Page 60 of What Burns Between

He tightens something in the center as he talks. "Rotated them toward you a little to shrink the distance, give you a better reach."

"That simple, huh?"

"Simple saves lives." He nods, taking a step back. Digger locks his eyes on mine, the seconds ticking by before he tears his gaze away. “Start 'er up and see how you go now."

Bottom lip pinched between my teeth, I turn the key, pull the clutch in, and push the button. "Shit!" I come stupidly close to losing balance. "I forgot the helmet."

Part of me expects Digger to laugh at my overt need for safety. To tell me to just do it anyway. None of me expects him to tuck the wrench in his back pocket and jog across the yard to retrieve the helmet Harvey holds out for him. I will my stupid heart to slow down—he probably does this kind of shit for everyone—and watch the towering muscle make his way back to me, flicking the straps out with his thumbs and readying the skid-lid for my head.

He holds his hands out, not to pass the thing over but to put it on for me.Fuck my eyes for burning.Needing my chin high for him to do the strap is the worst torture when all I want to do is hide my glistening eyes and rapidly blink.

I temper my breaths, cursing out the stupid tones of his masculine smell. Why is he being so nice? After what he said in the garage yesterday, I thought he didn’t?—

“Stop it.” He misreads my distress, finishing up with a solid thump on the top of the helmet. "Don't think about what you need to do," he instructs, gesturing to the path across the yard Harvey had laid out for me. "Feel it."

Feel it.Right.

All I’ve done is feel it and look where that got me.

I tear my attention away from the man and tap down into first. With a deep breath trapped in my lungs, I ease the throttle on—bringing the revs to where they sound right instead of reading the tacho this time around—and then let the clutch out. I move forward. But more than simply move, Iinchforward. No rocketing into disaster for this girl.

"Oh, my God! I'm doing it!" My hand slips a little, and I lurch forward faster. "Yes!"

"Now turn," Maddie hollers, jogging into the middle of the yard. "Remember to use your body to help shift the balance!”

Her words of advice come a little too late. I panic as the solid concrete staypost comes barreling toward me—the bike not turning as quickly as I'd like. I jerk the handlebars to steer right harder, twisting the throttle on in the chaos. The bike roars beneath me, the sheer weight of the machine wanting to propel forward, yet my turned wheel makes the back end slide out.

"Back off the throttle!" Harvey yells, rising from the bench seat in my periphery.

The weight is too much, the torque pushing the iron horse towards imminent destruction despite my best efforts to regain control of the situation.

"Shit!" I reflexively grip on the brake, forgetting which one I need.

A split-second feels like a lifetime.

The locked front wheel bites into the concrete, pitching the bike's weight to the opposite side as the back end tries to continue the momentum.

I go with it. Bucked off the damn machine like a drunk frat girl at a honky-tonk bar trying her luck on the mechanical bull. My shoulder hits the pavement, the abrasive surface tearing at my skin as I slide to a stop against the fence, my helmet hitting the concrete post with a solid clunk.

"Fuck!"

I amneverdoing this shit again.

23

DIGGER

Rae makes her first mistake,using the handlebars solely to navigate a tight turn. By the time she makes the second, my muscles are primed to move, to remedy the situation. After she makes the third, I'm in motion, cursing out my fucking niece for doing a shit job of drilling in the basics.Should have manned up and done this myself.Instead, I sulked indoors, avoiding the very fucking thing keeping my resting heart rate above average.

Rae.

"You okay?" I drop to my knees and grip her wrists, forcing her hands back from the helmet. "Leave that on for now."

Maddie slides in beside me. "Shit, Rae. Are you hurt?"

A tense second passes, our rapid breaths all to be heard before Rae erupts into giggles behind the helmet.

The fist eases from around my heart, lungs filling a little deeper.

Source: www.allfreenovel.com