HORIZON MC by Clara Kendrick (16)

 

Over the next couple of weeks, life went back to resembling something akin to normalcy. None of the guys mentioned the fight at the bar except to make fun of Sloan, who had apparently thrown himself on the dog pile, hitting and kicking the guy I was in the process of beating the shit out of.

“And you never stopped laughing,” Brody said, shaking his head at Sloan. “You were a maniac.”

“I’ve always liked a good bar fight,” Sloan said, lifting his chin in the air, refusing to be shamed. “There’s nothing wrong with that.”

“It wasn’t a fight. It was a massacre.” Ace was on his break, sitting in the booth with us. “Chuck had everything well in hand, but you apparently wanted to share some of the glory.”

“There was nothing glorious about it,” I reminded them. “Who knows if that guy is okay?”

“Who gives a shit if that guy is okay?” Brody snorted. “He got what he deserved. Sloan was right about that.”

“I’m right about most things,” Sloan agreed, nodding.

“You’re an idiot about most things,” Ace said, not unkindly. “What if Chuck had accidentally hit you because you got in the way of his fist?”

“Then it would’ve been my fault, not his,” Sloan replied, placid. “I mean, come on. When’s the last time we had a good bar brawl in here? Maybe we could make a fight club or something.”

“I don’t think that would be good for us, image-wise,” Brody said. “Pretty sure the police would not be pleased to have to break shit up in here on a nightly basis. Might be hard to get our permits renewed in a timely fashion, and all that, if we started to besmirch Rio Seco’s good name.”

“I’m sorry, Brody,” I said. I’d said it a million times, and a million times, he’d waved my apology off. He did it again, now.

“I’m sorry that guy had to come in here and act like a motherfucker,” he said. “And I’m a little sorry that I wasn’t the one to beat him up.” That seemed to be the general consensus of all the Horizon guys that they were all a little jealous of me for being the one to beat up Haley’s attacker. It was puzzling, to say the least.

And Haley was back to her old self, full of sass and swing and attitude, like nothing had happened at all. She’d never called me, I noticed, but I’d never called her. I didn’t know if it was because my mood was back on an upswing, or because I was too shy to call her even if I actually did need something. I worried, though. I knew what manic energy looked like, and I was afraid she was burning herself out in her eagerness to prove to everyone who’d seen what had happened that night that she was okay. She didn’t have anything to prove. I wanted to tell her that, but I wasn’t sure how, or if the message would be well received.

“Where’s Jack today, you bums?” she asked us, hands on her hips. “You all look weird, assembled here, without your fearless leader.”

“He said something about spending some time at the storage unit,” Ace said, his voice light, even though I knew that meant he was back at it, trying to recover his memories. It made the surprise I had in store for him even sweeter, because whether it helped him with his injured mind or not, it would at least be awesome.

“He’s not going to be cooped up in there all day, is he?” Haley frowned. “He shouldn’t be alone like that.”

“Believe me,” Ace sighed. “I have tried and tried to get an invite, but it is apparently the most exclusive place in Rio Seco.”

“Maybe he needs his privacy,” I suggested. If I was puzzling over clues from a past I couldn’t remember, I probably wouldn’t want an audience for it, either.

“Or maybe we need to lure him over here with pizza,” Ace said. “I’ll make the call.”

It wasn’t until the weekend that I could grab Jack’s attention to get him to come to the shop to see what I had in store for him.

“You’ve been a busy man,” I said, keeping my tone neutral, free of judgment, trying to make an opening for him to talk, if he wanted to.

“We’re all busy,” he said dismissively, getting out of the pickup. I wondered, for a minute, why he took the pickup instead of his bike until I saw the boxes in the bed of the truck. It looked like he was taking a little homework back with him from the storage unit.

“Yeah, well, I’ve been extra busy for you.”

His jaw dropped open as he followed me into the garage. “Chuck, seriously? Seriously? I had no idea you would fix it up this fast. Seriously?”

“That’s your hunk of junk, man,” I confirmed. “It’s been my pet project. I’ve been giving it priority.”

“You didn’t have to do that,” he said. “You really didn’t. But I’m selfish. I’m glad you did. I’m glad to see it like this.”

It was really a gorgeous thing, if I did say so myself. I’d worked hard on restoring it to its previous glory, and from the look on my friend’s face, I hadn’t disappointed him.

“That is really something,” Jack murmured, walking around the gleaming motorcycle, taking it in from all angles. “I kind of can’t believe it’s the same bike.”

“Well, lots of new parts,” I admitted. “But I tried to keep everything as close to the original as possible.”

He ran his hand over the handlebars, testing the grip of the throttle, before resuming his wary circling.

“Seeing it whole again like this,” I said, hesitating, fumbling a little for the right words, “does it, um, ring any bells?”

“I still don’t remember it, if that’s what you’re asking,” he said. “I guess I wished it would give me at least a flash of something, but whatever. Not a big deal.”

He sounded so disappointed all of a sudden, though, that I knew it had been a big deal. I hadn’t meant to build up his expectations for something that wasn’t going to materialize, but I’d wanted him to have his bike back. I wished there was a way to try and unearth just a tiny piece of memory for him, but I wasn’t a magician. I was just a mechanic.

