ONE
Sunshine
“Is your name really Sunshine?” Sunny Hawk looked up from her tablet when she heard a guy’s voice.
Byron Hamilton grinned broadly. His over-inflated ego was evident in his perfect teeth. He wasn’t shy about telling everyone how wealthy his family was at every opportunity, as he considered money to be more of a status symbol than a person’s moral compass.
Sunny wasn’t a money snob. She was well aware she’d been a privileged kid. Despite earning a scholarship, her parents provided her with a comfortable on-campus apartment. All her expenses were covered, allowing her to dedicate herself entirely to her studies.
They were the best, but she never took it for granted that her family had money.
Not like Byron, the show-off, who considered himself king of campus.
Which, FYI, he was far from. His grades alone would put him at the bottom of the heap.
“Yes, as you’ve asked before, and as I’ve told you already, Byron, Sunshine is my given name. Maybe book a brain scan about your poor memory.” His sidekick chuckled.
“Weird fucking name,” scowled Byron. “Your parents must be hippies.” Smiling, Sunny slipped her device into her bag, followed by her textbooks. She was about to school a jerk. It would be good practice for when she was teaching children.
She climbed to her feet and looked the blond guy in the eye.
“No, my parents aren’t hippies. My mother is a well-renowned psychologist. And my father, you might have heard of him. He’s the VP for the Renegade Souls MC.”
The moment she finished her sentence, poor Byron’s face turned ashen, and Sunny smiled wider when his gaggle of boys began cackling with “Oh fuck!”
The Souls’ fame spanned the entire US, especially the mother chapter where she was raised.
“Your… your dad is part of them?”
“Yep.” She popped the P, sweet as could be.
Everyone always said she was sweet.
Sunshine, isn’t she a sweet girl?
Sunny, you’re so sweet.
But they didn’t know that she could get downright vicious if she had to be. Coming for her or her family would turn her into a crouching tiger.
“Shit. I didn’t know. I was only joking about your name, Sunny. I was messing around, and there was nothing in it. You don’t have to mention this to anyone.”
“Who would I mention it to, Byron?” she tutted like she was talking to a toddler. “Don’t be so silly.” She smiled. It wasn’t as though she’d sic one of the many Souls members onto him for his constant verbal picking. Any of her friends would dole out the punishment if she mentioned it.
But Sunny could handle Byron all by herself.
Putting the messenger bag on her shoulder, she picked up the coffee shop bill to pay it, but he tore it out of her hand. “I’ve got this, Sunny.” He handed it off to one of his minions.
“That’s so nice of you,” she smiled, fake as Christmas in March.
She figured she wouldn’t be hearing any more jibes from Byron from now on. It was the first time she’d dropped the Souls into any conversation in her two years there. There had been no conscious decision to leave her Souls connection back in Colorado, but it happened anyway. She told people she lived in Denver and that her parents were blue-collar workers. Her biggest secret was that she came from a prominent US motorcycle club family. The notorious, most sought-after Renegade Souls. There was a chapter in every state now, so if she ever got into trouble, no matter what, her first call would be to them. Never the police. Some might think that it was crazy not to call the police, but legacy kids were brought up being told to turn to family before anyone else.
She headed home after an afternoon of studying. There was a final exam tomorrow, and she was doing her usual cramming. It was all in the hands of the exam gods, for which she’d given several offerings of chocolate and wine. The rest of the night would comprise a big bowl of homemade ramen, putting a hair mask on her naturally chocolate brown hair, and watching the mushiest romance movie she could find on one of the streaming services.
She was a spoiled firstborn child and couldn’t function without full access to every TV station that was ever invented.
“Hey, Sunny.” One of her neighbors called out as she took the stairs to the second floor of her apartment block. She remembered that first visit with her parents and how her dad, Colton Hawk, had glared at the four-room apartment as if it were infested with fleas. He’d been against her moving out of state for college and had even tried bribing her to change her mind. No one could blame Sunny for being a daddy’s girl; she’d charmed him into giving in.
“Hey, Marc. Good game last weekend.” She remarked, smiling at the senior quarterback. She was sports-hopeless but read the college newsletter and bulletin boards, so she remembered he’d scored the winning ball.
