AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I didn’t need Char to speak up for me, but she could calm her father down. Embarrassment set in his eyes and he dropped his head. “You’re right, baby girl. Just please, be careful.”
“Do you want to join us, Dad?” she asked cheerfully, with a huge grin that lit up her adorable face.
A smirk crept into the corner of his mouth and he moaned, “No. I’ve got a lot of work to do for the club or I’d love to. You two have fun and again-be careful.”
We both revved the engines on our respective bikes and I rolled to where Char waited for me. “You know this will not be a leisurely ride.”
I was speechless but not surprised after seeing what a spitfire she already was. “What do you mean?”
“Winner gets an ice cream sundae from Morris’s. Loser gets nothing, not even the cherry.”
Did I hear that right? Was that almost a sexual innuendo? My ears only heard ice cream and cherry. A cherry that was off-limits. I held out my hand to shake hers and we raced off the property. I had to follow her since I was not familiar with the area around her home; once I was comfortable, it was game on between this hot little minx and me. She must have known I was a betting man and my weakness for ice cream was my downfall.
We were riding a leisurely sixty miles per hour and rather than paying attention to the road; I was more in awe of what a skilled rider she was. Char must have felt my eyes on her and peered at me over her shoulder with a glimmer in her eyes. Suddenly, she hit the gas and raced away from me. I thought I lost her but caught up to her as she was racing at ninety miles per hour. As much as I wanted to urge her to slow down, she wouldn't have been able to hear me over the engines.
Two can play at this game and it was my time to show off; revving the engine on this little motorbike. I changed lanes to move around her; however, she matched my speed every time. My perseverance is constantly thwarted by an oncoming car every so often. When it was clear, I pulled into the lane once more and looked in her direction, feeling confident that I could beat her until I heard a blaring car horn. I tried to overturn the bike but lost control as my body flew alongside the bike into the deep ravine.
The helmet muffled her cries. “Dallas?” I couldn’t concentrate on anything but the excruciating pain shooting up and down my left leg; not understanding what happened until Char stood over me, yelling, “Fuck me!”
***
Lying in a hospital bed with a cast covering my entire leg was not how I wanted to spend this evening. Tyler blamed Char for the accident, fuming about her mother’s bike being completely trashed. Char blamed herself for putting me up to it. As far as I was concerned, there was only one person to blame. Me! I never should have acted like a cocky bastard and showed off, hoping to win that damned ice cream and the heart of the girl. I didn’t get the latter, but Char brought me an ice cream sundae from Morris’s.
“This is my apology,” she said softly and dug a spoon into the sundae, stuffing my mouth full of the sinfully rich ice cream. “I understand if you never want to see me again, Dally.”
After savoring the frozen heaven in my mouth, I swallowed and answered her, “I already told you. I was showing off, so it serves me right. I’m just more upset that I'm immobile for the next three months.” He groaned, “it just means I won’t be able to work and earn my keep.”
She arched her brow, and her cheeks blushed. However, the moment my brother Austin hollered my name, it saved Char from having to say anything else. “I will see you later, Dallas—much later.” I squeezed my eyes shut, feeling guilty for putting her in this position. But she owed me nothing and soon she was going to be gone for the next four years; so I’m sure her last comment was about her venture to Seattle.
“Dude! You’ve been riding since you were a kid,” Austin laughed and slapped the cast with his large hand. I winced at the shot of pain. Never had I been more thankful for painkillers or it would have been far worse. “That hot girl distracted you and you broke your fucking leg. Who is she to our prez?”
“That’s his daughter, Charlene.”
He hissed and grabbed his junk, “Man, you should have taken her in the garage, then raced her. She’s a peach.”
“What do you want?” I asked as I ate the rest of the ice cream before it was a melted mess.
“I came to see you. Mom will be here tomorrow, but you know she’s going to make you move back home so we can be your bitches until you get the cast removed.” Austin said, taking a seat next to the bed.
After my mother and father divorced ten years ago, Austin felt I needed a father figure. He was eighteen to my thirteen. Granted, he was a giant prick a large percentage of the time, but I knew so long as my massive brother was around, I was safe. He had a rule that he could mess with me all he wanted, but if anyone ever thought to fuck with his younger brother; they were shit at the bottom of his boots.
I admired how Austin was good at most things, except for his batting average with women was as low as one could possibly go. It was because of his poor taste in women, which was something I constantly reminded him of. He always agreed to disagree, yet he always admitted to his lack of attention and that he was selfish with his time.
Austin was independent and needed no one, except for his mother. When my father left, he made a vow. He’d never spoken to that man for the rest of his life, and it was a vow he kept to this day. He harbored ill will toward my father because the man left our beautiful angel of a mother for a younger woman. It didn’t matter if the woman was attractive or not. As far as Austin and I were concerned, no one could take the place of our mother. To this day, we refuse to acknowledge our father and alleged ‘step-mother’. Hell, we don’t even know if he is still with her or not.
Enough about that loser. My brother’s heart was in the right place. His head was not, and neither he nor my mother thought this through before they made plans to transport me to Anchorage. The idea of being catered to by my mother was novel, but not doable.
“No way. Explain how I will sit comfortably in a car for almost two hours on the way to Anchorage. No. You and Mom have lost your fucking minds. Besides, the Chief offered for me to move in with him. He blames Charlene for my predicament and she’ll be leaving soon for school, so he’s got an extra room.”
Austin couldn’t care less about the words coming out of my mouth. The cute nurse distracted him while she took my vitals. “How ya doin?” He asked, using his best Joey Tribbiani impression. I remember when we watched ‘Friends’. He told me he was going to use that line on the girls to see if it worked. It never did, but the nurse blushed before giving him a closed-mouth smile. After she left the room, he whispered. “I’m going to ask her out.” Austin opened the end table drawer and thumbed through the bible he pulled out. “I can’t believe Tyler made your stupid ass a prospect. You can’t do shit for months, so it’s pointless.”
“Mind your own business. Look, bro, these painkillers are making me tired.” I handed him the empty ice cream container and shifted as comfortably as I could to close my eyes to dream about the girl who stole my heart. Albeit, the only visions that played through my mind were the oncoming cars and flying. There were visions of Char, only telling me to forget her and move on to the next woman because I wasn’t worthy.
THREE
MCPO TYLER DIXON
FOUR YEARS LATER
