Rough Ride (Riding with Honor)

by Rebecca Avery

  Chapter Four

  Lilly woke up late the following morning. Her sister returned late the night before but she had still been awake with thoughts and images of Bobby filling her head. Lilly had been tempted to go try a cold shower herself right before she had finally fallen asleep exhausted. After showering she headed downstairs to try and spend some time with Sherri.

  Finding her sister at the kitchen table, Lilly poured herself a cup of coffee and joined her.

  “You look tired, you ok?” Sherri asked

  “Yea… I’m fine,” she replied.

  “I was kind of worried about you. You were up and gone before I woke up yesterday and gone until after I left for work….” Sherri said giving her a pointed look.

  “I got a job,” she said quietly.

  “Already? That’s great!” Sherri cried.

  “I’m working for Bobby Jackson,” she said looking her sister in the eye.

  “Please tell me you’re not the flavor of the week,” Sherri laughed.

  “No, but he did kiss me yesterday,” she said, looking away from Sherri’s questioning eyes.

  Sherri’s face lost its humor and she sat up straighter in her chair. “He kissed you? Like kissed you… kissed you?” she asked.

  “Yea,” she replied.

  “You didn’t…” Sherri started waving her hands in the air.

  “No! I told him I wasn’t ready for anything like that with him,” she said defensively.

  Sherri laughed. “That’s probably the first time he’s been turned down in years. How’d he take it?”

  “He said he would wait until I was ready but that he wasn’t going to stop flirting with me and saying the things he says...” she replied.

  “What things? What are you talking about?” Sherri asked.

  She explained about Bobby invading her space, some of the things he had said to her and about the shopping trip. She opened her mouth and the events of the day before came spilling out. When she’d finally finished she looked up and Sherri’s mouth was hanging open with a look of confusion on her face.

  “We are talking about the same Bobby Jackson… the one whose bike you were on the back of Friday. That Bobby Jackson?” Sherri said as though in shock.

  “Yes!” she replied.

  “He’s hot if you like that dark and brooding kind of thing, but he’s never come on to me. In fact I’ve never seen him come on to any woman. Most of the women I’ve seen him with just start hanging on him and the next thing you know… they’re leaving together and like a week later the woman is broken hearted,” Sherri said. “He went shopping with you and bought you clothes?” Sherri looked astounded and confused.

  Feeling the need to explain further Lilly continued. “I really like having a job. I mean I know I’ve only worked there one day, but I like the idea of it… the independence,” she said. “I don’t want whatever this is between me and him to ruin that.”

  “Do you like him?” Sherri asked.

  “I don’t really know him that well but… yea I guess I kind of do… I’m not sure why since he’s not really my type but…there’s just something about him. He’s so different than Darren was. I don’t get it,” she explained.

  “Well I never really liked Darren and I know the feeling was mutual. I’m sorry you were hurt with all the scandal surrounding his business dealings but I’ve got to tell you that after all the finger pointing he did at me…” Sherri said, “You know what they say about pointing fingers…”

  “I know there are three more pointing back at you,” she finished.

  “How could you not have known what he was doing?” Sherri asked.

  “He never liked me to get involved with his business. He brought home the money and I ran the household and basically made it look like we were fine upstanding people,” she explained.

  “But you have an MBA… didn’t you ever wonder why he didn’t want you working outside the home? I mean I could understand if you’d had children but…” Sherri said, shaking her head in confusion.

  “I’m just sorry I allowed him to come between us Sherri. As much as I loved him, I never meant for that to happen. I’m so glad you’re back in my life and I cannot thank you enough for being there for me these past couple of years… opening your home to me. I won’t out stay my welcome I promise. I will start looking for something as soon as I get settled in this new job,” she said, hugging her sister as she went to refill her coffee.

  “You know you’re welcome here as long as you want to stay or need to,” Sherri said. “So since he seduced you and therefore you didn’t buy the other outfits you picked out yesterday, should we finish your shopping today? I promise not to say sexy things to you in the dressing room.”

  Lilly laughed, “Yea, we probably should. Though I’m not sure what to buy that won’t garner a comment from him.”

  “There are so many women in this town who would give anything to catch his attention and hold it longer than a couple of hours. You’ve had it the whole weekend so far and aren’t sure what to do with it. Maybe you should just fuck him and get it out of your system… and his,” Sherri laughed.

  “Oh my God, I can’t believe you said that!” Lilly laughed

  “Yea, well you’re not in the Hamptons anymore sweetie… down here we don’t judge,” Sherri said, laughing as she headed off to the shower.

  The next week seemed to fly by as she worked steadily at the garage going through the stacks of mail and paperwork scattered about the office. Upon seeing the state of the only bathroom, she spent a couple of hours one day just cleaning and restocking it. Dickie had managed to get her car up and running. As good as it felt to be able to drive herself to and from the shop, as well as unload all her things from the trunk, somehow she missed the bike rides.

