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They’d refused to budge and, in the end, them riding together was better than one of them out there alone.
It didn’t mean Zakk wouldn’t be spending a fuck-ton of time glancing out the window making sure both were good. It wasn’t going to be a trip without music either. Dez had flat out balked when the suggestion arose, claiming that his acoustic went with him or he wasn’t going anywhere but back to his uncle’s house, which had nearly sent Riley into a meltdown, because for the last five months, Dez had been living with him.
Then there was the whole issue with Winter and the deal he’d struck with Wild Child. Turned out, he wouldn’t be stepping on any toes by stepping in as Tish’s replacement. Not only had she fully endorsed him, but thanked him, repeatedly, for stepping up and making the offer.
When Tavis heard Winter was going to the spa, he’d jumped at the chance to go too. Apparently, months of no contact and no conversation had left him antsy and unsettled. When Tavis first arrived, there was a moment when it looked like Winter would bolt. Dez had taken him aside, one arm over Winter’s shoulders, heads pressed tightly together as Dez spoke. Winter listened and whatever was said quashed the issue then and there.
“It’s not too late to change your mind about riding with him,” Zakk suggested as he slid into the seat beside Riley and gave his shoulder a nudge.
“As much as I’d like to spend several hundred miles clinging to him, the thought of getting on the back of that thing has me wanting to shit a brick. I can’t. Maybe a short ride up the block or something, but, on the highway, with trucks and idiots? I don’t wanthimon the fuckin’ thing.”
“Yeah, you made that pretty clear,” Zakk said. “Eventually though, you should give it a go, it’s not as scary as you’ve made it up in your mind to be."
“How would you know?”
“’Cause he offered, and I rode. I gotta tell ya, it was a fuckin’ rush. I’m dying to get out there on those dune buggies. I’ve got half a mind to give a dirt bike a try if the opportunity arises.”
It seemed to take a moment for Riley to grasp that. While he was wrestling with it, Tavis sat across from them with a cola in his hand and his cell phone beside him. Damien had volunteered to take the first shift up front with James, and Tripp lay in the far back bunk, resting, since he was still supposed to be taking it easy.
“Do you really think two wheels is a good idea for you?” Riley asked, still staring out the window. “Doesn’t your old man still have a couple of twisted bike frame sculptures from your attempts at BMX?”
“He turned them into birdbaths,” Zakk admitted grudgingly.
“So, the answer is yes.”
Zakk flipped him off, not that Riley noticed. He only had eyes for Dez on that bike.
Once they were underway, Zakk planned to join Tripp in the back, with a snack, since he had turned down breakfast and needed to eat something, at least according to the aftercare packet the hospital had sent home with them. The one Zakk had read word for word, while Tripp had skimmed the front page, rolled his eyes, and tossed it on the counter.
It was currently in Zakk’s bag, between a couple of notebooks. He might have been willing to leave his keyboards behind, but not his notes for the songs they were working on.
“If I wasn’t pissed at that fuck, I’d be out there riding with him,” Tavis declared, fiddling with something on his phone. “Back of a bike is nothing to get freaked out over. You rode a bike, didn’t you?”
“A bike doesn’t go seventy-five miles an hour,” Riley groused.
“One with an engine does,” Tavis replied.
The rumbling shudder of the RV announced their departure, Winter and Dez following behind. Riley had suggested they lead, until Winter explained that idiots looking to fly around the RV might start merging into the bikes before realizing they were there. It was logical, but that didn’t mean Zakk liked the idea of either of them out there, when in here, they’d not only be safer, but together, where they could talk, hash out plans and maybe start fixing some of the little issues that plagued them.
“So, if I were gonna fix Tripp breakfast, should I go with eggs, French toast, or pancakes?” Zakk asked Tavis.
“Go with French Toast with a side of scrambled eggs, light on the syrup,” Tavis replied. “He’d go for a power bar and half a pot of black coffee if we let him.”
“He needs to cut that shit out.”
“You’re preaching to the choir.”
“If you’re going to cook, allow me to get my order in before the eggs are gone,” Damien called from the front.
“You want your usual omelet?” Zakk called back.
“Only if you sauté the onions before you put them in this time.”
“You know, you could always come back here and sauté the god damned onions yourself since you’re so picky.”
“That does sound good. We have sausage, right?” Riley piped up, finally turning away from the window, now that Dez had faded from his sight.
“I am not making your food,” Zakk declared. “You can get your ass up and make yours and Damien’s omelets, since you wanna be extra about it. Damn!”