“I think it’s important that you thought this bike was important,” I said. “That has to mean something, doesn’t it, that you took it out of the storage unit to begin with?”

“I don’t know what it means, Chuck.”

“You felt something about the bike, didn’t you?”

Jack’s eyes were hard to read behind the sunglasses. “When I first opened that storage unit, after everything was shipped to me, that bike stood out to me, sure. I don’t know if it was because I actually remembered something about it, or because it was such a nice bike that had fallen into such disrepair.”

“Disrepair’s a pretty nice way to put it,” I said. “That thing was trashed.”

He shrugged. “I thought it was maybe important to me before…you know. That if it was that trashed and I still kept it, maybe there was something there.” Jack laughed, but it lacked humor. The sound might as well have been a cough. “That’s why I decided to start riding motorcycles, why I bought one. Because I thought if I had that thing, motorcycles could be my thing. It’s why I started the MC. Who really knows, though? It could all just be a lie. Maybe this wasn’t even my bike to begin with.”

I loved being a part of Horizon. Some of the timemore often than I would care to admit, in fact I lived for it, looking forward to the minutiae of the meetings and our fundraisers and rides with more zeal than anyone else in the club. To have the founder and president of the club say that he had no real way of knowing why, exactly, he’d formed the club in the first place was a little disconcerting.

“I’m glad you made Horizon,” I told him. “It means a lot to me.”

“It means a lot to me, now, too,” Jack said immediately. “I was just kind of hoping that it’d make me remember the person I was.”

“Who knows?” I asked, trying to keep my voice light. “Maybe it’s more important to look at the person you’ve become, and the person you want to be.”

After a beat, Jack cracked a grin. “The mechanic becomes a philosopher.”

“I didn’t mean to offend you.”

“You didn’t offend me. You just surprised me.”

“I mean, I know I probably shouldn’t talk about things I don’t fully comprehend.”

“Chuck, if that was the truth, none of us would have anything to say.”

We stood there, looking at the motorcycle in front of us like it would roar to life on its own or have something valuable to contribute to the conversation. It didn’t do either, of course.

“Maybe I should just sell it after all,” Jack mused, his fingers trailing over the seat.

“I’d buy it, if that’s what you really want to do,” I said.

“Why in the world would you buy that hunk of junk?”

I snorted at him. “Excuse me. It was a hunk of junk. Now, it is a masterpiece. Someone would pay good money to own something like this.”

“I just don’t know what to do with it anymore. I thought it would make more sense after it was fixed up, but now I’m even more confused than before.”

“What if you took it for a ride?”

Jack pushed his sunglasses up on his head and peered at me. “You think I should?”

“If you’re worried about the structural integrity of the bike, don’t be,” I said. “The bike is as good as new. Better than new, if I can toot my own horn. If you don’t believe me, start it up.”

“Want to ride with me?”

“Hell, yes.”

I tossed him a spare helmet and wheeled out my own motorcycle. The glee on Jack’s face as he revved it was worth the price of admission, even if he didn’t get any of his memories back. Maybe the bike was for making new memories, and saying to hell with the past. I could use one of those things in my life. “To hell with the past.” It would make a good T-shirt.

I followed Jack down the road at a respectful distance, letting him get a feel for the bike. Who knew? Maybe his lost life would manifest itself in some kind of muscle memory, riding that bike. It had to have been placed in that storage unit for some purpose. Then he really opened up the throttle and shot down the road like a gleaming comet. Goddamn. That thing could really run. I’d outdone myself.

“Holy shit,” I said, before whooping and laughing and trying my best to catch up, even if I knew it was impossible. When Jack finally did take pity on me, circling back on an empty stretch of road, he was grinning.

“Amazing,” he said. “Fucking amazing. I’ll race you back to the shop.”

“You’ll win,” I said. “That thing absolutely flies.”

“Yeah, it does.” He tossed his head back and laughed like he didn’t have a care in the world, and maybe in that moment, he didn’t. I had at least given him that. “Race me anyway.”

 

I helped him load the motorcycle back into the bed of the truck, pushing the boxes away to make room and trying not to think about what might be inside of them, what Jack might deem important enough to try and make sense of away from the storage unit.

“You know…” I began, then thought better of it.

“‘You know…’ what?” Jack handed my spare helmet back to me, then checked the straps securing the bike. “Say whatever you want. You’ve earned it a million times over.”

“Maybe you’ve been given a second chance at life,” I said, hesitating, afraid I’d piss him off, or worse hurt him. “Maybe all that matters now, after surviving that explosion over there, is that you lived. Maybe all you should worry about is enjoying yourself.”

Jack laughed, and I was a little relieved that he didn’t look angry. “I’m damn well sure I’m going to enjoy myself with this bike, now,” he said. “Let’s see if we can get the guys together for a club ride as soon as possible. What do you think? You free tomorrow?”

“I think I could swing it, just to see the rest of the guys faces when you take off like a fucking rocket.”

