Heavy Hogs MC

by Elias Taylor

  That was one of the downsides of being a mechanic, but Natalie wouldn’t give up her job for anything. She’d take a hot day of using her hands over a comfortable eight hours in an office anytime.

  That was just another thing she and Brent had in common—they both liked to do things. Natalie didn’t work out, but she loved to get moving and use her body and muscles to accomplish things. Brent was the same way. They could kick back and relax together, but not forever—a few hours of that and they wanted to get outside and do something, even if that something was just taking a walk down their quiet street.

  The garage doors were wide open when Natalie’s Valkyrie thrummed to a stop. She tossed the sun cover she kept at the shop over the bike and headed to the open garage doors, breathing a sigh of relief to get out of the sun and into the shops’ cool air created by the spinning fans on the ceiling.

  The Cadillac waited for her, and the sight of its warm red paint immediately cheered her up. This car had more experiences under its belt than most people. How lucky was Natalie to get to work with vehicles like this?

  The morning rushed by in a stream of working with tools, answering phones and tossing friendly insults at Matt and Julian. At lunchtime, she waved a temporary goodbye to her coworker and boss and went to meet Jasmine at their favorite sushi place—a revolving bar that kept an endless supply of all kinds of sushi within arm’s reach.

  “Hey, girl!” Jasmine hugged Natalie before she could even get off the motorcycle. “Gross, you’re sweaty.”

  “My bad, I forgot to turn on the air conditioning.”

  “Yeah, I guess that wouldn’t work too well for bikes. Let’s get you out of the heat for a bit.”

  Natalie didn’t bother trying to explain that she didn’t really mind it. Besides, lunch was about Jasmine, not Natalie. Her best friend had sent out an SOS and Natalie was here for her, not the other way around.

  “So, whose ass do I need to kick?” Natalie made a show of cracking her knuckles. “What did this guy do?”

  “No ass kicking. Not yet, at least.” Jasmine shook her head at Natalie’s pout. “Remember when you went to Vegas and accidentally got married—”

  “Vividly,” Natalie deadpanned.

  “—and I went to the beach? I met this guy...”

  Jasmine didn’t have anything as stupid and epic as accidentally getting married, but Natalie paid close attention to her beach boy story and took notes to mention when Jasmine finished.

  “So? What do you think?” Jasmine asked.

  “I think the dude is using you and you should block his number,” Natalie told her bluntly. “No, seriously. Disappearing for a week after two dates and being like ‘I forgot to text you back’? That’s Male Gender for ‘I want you to be around when it’s convenient for me’.”

  “You’re probably right,” Jasmine sighed. “I feel like I’m such a first-impressions girl. If the guy makes a good first impression, I can’t look past that and see when he’s acting like a jerk later.”

  “That’s what I’m for.” Natalie snagged a nice, simple, fresh California roll off the sushi conveyor belt.

  “He’s so hot though,” Jasmine said. “And he asked me out to dinner tomorrow night.”

  “Totally go, then. Especially if he’s going to pay. Just take him with a grain of salt so that you’re not disappointed when things go south.”

  “I forgot how negative you can be when it comes to dating. I thought Brent had cured you of that.”

  “We’re not—” Natalie stopped. She and Brent went on dates all the time—dates that they actually labelled dates, out loud, verbally to each other. “Alright, I guess we’re dating. That doesn’t mean I’m not being careful, though.”

  “Oh yeah?” Jasmine countered. “What are you doing this weekend?”

  “Going out with—” For a second time, Natalie stopped, pursing her lips.

  Jasmine grinned victoriously. “Exactly. You’re totally into him.”

  “I am,” Natalie admitted. “He actually told me that he liked me... a lot.” Natalie shouldered her friend when Jasmine made an aww face and fashioned her fingers into a heart.

  “You two are so cute together. Does this mean you’re not getting divorced?”

