Nicole wasn’t disappointed that Zack was gone when she woke up. The night before had been amazing, but she wasn’t sure she was ready to face him in the light of day. Just the thought of looking into those sexy blue eyes sent her hormones back into overdrive and when that happened, she couldn’t think clearly. She had to make some decisions about her life and she had to do what was best for herself and Liam, regardless of what Zack thought, or how attracted she was to him.

She spent the morning alone with Liam, enjoying the first day in a long time that she didn’t have to worry about Spider busting in the front door. But, she knew she couldn’t live in hiding forever and neither could her son. Spider wouldn’t ever give up looking for her and she’d have to live life looking over her shoulder. Being here in Texas was a temporary solution, a nice vacation to clear her head. But she knew that Armand and Stacey were right about what she was going to have to do. She had to go home and she had to get a restraining order against him and she had to start reporting to the police when he violated it. She also needed to see an attorney, or legal aid at the very least, and file legal papers for full custody of Liam. She had a job and a safe place for the baby to live. Spider lived at the clubhouse where there was drinking and drugs and sex out in the open. The televisions were tuned to either sports or sex, rarely anything in between. The people all carried guns and knives and inserted the word “fuck” for any other in their vocabulary. A judge on the up and up couldn’t deny that she was the better choice of a parent to raise her son and that sending him even to visit Spider unsupervised would be a mistake. The problem, and what had kept her from doing it so far, was that she knew Spider and his club had judges, cops, and politicians on the payroll. He also had an ace up his sleeve that she wasn’t sure he’d use…but the fact that it was a possibility scared her to death. Spider had a lot more going for him then the backing of an MC, but she couldn’t let that frighten her so much that she lost her son, or took him on the run. Liam deserved a stable life and no matter how Spider presented himself, she knew he’d never get that on the run, or with his father. She had to fight for her son. He deserved that much from her.

After Liam had his breakfast and his bath, she decided to take him out for a walk. The weather was beautiful and not too humid, for Texas. She strapped the papoose pack on her chest and slipped the baby into it. “Mama’s not going to be able to carry you like this much longer if you don’t stop growing so fast,” she told him. At his last doctor’s appointment, he’d weighed in at 18 pounds. He was a long baby too, 22 inches at birth, and now he was already 28 inches. It wasn’t a surprise that he would be a big boy. Spider was well over six feet tall and at least 250 pounds. Nicole looked down at her baby boy. He had light, almost white downy hair like she had as a child, but his dark eyes and facial features were all Spider’s. Nicole prayed that the good looks were all he ever inherited from his dad. “You ready to go exploring?” Liam smiled and babbled. Nicole took that as a yes. She grabbed the little bag she’d packed for them and before she took off, she left Zack a note so that he wouldn’t worry.

As they walked, Nicole pointed things out to Liam and explained them to him. Spider told her she was stupid, for talking to him like he could understand. But Nicole believed that he absorbed a lot more than even she gave him credit for, and she wanted him to have every advantage as he grew up. Nicole loved the countryside. Growing up in Clarksville and living with just her parents on twenty acres, she’d had lots of experience with it. Her mom and dad weren’t social people and they’d never encouraged Nicole to be either. As she got older, she realized it was because they feared losing her someday and what they hadn’t realized was that they had been driving her away the whole time, making it impossible for her to breathe. She had left that situation and she’d gotten herself into an even worse one. Even when she was happy with Spider, she’d never been comfortable in the city. Her soul felt restless in a crowd, but in the countryside, surrounded by birds and trees and the sounds of the breeze blowing through and other small woodland animals chirping and chattering, her soul felt right at home.

