4. 4
Ava walked into the little diner and looked around. How would she know if he was already here? She hadn’t realized until this moment she had no idea what he looked like. It felt like everyone was staring because she had been standing there an inordinate length of time when she spotted a man near the back waving at her.
She smiled and made her way back to where he sat, weaving in between tables. She took her time so she could get a good look at him. He was handsome, a red head going gray, but he didn’t look old enough to be that gray. It was hard to tell while he was seated but he looked like he was in good shape. At least his t-shirt clung to him in all the right ways. As she got closer, she couldn’t help but notice his bright green eyes that seemed to speak to her despite his not saying anything yet.
“Are you Cowboy?” she asked as she got close enough to be heard without raising her voice. She felt dumb enough using what was obviously a nickname without knowing him, or at least she hoped it was a nickname.
“I am,” he said with a nod. “I’m glad to see you more aware of your surroundings.” He stood and offered her a hand. She took it and shook it. “Have a seat.” He motioned to the other side of the table.
Ava pulled out the chair and tucked her skirt under as she sat. Cowboy took his seat again as soon as she did. The waitress appeared next to the table before she had a chance to say anything. The name tag on her shirt read ‘Betsy’.
“I know you just got here, sugar, but any idea what you’d like to drink?”
Ava blinked, not having been ready to order yet. Coffee? Didn’t sound good, she’d had enough already.
“Water, please.”
“No problem, you want lemon with that?”
“No thanks.”
When Betsy left, Ava took a deep breath and forced herself not to bite her lip, no matter how badly she wanted to.
“Thanks again for the night before last.” She shook her head. “It was a stupid thing to do, I know. I wish I could say I didn’t know better, but I did. I knew I should have gone with someone, but I just moved to town, and I only know a couple of people. They were busy and I was tired of waiting for life to happen to me.” She didn’t know why she felt like she needed to explain her actions to him, yet found herself doing it just the same.
“Hey, I get wanting to cut loose once in a while. Next time you want to go out and don’t have anyone to watch your back, I’d be happy to go with you, if only to make sure you make it home safely. No strings attached.”
“That’s a very generous offer.” She didn’t know what else to say, not now. She picked up her menu and took her time deciding what she wanted. She couldn’t help but notice Cowboy never touched his menu.
By the time Betsy returned with her water, Ava knew what she wanted. Betsy took their orders then left.
“Where do you get a name like Cowboy?” she asked before he had a chance to ask about her.
He chuckled.
“Rest assured, it’s not my given name. I’ve had several ask that. It’s a nickname. Given to me a long time ago by my club.”
“Club?” What kind of club gave you nick names? She knew a lot of men ended up with them in the military, but a club?
“I’m part of a riding club, have been for years.”
Now she was even more confused.
“Riding? Like horses?” What else could he mean? But why would a bunch of people riding horses dub one of them Cowboy?
“Not exactly, I ride motorcycles. Well, one mainly, but I have been known to ride others.”
“Oh.” Ava tried to remember everything she’d ever heard about motorcycle riders and motorcycle clubs. Nothing good came to mind. What she remembered hearing didn’t line up with what she knew of Cowboy’s character, perhaps what she’d heard was wrong? Over the last year she’d learned a lot of what she’d thought she knew or had been told was wrong.
She’d learned that people who were supposed to be trustworthy, weren’t, and now it seemed the people she’d been taught to stay away from, to fear, might be the most trustworthy of all.
“Not what you expected?”
“Honestly? No, but probably not for the reason you think.” She shook her head, trying to decide how much she wanted to share. After a moment she took a deep breath and began, “I’m learning that a lot of things I thought I knew aren’t what I’d been taught. This is just another.”
He cocked one brow and watched her for a moment. “Just like that?”
“Just like that. It might be harder if this was the first, or even the second revelation, but it’s just one in what’s become a long stream of lies I believed to be fact.” She couldn’t help a wry smile as she remembered some of the things she’d been told and believed, but now knew to be false.
“It sounds like you’ve been through a lot.”
“You could say that.” She didn’t want to go into it, so she changed the subject. “You been in Dickenson long?”