  “Okay, whoa.” Natalie raised both of her hands. “I think you’re getting a little—way—ahead of yourself. Just because we’re dating doesn’t mean we’re together, and no way are we staying married. We’re just taking our time to fill out the paperwork and set up the court date. The courthouse isn’t going anywhere. Judge Whatshisname isn’t either.”

  “Dating kind of does mean together. But, I guess,” Jasmine ended diplomatically, reaching for another plate of sushi.

  “No, it doesn’t. Look at you and Mr. Beach Dude. You’ve been on two dates. Do you consider him your boyfriend?”

  “Point taken,” Jasmine admitted. “But you and Brent are like, super good friends. You brush me off to hang out with him all the time.”

  “We get along well and spending time with him makes me happy, but that doesn’t mean I’m all lovey-dovey and googly-eyed and hanging on his arm all the time.”

  Jasmine hadn’t stopped smiling, and Natalie suddenly got the sense that she was digging herself into a deeper hole by the second.

  “Well, whatever you two are, if he makes you happy, then I’m really happy for you. I know growing up without a father was hard, and honestly, you never cared about any of the dozens of guys who would’ve ditched their best friends to date you in high school, so... I guess it’s just pretty incredible that you found someone who can make you this happy.”

  “I’ve had boyfriends,” Natalie disagreed, a little uncomfortable with how real Jasmine had just gotten.

  “Token boyfriends. Flings.”

  “Same thing. I know Brent’s different from those guys, but we’re still getting divorced. We just need to make time. We’re both really busy.”

  “If you say so.”

  Natalie reached for a plate of particularly delicious-looking sushi just as Jasmine lifted her own hand. Frantic giggling ensued as they got into an epic but tempered slap fight that ended with an agreement to share the plate.

  The slap fight had beaten away the topic of Brent and the divorce, and Natalie made no attempt to bring it back. She and Brent would get to it eventually. In the meantime, Natalie would keep getting to know him, hanging out with him and doing cool, new things with him.

  Chapter Sixteen: Brent

  These days when Brent went home from work, he didn’t exactly do it like he used to. He turned down the street he lived on, yes. He also slowed down as he neared his house. He even turned into the driveway.

  But then, instead of heading inside, he walked straight across the yard and through Natalie’s front door. She always left it unlocked for him, and he never knocked. Whatever she was doing—cleaning, talking on the phone, cooking or showering—her eyes always lit up when she saw him. When he got home after a long day of working with clients, those sparkling eyes were all he wanted to see.

  Today was no exception. Brent needed a shower and he knew he was invited over for dinner, but he couldn’t wait to see Natalie.

  That very woman threw open the front door as Brent took the front porch steps two at a time. “Hey!”

  Brent wrapped her in a hug, pressing her face into his chest.

  “You stink.”

  “I know.”

  His shirt muffled Natalie’s laugh. “Long day?” she asked when Brent let her step to arms’ length.

  “A bit. I just feel more cheerful some days than others, you know? Like sometimes it’s harder to think of the right encouraging thing to say.”

  “I don’t think you need to think. You’re a nice guy and you know how to push people without pushing too hard. Just be yourself.”

  “Was that a compliment?”

  “Yeah, it was. Whatcha gonna do about it?”

  Brent stroked the stubble on his chin with exaggerated thoughtfulness. “
I guess I’ll have to out-compliment you. Have I ever told you that I love your style because it’s simple but attractive, and I think it’s great that you always know exactly what to wear whenever we go somewhere?”

  Natalie narrowed her eyebrows at him. “Are you fishing for more compliments? Because I have to make dinner and topping that will take a minute...”

  “Also, you have great boobs,” Brent added. This achieved the desired effect of having Natalie shove him away from her and send him laughing on his way back to his house with a rapid-fire of insults following him.

  “It’s not a lie,” Brent defended himself to no one in particular, still chuckling as he let himself into the house.

