Cade
We talked a little longer. I was careful with my words, letting her drive the conversation. She kept it light… the food, the clubhouse, how long I'd been riding. Surface stuff. I didn't push.
I couldn't help but ask though.
"Got a man?"
"No. No man. You?"
"A man?" I asked.
She chuckled. "An anything."
"Nah. No woman."
"Ok."
She'd said "no man." Did that mean… maybe a woman? I filed that away and left it alone.
We walked quietly to my bike. The yard was still, just the faint clang of Wrench doing whatever Wrench did when he wasn't lying about loaner bikes.
"Be back when I'm back," I told him.
He didn't look up. Just raised a wrench and grunted.
I didn't know whether she was staying up there, whether I was staying anywhere, or when she'd need a ride back for her bike. She'd have to get back somehow. She'd let me know, I guessed.
I swung my leg over and she climbed on behind me. But this time she settled back against the sissy bar. Not close like before.
I felt the shift in weight and I got it. She needed space. But space never seemed further than when the thing you couldn't touch was so fucking close.
The coast road stretched out ahead of us and the Atlantic rolled out to our right, gray-blue and endless. Salt air hit my face. I leaned into the corners, letting the engine do the talking. There was nothing to say at seventy miles an hour anyway.
I checked my mirror. She had dark shades on, face tilted slightly away from me, watching the coastline blur past. Or maybe not watching anything at all. I just knew she had faraway eyes behind those lenses.
Was she thinking about the future? The past?
Did she have a future?
Fuck. I couldn't bear to think about that.
I twisted the throttle and the Harley growled beneath us. The road wound along the coast and I kept it smooth and steady. Precious cargo.
Every few miles I'd glance back. She hadn't moved. Hands resting on her thighs, bandanna tight against her skull, chin up. Like she was daring the wind to take something from her it hadn't already.
We passed through small towns that blurred into each other. Gas stations, lobster shacks, churches with white steeples. None of it mattered. The only thing that did was the woman behind me who felt a million miles away.
Rocky Neck couldn't come soon enough, even though I never wanted the ride to end.