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There was a long moment of silence and then, “I think that’s the nicest thing I’ve ever heard you say about your ex-wife, Sparkle.”
Tide’s words had me looking over at him in confusion. “What kind of name is Sparkle?”
“The kind of name that you’ll never understand.” Tide chuckled darkly.
I had a feeling I didn’t want to know.
CHAPTER 11
I can’t go to hell. Satan has a restraining order against me.
-Tide to the man that hurt his woman
TIDE
The way she flushed just like I’d intended with the words that just left my mouth made me grin.
What made my grin widen into a smile was the way that she moved closer to me and farther away from Jeremiah.
Jeremiah who looked on at her in amusement.
“I’m called Sparkle because when Cannel gave it to me, it never went the fuck away.” Jeremiah rumbled. “And as for my ex-wife, well let’s just say that distance makes the heart grow fonder.”
I snorted. Loudly.
“I feel like I’m missing something,” Coreline said, bumping my shoulder with hers.
I would’ve answered, but just as she’d said it, we made it around the final block and into the square mile of the rally.
“Much bigger than last year,” Haggard grumbled, eyeing everything and everyone with a critical eye.
“Yup,” I agreed.
“Y’all go to this every year?” Coreline asked, eyes wide.
“Usually we ride in it,” I answered as I pulled her into my side, my arm going around her shoulders. “This is the final stopping point in the run. The location changes every year, but the event doesn’t. The ride goes from the Pacific Northwest to the southwest, down in deep Florida area. This is just the final stopping point before they make that final land at the end of the run.”
“That’s pretty cool,” she said softly. “How many people would you say were here?”
Before I could answer, a biker came up to us, slapping me on the shoulder with a jarring thud. “Hey, man! Can’t believe that I just found you in this sea of people. Been a long time.”
Before I could answer, Haggard rolled around and came to my other side as I read the man’s tag on his cut since the look on his face was no help.
“Siler,” I answered at the same time that Haggard said, “Yo, Siler. What the fuck’s up? How you been?”
Siler brought up a certain someone from my high school days. He’d been one of the ones to get me really interested in older bikes.
He’d been a classic restorer of them while I’d been looking for a summer job my senior year, and he’d given me a job that I’d kept every summer for three years.
“Wasn’t sure if you’d recognize me because of the thing.” He gestured toward his head with his hand.
I grimaced. “I don’t, to be honest.”
“How’s your head? Anything any better with that? I’ve aged quite a bit since you last saw me. The ol’ lady likes the gray, so I keep it even though it drives me insane,” Siler explained, gesturing toward his new salt-and-pepper locks.
“I believe that the reason I didn’t recognize you—usually knowing people that I knew before the accident aren’t affected—was because of the new goatee thing you have going on. As well as the silver. If you shaved, I’d probably recognize you just fine.” I grinned.
Siler’s eyes went to the girl at my side, and his eyes widened, then narrowed in anger.
“Don’t worry, he doesn’t abuse me. At least not physically,” Coreline said sweetly.
I squeezed her hip, causing her to squirm.
“A biker decided to drop his bike off, then force me to fix it before this rally tonight,” she explained. “When I told him that I couldn’t, he retaliated by punching me in the face. We’re here because Tide seems to think that I’ll recognize him in a sea of about ten thousand people.”
“Five thousand,” Siler corrected, his voice deep and amused. “Tide, this doesn’t happen to be the same girl that you made cry at my shop, does it?”
I opened my mouth and then closed it.
But it was Coreline who said, “Probably. He made me cry a lot when he was younger. He’s tended to stop doing that lately, mostly because he finds other ways to torture me.”
I knew that she didn’t mean it how it’d come out, but it was funny all the same.
Her face flushed red and she said, “That’s not what I meant!”
But the damage had already been done.
“Oh, man.” Siler shook his head, amusement lacing his voice. “Don’t let her go this time, Tide. Haggard, nice to see you again. How’s the bike treating you?”
“Good,” Haggard said. “You haven’t happened to have seen a cut out here with a yellow jacket on it, have you?”
A woman shouted his name, and he looked back at her, holding up one finger as he did.
When he turned back around, Siler shook his head. “No, but if I do, I’ll text the kid here.”
