Epilogue
Blaire
Two years later
Just over two years had passed since I’d first met Ryan, and now we were sitting on the balcony in our hotel room in Hawaii looking out onto the water. I had been asked to play the lead in a new movie set in Hawaii, and I’d jumped at the chance. Ryan was here with me for two weeks while he took time out from his training. He didn’t mind taking breaks from his work anymore. He’d been there for a few days already, and I was enjoying having him to come home to after a shoot. After two years of being with him, I still didn’t get enough of him.
“Wyoming, Seattle, New York, Paris, Georgia, London and now Hawaii,” Ryan said. “Life with you is definitely not boring.”
I grinned. “From Wyoming to Hawaii—it sounds like a movie.”
“Staring Blaire Kaplan and Ryan Maxwell.”
“I like the sound of that,” I said. “I can’t believe it’s been two years already since the first time I met you.”
“It’s gone so fast, don’t you think? I can still remember the first time so clearly.”
“It has gone so fast, and I remember that day too. I thought you were a cowboy at the time,” I said as a memory came flashing through.
“What? You thought I was a cowboy? Are you serious? I didn’t know that. Why? I’m nothing like Brady.”
I laughed. “Well, you can’t blame me. We were in the middle of a shoot surrounded by only actors. The only other people were the people living on that ranch. So when I saw you, I just assumed that you also worked there.”
“Did I look like I worked there?”
“I don’t know what you looked like. Although I had already met Brady by that stage and I did think that the two of you looked very similar. You were gorgeous, that’s all I really remember. I noticed your tattoos immediately. You were wearing a white t-shirt and black jeans at the time.”
“You remember what I was wearing?” he asked.
“Oh yeah,” I said and smiled at the thought. “I remember. I couldn’t believe that you could turn such a simple outfit into something so attractive. I even turned to one of the other actresses on site and told her that I had no idea the men in Wyoming were so good looking.”
“I liked you too. Although Sloan gave that away when she told you how I’d been asking about you. I still remember sitting at my brother’s place having a barbecue and asking them as casually as I could about you. I thought you were the prettiest girl that I had ever seen in my life. I had this impression that actors were all high and mighty, but you were so down to earth. And you had the biggest smile that I had ever seen in my whole life.”
“And yet, despite all this, and despite having my number, you didn’t call me,” I teased.
“I’ll never live that one down, will I?”
“Probably not,” I said and grinned. “But it’s okay. It all worked out in the end. Ah, this is so nice. I almost wish I wasn’t here to work. I’m glad you got to come for two weeks.”
“Me too. You won’t believe how jealous Nick is. He said I have to work his shifts when I get back so that he can also take two weeks off.”
“Are you going to do it?”
“I would. But you know Nick. He’s not going to take two weeks off.”
“We need to find him a woman. He’s such a great guy,” I said.
“Yeah, and he’s terrible at finding women. He always picks the wrong one. Remember how sad he was when he realized that Katie was married?”
I laughed. “I’d forgotten about that. Okay, let’s try setting him up when we get back.”
“Good idea. But let’s not tell him that we’re doing it,” Ryan said.
“Oh for sure! I have great faith in our abilities as matchmakers. Maybe I’ll be so good at it that I’ll quit my acting career.”
“And give up doing shoots in Hawaii?”
“Okay, maybe not. You’ve got a point. Although so far there’s been more work than getting to spend actual time on the island.”
“We had that one day to explore, which was nice. But you’re not working tomorrow are you?”
“No, I have a two-day break from it all while they work on some of the other scenes. So that’s lucky. I still can’t believe I’m in Hawaii. I think it’s only really hitting me now that I’m not working. It’s so beautiful here.”
“It is. And so peaceful. How about I organize us some dinner tonight?” Ryan suggested.
“We can just get something sent to the room,” I said.
“Nah, we can do that on the other nights. It’s your night off; I want to plan something.”
I grinned. “Okay, then dinner is up to you tonight. I have no problem with that. There are quite a few restaurants around here to choose from.”
“I already know where I’m taking you,” he said.
“You do? Already?”
“I’ve done my research.”
Later that evening, Ryan told me to get ready and said he’d pick me up at six.
“Pick me up? But you’re staying with me?” I said.
He laughed. “Aren’t you an actor? Can’t you play along?”
“Oh,” I giggled. “Okay, I’ll be ready at six.”
Ryan got ready and left the hotel at five. I asked where he was going, but he wouldn’t tell me. He just told me that I must be ready at six as promised. So I jumped into the shower and then got changed into a pretty summery dress that I’d bought to wear on the island. I hadn’t had a chance to wear it yet, but that night felt like the right night for it. I topped it off with silver heels and then curled my hair at the edges because I knew Ryan liked it that way.
At exactly six, there was a knock on the door. I opened the door and smiled.