  He desperately needed a shower, but he paused to breathe in a deep sniff of a homemade candle one of his clients had given him as a thank-you present. He wasn’t usually much for candles, incense, flowers or other aromatherapy-type things, but his fantastic mood had nudged him into grabbing the candle.

  God, he was in such a great mood. Brent loved having evening plans, and he loved that they always involved Natalie. Over dinner, he planned to ask her for her opinion on an idea that had come to him at the gym a couple days ago—workout videos. Some of his clients, especially ones who couldn’t afford to pay for as many private sessions as they would like or lived too far away to come to the gym regularly, had mentioned they would be interested in workout videos. He thought videos could be a way to retain clients and also reach new ones, while continuing to build his reputation as someone extremely knowledgeable in the fields of health, fitness and diet.

  Brent thought the idea was a great one, but Natalie always managed to help him see a perspective he hadn’t thought of before. He wanted more opinions, and hers really mattered to him because it came with a genuine desire for Brent to succeed.

  Honestly, everything Natalie said mattered to Brent, even the teasing and the joking insults. They never got under his skin anymore. The days when Brent and Natalie had been bitter enemies felt like fuzzy childhood memories. Had it really been just a month and a half? Brent felt like Natalie had been his best friend forever, not Gideon.

  She’s not just my best friend. She’s my best... everything. From eating dinner to riding motorcycles, Natalie made everything better. She was the magic ingredient to Brent’s happiness in life, and he knew now that he could never give that up. If he could go back to the beach and redo that moment where he told Natalie how much he liked her, he would replace ‘like’ with another l-word—one he hadn’t let himself even think about a woman in a long time.

  As usual, Brent thought about Natalie as he tossed his keys and wallet on the kitchen counter. He thought about her while he stripped off his smelly workout clothes and turned on the water. He was still thinking about her when he stepped out of the steaming shower a few minutes later. He knew he wouldn’t stop thinking about her until he went over to her house for dinner and got to see her again.

  For once in a month and a half, Brent was wrong. When he wrapped a towel around his waist and disentangled his phone from where he had tossed it on the rumpled bedclothes, Brent saw his father’s name on the caller ID and forgot about Natalie for the first time in a long time.

  “Hi, Dad.” Why are you calling right now? Brent added silently for his own benefit. He loved his father, but they had many differences in opinion as adults and his father had always been tough on him when Brent was a kid. Roy just wasn’t a supportive man in general, which was one of the reasons his mother’s name was now Lydia Brownstone and not Lydia Cooke. Still, Brent bore no resentment toward the man with whom he shared his last name—except, maybe, for interrupting him right now when he was trying to get ready to go to Natalie’s.

  “Good afternoon.”

  Brent winced. Even the greeting felt formal, like most of their interactions.

  “I found a box of things from your childhood in a closet. Do you want to look through them?”

  “What kind of things?”

  “Toys. Stuffed animals. Rocks you collected.”

  Brent almost snorted. He had forgotten that he used to go out and find rocks in the yard and insist they were part of his ‘rare’ collection. “Sure, I’ll take a look at them.”

  “Don’t wait too long. It’s taking up space.”

  Brent could feel his good mood slipping away. The box had probably been in that closet taking up space for years. Why did Brent suddenly have to drop everything, rush over and deal with it?

  “Thanks,” he said instead of voicing anything that would just get him an earful on respecting his father.

  An awkward silence fell between them. At least, it was awkward for Brent. His father was probably reading the news or doing big important business CEO stuff.

  “Did you take care of that unfortunate situation yet?”

  Brent knew that the ‘unfortunate situation’ was the accidental marriage, but it still felt like a kick to the gut and an insult to Natalie. “Not yet.”

  “I thought you were going to file for divorce immediately.”

  “I’ve been busy, Dad. I’ve been working on some business ideas.”

  “I’m sure you have.”

  Brent’s father probably didn’t mean to sound demeaning, but he sure came off that way. This was why Brent couldn’t admit to his father that he had real feelings for Natalie. Roy would have a million things to say about women—especially women who worked on cars—and how Brent was wasting his professional and personal potential.