Both of us laughed in sheer joy to think of it.

“You’ve been giving me a lot of life advice today, Chuck.”

“Sorry, man.”

He chuckled. “Nothing to be sorry about. It’s good advice. Really. Thank you.”

“Well, you’re welcome.”

He turned to me. “Can I offer you some friendly advice?”

“I think you’re entitled to, at this point,” I said. “Go ahead, then.”

I thought it was going to be something about my own advice, or the motorcycle, or maybe even the club. I definitely did not expect the words that came out of Jack’s mouth.

“When are you going to do something about Haley?”

I blinked. “What needs to be done about Haley? Isn’t Brody the one to talk to about personnel changes at the bar?”

“No, no, no. I don’t want to make a personnel change. Why? Do you think I need to make a personnel change? Ooh, I’m going to tell Haley. You’re going to be in so much trouble.”
Fuck. I had obviously put my foot in my mouth on that one. “No way. She’s great. The only personnel change I was going to recommend was a promotion or something.”

“A promotion?” Jack laughed. “She practically owns the place already.”

“A raise, then. I don’t know. Why are we talking about Haley again?”

“You have feelings for her.”

I was too blindsided to even try to deny it. “What? She’s way out of my league.”

“Everyone knows it,” he scoffed. “And don’t sell yourself short. You’re a good catch.”

That was the most ludicrous thing I’d heard so far. “I scared her to death the other night, you know that?”

“You saved her,” Jack argued. “It’s more than any of the rest of us could say.”

I shook my head. “Only because I was the one who noticed it first.”

“Uh-huh. You noticed it because you were watching her. Because you have feelings for her.”

“So what if I do?” I rubbed my smooth head, thinking about it. “I’m sure lots of men have crushes on her. Club members included.”

“Sure, but I’m not talking about crushes. I don’t think you just want to get into her pants, Chuck, like the rest of humanity. I think you have genuine, honest to God feelings for her. Tell me I’m wrong.”

There wasn’t any point in arguing. “You’re not wrong. I just don’t know what to do.”

“You don’t know Chuck, life is short. We all know that. Just go for it. What do you have to lose?”

I thought about that, thought about just how disappointed she had been when we parted ways that night after I beat up that asshole. Thought about my revelation that maybe she’d been loitering outside the bar because she wanted to spend time with me me or someone, anybody, as long as she wasn’t alone. And how I’d let her down.

“No pressure,” Jack said, clapping me on the back before opening the driver’s side door of his pickup. “But neither of you is getting any younger. None of us are. Seize the day.”

“Bar later?” I asked him.

“Bar now,” he said, shutting the door and grinning at me. “See you there.”

“See you.”

I was left in a cloud of dust and confusion, alone at the shop. I briefly thought about catching up on some things, then decided against it. My mind wasn’t straight right now. If I couldn’t focus on my work, I’d probably screw something up. I needed to figure out this problem of Haley, figure out what to do about it. Sure, I had feelings for her, but that was only one side of the puzzle. The border of it, maybe. It was easy to find the edges in the puzzle, to put them together, to frame the shape and size of it, get a feel for the scene itself. But it was the other pieces that were missing. I didn’t know what I was supposed to be looking for. Could it be possible that she might have feelings for me?

Did it range wider than me just being her protector? Did it go deeper than that? She flirted with everyoneit was just the way she operatedbut she sometimes seemed to make time just to talk to me. She’d been the one who had gotten through to me on the anniversary of my sister’s death. And I’d opened upa bit to her. She trusted me. I trusted her.

But maybe that actually made sense. Puzzle pieces that had been jumbled or missing started slowly falling into place, including the awkwardness she and I had shared after the brawl at the bar. That strange, soft kiss. The way I’d felt like I’d just been disappointing her ever since, every single time we interacted.

I hadn’t called her because I’d been too nervous to. And maybe she hadn’t called me because I hadn’t called her.

Before I could register what I was doing, I was holding my phone to my ear as it was ringing.

“Chuck?” Haley’s voice was colored in concern. “What’s going on? Are you okay?”

“I’m better than okay. Really good, actually,” I said, pacing around, trying to walk away from my nerves. What in the hell did I think I was doing? “How are you?”

“I’m just fine,” she said. “Getting ready to head to the bar.”

“You working tonight?”

“You know it. Saturday night.”

“Nothing like the Horizon bar on a Saturday night.”

“People just can’t resist karaoke.”

“Is it karaoke tonight?”

“Last Saturday of the month.”

“Damn. So it is. This month has flown by.”

“It really has. Of course, it always feels like that when you’re paying rent.”

“Ah, yeah. Fucking rent.”

“Fucking rent. I would drink to that, if I was at the bar. Drinking.”

There was an awkward pause between our banter, and Haley cleared her throat.

“Was there a reason you were calling?” she asked. “Not that you need a reason. I told you to call me any time, and for any reason, and you did. It’s nice to hear your voice on the phone. You have a nice voice, Chuck. You should sing karaoke tonight. I bet you have a killer baritone.”

