Chapter Six
Hazel
I was halfway through pulling a stubborn weed from the flower bed along the side of the house when I heard a car door slam.
“Hazel!”
I looked up. Pink had just pulled into her driveway and was waving at me over the roof of her car.
I pushed a loose strand of hair off my face with the back of my wrist and waved back. “Hey!”
She grabbed her purse from the passenger seat, shut the door, and started across her yard toward me.
Then the sound hit.
Not one motorcycle. A lot of them. The roar rolled down the road hard enough that I straightened and looked toward the trees.
A line of bikes came into view around the bend.
One after another. Then another. Then another.
I blinked. “Well, shit.”
The motorcycles slowed as they reached the houses and spread across the road enough that, for a few seconds, they pretty much took over the whole damn thing.
I knew Bone was in a motorcycle club, but knowing a man belonged to a motorcycle club and seeing what looked like half an army of motorcycles show up outside his mother’s house were apparently two very different things.
Pink stopped walking toward me and turned. “Give me one second!” she called.
I nodded even though I wasn’t sure she was looking.
The bikes idled for a moment and Bone got off his first.
I recognized him immediately.
Dark shirt. Cut. Sunglasses. That same solid build I remembered from the other day.
Two men climbed off bikes near him. I didn’t know either of them.
One was bigger through the shoulders, with dark hair and a beard. The other looked leaner and had the kind of face that made me think he didn’t smile much.
The rest of the bikes stayed where they were.
Bone walked toward Pink and she met him halfway. I couldn’t hear everything they said, but I could tell something was off.
Pink crossed her arms and Bone said something. She shook her head. He leaned closer.
One of the other guys looked down the road while the second kept scanning around like he was checking the houses.
My eyebrows pulled together. Okay. That was weird.
Bone looked different too.
The first time I met him, he’d been serious, but there’d been something under it. Patience. Maybe even a little amusement.
Now? Nothing. He looked like stone.
Closed off. Like every part of him had clicked into place and there wasn’t room for anything else.
Then I heard Pink clearly. “You could at least say hi to Hazel.”
Bone turned toward me. I couldn’t see his eyes behind the sunglasses, but I felt the look anyway.
It was strange. Like he was seeing me but not really seeing me. Or maybe he was too distracted to care.
I lifted a hand. “Hey.”
He gave me a single nod. That was it.
The two men beside him looked at me too. Neither nodded.
Friendly bunch.
Bone said a few more words to Pink. She touched his arm, then he leaned down and kissed her cheek. Something about that softened the whole picture for about two seconds.
Then Bone stepped away and the three men headed back to their bikes.
One by one, they pulled away from the houses and headed back down the road in the direction of the dead end.
I stood there watching until the last bike disappeared around the bend.
Then I looked at Pink.
She was still standing near her driveway, watching too. Her shoulders were lower than they had been before. I had only known her a few days, but Pink wasn’t hard to read.
She was warm. Open. Loud in the best way and smiled easily. Laughed even easier. The woman carried herself like sunshine with hot pink streaks in her hair.
Right now, there was a cloud over her.
Pink finally turned. The second she saw me looking, she smiled.
I brushed the dirt off my knees and stood. “What was all that?”
Pink walked toward me. “What was what?”
I stared at her and she kept coming. “The small motorcycle invasion.”
“Oh.” She waved a hand. “That was just Bone and his friends.”
I looked past her toward the empty road. “Friends?”
“Yes.”
“Pink.”
“What?”
“That was at least ten motorcycles.”
She smiled. “Probably.”
“And you’re calling that friends?”
“What else would I call them?”
“A motorcycle club?”
She laughed. “There’s that too.”
I folded my arms. “You really undersold this whole thing.”
“I told you Bone was in the Grave Prowlers.”
“You make it sound like it was Bone and a couple guys.”
Pink laughed harder. “So maybe I didn’t give you an exact number of friends he had.”
I shook my head.
She was impossible.
“That normal?” I asked.
“What?”
“All of them showing up?”
“Oh.” She glanced back toward the road. “Bone mostly comes by himself. Couple times a week, usually. He normally doesn’t have everyone with him, but I’m sure it’s nothing.”
I looked back at her. “You okay?”
Pink’s smile faltered for half a second. Then it came back. “I’m fine.”
That wasn’t exactly convincing, but I hadn’t known her long enough to push, so I didn’t.
She clapped her hands once. “What are you doing for dinner?”
Subject officially changed.
I glanced at the dirt on my knees. “Big plans.”
“Oh?”
“Hot date with a TV dinner and reruns of Family Matters.”
Pink put a hand over her heart. “Steve Urkel?”
“The man himself.”
“Sexy.”
“Very.”
She nodded seriously. “I can do you one better.”
“I doubt that.”
“Dinner at my house.”
I raised an eyebrow. “And?”
“Golden Girls.”
I stared at her.
She stared back.
“Okay,” I said. “You win.”
“I know.”
“Are you always this competitive?”
“Yes.”
“At least you’re honest.”
Pink pointed toward me. “One hour.”
“Bossy.”
“Aggressively helpful.”
I shook my head, remembering her shirt from the other day. “Right.”
She started backing toward her house. “I’m serious. One hour.”
“I’ll be there.”
“I have wine.”
“Now you’re just showing off.”
Pink grinned and turned away.
I watched her go, then crouched back down beside the flower bed and reached for another weed.
Whatever Bone had going on, he could handle it.
I had dirt under my nails, dinner with Pink in an hour, and an entire house still waiting for me to get my shit together.
That was enough for now.