Travis made a stealthy glance at Deliah and dropped his plate in the trash. He thanked me for lunch and bolted out the door.
Deliah sat back down with her water. I reached across the table with my plastic fork and poked her in the chest. “What are you doing? These didn’t grow over night.”
She pushed away from the table, and her face turned red. “I know that,” she said snidely.
“You think he’ll like you if you have big boobs?”
“He clearly likes you.” She flapped her hands in front of me.
“I’m average.”
“Yours are sorta big.”
“He’s too young for me, Deliah. And any guy that likes you because of your bra size is a creep.”
“Caleb likes your legs,” she countered. I started to open my mouth, and she stopped me. “Oh forget it. He’s a triple slimy creep.”
“What’s in there anyway? One side is bigger than the other.”
She reached into her shirt and pulled out a wad of toilet paper. “It’s all I could find. Gabe’s tube socks would’ve made me look like a porn star.”
“I could ask my aunt to buy you a padded bra if you want.”
She shrugged. “Travis likes you better.”
I shook my head. “If you keep telling yourself that, you’ll never get to know him. He’s shy.”
My phone buzzed on the kitchen counter behind me. I grabbed it.
“Why didn’t you call?” I asked Gabe before he could get a word out.
“Howdy,” he drawled. His voice sounded crackly. Reception was usually hit or miss on the ranch. Sometimes it depended on where I stood. “Miss me yet?”
“What do you think? It’s been over twenty-four hours,” I blurted half irritated, half relieved.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“What am I doing? I’m talking with your sister about boys.”
There was a long pause.
“What are you wearing?” he said in a slow drawl. “What are you not wearing?”
My face warmed at his words, and I turned around so Deliah couldn’t stare at me.
“Where are you? I called a million times, and you never answered. I almost called Tessa to see if you picked up your car.”
There was more silence.
“Gabe?”
“Yup,” he replied.
“Did you make it to Texas already? I know how you like to drive all night. Did you get any sleep? Did you ask Jud what happened to his back?” The phone beeped, and I panicked. “Are you still there?”
“Yeah,” he said. His voice was muffled. He sounded distracted.
“Is something wrong? Are you still in Memphis?”
“Oklahoma,” he replied.
I silently repeated what he said. He didn’t make another sound.
“You’re in Oklahoma? What for? That’s not on your way.” When I turned around to sit in the kitchen chair, Deliah was at my back listening. She stuck her tongue out and walked off.
“I know that,” he said.
“Are you joking with me?”
More silence. “No. I’m definitely not joking.”
“Gabe, are you in trouble?”
He hesitated, and it sounded like he laughed. “No, I’m not in trouble.”
“So you don’t have your car yet? How are you getting to Memphis?”
Deliah burst from the bedroom with a grin plastered on her face and pointed out the window as she ran to the front door and pushed open the screen. It slammed, and I stood up.
“Should I call Joel? He could fly down and get you.”
I walked to the screen door and looked out. Gabe cleared his throat. “Hell no. Don’t do that.”
“Maybe there’s stuff happening here you should be home for.” I couldn’t see what had Deliah all excited.
“What stuff? You okay?” he asked impatiently. “Is the roof leaking?”
I returned to the kitchen window, and Deliah ran past. It wasn’t the right time to tell him about the skull or the fact that Caleb was hanging around. “It’s fine. Never mind.”
He didn’t respond. The call cut out.
“Gabe?” I moaned into the air and kicked the table leg. I tried to call him back, but reception was lost.
A horn beeped. I walked outside and looked into the newly mowed yard. There was no one there. Then I heard an angry wailing, and I ran around the cabin to where Gabe stacked the firewood. Deliah was climbing up the pile.
I held my hand over my eyes and squinted at what had her all excited. A motorcycle tore down the dirt trail in the direction of the lodge. The rider was in jeans and a T-shirt. The only protective gear he wore was a helmet. He turned and sped back toward the cabin.
“I think Joel’s having a midlife crisis,” Deliah said.
The bike slowed down, and the driver dug the heel of his boot into the gravel and skidded to a stop. The helmet came off, and the face was revealed. Lane’s hair stuck up straight, and he ran a hand through it with a sly finesse. I noticed he had on fingerless black gloves. He looked like a model with his shirt stuck to his skin. He didn’t look at all like he was upset.
My heart skipped a beat at the sight of him propping the helmet under his tan arm. I had no idea how much the visual of a guy on a bike could affect me. Let alone one with intense eyes who looked a lot like the boy I loved.
“Caleb around?” he asked as he lowered the kickstand and straddled the seat. Neither of us answered. “Y’all are lookin’ at me like a calf looks at a new gate. Who’s first?”
“I don’t think I better. I just ate a lot of ravioli,” said Deliah. She stepped back and patted her belly.
“Are you okay?” I asked Lane as I studied the green and black contours of the bike. He wasn’t taking me back to the office on that. I gathered he didn’t want to talk about his feelings concerning Eli and Molly. “You’re supposed to bring me to work. Instead, you bring this? It looks like a weapon.”
“It’s no mud puppy,” he said. “I’ll take you out. Hop on. It’s a riot.”
Deliah set her fists on her hips and read the writing on the side. “I’ve never heard of a Hay-a-bus-a.”
“Did you steal it?” I asked. “This isn’t like you.”
Lane laughed and crumpled his eyebrows together. “What’s with the sourpuss attitude?”
“Gabe and Avery are fighting,” Deliah commented. “It’s getting old.”
“He was supposed to fly to Tennessee to pick up his car and drive right back, but he’s in Oklahoma.”