“You didn’t ever call me. That’s why I didn’t call you. I thought maybe you wouldn’t like to talk to me on the phone. I have stage fright. That’s why I never sing. And why do you think I have a killer baritone? Because I’m a big black man? That’s pigeonholing me, there. I could rock a sexy falsetto for all you know. You’ve never heard me perform.”

Haley laughed. “Maybe I never called you because you never called me,” she countered. “And what would you say to a duet? I bet you wouldn’t be prone to stage fright if you had a friendly face up there, helping you out. Or I could be your backup dancer. Something to take the attention off you until you got comfortable.”

“I’ll think about it,” I said. “It’s good to hear your voice on the phone, too. What are you, an alto or a soprano?”

“Whatever moves me the most. That’s what I am.”

“Interesting. And versatile. What’s your go-to karaoke song?”

“It depends on my mood. I like the classics, though.”

“Classics?” I squinted, trying to imagine what she might mean. “Like opera?”

“No, stupid. Like classic rock. Disco. Funk.”

“Now you’re speaking my language. Why have I never seen you perform on karaoke night?”

“You know how popular it is. I want everyone to have a chance to go before the bar closes for the night. I don’t perform because it would rob someone else of the opportunity.”

“Can you make an exception for tonight? I’d love to hear you sing.”

She laughed, and I could almost see the blush on her cheeks. “On one condition and one condition only.”

“And what would that be?”

“I think you know.”

“I think I do. What if I choke? Will you still like me if I make a complete ass of myself?”

“Of course I will. But I don’t think you’re going to choke. Not with me shaking my ass up there for you.”

“I think that could very well make me choke.”

“I think you’ll be fine.”

“Thank you. I want to be fine. I also want to hear you sing.”

“Hey, Chuck?”

“Yeah?”

“You didn’t call me to chat about karaoke, did you?”

“No. That wasn’t really the plan. But I’m glad we chatted about karaoke.”

“I am, too. But what was the plan?”

“I just wanted to see if you were okay.”

A pause. “I am okay. And that’s really sweet of you to ask. I feel like I should’ve been calling you, checking on your wellbeing and state of mind, too. Could you do something for me?”

“Anything.”

“Could you call me a little more often? It’s nice to talk to you outside of the bar. And if it’s okay, could I call you even if I’m not in crisis?”

“You could call me to discuss anything you like,” I said. “And I do mean anything.”

“Thanks, Chuck. I’ll see you later tonight?”

“Definitely.”

“It’s a date, then.”

Was it a date? I stared at the screen that signified Haley had ended the call. What did she mean? Should I call her back? No. I put a lid on that immediately. I wasn’t going to call her back, not even to secure some kind of clarification. I was going to roll with it. I had feelings for her that almost seemed magnified now that we’d just chatted on the phone. We were going to do more chatting on the phone. We’d promised each other. And we were apparently going to serenade each other tonight at karaoke.

What in the hell was I going to sing at karaoke?

Fuck singing. What in the hell was I going to wear?

I closed up the shop as quickly as I could and rocketed home, taking a shower I didn’t need, doing some personal grooming I never did, and realizing that of all the shirts and pants and jackets hanging in my closet would never be adequate for the way I wanted to look for Haley. I ripped clothes from their hangers and tossed them on the bed, pacing around, doing a million things at once. I scrolled through my phone, looking at examples of karaoke songs, examining the lyrics for each of them. Because this was going to be the performance of my life. I was going to have to show up ready to impress. The song had to be perfect. My outfit had to be perfect.

Because, and I was well aware that I was putting a lot of pressure on myself, I knew I was going to try to win Haley over with this song. I wanted to start something with her. I wanted a relationship. And I knew this was a way to get a shot straight at her heart.

I rode well under the speed limit to the bar, not wanting to wrinkle the maroon dress shirt I’d finally settled on, tucked carefully into the black trousers I couldn’t remember ever having worn. I’d seriously considered a tie before I realized how much better I looked with the shirt unbuttoned several buttons. If Haley was in her general work uniform of a Horizon T-shirt and jeans, this was about to blow her away. At least, that was what I was going for.

I strode into the bar, ignoring Ace’s shout of greeting, only halfway hearing the rest of the guys already in the booth, with eyes only for Haley, nodding as she took a regular’s order, already starting back to grab the beers in the cooler, when she stopped.

“Hey, Chuck”

She cut off with a little yip as I took her gently by the shoulders and dipped her backward, kissing her passionately. I was afraid, for a fraction of a second, that I’d misjudged the entire thing, when her lips froze against mine, but that moment passed and she kissed me back, giving as good as she got, lips now parted, tongue questing into my mouth.

I broke the kiss, halfway afraid to, and she grinned.

“I see you’re ready for karaoke,” she said. “You look amazing.”

“Do you know what you’re going to sing?” I asked her. “Because I’m thinking my song is going to blow yours out of the water.”

“Oh, that is a challenge, Chuck,” she said, her eyes alight with glee. “Oh, my goodness. I am so excited we’re doing this. Come on. Let’s go give our songs to Brody.”

Brody organized the karaoke nights with a passion I found amusing until I was the one about to be put in the spotlight. Now I understood why he took it so seriously. There was something about putting yourself out there that was terrifying and empowering and addictive.

