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Gemma grabbed her hand. “Simone, if you don’t do this, I will start the paperwork to have you committed. You deserve a vacation, and that would be so awesome.”
“Even if I’m not here, you’ll still have to do your schoolwork, you know.”
“Simone! Tessa is a schoolteacher. Do you think she, Romeo, or Clutch would let me skip doing my homework, or cut school? How do you think I spent my time at the clubhouse?”
“Checking out the young guys.”
She grinned, looking embarrassed. “Okay, that too, but only after I finished my homework.”
Simone felt good. It was true that Gemma’s grades had improved since Rafe and Max had come into their lives, and that was just part of the reason.
Gemma looked around. “When you all get back, can we talk about where we live? This place will be a little cramped. If nothing else, we need a bigger refrigerator.”
“Yeah, and we’ll need a room for Danielle, or at least a room big enough for you to share with her when she visits from college.” Simone tipped her head slightly. “Um, why do we need a bigger refrigerator?”
“I’m going to be old enough to drink beer soon. This one barely holds enough for Rafe and Max. If his sister drinks as much as he does...” Her dimple appeared.
Simone laughed. “Yes, we’d better talk about a lot of things.”
They satat a roadside picnic table eating sandwiches and looking out over Texas Canyon. The rock formations were incredible, and Simone was acutely aware of them. Everything seemed more intense now—colors more vivid, smells stronger… Even the feel of the air on her skin was rich with texture.
Next to them the exhaust pipes of Max and Rafe’s Harleys made crackling sounds as the cooling metal shrank. She could smell the heat from them, and soon they’d get back on the monster bikes and be on the road. They’d heat up, and she’d feel their warmth as it mixed with the hot air rising from the asphalt of Interstate Highway 10.
“We’ll be in New Mexico soon,” Max said, staring out over the landscape.
“Okay.” At the moment the only location that concerned her was beside Rafe and Max.
Rafe looked up from his phone, where he had a map app open. “We can stop in Las Cruces for the night, or we could turn up into the mountains and make it to Pinos Altos.”
“Whatever you want. You guys are the pilots.”
“Whatever you want to do is fine with me,” said Max.
“What I want is only for Simone to enjoy the trip.”
“And I am. I’m just not all that concerned about the destination.”
Rafe’s smile went straight to her heart. “That’s probably a good attitude if you intend to stay with us. I’m not so hot at sticking to a plan over a long time, and Max tends to follow my lead.” He took her hand. “I’m pretty good at hanging onto what I love, though.”
“So am I,” said Max with a small, possessive growl as he pulled his arm tighter around Simone.
“So, we enjoy the ride, and wherever we stop, we’ll be together. We’ll camp or get a motel… it doesn’t matter. What does matter is that you will both make love to me, and then you’ll wrap those big arms around me and hold me, and I’ll sleep soundly between my two bikers.”
“So last night we were in Phoenix and tonight in New Mexico. We can make love in every state in the Southwest.” Max seemed intrigued by the idea.
She sighed happily. “Now there is a goal that sounds better than going to Canada.”
“When we go back…” Rafe looked at her inquiringly.
“Ah, that. Yes, eventually we will have to head back.” Sooner or later, they’d go home so she could find a job. “I’ll want to work,” she told them.
“Any ideas about what you want to do?” asked Max.
The truth was she had more ideas about what she didn’t want to do. “I’m not ambitious. The work I did was fine, but I wouldn’t go back to Sam’s. There’s too much emotional baggage there—not to mention the grisly reminder that spilled blood staining the office floor provides. But maybe some other bar, or another kind of work entirely.”
Rafe nodded. “Whatever you want.”
With their support, she’d work that out. It didn’t matter much to her, maybe not as much as it should. No, that would come of its own. They’d return and decide where they would live—the three of them and Gemma, plus room for Danielle when she visited. Simone had met the young woman two states ago, and she’d been sweet and kind. Like Gemma, she’d seemed to take it in stride that her brother was involved in a triad relationship, and she’d welcomed Simone without hesitation. There was no evidence she’d been raised by a rough biker, at least in part, but that didn’t surprise Simone. After all, Max was a marshmallow at his gooey center.
