Noah started unpacking Chinese food containers, talking about all the people at the shop in town. “But don’t worry,” he said. “I got everyone’s favorites.” He pulled out a long container and beamed at Lucas. “Ham fried rice, brother. Just for you.”
Sunshine filled Lucas’s soul, and he took the container with a wide smile on his face. “Thanks, brother.”
Lucas wasn’t sure what alternate reality he’d entered, but he enjoyed the meal with his family, and the time passed quickly until it was time for him to head over to Ruby’s. He hugged his mother and his sister, gave his new niece a kiss on the forehead, and clapped Noah in a man-hug.
“Good to see you, Luke,” Sabrina said. “Come by anytime. I’m just home alone now.”
“You have Margaret,” their mother said, and Lucas escaped the house before he could be drawn into that conversation.
At Ruby’s, he entered through the back door, another sense of calm coming over him with the scent of hot fudge and toasted marshmallows. He’d barely stepped through the door from the back of the shop where they did all the mechanical work and met for church into the front of the shop, where Maverick and Electron worked in the kitchen.
“House,” Electron said, taking him into a hug. He didn’t squeeze too tight, and Lucas appreciated that. “How are you?”
“I’m good,” he said, smiling. “I’m good now that I’m here.”
Mav turned away from the burner, where he stirred something in a large pot. He wore an apron, which made him seem so domestic, and Lucas grinned at him too.
He held out his knuckles for Lucas to bump, which he did. “Good to see you. Karly wants you to go up.”
“Yeah? Why?”
“She’s a real softie, and she made you that cinnamon swirl bread you like.” Mav grinned. “Plus, you need the work going up the steps.”
Steps were especially hard for Lucas, and Maverick had a whole lot of them. “I’ll go up in a minute.”
“All right.” Mav turned back to the stove, though surely he knew Lucas had something he wanted to talk about.
“When’s Vice coming in?”
“Vice is here,” Jordan said as he came through the door. He too drew Lucas into a hug though he’d seen him that morning. “What are we talking about?”
“Nothing,” Lucas said, stepping back. “Just wondering where you were.”
“I’m headed out to do the dents and dings in about ten.”
Lucas nodded, a sense of missing out on something pulling through him. He hadn’t always appreciated the opportunity to go out and get the dented cans from the grocery stores in Forbidden Lake, but he found now that he missed it.
“Karly has food upstairs too,” Maverick said, and that was code for them to get out of his kitchen.
“I ate with my family,” Lucas said, and a hush fell over the kitchen. Mav looked over his shoulder and exchanged a glance with Jordan.
“You did?”
“And there was no crying or screaming,” he said. “Well, Margaret acted up for a few minutes, but we got her under control.” He grinned at everyone watching him.
“Good for you,” Jordan said. “I could eat before I head out.”
“I’ll go up with you,” Lucas said. They started through the shop to the stairs in the back that led up to the loft.
“Listen,” Lucas said when they were out of earshot of the others. “Thanks for everything you’ve done and been for me in my life.”
Jordan put his arm around Lucas’s shoulders and said, “Back at you, bro. It’s been a good ride together.”
“It still will be, too,” Lucas said. “Once these ribs heal, we’ll be back on the road, in full leather.”
“That’s right we will,” Jordan said.
“Any closer to proposing to Felicia?”
Jordan coughed and shook his head. “Not yet.”
“Tyson got the job done.”
“Well, Tyson’s better than all of us,” Jordan said, rolling his eyes. “I haven’t even brought it up with Felicia yet.” He looked at Lucas. “You and Julie?”
“We’re just barely back together,” Lucas said. “I’m just enjoying falling in love with her.”
Jordan grinned at him and started up the steps. Lucas went second, taking each stair one at a time. Karly had the door open by the time he got there, and she had not just one loaf of cinnamon swirl bread, but three.
“You’re an angel,” Lucas said, giving her a hug. He sure did love coming to Ruby’s, and he loved how he was accepted here.
Thank you, Lord, he thought as he closed his eyes. He knew he’d been rescued by this club. He knew the Lord had helped everyone in the Sentinels to get out from under the pressure and influence of the Breathers, and he was so, so grateful.
“Hey, sweetheart,” he said several weeks later. He took off his helmet and grinned at the sight of Julie walking down her front sidewalk. The sun had been out in force this week, and the snow was nearly all gone. “You ready for this?”
“So ready.”
He got off the bike, feeling only a slight pull in his lower right back. He’d been riding for about a week now, but today was his and Julie’s first ride together.
Lucas took her into his arms and kissed her, feeling himself fall all the way in love with her. “Jules,” he whispered.
“Mm?” She tucked herself into his chest and swayed with him.
“I love you.”
She stiffened and stepped back so she could look up into his eyes. Lucas felt his most vulnerable, as he’d just opened the door to his heart and invited her to stomp all over it if she wanted to.
A softness entered her whole face. “I love you, too, Lucas.”
He basked in the sound of her voice saying that, his entire being warming. He couldn’t stop smiling, and he was glad Julie giggled softly and ducked her head. He needed a moment too, and he took it to simply know someone loved him. Not just someone. A good woman. A beautiful woman.
Several moments later, he said, “All right, let’s ride.” He strapped his helmet back on, and Julie did too. He climbed on first, taking an extra moment to feel the weight of the bike beneath him.
Julie climbed on, and he had a momentarily flash of watching her climb on behind Frogger. But that memory faded quickly. They’d talked a lot about that day, and everything between them had been ironed completely flat.
She wrapped her arms around him and snuggled right into his back, and so much happiness filled Lucas that he thought he might be experiencing joy for the first time in his life.
“Let’s ride,” she said, and Lucas got the motorcycle fired up, the engine filling her neighborhood with a roar.
“Yeah,” he said. “Let’s ride.” He took off from the curb, thinking there was nothing better in the world than going for a motorcycle ride with the woman he loved.
THE END
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Elana Johnson is the USA Today bestselling author of dozens of novels, from YA contemporary romance to adult beach romances. Check out her sweet romances in the Hawthorne Harbor Romance series, the Clean Beach Club Billionaire Romance series, the Beaches & Brides Romance series, the Rebels of Forbi
dden Lake Romance Series (bad boy sweet romance), the Stranded in Paradise Romance Series, the Carter’s Cove Beach Romance Series, (enemies to lovers romance), and the Sentinels MC Rebels Romance Series (bad boy sweet romance).
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She also writes under the pen name Liz Isaacson, who is the USA Today bestselling author and Kindle All-Star Author of the Three Rivers Ranch Romance series, the #1 bestselling Horseshoe Home Ranch Romance series, the Brush Creek Brides series, the Steeple Ridge Romance series (Buttars Brothers novels), and the Grape Seed Falls Romance series, the Christmas in Coral Canyon Romance series, the Quinn Valley Ranch Romance series, the Last Chance Ranch Romance series, and the Seven Sons in Three Rivers Romance series (Walker Brothers novels)
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CRASH
Book Three, Sentinels MC Rebels Romance series
by Elana Johnson
Copyright © 2020 by AEJ Creative Works Inc, Elana Johnson
All Rights Reserved
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. No part of this book can be reproduced in any form or by electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without the express written permission of the author. The only exception is by a reviewer who may quote short excerpts in a review. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in, or encourage, the electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.
Cover by Captiva Publishing
Interior design by AEJ Creative Works Inc.
Crash Page 19