“Did I see you two did you just kiss?” he asked us, puzzled, poking away at his laptop. “Was I hallucinating?”

“If so, must’ve been a pretty hot hallucination,” Haley said. “We’re both going to be performing tonight. Separately.”

“Interesting,” Brody said, fighting against a grin that threatened to stretch his face in two. “I’d recommend you all be the first ones up before it gets too packed.”

Haley patted my arm. “He’s doing this for you, Chuck. So when you crash and burn, not everyone has to watch it happen.”

“I think it’s more merciful for you,” I said. “Because I’ve been practicing ever since we got off the phone.”

“I have to say, honey, that all this trash talk just gets me more worked up,” she purred. “It is doing the exact opposite of intimidating me. It just makes me want to blow you out of the water.”

I shuddered at that voice, atGod help me Haley saying “blow you” to me, as juvenile as it was. If her tactic was to throw me off, she was doing a hell of a job.

“So what are your songs going to be?” Brody asked, his eyes darting back and forth between us as if he were watching a prize fight or something.

“Ladies first,” I said magnanimously.

“Thank you.” Haley whispered in Brody’s ear, and he laughed.

“Amazing,” he said. “I’m putting this up on YouTube, just so you know.”

“You better not,” I warned him. “That’s an invasion of privacy.”

“You’re such a spoilsport,” he complained. “Come on, then, Chuck. Let’s have your song.”

I murmured the title in his ear, just like Haley had done, and he guffawed.

“What?” I demanded. “You don’t think I’ll do a good job?”

“I know you’ll do a good job,” he said, wiping his eyes, which were streaming with tears of mirth. “It’s just…the two of you, oh my God. Wait and see. This is going to be epic.”

Jack crossed the floor, his face perplexed. “What in the hell is going on over here? We all saw that kiss. The two of you are going to have to explain yourselves.”

“Dude, just wait.” Brody was practically vibrating in excitement. “Karaoke tonight is going to be the best it’s ever been. Oh my God.”

“He’s so enthusiastic,” Haley said, eyeing him with distrust. “What song did you pick, Chuck?”

“You’re just going to have to wait and see, sweetheart.”

Her eyes narrowed at me, even as her smiled grew wider. “You’d better stand back so we can get this thing started.”

“What is happening?” Sloan and Ace had joined us now, and we all formed a loose circle around Haley. Katie even turned from the VIP chair at the bar to watch what was happening.

“Are you ready for this?” Haley asked with the microphone Brody had given to her.

“Ready when you are,” Brody confirmed, giving her a thumb’s up.

“Wrong,” she said sweetly. “None of you are ready for this.”

We all laughed, then cheered wildly as the opening melody of Madonna’s “Like a Virgin” began to play. Haley danced around, saucy and sexy as hell, as she sang the lyrics perfectly, not ever needing to glance up at the television to see what line was coming next. She flirted with everyone, but she seemed to only have eyes for me, watching my reaction as she shimmied at Jack, gave Katie an impromptu lap dance, trailed her fingers across Sloan’s chest. When she made it over to me, crooning the lyrics with half-lowered eyelids, she backed up directly into me, giving me a sultry look over her shoulder as she danced. Normally, I would be embarrassed to pop a boner in a public place, surrounded by friends, but I was pretty sure I would be forgiven. Haley looked amazing. She danced amazing. She sang amazing. I knew that I had my work cut out for me with my performance, but her next-level showing somehow boosted my confidence.

We screamed and clapped for her as she did a cute little curtsy in the middle of our circle and handed the microphone off to me.

“Good luck,” she said, and gave me a lingering kiss on my cheek.

“I’m going to need it,” I admitted. “That was a goddamn inspiration.”

“Next up is Chuck,” Brody said, and the rest of the guys looked at me in surprise.
“Can you sing, bud?” Ace asked, looking a little concerned, and I laughed at him.

“You’re going to have to find out with the rest of everyone else,” I said. “Brody, cue the song.”

Everyone hollered with delight as soon as they recognized the tune Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On.” Haley laughed so hard that she collapsed on the floor, so I knelt beside her and serenaded her from there, stroking her soft hair, really putting on a show for everyone, until I managed to get her back on her feet. I let my hips do a lot of the talking throughout the performance, and Sloan fanned his face like he was about to pass out.

As the song closed out, I handed the microphone off and took Haley in my arms.
“Can I kiss you?” I asked.

Her eyes shined with a special kind of light. “You already did.”

“I know, and I apologize that I just charged in here and did that.” I dipped her down, and she shrieked with delight. “You see, I seem to be having some pretty strong feelings toward you, and I was just curious as to whether you might feel the same.”

“Chuck?”

“Yeah?”

“Please kiss me. Please fucking kiss me.”

I was only too happy to oblige, this kiss even better than the impromptu one I’d planted on her upon walking into the bar like I owned the place, and I knew it was because she told me to do it. I didn’t even have to stop and think about what her choice of song signified, and I knew, from the way she was kissing me, the way her fingers were gripped around my neck, that she knew what my song meant, too. I kissed her until I couldn’t think anything else, until all the sounds around us disappeared. Until there was just us, just this kiss. Just each other.

