Page 35 of Diary of a Biker Queen

I squinted at it getting sliced up by the skates and melting in one spot. “I love you. But we could probably stand to work on your analogies.”

He booped me on the nose. “Deal. But in light of everything, I think I’m going to go.”

I grabbed his hand. “No. Don’t.”

He just kissed my forehead. “You have some things to think about. And I need to go check on my shop. Just for tonight, and then I’ll come back to the clubhouse. My brothers have probably changed the locks because I haven’t shown up there in weeks and they’ve had to cover for me.”

I grimaced. “They probably hate me for breaking your heart.”

“And they’ll love you again as soon as they see you also put it back together.”

I really hoped that was true. Because Dax was the sweetest soul I’d ever met. He deserved more than a wild child Mafia brat.

And yet he didn’t want it.

He wanted me.

Nothing untoward had happened at the hockey rink. Though I’d expected Carlos or Enzo or, hell, even my father to pop out of the woodwork at any minute, none of them had.

Lynx had eventually come out of the changing rooms and taken control of practice, barking out orders from the edge of the ice in a very unlike-him fashion, while Luca made phone call after phone call and spent the rest of the practice sending emails from his phone.

I just tried to stay out of the way, my head a jumbled mess and Luca’s warnings replaying on a loop.

I’d said nothing on the drive back to the clubhouse, and neither had either of the guys. Inside the gates, Luca went straight down the path that led to the house where his sister had spent the night, leaving me and Lynx to walk into the clubhouse together.

The tension in the silence between us was unbearable, and every time I looked over at Lynx, he turned away.

It went against my nature to give him space. What I wanted to do was get all up in his face and demand he tell me what he was thinking and feeling. I came from a family of people where I never knew what was truly going on in their heads. It had made me crazy more than once. I had just wanted to scream at them to stop being such robots. To actually say what they meant instead of forcing me to guess how they felt.

I wanted to tell him I didn’t like this weirdness that had cropped up between us. I wanted to tell him to go back to being my friend again.

Though that was apparently not what he wanted. He beelined for the only open stool at the bar, leaving me to find a seat elsewhere.

I settled on the cracked leather couches, while the other guys played pool and the smells and sounds of someone cooking something delicious in the kitchen wafted back. A hum of conversation enveloped the cozy room, and I watched Lynx’s back as Chirp poured him a drink.

Amber sat next to me on the couch and propped her feet up on the coffee table in front of us. “So, you fucked Lynx, huh?”

I widened my eyes and twisted so I was facing her. “What? No! Why would you say that? That was me and Dax last night. Not me and Lynx.”

She shifted on her seat, angling herself so she could pull her phone out of the pocket of her jeans. They were skintight, so I had no idea how she’d fit the phone in there in the first place.

She opened an app on her phone and distractedly scrolled through her feed. “No, I meant today. You fucked him today, right?”

She had to have heard what happened in the bathroom this morning. “No, that was me and Luca in the bathroom this morning.”

She glanced over at me with a smile on her red lips. “Seriously? There’s something in the water around here. The men all like to share. I can’t wait ’til it’s my turn.” She went back to doomscrolling. “Lynx sent you the video though, yeah? Because clearly something has changed with you two. The vibe is…” She squinted over at Lynx sitting at the bar nursing a beer and very decidedly not facing in my direction. “Tense.”

“I don’t have a phone, so no. What video?”

“Who doesn’t have a phone in this decade? Christ, girl, I’ll give you my old one later. But he at least showed you the video, right? It’s a cinematic masterpiece, if I do say so myself.” She glanced at me. “I recorded it.”

I did a double take and looked between Amber and Lynx, wondering again if they’d slept together. Maybe Luca had this whole thing wrong, and Lynx’s mood today had been nothing to do with me and everything to do with him and Amber.

And her apparently recording it.

I suddenly felt really stupid and incredibly arrogant. “I really don’t need to see the video of the two of you.”

Amber screwed her face up. “What? Oh my God, you think… No. I mean, he’s hot, so I totally offered, but he turned me down. He’s so into you, girl. He isn’t looking at anyone else here.”