Chapter Seventeen
Roadkill watched as Jenna stared at her car.
“You all right, darlin’?” He moved up beside her and cupped her waist with one hand as he looked at her car and tried to decide if she was seeing something or if she was just processing.
She blinked a couple of times, then looked up at him and gave him a wan smile.
“Yeah, I’m fine. I’m just thinking.”
“When’s Lacey expecting you?”
She blinked again, then looked at her watch.
“Not for a couple hours.” She turned to stare at the car again.
“Can I talk you into taking a ride with me?” He knew it was a long shot, but he had to ask. He wanted to feel her wrapped around him, pressing those luscious tits against his back as the road set everything right in his world.
She turned her head to look at his motorcycle where he and Slide had backed them in side by side in a single space a few spaces away from her car. She stared at the bikes for what seemed like an eon, maybe a minute, before she shook her head.
“I can’t. I need to go check on Lacey.”
He bit his lip to keep from telling her that her sister wasn’t a baby. Besides, she wasn’t expecting her for a couple of hours. But he kept his mouth shut. He didn’t want to alienate her and ruin any shot he had with her.
“All right. Want me to follow you home to make sure you’re all right?”
Jenna shook her head. “I’ll be fine.” She headed for the car without another word.
“We gonna hang out here all day?” Slide asked from beside him. Roadkill didn’t answer right away. Instead, he watched as Jenna got in the car, buckled herself in and tried to start the car. Even from here, he heard the click then nothing of it refusing to start.
He didn’t say anything but moved to stand in front of the car and tapped the hood. It was impossible to miss when she pulled the hood release, so he lifted the hood and took a look. He checked the battery terminal, but it felt tight.
“Hit it again,” he said.
She turned the key and this time it didn’t even click. He wasn’t sure what it was, but he didn’t have the equipment here to figure it out. Besides, he suspected it wasn’t just one issue, but a combination of a couple. He’d let Papa Smurf know when he talked to him later.
“Come on. Get what you need. I’ll take you home and have someone come get this,” Roadkill said.
She climbed out of the car but instead of closing it up or moving away from it, Jenna propped her ass against the rear door and buried her face in her hands.
“But how will I get Lacey to school in the morning? And without a car, how will I get to work?”
He moved around to stand in front of her, but not too close. He didn’t want to scare her or make her uncomfortable.
She drew a deep breath and let it out slowly before looking up at him.
“Let me take you home. I’ll come and get you in the morning, we can get your sister to school and you to the shop in plenty of time.”
She gave his bike a pointed look.
“On that?”
“For you and me today? Yes. But I’ll bring a pickup tomorrow. Don’t worry. I’ve got you.”
“But,” she looked up at him with wide eyes, “why?”
“Darlin’,” he lifted one hand and smoothed a stray lock of hair out of her face from where it had fallen out of her ponytail. “I just want to help. I’ll have one of the prospects come get this and take it to the shop. I don’t know how long it will take, but we’ll get it going for you.”
Her shoulders fell. “I guess there goes my first paycheck.”
Roadkill shook his head. Papa Smurf would let her pay the cost of repairs out in payments, if that was what she needed to do, but he had other plans. “We’ll make sure you get enough to cover what you need to. What did I just tell you?”
She looked up at him with a frown of confusion marring her brow.
“Don’t worry. I got you,” he repeated. “Now grab your purse, and anything else you need before tomorrow, and let’s go.”
She watched him for a moment, then sighed.
“All right.” She reached into the car for her purse and keys, then checked the back seat, and locked it before turning back to him. “How do we do this?”
He looked her up and down, noticing her purse hung open at her side. “Does that thing have a flap or a zipper? Some way to close it?”
She looked down at her purse, then back to him. “It used to but the zipper broke.”
“No worries. We’ll put it in one of my saddle bags.” He put a hand on the small of her back and urged her toward where Slide stood beside their bikes. Once they reached the bikes, he pulled out the helmet he’d brought, just in case, and replaced it with her bag. “Ever been on a bike before?”
She stared at him with wide eyes before shaking her head.
“Will you give me twenty minutes?” he said as he helped her adjust the straps and buckle the helmet.
She narrowed her eyes. “It won’t take us that long to get to our place. We have a place on the other side of the lake.”
“I figured, if you’re in Wilmer, it’s never that far from anything else in town, but I wanted to show you something.”
Jenna watched him, as if trying to see inside his head and read his mind. But he didn’t give anything away. It wasn’t like he was planning to abduct her, not that she would know that. All he wanted was to give her a few minutes to get past the initial fear a lot of people had of motorcycles.
She took a deep breath, then nodded.
“I guess I can do twenty minutes.”
“Perfect. Thank you.” He swung one leg over his bike, then instructed her on how to mount up.
“Hold on tight.” He started the bike and in seconds, they he was pulling out on the highway.
He knew where he was headed. It wasn’t far and it let him get the bike up to fifty-five, so she’d have a chance to just enjoy the ride.
Slide must have had something else to do, because he turned the other direction, back toward the clubhouse.
Ten minutes later he pulled off into the entry area to a campground, pulled into a parking space and killed the engine. Jenna’s arms loosened around his middle then she sat up, he missed the feeling of her smashed so tight against his back.
“What are we doing?” Jenna asked.
“I just wanted to talk for a sec. What do you think so far? Are you having fun?”
“I’m enjoying the ride.” She paused and he wished he could see her face. “I’m not sure fun is the right word, but I am enjoying it.”
Roadkill frowned, wondering what was the right word if it wasn’t fun? But maybe she just didn’t know yet.
“Sweet.” He was quiet for a moment, hyper aware of the twenty minutes she’d given him ticking away. “Where exactly is your place?”
“You know the little gas station on the left after you cross the bridge?”
“Yeah.” It was the closest convenience store to the clubhouse, so all the Warriors were familiar with it, not that he said that.
“We’re behind that some, it’s hard to explain without writing it down.”
“No worries. As we get close tap on my leg for a turn.”
“But how will you know which way to turn?”
Roadkill lifted his elbows out to the side.
“Give me your hands for a sec.” He let his hands dangle near his hips until she put her hands in them.
Then he tugged her forward just a little.
“Like this. Right turn.” He used her right hand to double tap his right thigh.
“Left turn.” He did the same with her other hand, then released them both.
Too his surprise, she didn’t pull them away.
“Oh, that makes it easy.”
“It does. You can also shout and I’ll hear you.”
“That seems inconvenient.”
“It can be. If you decide you like it and want to ride more often, I’ll get us helmets with radios, so we can talk while we ride, if you want.”
She sounded a bit hesitant when she spoke again.
“I’ll have to think about it.”
“No worries. There’s no rush. Ready to head to your place?”
He felt her take a deep breath and let it out in a rush.
“Yeah, we should. I need to see if Lacey did the chores I asked her to.”
“All right. What are your evening plans?” he asked.
“Not sure. I’ll have to see what Lace got done and what I still need to do. I want to get everything I can prepared to start the new job tomorrow.”
“Then let’s get you home.” He started the bike, waited until she’d wrapped her arms around his middle and pressed herself tight against his back, then cranked the throttle and off they went.