The roar in my ears gradually faded until I realized that it hadn’t just been the sound of my blood rushing through my veins it was every single patron in the bar, Horizon MC included, giving us a raucous standing ovation.

“I’m so proud right now,” Jack was saying as Brody pounded him on the back. Sloan gave a two-fingered wolf whistle and everyone laughed.

“That’ll be twenty bucks from each of you,” Ace said, preening. “Well done, Chuck.”

“You motherfuckers did not bet on this,” I growled, shaking my head with disbelief as I straightened, Haley still in my arms. She felt good there. Comfortable, even, like that was an excellent place for her to belong.

“Of course they did,” she said, sounding more resigned than disgusted. “Ace, I trust you can cover for me.”

“Hey, it’s a pretty packed house,” he protested, waving the three twenty dollar bills at her. “I’ll give you the winnings if you stick around.”

“You’ll give me the winnings because you’re all pigs,” she said, neatly yanking the money out of his fingers. “And you’ll give me the night off to make up for it.”

“Go, go,” Brody said, waving at us, looking a little chagrined for once. “You beautiful kids get out of here. Go make beautiful babies.”

“Jesus, Brody,” I said, feeling the blood drain from my face quick enough to make me a good candidate for passing out right there in the middle of the bar. “What a strange thing to say.”

“Let’s just go before any of the rest of these geniuses try and congratulate us,” Haley said, taking me by the arm and leading me toward the exit. “Got any ideas for the sixty bucks we just made?”

I laughed. “Keep it. Your tip for having to put up with us idiots. I’m sure that if it wasn’t you and me, I’d have been in on the pool, too.”

“It’s all in good fun,” she said. “Want to blow it on takeout or booze at the liquor store?”

“Well, with a little bit of budgeting, I think we can manage both,” I said, grinning. “Dinner and drinks on the guys.”

“Technically, we’re the ones who earned this money,” Haley pointed out.

“So, dinner and drinks on the success of the start of our relationship?”

“Why, Chuck.” She batted her eyelashes at me. “I had no idea you wanted to go steady.”

We picked up a couple of six-packs of beer and some Chinese takeout, then I followed Haley on my bike to her home. I’d been there before, but only in passing, like when she was tired after work or had too much to drink and we drove her out there in her SUV so she wouldn’t need a ride in the morning to get it. Her home was small, but well kept, and it was obvious she cared about it. It had the nicest landscaping in the whole neighborhood, in my opinion, but I was probably just a little bit biased.

“Home sweet home,” she said, giving me a nervous smile as she climbed down from behind the wheel of her SUV.

It was sweet to be there, sweet to know I was about to step into her house and spend some one-on-one time with the girl of my dreams. She knew how I felt about her, too, and she felt something at least a little similar to it or I probably wouldn’t be there.

“Should I take my shoes off?” I said, pausing at the door.

“Just make yourself comfortable,” she said. “Mi casa es su casa, and all of that.”

That’s when I lookedreally looked around me for the first time.

“Your place is wow,” I said, temporarily losing the ability to express myself properly. “This is really nice.” Her home, or at least the living room area of it, was covered in greenery. There were pots of growing plants and flowers on every available surface, and my brain traveled backward in time, unwittingly, to the sight of the wildflowers on the hillside at the cemetery, when I’d gone to visit Chelsea’s grave on the anniversary of her death. What a thing to think of at a time like this.

“You’re just being nice; it’s not nice,” Haley said, dashing ahead of me to pick up an article of clothing pooled on the floor. “It’s messy. I didn’t expect anyoneespecially you here tonight, or I would’ve at least picked up a little.”

“If this is messy, I hope you never see my place,” I said, giving a low whistle as I followed her into the kitchen even more plants, including a vine that was working its way above the cabinets.

“Aw, come on,” she said, giving me a pretty pout as she pulled some plates from a drying rack situated on the counter. “I’d be pretty disappointed if I didn’t get to visit you at your place.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.” Okay, then. That made me feel good about how things might be proceeding between the two of us, even if I didn’t have any real expectations.

“I’ll make it happen, then,” I said. “Though, I have to say, my place is a lot less impressive than yours.”

“I’m sure yours is just fine.”

It wasn’t, but if she really wanted to spend time in my home, I wasn’t about to discourage her. “I like all your plants.”

“It’s kind of a jungle in here,” she admitted. “I think I have a problem. I just love them too much to pass one up.”

“Seems like they love you, too,” I said. “You have quite the green thumb.”

“Just a hobby.”

I laughed. “Stop selling yourself short. This is really great.”

“Well, thank you. I don’t do anything special.”

“You water them, at least. Most people seem to have trouble with that concept.”

Haley just smiled at me and scooped the takeout onto the plates. I took the opportunity to crack open a couple of beers, wrapping them with napkins the way I’d seen Ace do so frequently at the bar.

“Oh, I have some foam can holders,” Haley said, then giggled. “You’re actually better than Ace at that. These will do just fine.”

