EPILOGUE
“Hold still and let me fix your helmet. You squirm too much to be on the back of my ride without one.” My fingers tighten the chin strap beneath Delayni’s chin, and I nod.
“There, all set.” I bounce my palm lightly off the top of the pink shell.
Delayni got it in her head that any good old lady needed to know how to ride on a motorcycle.
She wanted to drive mine and that answer was a huge blaring hell no.
Maybe once she rides for a while with me, and she’s comfortable, then we will revisit her driving a motorcycle.
The woman is resilient as fuck, but I’m not about to tempt fate by tossing her on a sled by herself.
That is just asking for trouble in my opinion.
I just got her back not too long ago and I will be damned if I let her slip through my fingers again.
I’m not doing! Ever again. I need her with me until we are old and gray and even then, I’ll try to figure out some miracle cure to keep us together. I’m not giving her up ever again.
“I don’t see why I need to where this if you aren’t going to wreck us. Are you going to wreck us? How many times have you wrecked?” she fires off the questions one after another and my sides vibrate with silent laughter.
“None, Deylani. I have never wrecked, don’t plan to wreck us ever. But if something happens, you know things that might be out of my control, I want to make sure you’re protected.”
“Ok. Fair enough, then you need to wear one, too.” I don’t want anything happening to you either, North.”
“I do. You know that.” I arch an eyebrow in her direction. She has seen me put one on every time we leave, I don’t understand how she does not remember that.
“Not the black one. I want you to wear a pink one, like me.”
“A pink one?” I snort. “Why in the hell would I wear a pink one, Deylani?”
“So, we can match. If I have to wear the putrid color, you should, too,” she bites her upper lip, trying to contain the laughter threatening to bust out of her mouth and fails miserably.
“You hate the color pink?”
She nods. “Absolutely despise it.”
“Well, fuck. You loved it in your last night.”
“I guess somethings have changed, huh?”
“Sure have. I hate pink, you ride a motorcycle, and we’re both criminals.”
“Tsk. You’re not a criminal, remember? You were cleared of all charges.”
“Yeah, about that.”
I cock my head to the side and glare at her.
“The shiv, that was me, but happened while I was in prison. It was self-defense.” I smile, straddling my bike in front of her, but do not tell her that I already knew that before she said anything.
I have known for a while. Although I try extraordinarily hard to stay out of her thoughts, I have no control over entering her dreams or the conversations and things that take place while I am there.
“You ready for your first lesson?”
“Hell yeah! Woo!” she cheers holding her hands above her head as I lift the kickstand and hold the bikes weight up.
“Arms around my waist.” She groans. “At least until you get the hang of everything, ok?”
“Ok. She sighs. I can do that.”