“Blaire, you look beautiful.”
“So do you,” I said. Ryan was wearing the same outfit that he had worn the day that he’d come to my first movie screening. He wasn’t much for dressing up, so I knew that this outfit was saved for special occasions. I liked that about him. Ryan was well known in the fighting world, perhaps even more so now that he was a trainer. He was excellent at what he did. But despite being so well known he was still the same Ryan that I had met two years ago.
“There’s just one thing we both have to change, though.”
“Change? What do you mean?”
Ryan walked in and sat on the bed and started taking off his shoes. “No shoes tonight,” he said.
“No shoes?”
“Nope,” he said and then rolled up his jeans at the bottom.
I threw off my shoes and didn’t question him further. I could clearly see that Ryan wasn’t going to tell me anything until we got there.
He took my hand and led me outside. We walked on the beach until we got to a secluded spot that we’d both pointed out the other day when we were exploring the island. There was now a picnic blanket on the floor, along with a bottle of champagne and two glasses.
“Ryan, this is amazing!”
He breathed a sigh of relief. “I was hoping nobody had taken the champagne while I was picking you up. Can you imagine? I probably should’ve of made provisions for that, but I was hoping that nobody had seen me set this up.”
I laughed. “Yeah, that would’ve been bad. This is incredible, though.”
We sat down on the blanket and Ryan poured us each a glass of champagne.
“To us,” he said.
“To us,” I said and took a sip. “Oh, that’s good. I don’t know why champagne is generally only drunk on special occasions. I think I’m going to change that. I’m going to start having champagne more regularly. Steak dinner? Champagne with it. Sushi? Champagne with it. Chocolate cake? Champagne with it.”
“You’re crazy in all the right ways. I love you, Blaire.”
Ryan was being very serious tonight. “I love you too, Ryan. You’re in an incredibly romantic mood,” I said. “It must be the effects of Hawaii. It tends to do that to people. Either that or you’ve had too much sun today.”
“Nah, I don’t need Hawaii to be romantic. I just need to be around you. You make me so happy, Blaire. You’ve changed my life completely. Now, even when it’s night, I still have sunshine in my life. I love you, Sunny, and I want to be with you for the rest of my life. I don’t care where we are, be it in the middle of a farm in Wyoming or on a beach in Hawaii; as long as I’m with you I’m happy. Blaire Sunny Kaplan, will you marry me?”
I hadn’t been expecting that. No wonder Ryan had been acting so strangely these past few days. I kept wondering what was going on but figured he was just settling into island living. It all made sense now. And everything about this proposal made me happy.
“Yes!” I said. “Yes! Yes! Yes! I would love to marry you.”
“You’re the only person in the whole world that could make me forget about fighting. Only you.”
I smiled. Tears were streaming down my face. “My father would’ve loved you, Ryan. He would be so happy to know that I married a fighter.”
“Even though I’m not a fighter anymore?”
“You’ll always be a fighter. You fight for what you want in life, and you get it. That’s a fighter in my eyes.”
“There’s something else I want. Something that you probably want too.”
“Oh yeah? What’s that?” I asked.
“Dinner.”
I chuckled. “Oh yeah. I forgot about that. Is it a liquid dinner tonight?” I said and held up my glass. I didn’t actually care whether we ate or not. Right then, the only thing that I could think about was that Ryan had asked me to marry him.
“Not exactly,” he said. He got out his phone and quickly made a call. “We’re ready,” he said into the receiver.
“Ready for what? Who was that?”
“You’ll see.”
Five minutes later a man was walking up to us carrying a tray with a silver cover over it. Ryan took the tray from him and placed it down on the blanket in front of us.
“Ooh, this looks fancy,” I said.
“Lift it up.”
I lifted up the lid and burst out laughing. “Hot dogs! This is amazing.”
“Not just any hot dogs, by the way.”
I gasped. “No way. Are you serious? Are these really the same hot dogs from Seattle? But—how?”
He laughed. “I called them and told them about my plan. I flew them here.”
“You flew the chef here to make these?”
“I sure did. Which means, not only are you getting hot dogs for dinner, but you’re getting them for breakfast and lunch tomorrow too.”
I giggled. “I’m so excited,” I said as I reached over for one.
“Wait, are you more excited about the hot dog or about the fact that you’re going to marry me?” Ryan asked.
I looked at the hot dog and then looked at Ryan. Then I looked at the hot dog again. I laughed. “It’s a close one. But you win!”
“Most people would see that as an insult, but I know how much you love those hot dogs,” Ryan said.
I grinned at him. “Hot dogs and a marriage proposal all in one evening. I’d like to officially declare this the best night of my life.”