“I am not,” I said, incredulous. “The man’s a bartender for a living. I’m just a mechanic.”

“Just a mechanic? I’ve heard you’re kind of a genius. That you can fix everything.” She pointed to the napkin folding I’d done as if it proved her point.

“All I did was wrap a napkin around a bottle of beer, Haley,” I said, giving her a dubious look as she handed me a plate of Chinese food. “That doesn’t make me a genius.”

“I heard that you fixed up Jack’s bike for him.”

“Well, that’s true, but that doesn’t take the work of a genius. It’s just about working hard and not giving up.”

She shook her head. “It’s like knowing someone who’s fluent in another language.”

“I didn’t pass high school Spanish.” Not the first time I took it, at least.

“But you know the language of machines, of engines. You know how to make things work. Honestly, I wish I knew more about my car. I don’t even know how to check the air pressure of my tires, let alone how to change the oil.”

I chuckled. “Those are easy enough things to teach.”

She gave me a look, her sculpted eyebrows raised. “Are you offering to teach me about my SUV?”

“If you want to learn,” I said, shrugging. “And if you don’t, I hope you know you should always be bringing it by the shop if you have trouble with it.”

“Oh, I always just go to the dealership”

“No, no,” I said. “They’ll gouge you there, especially if you don’t know what they’re talking about. Just bring it by the shop. I’m serious. Any time a light comes on, or you’re due for an oil change. I’ll take care of it.”

“I thought your shop was only for specialty cases.”

I smiled, took a sip of beer, was well aware of how nervous my next words made me. “You are special, Haley.”

She choked on the mouthful of food she’d been swallowing and I pounded her on the back.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, sorry about that,” she said, laughing as she coughed, then pausing to take a quick swig from her bottle of beer. “That was, um, really sweet of you.”

“What? You were choking.”

“No, I mean about…you said I was special.”

“You say that like you don’t believe me.”

She flushed, and laughed again. “I’m just saying it was really sweet of you to say.”

“Now, Ms. Greer, I hope I’m not going to have to lecture you on how special you are.”

“You’re making me blush.”

“You’re even more special when you blush.”

“You just stop, you flatterer. You do a lot more than I do. You’re more special than I’ll ever be. I just serve drinks for a living.”

She tried to occupy herself with her chopsticks, but I snagged her wrist, got her to stop, to listen.

“Haley, you don’t just serve drinks for a living,” I said, watching as her green eyes widened at my sincerity. “I have seen you defuse situations that would’ve ended in fights at the bar. You run the whole thing by yourself whenever the situation arises.” I swallowed, thinking about the last time it surely did when all the guys were too occupied with me, weepy with drink and memories, to think about going in to the bar. “You keep a jungle of plants alive in your beautiful home, so you care about things. You’re something special, Haley, really. I’m not trying to flatter you. I’m just stating the facts.”

Her voice was a lot quieter than when we started talking. “Chuck, if you’re thinking that what we’re doing right now…what this is… This is a sure thing, honey. You don’t have to fill my ears with sweet talk.”

My gentle grip on her turned into a caress, all thought of eating and drinking our winnings from the rest of the guys lost.

“I’m just telling you how I feel, sweetheart.” I didn’t know where “sweetheart” came from. I usually wasn’t one for terms of endearment, but there it was, out in the open, probably because she had deemed me “honey.” I smiled. “I didn’t expect anything from you tonight except dinner and drinks.”

If possible, Haley looked even more embarrassed, the pink on her cheeks spreading to her chin and forehead.

“You kissed me at the bar,” she said, hesitant. “Everyone cheered you on.”

And now I was kind of feeling like an asshole for that. “I’ve liked you for a long time.”

“So?”

“So I don’t want to do anything tonight if you’re not perfectly comfortable. You don’t have to expect that something is supposed to happen just because I’m here.” I smiled, pointing at the vine creeping above the kitchen cabinets. “I’m happy to have even been invited to see inside your house. It’s been an incredible experience.”

Haley seemed to think this over for a moment before smiling at me. “And if I want something to happen? If I invited you over for the sole purpose of getting it on?”

I laughed. “Then I’m absolutely game. I told you. I’ve been attracted to you for as long as I can remember. Since the first moment you rolled into Rio Seco and demanded Jack give you a job at the bar.”

She had a faraway look in her eyes, and I figured she was probably just remembering the early days.

“I liked you, too,” she said, her voice softer than it had to be. “You seemed really nice. Respectful.”

“And I’m telling you that I still am. If we had sex tonight? Perfect. I’d be absolutely into it. But no regrets if we don’t. We’ve known each other for a while, now, without taking everything to the next level. We have all the time in the world to take it slow.”

It was true, even if it pained me to say it. I was only flesh and blood, after all. I was immensely attracted to Haley, and always had been.

On the flip side, though, I also knew that there wasn’t all the time in the world. At any time, any place, anything could happen. My sister was evidence of that. After her death, I’d triedas hard as it was to embrace the present, to say what I meant immediately instead of dragging it out or hiding it. Life was so precious. There wasn’t any point living it half-assed.

