Page 31 of Throttle Therapy

She turned her head to look at his motorcycle where he and Slide had backed them in side by side in a single space a few spaces away from her car.She stared at the bikes for what seemed like an eon, maybe a minute, before she shook her head.

“I can’t.I need to go check on Lacey.”

He bit his lip to keep from telling her that her sister wasn’t a baby.Besides, she wasn’t expecting her for a couple of hours.But he kept his mouth shut.He didn’t want to alienate her and ruin any shot he had with her.

“All right.Want me to follow you home to make sure you’re all right?”

Jenna shook her head.“I’ll be fine.”She headed for the car without another word.

“We gonna hang out here all day?”Slide asked from beside him.Roadkill didn’t answer right away.Instead, he watched as Jenna got in the car, buckled herself in and tried to start the car.Even from here, he heard the click then nothing of it refusing to start.

He didn’t say anything but moved to stand in front of the car and tapped the hood.It was impossible to miss when she pulled the hood release, so he lifted the hood and took a look.He checked the battery terminal, but it felt tight.

“Hit it again,” he said.

She turned the key and this time it didn’t even click.He wasn’t sure what it was, but he didn’t have the equipment here to figure it out.Besides, he suspected it wasn’t just one issue, but a combination of a couple.He’d let Papa Smurf know when he talked to him later.

“Come on.Get what you need.I’ll take you home and have someone come get this,” Roadkill said.

She climbed out of the car but instead of closing it up or moving away from it, Jenna propped her ass against the rear door and buried her face in her hands.

“But how will I get Lacey to school in the morning?And without a car, how will I get to work?”

He moved around to stand in front of her, but not too close.He didn’t want to scare her or make her uncomfortable.

She drew a deep breath and let it out slowly before looking up at him.

“Let me take you home.I’ll come and get you in the morning, we can get your sister to school and you to the shop in plenty of time.”

She gave his bike a pointed look.

“On that?”

“For you and me today?Yes.But I’ll bring a pickup tomorrow.Don’t worry.I’ve got you.”

“But,” she looked up at him with wide eyes, “why?”

“Darlin’,” he lifted one hand and smoothed a stray lock of hair out of her face from where it had fallen out of her ponytail.“I just want to help.I’ll have one of the prospects come get this and take it to the shop.I don’t know how long it will take, but we’ll get it going for you.”

Her shoulders fell.“I guess there goes my first paycheck.”

Roadkill shook his head.Papa Smurf would let her pay the cost of repairs out in payments, if that was what she needed to do, but he had other plans.“We’ll make sure you get enough to cover what you need to.What did I just tell you?”

She looked up at him with a frown of confusion marring her brow.

“Don’t worry.I got you,” he repeated.“Now grab your purse, and anything else you need before tomorrow, and let’s go.”

She watched him for a moment, then sighed.

“All right.”She reached into the car for her purse and keys, then checked the back seat, and locked it before turning back to him.“How do we do this?”

He looked her up and down, noticing her purse hung open at her side.“Does that thing have a flap or a zipper?Some way to close it?”

She looked down at her purse, then back to him.“It used to but the zipper broke.”

“No worries.We’ll put it in one of my saddle bags.”He put a hand on the small of her back and urged her toward where Slide stood beside their bikes.Once they reached the bikes, he pulled out the helmet he’d brought, just in case, and replaced it with her bag.“Ever been on a bike before?”

She stared at him with wide eyes before shaking her head.