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DIRTY BIKER
By Alycia Taylor
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and incidents are products of the writer's imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2017 Alycia Taylor
Chapter One
Ian
I could never understand why people worked in a job they didn’t like. Sure, they needed money. But when did their passions leave them? When did they stop working toward a career they actually enjoyed? I’d been told that I like my job too much, if there was such a thing. But how could I not? I got to play around with motorcycles all day. They’d been a part of my life since I was just a little kid, and my love for them had only gotten stronger as I’d gotten older. There was just something about knowing how it all worked that made riding them even better. I could clearly remember the first bike I worked on. My father had let me help in in the shop, and he’d told me that I had an aptitude for it that he’d never seen before. And I knew he wasn’t just saying that to me because I was his son. He was a no-bull sort of man, and when he said something, you always knew that he meant it. From that very first day, I knew that it was what I wanted to do with my life. And I’d been doing it from such a young age that it now came naturally to me.
I had my head under one of the bikes that had been dropped off yesterday morning when my father walked in.
I didn’t see him at first. If I had, I would’ve seen him survey the shop and shake his head in despair. Instead, I heard him cough and I turned my head to see who it was. I probably should’ve known that it was going to be him. He had a very distinct cough, and he was always popping into the shop to see how things were going. But I’d been concentrating too hard on the bike to really notice what was around me.
“Oh, hey, Dad,” I said and crawled out from under the bike. I stood up to shake his hand.
I got along well with my father, but he’d always demanded respect from his sons. My other brothers often didn’t show it to him, but I probably had just the right amount of fear to give it. He shook my hand firmly and frowned.
“Ian, what’s going on here?” he asked.
“What do you mean, Dad? I’m working.”
“Did you get that bike yesterday?”
It still amazed me how he knew every bike intimately, even if he’d only seen them for a few minutes. He could pick out a bike from a lineup without fail. If people thought that I was passionate about motorcycles, then they had clearly never met my father.
“Yes, it came through yesterday morning. It’s Trevor Lynn’s bike. Remember him? He used to live a few blocks down from us all those years back. The guy with the funny mouth. I hadn’t seen him in such a long time. I’ll tell you, I never pegged him as the motorcycle sort of dude, but clearly, I was wrong.”
My father nodded impatiently. “Yes, I know who Trevor is. I think he started riding because of me. But you should be done with this bike by now. A whole lot of new ones came in this morning.”
I followed his gaze toward the row of bikes in the corner and sighed. “Yeah, I know, Dad. It’s just that we’re so busy right now. I thought that you’d be happy about that. There was a time when we were worried about keeping the shop open, but now we have more customers than ever. I don’t know how it happened, but they love us.”
“Yes, that’s good. Of course it is. I’m very happy about that. But the reason people come to this shop is not just because we are good at what we do: it’s because of the quick turnaround time. Things have changed these days. People have become impatient. Sure, they want the job to be done well, but they now also want the job to be done quickly. It’s just the way that the world is going. Now, you know I can’t work like I used to, and you’re running the show now. But you need to make some smart decisions, too. You’re not just working on the bikes now, but you’re also running a business.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” I asked. I wasn’t sure I liked where this conversation was going. Especially since I had been working hard all day without any breaks. I could have used a cup of coffee and a sandwich, but I’d been putting off lunch so I could get the work done. Did my father not see how hard I worked?
“All I’m saying is that you might need to start thinking about hiring some more mechanics. I know we’ve had this conversation before, but maybe it’s time you really sat down and gave it some serious thought.”
I shook my head. “No way, Dad. I don’t want some random person coming into this shop to work. This is our family business.”
“A ‘family business’ that only you and I care about,” my dad said. “Which is fine, but it does mean that we should think about getting some more hands on deck.”
I sighed. He wasn’t wrong. I had four brothers, and while they all loved bikes, none of them had an interest in running the shop. I’d even once asked my cousins if any of them wanted to be a part of the business, but they’d all said no. And I had six male cousins who would’ve been a great help to us. I had no idea why it was only me that had wanted to continue in my father’s footsteps. But perhaps that was for the better, though; I’m not sure if I’d even want to work with them, anyway.
“Don’t forget Chris,” I reminded him. Chris was my best friend, and the only person I really trusted in the shop with me. I hadn’t hesitated to say yes when he’d first asked if he could help out in the shop. Anyway, sometimes he felt more like a brother to me than my actual brothers did.
“I know you have Chris. But two guys doing all this work is simply not going to be enough. Look at all the bikes you have. How on earth are the two of you going to be able to get those done in enough time to make the customers happy? How do you think they will feel when they come in here and see that you haven’t even started on them yet?”
“We can handle it, Dad. Come on, we’ve just hit a busy patch, but it’s not always like this.”
“But it should be like this. Busy is good. And if you and Chris can’t work faster, then you’re going to have to get some people in to help you.”
“Then we’ll work faster.” My father might be a very determined man, but I was just as willful. He’d allowed me to run the shop, and I wanted to show him that I could do a good job. I had great faith in myself and Chris as a team. We’d always worked well together, and I had no idea why anything should change.
