Chapter Fifteen
Wilder
HE GAVE Emmett a good few hours to work before he went in search of him.
He walked past the rows of machines in the gym and pushed through the doors to the boxing room, then came to a halt, gaze tracking Emmett as he sketched on the wall.
He wasn’t sure what he was looking at, but considering the confidence with which Emmett was drawing his lines, he knew it would end up nothing short of stunning.
He let the door fall shut, the creaking catching Emmett’s attention. He snapped his head up, eyes wide until they landed on Wilder, then his brows lowered in a frown, and he made an annoyed huff before returning to drawing on the wall.
He pressed his lips together to keep from smiling, but it was damned hard, because Emmett was fucking adorable.
Emmett lowered his pencil with a sigh and turned to face him. “Why are you here?”
“You promised to teach me to sign,” he said, arching a brow at Emmett.
Emmett crossed his arms, pencil caught between his fingers. “I think you and I remember that conversation very differently.”
He shrugged. “Same outcome.”
“You throwing me over your shoulder if I don’t do as I’m told?” Emmett quipped.
He stepped closer, lowering his voice. “Don’t tempt me.”
Blue eyes widened, and Emmett’s lips parted on a breathless gasp, his cheeks reddening. Fuck. He wanted more of that.
He cleared his throat and walked across the room to drop his ass onto the couch before he got too sidetracked from his actual goal, which was truly to learn enough ASL to hold a conversation. He leaned back on the couch, both arms resting on top of the back.
“Alright, where do we start?”
Emmett dropped his head back with a loud groan. Was it wrong that he found an exasperated Emmett adorable?
Emmett trudged across the room and sat down next to Wilder, crossing his arms and leaning back with a pouty look on his face. Alright. Looked like he was gonna have to start this.
“How do they work? Your implants?”
Emmett straightened just the slightest bit, a flash of surprise crossing his face.
“They stimulate the hearing nerve. I wasn’t that old when I got them, but I remember having to sort through all the different sounds to learn what each meant. It used to give me a splitting headache.”
“And now?”
A smile teased Emmett’s lips. “Now it’s just the people making the sounds that give me a headache.”
Wilder chuckled. He was a sucker for Emmett’s sassy side. Fuck. He was a sucker for whatever Emmett deigned to appraise him with.
“Do you hear anything if you turn it off?”
Emmett shook his head. “No. Nothing. Well… I can hear my heartbeat sometimes. You know when it’s pulsing in your ears? Nothing else because of my CIs, though. My father and my brother can hear some tones, and my uncle can hear a little more.”
“So, the deafness is inheritable?”
The smile on Emmett’s lips was breathtakingly sweet.
“My brother and I are adopted. I was maybe two when we went into foster care, so I don’t really know anything about our birth parents. My adoptive father was born deaf, and my uncle got meningitis and lost his hearing as a kid. They met at the school where they both work and became best friends.”
“You love them.”
There was a spark in Emmett’s eyes as he met Wilder’s gaze.
“Very much.”
“Family is what you make it,” he said, hating the pinch in his chest that reminded him of the fact that his family was falling apart.
“A biker’s family is the club, right?” Emmett asked, the genuine curiosity in his eyes making Wilder’s heart flutter.
“Yes. Members and their partners, and their kids, of course.”
Emmett nodded, gaze going hazy as if he was thinking about something.
“Is your bike all you ride?”
A smile tugged at Wilder’s lips as he leaned back, watching Emmett splutter and turn red as he realized what he’d said.
“No. That’s not―” Emmett dropped his head into his hands, grumbling under his breath.
He waited until Emmett looked up to say, “Aside from my bike, I prefer others do the riding.”
The strangled sound out of Emmett’s mouth was fucking delicious.
“My family owns a ranch.”
He blinked at Emmett. That was a strange topic shift.
“I grew up riding horses. That’s what I was trying to ask you. If you ride. Horses. Not people,” Emmett said, eyes going wide on that last part. “Because, you know, there’s a paddock and a barn at the clubhouse.”
“Never been near a horse in my life.”
The way Emmett’s face lit up sent his heart into a frenzy.
“Maybe if you stop annoying me, I’ll take you riding sometime,” Emmett said, then shook his head with a loud sigh. “Why does everything I say come out wrong now?”
“That’s ‘cause your mind’s in the gutter.” He gestured toward himself. “Not that I can blame you when all of this is in front of you.”
Emmett rolled his eyes, a smile on his lips, and to his amusement, he noticed that Emmett didn’t correct him.