  Now that she was there to answer the phone and had implemented a system for handling timesheets, invoices and bills, the guys really focused on finishing up the custom motorcycle they were building for an upcoming competition show in Arizona. She spoke to Dickie about what the rally would be like and followed up on an order for clothing and merchandise for the vendor tables. She also worked on getting posters made of some of the bikes they had previously built to hang in the booth.

  She had suggested that they do a drawing as a way to get contact information for those customers who visited the booth during the rally. Dickie really liked the idea and she dove into getting everything setup for that including the form for people to fill out. The focus on the upcoming competition and everything that was needed for it, combined with trying to clean up the office to get everything in order for taxes, kept her so busy she had not even thought of the life she left behind and what she had lost.

  As Friday afternoon rolled around, she was surprised that she felt almost disappointed that the week was over. It had been a long time since she felt like a part of something… like it mattered that she was around. Though she left nearly exhausted every night, somehow her spirits were higher than they had been in years… even before Darren’s death.

  The door to the office opened and Dickie entered with the mail in his hand and Bobby following behind him.

  “Who the hell will drive the camper then?” Bobby asked him.

  Both heads turned to stare at her as she looked up from the computer.

  “Not a good idea...” Bobby said.

  “Why not? She could help run the booth and take care of sales. Hell she’s been here a week and is already running the place… so why not?” Dickie argued.

  “Because it’s at least a three day drive… because the camper only sleeps four people… because we’ll be gone for nearly two weeks between the drive there and back and the actual rally… how many reasons would you like?” Bobby asked sarcastically.

  “The kid deserves to ride with us this year Bobby and you know it,” Dickie said. “Why don’t we ask her… she says no… he drives the camper and gets babysitting duty… she says yes… he gets the pull out, I get the bottom bunk, you the top bunk
and Tommy gets the couch. She and Gretchen can take the bedroom.”

  Unable to contain her curiosity over the discussion they were having regarding her she said, “What’s going on?”

  “Chuck wants to ride with us to Arizona rather than driving the camper like last year. If we all ride the bikes, there would be no one to drive the RV. Feeling up to a road trip Lilly?” Dickie asked with a smile.

  “You need to give her the whole story…” Bobby said to him with a scowl.

  “So yea… Tommy’s latest love interest hit the highroad and he has no one to keep Gretchen. So she’s going to have to go with us… which means she would be riding in the camper too,” Dickie explained.

  “Gretchen is his daughter right?” she asked. She had heard Tommy mention her over the course of the week.

  “Yea, she’s almost five,” Dickie replied. “She’s a great kid, real smart and cute. Tommy will make sure she has plenty of things to keep her busy during the drive, once we get there and during the rally.”

  “I don’t know… I’ve never been to a motorcycle rally before and I’ve never driven anything as big as an RV especially with such a small passenger,” she began.

  “Told ya,” Bobby said to Dickie as he turned and headed back toward the door.

  As nervous as the whole idea made her, part of her wanted to go. If she were there she could easily keep track of sales without fear of the invoices being either lost or messed up. Plus she could begin booking customers. Many of the phone calls she had taken throughout the week were from customers wanting to know either when they could pick up their bikes or when they could get their bikes into the shop.

  That was one area she hadn’t organized yet. It seemed that other than the custom bike they were working on for the competition, the guys jumped from job to job rather than finishing one and moving on to the next. She had hoped to learn a little bit more about what they actually did in the garage so that she could better assist customers when they called instead of having to hand them off to Dickie.

  This trip would give her an idea of just what this industry entailed. She could gain perspective on marketing strategies since it appeared that between the disorganization and lack of marketing the business was not growing. Surprisingly, it wasn’t declining, but it wasn’t growing either from what she could tell, while she steadily worked on getting things entered into the computer.

  “Wait! I didn’t say I wouldn’t go…but maybe we should make sure I can at least drive the camper safely first?” she said.

  “That’s my girl!” Dickie smiled encouragingly at her. Turning to where Bobby stood with his hand on the office door, he smiled even bigger.

  Shrugging and giving Dickie an exasperated look Bobby said, “Have fun with that...” as he exited the office.

  “We will pack up and leave out first thing Monday morning and drive as far as possible each day. The goal is to get there by Wednesday night or Thursday morning so we can get the booth set up and the bike all squared away before Friday. The rally runs Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Then we will pack up that Monday night and leave out first thing Tuesday morning and hope to be back that following Thursday night or Friday. We get the weekend off and then, hopefully, the real fun will start,” he finished as he rubbed his fingers together like he had money.

  “I’m going to be working this weekend getting everything ready to be packed up. If you can come by in the morning we’ll take the camper out for a test drive… what do you say?” Dickie smiled at her.

  “That would be fine, how about nine in the morning?” she asked.

  “Works for me,” Dickie said, as he handed off the mail he still held and then headed back out to the garage.

  The following morning she met Dickie at the shop and was a little taken aback by the size of the camper. The rear of the RV opened up to store bikes. It even had an overhead compartment to put all the merchandise in including the tent and tables for the booth. It was more like a bus than a camper, even though a good third of it was for storage and hauling. If Chuck could drive this at only twenty two, she could do this.

