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She gave a stiff smile. He popped the top, sprawled on the blanket, and tipped the longneck to his mouth. He was a friend of Ted’s, wasn’t he? So he had to be safe—despite his threatening appearance and boorish manner, despite the beer and the frayed bumper sticker.
GAS, GRASS, OR ASS. NOBODY RIDES FOR FREE.
“Have one,” he said. “Maybe it’ll loosen you up.”
She didn’t want to loosen up, and she had to pee, but she hobbled over anyway and took a bottle to keep him from drinking it. She found a spot on the far corner of the blanket where she wouldn’t brush against his long legs or breathe in his general air of menace. She should be drinking Champagne now in the bridal suite of the Austin Four Seasons as Mrs. Theodore Beaudine.
The biker pulled a couple of cellophane-wrapped sandwiches from the grocery bag. He tossed one in her general direction and opened the other. “Too bad you didn’t wait until after the big wedding dinner to dump him. The food would have been a lot better than this.”
Lump crab parfait, lavender grilled beef tenderloin, lobster medallions, white truffle risotto, a seven-tier wedding cake …
“Really. How do you know Ted?” she asked.
He ripped off a big corner of his sandwich with his teeth and spoke around the wad in his mouth. “We met a couple of years back when I was working a construction job in Wynette, and we hit it off. We see each other when I’m in the area.”
“Ted hits it off with most people.”
“Not all of them good guys like him.” He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and took another noisy swig of beer.
She set aside the beer she wasn’t drinking. “So you’re not from around here?”
“Nope.” He balled up the cellophane sandwich wrapper and flipped it into the weeds.
She hated people who littered, but she wasn’t going to mention that. Devouring his sandwich seemed to require all his attention, and he didn’t volunteer any more information.
She couldn’t postpone a trip into the woods any longer. She took a napkin from the grocery bag and, wincing with every step, limped into the trees. When she was done, she returned to the blanket. He chugged some more beer. She couldn’t stomach her own sandwich, and she pushed it aside. “Why did you pick me up?”
“I wanted to get laid.”
Her skin crawled. She looked for some indication that this was his crude attempt at a joke, but he didn’t crack a smile. On the other hand, he was Ted’s friend, and as odd as some of them were, she’d never met any that were criminals. “You’re not serious,” she said.
He skimmed his eyes over her. “It could happen.”
“No, it couldn’t!”
He burped, not loud, but still disgusting. “I’ve been too busy for women lately. It’s time to catch up.”
She stared at him. “By picking up your friend’s bride while she’s running away from her wedding?”
He scratched his chest. “You never know. Crazy women’ll do anything.” He drained his beer, burped again, and tossed the empty into the bushes. “So what do you say? Are you ready for me to take you back to Mommy and Daddy?”
“I say no.” Despite her growing apprehension, she wasn’t ready to go back. “You haven’t told me your name.”
“Panda.”
“No, really.”
“You don’t like it?”
“It’s hard to believe that’s your real name.”
“No skin off my nose whether you believe it or not. I go by Panda.”
“I see.” She thought about it while he ripped open a bag of chips. “It must be nice.”
“How do you mean?”
“Riding from town to town with a made-up name.” And a big blue bike helmet to hide beneath.
