Chapter Seven #2
“Are you going to hear him out?”
“No.”
“Hmm.”
“What does that mean?” I asked.
“Aren’t you at all curious?”
“Way too little too late, Gina.”
She raised her hands in surrender. “No judgment. It’s your life.”
“Sorry,” I said on a sigh. “Just on edge.”
“I get it.” She smiled. “Men’ll do that to you.”
“Ain’t that the truth,” I retorted just as our receptionist, Jennifer, walked in.
The rest of the morning continued without incident, but that should have been an indication of how my afternoon was going to go. It had been way too easy.
“Katie, emergency in exam room one,” Jennifer said. “They didn’t give me a name.”
I nodded. This wasn’t unusual. It was how Gina had set up her practice long ago. We treated bikers, after all. Everyone was welcome and they didn’t have to give a name, and when we hired people, we trained them to know that.
“Thanks, Jenn,” I said and after grabbing the file, headed into the room.
I squirted sanitizer into my hands and closed the door, then looked up and froze.
“Hey, beautiful,” Rooster said with a grin from his place on the end of the clinic bed.
“Uh, no.”
I turned to leave, but he said, “Wait, I’ve got a pretty nasty burn. Are you really going to leave me here without treating me?”
I faced him again and frowned. “How did you get a burn?”
He rolled up his sleeve and exposed his forearm, pulling away the bandage to reveal he did, in fact, have a burn, although, it was minor. I leaned in for a closer inspection and then grabbed gloves and slid them on. “Rooster, what happened?”
“Hot pipe got me.”
“Of your bike?” I squeaked.
“Yeah.”
“How the hell did your pipes even get you?” I demanded. “I would understand a brand new rider might catch their leg, but how the hell did your arm get anywhere near your pipes?” He didn’t answer me right away, so I met his eyes. “Kam? How did your arm get burned?”
“Your mom said—”
“You talked to my mother? When?”
“On Saturday.” He sighed. “I needed a reason to see you.”
“You did this on purpose?”
He at least had the good sense to look contrite. “It’s a first-degree burn, no biggie.”
“Beckham Walter Cahill, you are the dumbest fucking dumb fuck on the planet,” I hissed, grabbing a few things in order to clean and treat the burn.
His good arm snaked out to grab me gently and pull me to him. “You’ve been ghosting me.”
“Doesn’t feel good, does it?” I hissed. “Let me go.”
He sighed, but he did release me. “Please, honey, will you just talk to me?”
“Stop squirming so I can treat your arm.” I looked at him. “Or should I go get Gina to do it?”
Looking at him was a rookie mistake because he managed to put all of his love and affection in his eyes as he stared back at me.
“I’d like you to talk to me, Katie. The burn’s gonna heal on its own and you know it.”
I focused back on his arm. “I can’t.”
“Why can’t you?”
“Because letting you talk opens me up to heartache, Rooster, and I have managed to compartmentalize for a long time.” His burn was clean, so I treated it and wrapped it back up. “It never does anyone any good to start picking at threads.”
“I love you, Katie.”
I hissed through my teeth, the sting of tears forming in the back of my throat. “You’re a goddamned fucking liar.”
“You know, you’re the only one.”
As he rolled his sleeve back down, I busied myself with cleaning up the trash.
“Only one, what?” I asked, regretting it immediately.
“The only woman I’ve ever kissed. The only woman I’ve ever fucked. The only woman I’ve ever loved.”
“Get out.”
“No.”
“Kam—”
He slid off the bed and stood in front of me.
“I fucked up, Katie. I can’t take any of that back.
There are reasons but only you can decide if they’re good ones and move past them.
” He cupped my face and leaned in. “The truth…the god’s honest truth, beautiful, is that I love you.
There has never been anyone but you since I left.
Hell, there hasn’t been anyone since we were fourteen, and there never will be. ”
I lost my war with my tears as I rasped, “Why?”
One of his hands slid to my neck, and he tugged me into his chest, wrapping his other arm around my waist. “I will explain everything. I just need you to hear me out.”
“Did my mother tell you to do this?”
“No, of course not. She just said I’d need to get creative.”
“And this is your idea of creative?” I screeched.
He shrugged, giving me his lopsided grin, which nearly broke my resolve.
“You broke my heart,” I rasped.
“I know, baby. I broke my own as well.” He ran a thumb over my cheek catching my tears. “So much shit went down, and I couldn’t deal. In my stupid young man brain, I thought I was protecting you from me, but I realize now that I should have given you the chance to make your own choice.”
I nodded into his chest as I continued to break down. “I can’t do this all over again.”
“I’m hoping we won’t have to,” he said, stroking my back. “I want to mend things, Kate. I want to figure out a way to fix what I broke but I can only do that if you let me.”
“How are we going to get past all of the men I’ve fucked since you’ve been gone?” I lied. “I know how jealous you get.”
“All of them, huh?”
“So, so many,” I taunted.
“Can you count on one hand how many?” he challenged.
“Nope.”
“Because there haven’t been any,” he said, matter-of-factly.
I played with a button on his cut as I continued to lie my ass off, “You don’t know.”
“I do know.” He settled his chin on the top of my head. “I’ve kept tabs, remember?”
“You said that before.” I glanced up at him. “Who have you been keeping tabs with?”
He gave me a sly grin. “No information until we actually sit down and talk.”
I bit my lip. “And you’ll tell me everything?”
Rooster nodded. “Everything.”
“I’m not saying I’m going to forgive and forget, you understand that, right?”
“I do,” he said.
“Fine.” I took a deep, shaky breath. “You can meet me at my place after work. Bring dinner and wine.”
He gave me a gentle squeeze. “I can do that.”
“Thai food, extra spicy.”
“Okay, baby. Thai.” He slid his phone out of his jeans pocket, handing it to me. “Put your number in and text me your address.”
“Oh, your ‘tabs’ person hasn’t already given it to you?”
“No.” He chuckled. “They still have your back, Katie.”
I did as he asked and handed him his phone back.
“What time?” he asked.
“I should be home around six.”
“Okay. I’ll see you then.”
“No colors, right?” I rushed to say.
“I know the drill. Hatch has scouts out. We’re all being careful.”
With one last, loving glance, he walked out the door and I leaned against the clinic bed.
What the hell did I just do?