“Fine. Suit yourself. You really are a stubborn one, aren’t you? There are times when you just have to swallow your pride and admit that you need help.”
“But I don’t need help,” I insisted. I stood up straight and looked him in the eye. I was serious, and I wanted him to know that I wasn’t going to back down.
“Hmm,” my father said with uncertainty. I knew he wasn’t going to let this go, but he seemed reluctant to keep going with it now. As usual, he’d let me think he’d forgotten about it and then come back to me in a few weeks and bring it up again. “Anyway, I have to go now. I have a few things that I need to get from the shop. But give some thought to what I said, Ian. I think you should at least give some consideration to what I’m saying. Don’t just shrug it off because of your stubbornness. Think about it. Don’t be stupid, okay? This is our company—our livelihood—and we need to be smart about it.”
I felt annoyed at my father’s words. I was being smart about the company. In fact, I was always putting the company first. I just wasn’t sure if my father realized that. I was still scowling after my father when Chris walked in.
“Whoa. What’s wrong with you, Gunner? You look mad about something.”
I couldn’t help but smile at the nickname. Most people, except my father, called me Gunner. At least I knew that I had Chris on my side. I’d asked my father to call me it once, but he’d refused.
“Ah, it’s my father. He thinks we need more people to help run the shop. He says we are too short-staffed for the amount of work that we have. Obviously, he just caught me at a bad time. I’m usually a lot quicker with the bike, but this one in particular just happened to need a lot of work. Anyway, I’ve heard this story before, and I’m sure I’ll hear it again. But I’m not going to give in. I’m going to prove that I don’t need anyone else here.”
Chris shrugged. “Hey, I don’t think it’s such a bad idea. And I’m all for listening to Pop. That guy knows what he’s doing. I mean, he had this place running smoothly for many years before we got here. He knows things that we don’t know.”
I looked at Chris. “Really? You don’t think it’s a bad idea? Are you crazy?”
“Why not, man? The two of us could definitely use a helping hand. I think it could be pretty cool. Imagine how much more we could get done. We really are a lot busier lately than we used to be, and it doesn’t look like it’s going to get quiet any time soon. We could get the new person to do all the jobs that we don’t like doing. And we could probably spend more time doing the bikes that we like rather than rushing. I hate rushing.”
Chris most definitely hated rushing. He was one of the most laid-back guys I’d ever met. My father had once told me that Chris was a good influence on me. He was the calm in my storm. But there were times, like this, when he frustrated me. Although I couldn’t quite get too mad at him. This wasn’t his family business. This was just a job to him. He loved his job, but he’d never feel the same way that I did about it.
“No way. I don’t want other people working in this shop. This is a family business. I don’t want some weirdo here. I already told my father that it’s important to keep this family only.”
“I’m not family.”
“You are to me. I’ve known you long enough, my dad loves you, and I get along better with you than I do with my own brothers. No, this shop is better just being the two of us. We know what we’re doing. And it’s not always this busy. We’ll get through it. You happy to work an extra hour or two tonight?”
Chris shrugged. “Sure, only if you buy me a beer afterward.”
“Now that I can definitely do. You see, we’ve got this. Nobody else would be as dedicated as we are. We don’t need anyone else.”
“Well, I don’t really care, to be honest. I love it here, and your father pays well. And I get to fiddle around with bikes all day. Nothing wrong with that.”
I smiled at him. It always felt good to have someone on my side. “You see? At least you get it. Now, when are you going to join the bike club? I’m glad you’re working here and all, but you’d love the bike club, man. I promise you. It’s so different to this; it’s like the other side of bikes.”
It wasn’t the first time that I’d asked Chris to join the club. Even my brothers were a part of it. But Chris didn’t seem interested. He liked working in the shop but didn’t feel like adding to his responsibilities. I kept telling him that there wasn’t a huge amount that he really had to do, but he was happy to carry on with his life as it was. And he was a very hard person to influence. When Chris set his mind on something, he stuck to it no matter what.
He shook his head, just as I thought he would. “Nah, I’d rather not. Honestly, I’m happy just working here. The club is not for me. Maybe one day.”
I grunted. “Sure, sure. Maybe one day. That’s what you always say. Man, the guys at the club are so much older than me. Most of them, anyhow. It would be cool to have someone my own age around for a change. Anyway, think about it.”
“I will,” he said, and I knew he wouldn’t.
“Now, I better get back to this bike. I’m almost done. If my father walks in again and sees that I’m still working on it, he’s going to have a fit. I swear, that man doesn’t trust me at times.”
“Well, he lets you run the shop. So, I think he trusts you more than you think he does.” Chris, as usual, was sticking up for my father.
I shook my head. “I don’t know so much, Chris.”