  After driving around the block several times, she began getting a feel for the back end of the camper and having to swing wide for turns. Dickie had her take it out on the highway and then into a parking lot to practice parking. After more than an hour, she felt much more comfortable with the large vehicle, so they headed back to the shop.

  As they neared the shop, Dickie convinced her to try backing in so that he could work on getting things loaded up. After having successfully backed into the shop’s lot and climbing out of the camper, she heard the rumble of bikes and looked to see Bobby and Tommy pulling into the lot. Her heart seemed to beat faster at the sight of him. Tommy’s bike had some sort of booster type seat on the back and a small girl with a helmet as big as she was rode behind him. Her sunglasses were the shape of stars and covered both her eyes and part of her face.

  As they shut off the bikes the small girl squealed, “Come and get me my Dickie!”

  Setting down the box he carried, the large man made his way over to the bike and lifted the small girl into his arms. “You rode all the way out here, just to see me squirt?” he asked, setting her down on the ground and helping her to remove her helmet.

  Looking way up the small girl smiled and said, “Yep! That bitch left us so I get to work with Daddy today!”

  Lilly was shocked by the words that came from the tiny girl. Dickie laughed and said, “Do you kiss your daddy with that mouth Missy?”

  “Hey! We talked about that kind of language,” Tommy admonished seeing the look of horror on Lilly’s face.

  “Yea but I ain’t in school yet,” the tiny girl argued.

  “Well you won’t get to stay in school if you talk like that so you better practice your manners now,” he said, then looking towards Lilly. “Sorry about that,” He finished with a grin.

  “Come meet Miss Lilly… if you use your manners maybe she’ll show you what she’s done with the office,” Dickie said, grasping the girl’s small hand in his and guiding her to where Lilly stood gaping at her.

  This was the smart, cute child that Dickie had told her about? She had a Harley Davidson t-shirt on with jeans and flip flops. Her blond hair was pulled back into a pony tail. Lilly had pictured a lovely little girl in a sundress with pigtails and white Mary Jane shoes. This was a far cry from any child she had ever met or seen.

  Stopping in front of her the child stuck her hand out, “Nice to meet you Miss Lilly. Gran says it’s about time Uncle Bobby hired someone with a brain and not just big boobs.”

  She was shocked by the stream of inappropriate content that seemed to filter out of the child’s mouth. Unable to stop herself from responding to the child she said, “She said that?”

  “Yea, I heard her tellin’ Daddy this morning when he picked me up,” the child replied.

  Looking around for help in how to handle the child, it seemed the guys had disappeared into the garage leaving Gretchen with her. After realizing she was completely on her own and would be alone with her starting Monday morning anyway, she looked at the child.

  “Want to come in the office with me? I have a few things I need to do for the trip. Maybe I can find some paper and markers for you to color with,” she said.

  “Nah, I’m gonna ride my trike Uncle Bobby made for me,” she said and took off at a run behind the shop.

  Following the child around to the rear of the shop where she’d never been before, she watched as the child let herself in through the chain link gate and headed for the door to a small shed at the back of the lot.

  After several minutes inside, the door re-opened and Gretchen dragged a small three wheeled motorcycle out. Lilly marveled at it. She had seen a customer on an adult sized one this past week but the one that Gretchen had was miniature sized. It was painted a shiny speckled blue color with yellow and white flowers here and there. The seat was leather, just like a normal motorcycle.

  Lilly stood
and watched as Gretchen opened the gas tank and looked inside. Satisfied with what she saw in the tank she lifted the seat and pulled out a helmet which she put on her head. Then she sat down on the seat and using a button on one of the handle bars, started it up and began riding the trike around the fenced in yard.

  “Pretty sweet isn’t it?” Bobby said.

  She jumped at his voice. She had been so intrigued by the tiny replica motorcycle that she hadn’t heard him approach.

  “It’s amazing I’ve never seen anything like it,” She replied. “You made that?”

  “Yea, out of an old riding lawnmower engine and a custom made frame. Dickie did the seat and Tommy helped me hook up the push button starter,” he said.

  “I’m impressed. You should sell them. I’m sure there are indulgent parents out there that would buy one for their child,” she said.

  “It’s gas powered and I don’t want some kid getting hurt and the parents suing me. Besides, they have battery operated ones at Wal-Mart that would be much cheaper,” he said.

  “How would that be any more dangerous than a motorized scooter? It doesn’t look like it goes very fast,” she asked.

  “I don’t know… I guess I never really thought about it. We just made that one for Gretchen because well… she’s pretty hard core already and don’t turn five until this summer,” he said with a laugh.

  “Is there room in the camper or even any place for her to ride it where we are going?” she asked.

  “She could ride it at the campsite I guess and yea, we can find some space for it. I wanted to say thanks for doing this before we leave out, so you will hopefully remember that I did when we get back,” he said with a grin.

  Bobby headed back to the garage so she watched Gretchen riding her bike around the yard for a while until it finally ran out of gas. Then together they headed for the garage. She packed up some office supplies, a calendar, and business cards and then setup remote access on the computer in the office.