5
Holding the staircase rail and looking down at the dark wooden stairs, I get to the bottom and Knuckles stands, taking me in from head to toe, but he says nothing, his expression impassive.
“Ready?” he asks, and I wonder what he’s going to swim in today. Looks like his plan might have backfired, because it’s me who is going to be able to perv on him shirtless, and not the other way around.
“Yeah, let’s do this.”
I stop by the kitchen and notice that while I was upstairs he’d cleaned up.
“Thanks,” I say, surprised by his actions.
“No problem,” he murmurs, shrugging it off.
We walk to the front door side by side, and he opens it for me. “Thank you,” I tell him, as I lock up. Once I’m in his flashy car, I glance around before putting my seat belt on.
“Okay, do you know where we’re going or should I put it into GPS?” he asks me, fiddling with his phone.
“I know the way.”
We complete my few errands then head straight to the beach, to a location my dad used to take me when I was growing up, and I have the fondest memories there. We used to swim for hours, or make sandcastles. Considering I didn’t get to see him all the time, I truly treasured every moment I spent with him, and this beach just brings back those times for me. Not only does it have the clearest water and whitest sand, but also it’s the perfect place for snorkeling or having a relaxing swim when there are no waves. I don’t like waves. When I was a baby, one crashed over me and pulled me back into the ocean, and I’ve been scared of them ever since. I tell him which direction to head in, then start skipping songs on his playlist.
“Whose playlist is this?” I ask as I hear song after song that I can’t picture him listening to. I flash him a wide-eyed look as a few Disney songs make an appearance.
“My daughters’,” he explains, smiling. “Thought you’d prefer this over what I listen to. Might be more up your alley.”
I remember our conversation last night about Bieber, my lips twisting in dry humor. “Very funny. I like a bit of everything, and everyone loves a good Disney song, so it’s fine with me. Hope you’re ready to sing along with me though, because I can get very into them.”
“Can you sing?” he asks, curiosity piqued.
I shrug. “I guess. I mean I can sing in tune. I’m no Beyoncé.”
“No one is,” he replies with a smirk.
“Why do you ask?”
“No reason,” he murmurs. “I just happen to have a thing for women who can sing.”
“Who doesn’t?” I agree. “Nothing sexier than seeing a man up on stage, guitar in his hand, singing with a beautiful tone.”
His fingers tighten on the steering wheel, and he makes an mmmm sound from the back of his throat. I have no idea why, so I just shrug it off, until I realize that I just described Rogue. He couldn’t care about that though, right? I must be reading into things too much, which is exactly what I do with everything. I settle for some Ed Sheeran, and start to relax and enjoy the ride.
“I love road trips,” I say, smiling to myself. “You know what, thanks for making me do this. I would have just gone to the post office, grabbed some food, and gone home and worked, probably. It’s nice to be doing something different.”
“Erin told me you work too much,” he explains. “So I thought I’d try my luck with getting you out of the house.”
“What else did Erin tell you?” I ask.
“That if I hurt you, she’s going to stomp on my balls,” he says in a dry tone. “I think that was the meanest comment she could come up with.”
It’s cute that Erin is trying to protect me, even though as the older one, I feel like that should be my job. I guess with her new family, she doesn’t need anyone else to protect her because they’re all completely badass.
“Ball stomping. Man, do I love that girl.”
“She looks up to you,” he says, eyes on the road. “You can hear it in her voice every time she talks about you.”
“I don’t know about that,” I say softly, looking down at my hands. “But she’s the sister I never had. Even living a few hours away from each other, we’ve always been close. Finding out that Brock wasn’t her real dad was a huge shock for me too.”
I’d only had one conversation with Gage, Erin’s biological father and the Cursed Ravens MC president, but I like him already. He has a twinkle in his eyes when he looks at Erin, and I can tell how much he loves her.
“Prez didn’t even know he had a kid, so yeah, huge shock is an understatement,” he says, shaking his head and chuckling. “And Erin just walked into the clubhouse like she owned it. Fuck, I’ll never forget that night.”
I didn’t know that had been her plan, and I wish she’d told me that’s what she was going to do, because I would have insisted I go with her.
“She’s crazy sometimes,” I mutter under my breath, picturing her storming up to a clubhouse and inviting herself in, then telling everyone she’s their leader’s daughter. You can’t make this shit up.
“Aren’t we all?” is his enigmatic reply. “How far away is this place? I probably should have asked you that before we left.”
“About forty-five minutes,” I tell him. “Do you want me to drive?”
“No,” he says quickly.
A little too quickly.
My eyes narrow to slits. “Did Erin tell you that I’m a bad driver? Because she doesn’t even drive, so I don’t think she’s qualified to make that assumption.”
At least that’s what I tell her whenever she complains about my driving, which is pretty much every time she gets in my car.
“I heard it took you six times to pass your driving test,” he points out, making a tsk-tsk sound of disapproval. “How does that happen to an overachiever?”
I gasp. “I’m going to kill Erin. That was secret information, and everyone can’t be perfect at everything. We’re all allowed a few flaws.”
I’m better at the bookwork, theory side of things, and working with my brain. Practical things can sometimes be a bit of a struggle for me. I’m terrible at trying to piece together furniture, or fix anything. That doesn’t mean I don’t try though. But I usually just pay a handyman now because I don’t have the time.
“And when I took my driving test, I was a teenager. I’m now a woman with years of driving experience,” I feel the need to also point out.
“I’ll take your word for it,” he replies cheerfully. “But you are not driving my new car, no matter how nice your legs are.”
“Fine,” I say, dragging out the word. I turn the music up, starting to sing along to a Taylor Swift song.
He joins in.
I never thought I’d see the day when I’m sitting in the car with a biker, singing Tay Tay on my way to the beach.
Just goes to show, you never know where life will take you.