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I decided to play along, raising an eyebrow.
“You’re still chasing after bad boys? Messing around with me wasn’t bad enough?”
Lou leaned in and patted my chest with a coy grin. My heart leaped at the feel of her hand, warm and gentle, through the fabric of my t-shirt. A thousand memories came surging back at that simple touch. Memories I clung to, refusing to let go.
Stealing peaches from the farmer next door. Laughing as she kissed me for the first time, her lips sticky and sweet with fruit juice.
Frantic grinding and breathless touches stolen underneath the old willow in the woods behind her house. A cool breeze on bare skin. Goosebumps and shivers.
Road trips on my motorcycle, her arms locked around my middle. Teasing kisses pressed to the back of my neck until I couldn’t take it anymore and pulled over.
I could have sworn Lou’s smile faltered. Then again, maybe I was just imagining it. Maybe I was looking for an excuse to get nosy and pry into the life she’d lived without me.
“One day, I might learn my lesson,” she replied. “I wouldn’t hold my breath though.”
A heartbeat of silence settled between us as we gazed at each other. Then the rumbling cough of a motorcycle came to life on a nearby street.
Lou flinched. Her smile dropped, eyes wary and searching.
The motorcycle rolled by on the street. Her gaze followed it until the bike disappeared around the corner.
I recognized the look of someone scared and ready to make a run for it at a moment’s notice. I frowned. Something was wrong. But if I pushed her on it, I knew Lou well enough to know she would clam up, paste on that smile and claim everything was sunshine and roses.
She gave herself a little shake and rubbed her arms.
“Yeah, I’ll take you up on that drink after all. Let me get some gas in my tank and I’ll be ready to go in a minute or two. If I’d known I was going to be socializing, I would have dressed up a little.”
As Lou turned away, I couldn’t help myself. My gaze fell to her ass and the perfect way her jeans fit against her hips.
“You look good, Lou, and you know it,” I countered.
She flashed a smile of gratitude over her shoulder as she returned to her gas pump.
“So do you, Rooster.”
Questions burned on the tip of my tongue.
Are you in trouble? What has you spooked?
I glanced at her muddy truck. This time, I noticed the suitcases piled into the back, covered by a tarp.
What are you running from, darlin’?I wondered.
Chapter Two
Lou
Charlie “Rooster” Boden was the last person I’d expected to cross paths with at a random gas station outside of some dusty backwater California town. I hadn’t recognized him at first. All I saw was a tall, lean biker in jeans and a black leather jacket with broad shoulders and narrow hips. When I took a second look and saw the tattoos peeking out from under the cuff of his sleeve, scrolling across his knuckles, I knew I was a goner.
For as long as I could remember, I had a type and I wasn’t shy about it either. Biker boys with tattoos and motorcycles, tight-fitting jeans, and a devil-may-care attitude never failed to make me weak in the knees. Even when it had landed me in more trouble than I knew what to do with.
When he’d leaned back against his bike, his phone cradled in his hand, there was something so familiar in his posture and the way he carried himself that it made me itch at the back of my brain. That’s when I realized I knew him.
The years had been good to Rooster, sharpening his jawline, filling him out. His hair had grown, neatly smoothed back and trimmed close at the sides. Back home, he’d always kept it buzzed short. I’d never seen him with hair longer than half an inch. I liked the longer hair. It suited him well.
I rubbed at my sternum as I followed Rooster down the highway. Homesickness and memories and longing warred in my chest. He’d always looked comfortable on a bike, one hand resting lightly on his thigh, as if the world wasn’t flying past him in a blur at sixty-five miles per hour.
I wanted to hate him for leaving. I wanted to be angry with him. But all I felt was relief, as if seeing him was like coming home after being gone for years.