She followed a path that led from behind Zack’s house toward an open glen with verdant grass and patches of wildflowers scattered throughout. They had almost reached it when she caught the sight of movement out of the corner of her eye. Her heart began to pound and for a second she thought she might jump out of her skin. But when the moving object crossed the path a few feet in front of them, she saw that it was just a large pheasant and she pointed it out to Liam, who seemed particularly excited over it. Once the big bird had gone, they continued with more evidence that jumping at every noise or movement, waiting for something to grab you, was no way to live. She had just stepped onto the patch of soft grass when she heard the distant growl of a Harley. She turned and shaded her eyes with one hand while she searched for it. It was hard to tell from this instant, but she was almost certain that it was Zack. Letting herself relax once more, she took a small blanket out of the bag she’d brought and spread it out on the ground, and then she deposited Liam down on it. She sat a few toys a little way out in front of him and watched as he lay on his belly and tried to crawl toward them. He could scoot on his belly, but he hadn’t mastered the art of crawling on his hands and knees just yet. Even still, that didn’t keep him from trying. She wanted to do everything for him, but she forced herself to watch him struggle for several minutes before he had moved about half an inch. With a smile, she reached down and handed him his teething ring. “Good job, Buddy! Before long you’ll be crawling all over the place.”

“And then running.” The sound of Zack’s voice startled Nicole and she jumped. “I’m sorry, I thought you heard me walk up.”

She had her hand over her heart. “No, I guess we were preoccupied with Liam’s new skills. I didn’t expect you back so early.”

He sighed and dropped down to the grass, crossing his long legs and sitting Indian style next to her. “It was…a joke.”

“I’m sorry.”

He smiled at her. Her insides immediately turned to Jell-O. “Don’t be. I wasn’t expecting anything less. I hope I’m not crashing your and Liam’s party.”

Nicole looked down at the baby. He was smiling up at Zack and with the teething ring forgotten, he was reaching for the hand Zack was holding out toward him. Zack wiggled his fingers at Liam and Liam used his little arms to scoot forward on his belly before dropping down again and reaching out for one of Zack’s big fingers with his little fat hand. He wrapped his own fingers around Zack’s, and Nicole’s heart warmed at the smile Zack gave him. “Liam’s glad you came,” she said and smiled. “He likes you.”

“Kid has good taste,” Zack told her with a wink. “What about Mom?”

She felt her face go hot. This was the conversation she’d been hoping to avoid. “What about Mom, what?”

He chuckled. “Does Mom like me too?” She looked down and picked at the grass for a second before she felt the fingers of Zack’s free hand on her chin. He tipped her face up to his and he locked his blue eyes into hers. “You don’t have to answer that. I was just kidding around.”

“I like you, Zack.” Her stomach was filled with butterflies again, from just the simple touch of his fingers on her chin.

“Good. I like you too.” He dropped it there and she was grateful. They spent the next hour or so exploring the property with Zack leading the way. He even carried Liam for a while although he still looked at the baby sometimes like he was an alien and he was trying to figure him out. At the edge of the fence that divided Zack’s property from the next one they found a herd of longhorn cattle. Liam was fascinated with them and when they turned away to head back to the house, the baby threw a fit. Zack finally turned him around backwards over his shoulder so Liam could still see the cattle and he instantly stopped crying.

“You’re good with him. Do you have kids?” Nicole asked him.

Zack’s blue eyes grew wide as he said, “No…” Then he grinned and said, “At least not that I know of.” Nicole rolled her eyes at him. No matter how much Zack liked to kid around, she couldn’t imagine that he’d be irresponsible enough to go around making babies that he wasn’t going to take care of.

They were almost back to the house when Nicole realized Liam had been quiet for a long time. She stepped behind Zack and looked at him. His chubby cheek lay squashed into Zack’s broad shoulder and his thumb was shoved in his mouth as he slept. The sight of the big biker, with his long hair hanging down to the center of his back and the Invaders patch covering the back of his kutte, cuddling her innocent son caused her chest to expand almost painfully. She had heard about men that bonded with the kids to get at the single mom…but everything Zack did seemed so genuine and sincere. She wished that her history of being a judge of character wasn’t so bad, so that trusting him wasn’t so hard. With a sigh, she told herself that none of that mattered anyways. She wasn’t getting involved with Zack. She had enough trouble with the biker she already had…and couldn’t get rid of.