  That’s enough, Brent decided, suddenly desperate to get off the phone and go bask in Natalie’s positive, uplifting influence. “I have. Like I said, I’ve been busy and I haven’t felt like dealing with drama. She lives next door and she always wants to hang out when she knows I’m home, so I can’t exactly avoid her.”

  “It’s like ripping off a bandaid,” his father told him. “The faster the better.”

  “I know, but her brother is my best friend.”

  “That doesn’t change what you have to do.”

  His father probably thought he was giving Brent useful advice, but it just set Brent’s teeth on edge. The sooner Brent convinced Roy that he was serious about ending any sort of relationship with Natalie ASAP, the sooner he could get off the phone and go eat dinner with his ‘unfortunate situation’.

  So, Brent did what he usually ended up doing when his father tried to talk to him about work or relationships—he went on autopilot. He knew the things his father wanted to hear, and he said those things without hesitation. To get out of here and be with Natalie, he would say anything he needed to say—even things that couldn’t be farther from the truth.

  Chapter Seventeen: Natalie

  “Damn it!” Natalie managed to catch two of the four bottles that fell out of the spice cabinet. The other two crashed to the floor, but they didn’t break.

  None of the four bottles held pepper, and neither did any of the ones remaining in the cabinet. She was out... no big deal. Natalie had been over at Brent’s yesterday, and she remembered seeing a nearly-full shaker of pepper.

  “If Brent’s going to eat you too, he might as well contribute,” Natalie told the salmon on the blue broiling pan. She washed the raw fish off her hands, danced her way to the front door to the beat of the music playing from her portable speaker and braved the heat to jog next door.

  The distant sound of running water met her ears as she opened Brent’s front door. She didn’t bother calling out to him, knowing the sound meant he was still in the shower. It was definitely better that she just pop in, grab the pepper and get out again. If Brent walked out in a towel, Natalie would forget all about the salmon and she couldn’t have that.

  Pepper... where’s pepper? One would think that with all the time Natalie had spent in this house, she would know the layout of the kitchen. She and Brent found they both preferred cooking in Natalie’s kitchen when they cooked together, though—they liked the gas stove and the layout of her kitchen better.

  Natalie found the sp
ice shelf just as the water in Brent’s bedroom cut off. She hadn’t found the pepper yet. Wouldn’t it be so fun to just walk into his room and surprise him? She could leave her clothes in the living room and walk up to him in nothing more than her matching bra and panties, kiss him before he had a chance to say anything and push him back to the bed, taking off any clothes he’d just put on. They could work up an appetite together.

  No. After dinner, she promised herself. She hadn’t gone through all the trouble of getting that marinade recipe from her mother to leave the fish sitting out on the counter all day. She just needed pepper and then she could escape temptation.

  But where in the world did he keep it? Natalie shifted spices around, even putting some on the counter to get them out of the way. As her fingers touched the wood at the back of the cabinet, she heard Brent’s muffled voice down the hall and stopped to strain her curious ears.

  Something about... someone’s brother? And not wanting to deal with drama? Confusion replaced curiosity. Brent would have told Natalie about any drama in his life—right? Natalie told him everything, and she thought he did the same.

  Forgetting about the pepper, Natalie crept around the corner of the wall between the kitchen and the hallway where she could hear clearly. If Brent was worried about what Gideon would think about him and Natalie, they needed to talk about it together.

  “I have to let her down easy.” Brent’s voice sounded so matter-of-fact, and it sent all the wrong kinds of tingles down Natalie’s spine. “I don’t want to lose my best friend just because his sister has a thing for me.”

  Natalie’s heart had plenty of time to freeze in her chest during the pause in which the unknown person on the other end of the call responded.

  “—like ripping off a bandaid, I know, you said that,” Brent said abruptly.

  Another pause. The entire Arctic Ocean filled Natalie’s heart now.