“Close to ten years. You?”
“About three months.”
“So, you’re a newbie. Can I ask what brought you to our neck of the woods?”
“Like I said, I’ve had a lot of changes recently. I wanted to be closer to family. My brother and his wife live here, so I came here to be closer to him.”
“Nice. Mind if I ask if you’ve found a job yet?”
“I have, or I’d probably still be living with Aaron. That’s my brother.” She picked up her glass and took a sip, using it as an excuse to gather her thoughts. “I work at the bank on Villard.”
“A manager?”
Ava shook her head. “I wish. Actually, no I don’t. I don’t have enough experience for something like that. I’ve only been working again for the last few months, there’s no way I could manage something like managing a bank, or pretty much anywhere else, except maybe a church. I’ve done that enough I could manage, but who’s going to hire me for that?”
Cowboy tilted his head and watched her.
“Manage a church? Are you some kind of pastor?”
Ava couldn’t help but laugh. “No, but my ex-husband is. I was nothing but a dutiful wife. And even that wasn’t enough.” She shook her head and met his gaze. “Enough of that. I’m not here to tell you about my mistakes. Tell me more about you. You said you’re part of a motorcycle club, am I calling it the right thing?” At his nod she continued, “Do you do anything else?”
“I do. I design and build custom bikes.”
“Oh, I didn’t know there was a big bike market in North Dakota.” She hadn’t noticed any bike paths. Maybe she was looking on the wrong streets?
“Bigger than you think. On top of that, we’re only about three hours from Sturgis, so we get a lot of traffic around the Rally.”
Ava’s face heated as she realized he hadn’t been talking about bicycles, but motorcycles again. It wasn’t until he’d said Sturgis that it had even occurred to her. She wanted to hide her face in her hands, but forced herself to keep her hands in her lap, at least for now.
A slow smile crept across his face. “You were thinking bicycles, weren’t you?”
She nodded, unable to meet his gaze.
“A lot of people do. It amuses me to see how long it takes them to catch on. You were way faster than a lot of people to pick it up. What part made it click?”
“Sturgis. I may be sheltered, but even I’ve heard of the rally in Sturgis.”
“You said you’d just moved here. Do you mind my asking where you came from?”
“Several places, but most recently a small town in Arizona you’ve probably never heard of.”
Cowboy’s eyes went wide. “Arizona to North Dakota. I bet this is cold to you, it’s got to be more like the winter temperatures down there?”
“It’s close. But the winter’s there are nice, which is why there are so many winter visitors.”
“Winter visitors? That must be a local term. All I’ve ever heard them called are snowbirds.”
Ava laughed again. “We use that too, but sometimes snowbirds is used as a curse by the locals, so winter visitors became the more politically correct term.”
A low growl rumbled from him, making her jump.
“Political correctness is going to be the end of us some day. Thankfully, most of the people I deal with don’t expect it. Especially from a grizzled old biker.” He grinned at her, revealing a straight row of white teeth.
Ava lifted one corner of her lips in a wry half smile. “Politically correct is expected from a pastor’s wife. Wouldn’t want to anger any member of the congregation. They might leave or, heaven forbid, complain to the conference. That is never a pleasant interaction.” She let a small shudder run through her.
“It doesn’t sound as if it would be.”
“Somehow the subject keeps turning back around to things I’d rather not talk about. I have a question for you, though, if you don’t mind.”
“Shoot. If it’s something I don’t want to answer, I’ll say so.”
“What’s it feel like to ride a motorcycle?” It was a dumb question, she knew, but she’d always wanted to know.
“Unbelievable.” He chuckled then sat back in his chair to watch her. “I know that’s not very descriptive, but riding is impossible to describe.” He shook his head. “There’s the wind in your face, the feel of the bike beneath you, the sense of freedom.”
Ava couldn’t help but notice the light in his eyes as he spoke. He might not be able to give a description he believed gave justice to the experience, but she could tell he loved the experience by the way he talked and the glint in his eyes.
She wished she had the nerve to ask for a ride. But he was a stranger, and she’d already imposed enough by his taking her home. This was her saying thank you, not her asking him to do something more for her.