“So if I tell you I want to take you into my bed?” Haley seemed to have forgotten both her open beer and the Chinese food steadily getting cold on her plate, the pair of abandoned chopsticks still tangled in the oily lo mein.

“Then I would gladly join you,” I said, lifting her hand to my face, turning it over, pressing my lips into her palm.

Haley shuddered before gripping my hand and drawing me forward, kissing me, fitting her body against mine. It felt so good to kiss her, to sink into the attraction I’d felt all this time. It felt somewhere between a revelation and a completion, the logical conclusion to a journey. I hugged her to me, stepping with her in a dreamlike dance down the hallway off the kitchen, pushing open door after door until I found her bedroom it just looked like hers. We left a trail of clothes like breadcrumbs between the kitchen and the bed, Haley bouncing down naked on the mattress, grinning up at me, her green eyes luminous in the dim lighting of the room.

“Do you want this?” I asked, breathless like I’d just run a race, pushing toward the finish line.

She drew her legs apart, slipped a hand between them, never taking her eyes off of me. “Does it look like I want this?”

“Tell me. Tell me you want it.”

“Yes. Now. I want you.”

I bit down on a groan at just how good it was to hear that. Kneeling on the floor by the bed, I wrapped my arms around her thighs and pulled her to the edge of the mattress.

“Chuck, what ah.”

I answered her question with my tongue, laving her labia, parting them, tasting her. The muscles in her legs bunched and shook in my grasp, and I enjoyed pinpointing the areas that made her tremble the most, making a map of her womanhood in my mind. The sounds she was making, the micro-movements of her body, the way her fingers scrabbled at the sheets beneath her made me incredibly hard, my erection jutting out to hit the side of the bed as I worked her over.

“Chuck, please.”

She didn’t have to say please. I didn’t want her to beg. All I wanted was to make her feel good.

I kissed my way up her stomach, shifting her back across the bed, away from the edge, and climbed on over her, spending time on her breasts, mouthing over her pebble-hard nipples, nestling against her neck.

“I want you inside me,” she panted, and I smiled against her skin.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

“Are you ready?”

“Yes.”

My track record wasn’t as long as, say, Ace’s, but I had ample experience of women biting off a little more than they could chew with me. The last thing I wanted to do was cause Haley any pain.

“Let’s just make sure,” I crooned into her ear, letting my hand drift downward, remembering the particulars of how she had been touching herself when we first entered the bedroom, mimicking those movements, circling her clit without fully touching it.

I knew I was getting it right when Haley spread her legs, turned her face into mine, whimpered against my lips. I slipped one finger inside her, testing the waters, so to speak, before inserting another, breathing kisses onto her heaving chest as she responded to my beckoning by canting her hips forward.

“Is it good, sweetheart?”

“Yeah.”

“Is this how you like it?”

She tried to respond in the affirmative at least, I assumed her long, drawn-out moan was in the affirmative. I didn’t stop until she was slicked with her own arousal, until my fingers seemed ready to drip with it.

“I want you now,” she managed to say, and that was my permission to take my cock in my hand and guide it to her, easing just the tip in until she pleaded with me for the rest of it. It was more than she bargained for. That much was evident from the sharp gasp, the way her eyes flew open to stare at me.

“Are you okay?” I asked, cautious, scared of hurting her, terrified that I already had.

She surprised me by laughing. “Okay? Chuck, I’m better than okay. Now are we going to do this for real, or are you going to just keep teasing me?”

Well. With that go ahead, I withdrew my length from her body almost completely before sending it home again, drawing out that same tantalizing gasp. So it wasn’t a gasp of pain. It was a gasp of exquisite pleasure, the kind that I knew I was capable of giving her. From there, it was a simple thing to strike up a rhythm Haley responded to, to keep her climbing higher and higher until she came tumbling back down, howling, her legs wrapped around my waist, squeezing, her inner muscles pulling me out of my own body, making me see stars, not be sure what filth or stupidity was pouring out of my mouth as I emptied myself out completely.

I didn’t come back to myself immediately. It was a strange thing, something I’d never experienced, like being outside of existence, somewhere beautiful, where nothing bad could ever happen again. Slowly, though, I seeped back into reality, the sound of my breathing harsh to my ears, the darkness of the room cradling me like a blanket. Haley was turned away from me, folded in on herself, passed out cold, her back rising and falling with each breath she took.

I threaded my fingers through her hair, which was as soft and fine as corn silk. I was ultra aware of just how rough my hands were in that moment, of the differences between Haley and me. My hands were meant to be tough, to pry open the hoods of machines and figure out what made them tick underneath. I was used to scraping my knuckles against harder things than flesh, the black of oil and grease lining my fingernails, rubbed raw with soap every day just so I could reemerge into society. And yet here, even with clean hands, I still wasn’t quite sure I belonged.

Until Haley heaved a sigh, rolled over, and pressed her face into my bare chest, her arms winding around my middle, latching onto me before falling back asleep.

In that moment, then, I really did belong. I reveled in it, my hands smoothing down her back, until I joined her in slumber.