny.
"He probably wants to drive and let Jane ride on the back," Jesse said. "I don't think she cares who's driving as long as she gets to ride." He looked at Rose. "You up for a drive?"
She nodded. "Always."
"I'm game, too," Dad said. "We can head up toward the hills and look at some of the fall colors."
"Y'all go," Mom said. "I'll take Shelby back to the house so she can feed her fish, and we'll meet you at home."
I gave her a thankful smile. "You sure you don't mind? We won't be long since it's so cool out."
"Why don't you go?" Nana asked my Mom. "You go have fun with the kids. Pa and I are perfectly capable of taking Shelby back to the house to feed her fish." Nana smiled at Shelby with big eyes. "We haven't even seen your new fish yet."
"His name's Midnight," Shelby explained. "He's doing bettew now. We had to pway fow him. When I woke up yestewday, he was floating on top of the watew, and we pwayed fow him, and then when I came home fwom Shug's, he was all better. He was swimming around really fast and not tiwed at all. And he got smallew!"
"He got smaller?" Pa asked, registering that this was an impossibility.
"Yes siw, he was biggew and then he got smallew. But at least he feels bettew."
By the time Shelby was done with her statement I had given them all a half-panicked, secretive expression that let them know Midnight had been replaced by a look-alike while Shelby was with my mom.
That little fish from the fair was dead as a doornail when Shelby woke up Monday morning, and Gray had taken it upon himself to go to three different stores looking for one that was similar enough to pass for the original. He saved the day on that one because Shelby truly did want a pet and loved that fish.
"I bet it was all the swimming around that made him lose weight," Nana said as she patted her own stomach. "I probably need to do some swimming myself."
This caused Shelby to laugh.
"What do you say?" Nana said, clapping her hands at Shelby like she wanted to hold her. "How about you introduce Nana and Pa to your new fish, and maybe he can teach me how to exercise."
Shelby squirmed out of Gray's arms so that she could go with Nana.
"Come give me a hug," I said before she ran off. I looked at Nana and Pa after I squeezed her tightly. "Are you sure you don’t mind watching her? We won't be long."
"Take your time," Nana said. "We don't get to spend enough time with our girl, anyway."
Gray was somewhat reluctant to take out the Tornado now that he knew it was special, but everyone talked him into it. I was especially adamant since I had seen the commercial a thousand times and had never gotten to ride it. Dad insisted that he took me out on it when I was little, but I didn't remember.
Mom and Dad, along with Jesse and Rose, got onto their motorcycles while Gray and I went to the showroom to get the Tornado.
"Jesse came and got this for me earlier today," Gray said, looking at the motorcycle, which was in a place of honor right in the middle of the showroom. "I didn't know it was this special. I'm kinda nervous about riding it now."
"You could always sit on the back like Nana said," I offered, teasing him.
Gray grinned at me as he straddled the bike. The Tornado was a big, old cruiser with ape hanger handlebars, and Gray stepped onto it like he'd done it a million times. He started it and then smiled at me from the seat. I knew it was possible to navigate out of the showroom while riding a running motorcycle, (my dad did it all the time) but it was tricky, and I had just assumed we would walk it out before Gray started it up. I gave him a wide-eyed smile.
"You wanna ride it out?" I asked, yelling over the low-rumbling engine.
I knew Gray could ride because we had talked about it before, but I'd never seen him do it, and I certainly wasn't expecting him to be confident enough to navigate through the showroom. He grinned and gave me a quick nod, letting me know it was all under control, so I trusted him and got onto the back. He held the bike steady while I situated myself on the seat. It was a maneuver I had done many times, riding with my dad or brother, so I easily found the footrests and adjusted myself in the way of a practiced passenger.
I held onto Gray's waist, smiling and feeling so thankful for the excuse to touch him. I had hugged him before, but there was something beautiful and magical about holding onto him from this angle—it was as if my past and my future came together as I sat on the back of that bike.
Gray was totally capable of navigating through the showroom. He did it slowly and carefully and without a single close call. Dad and Jesse (along with their respective passengers) were waiting for us in the parking lot, and my mom yelled out and threw her fist into the air when she saw us ride out of the building.
I grinned and squeezed Gray tightly, and he took one hand off the handlebar to touch my arms.
I had always considered myself an independent woman. I loved to drive a motorcycle. I had recently gotten one of my own and was perfectly capable of driving it myself. This night, however, I had the best riding experience of my life, and it was the result of being a passenger.
Gray was perfect on the Tornado—sure of himself and confident enough to look like he belonged on such an iconic bike. He and I rode alongside my family, through city streets, and then down a country road that led us into the hills. The whole experience felt natural. It felt right. It felt like family.