I flashed an evil eye at Deliah’s freckled face and waited for Lane to respond.
“Is that so? There’s only one reason Haldens go to Oklahoma.” He leaned toward me as if he was going to reveal the reason, but he didn’t. “Climb on already.”
“I’m not riding on that. It’s too fast,” I told him as I walked in front of the bike and stared at the evil-looking face it made. Lane wasn’t acting like himself. He probably didn’t know how to act since he found out Molly gave up the baby.
He held out the helmet. “Yep—it’s so quick your fanny hits the pavement if you don’t lock on.” He ran a hand over the seat behind him.
“Caleb said you were trashed. You look fine to me,” Deliah told him.
“Well, Caleb’s a knucklehead,” he answered. “Get on, Avery.” He shook the helmet in the air and sat down. “I won’t tell Gabe.”
Deliah wagged her pointy finger. “Oh I will. He’ll go bonkers if he finds out she rode on that death machine.”
“Aren’t you the little girl who stole his truck and drove like a maniac through Texas? You won’t tell,” he warned. “Not unless you want Meggie and Joel to know what card tricks you were pulling behind the coop the other night.”
She waved her chin around. “Try me. They’re not my folks. I’ll just deny everything.”
“Did you hear what happened to us this morning?” I asked him.
Before he could answer, Deliah interrupted, “Avery found a dead guy on Ga
be’s land. There’s probably more.”
I rolled my eyes. “We found a skull in the grass. Caleb’s meeting your father out there now.”
“That explains why Air Force One landed over yonder. C’mon. The tires are getting cold.”
“I can’t. I’ll fall off.” Secretly, I wanted him to twist my arm.
“Bull crackers. Pretend I’m Gabe and hold on tight.”
I stared at the eye-catching bike and let the voices in my head bicker until the wildest voice won out. It looked like so much fun. Gabe wouldn’t find out. Maybe he wouldn’t even care. Meggie had a motorcycle back in her day. It wasn’t like I was doing something shameful or unheard of.
“What the heck. Please go slow. No wheelies. I’m serious.”
“I would negotiate no stoppies too,” Deliah advised. “Trust me, Avery.”
Lane grinned a sneaky grin. “Put this on.” I tipped my head forward, and he slid the alien-looking helmet over my head. It smelled of cologne and coffee. My hair immediately stuck to the back of my neck. I’m sure I didn’t want to know what a stoppie was.
“Don’t you need a helmet?” I asked. “Shouldn’t we both be wearing some form of leather armor?”
“There’s no brain bucket law here. It’s not registered yet. We’ll avoid the big slab, keep it under two hundred.”
A sudden wave of doubt caused sweat to drip down my back as if my body was threatening me not to make my next move. Lane twisted the throttle before I climbed on the seat. I don’t know what came over me. I held my breath and sat down.
He tipped his chin back and ran his glove over my knee and down my bare leg. “Don’t burn your foot on the tailpipe.”
As I glanced down at his hand, he moved it and grabbed my wrists to make me take hold of his waist. I laced my fingers together in a death grip. He was a little bigger than Gabe, but his abs were made from the same rock-hard genetics.
“Keep the dirty side down!” Deliah shouted.
Lane leaned into the handle bars and let out the clutch before I could change my mind or say goodbye. The bike was brutally loud and startlingly fast. We took off so hard I left my breath in the yard. My stomach managed to slide up to my throat and clog my airway. I squeezed my eyes closed and clawed his abdomen so hard it felt as though I left fingernail marks when the bike angled into the corner.
When I opened my eyes, we were heading straight across the plains. There were no ends to the roads in North Dakota. Farmland flew by in a blur of earthy hues for what seemed like miles. My body gradually relaxed into Lane’s warm back, and I found myself experiencing weightlessness along with an adrenaline rush that mimicked a trip to the moon.
I wanted Gabe to get a motorcycle. I was pretty sure I wouldn’t have to do much persuading.
“What do ya think?” Lane shouted over his shoulder when he made it stop whining. I could feel his caution being thrown to the wind. He was using miles of pavement to free his thoughts of Molly and the baby. Clearly, it was working for him. Still, my mind couldn’t let go of Gabe’s claim that he wasn’t where he was supposed to be.
“I love it,” I yelled into the helmet even though I was encouraging him to get on the gas. His belly tightened, and he flattened himself to the bike. I could feel his laughter in my hands. He did something to make the motorcycle growl.
As we approached the high road, Lane slowed down and turned the bike around so we wouldn’t have to mingle with truck traffic and diesel exhaust. “I told you it’s a riot. You haven’t seen anything yet.”
“Oh, I think I’ve seen enough. Have you done this before?” I knew better. I should have asked before I got on.
“Eli had a Ninja. Me and Caleb used to sneak it out.” I didn’t know how he could talk without getting bugs in his mouth.
Suddenly, we were riding on the back of a bullet racing to its target. Suddenly, I was very aware that I had bare legs and arms.
Lane was crazy. He pulled the front tire off the ground. The bike squealed so loud I wanted to cover my ears. I had surpassed the level of fear I felt when Gabe wove his truck in and out of traffic going ninety-five miles an hour. When the cabin came into view at my side, a welcome sense of relief washed over me. The ride was almost over. We were about to make the tight corner, so I clenched every muscle in my body to avoid falling off. My arms were getting tired.
The bike made a terrifying lurch when Lane swerved just before we met the bend.
“Lane!” My scream resonated through the helmet. I hunkered close to his broad back as we tended to the side and avoided an oil patch in the middle of the road. My heart pounded against his back. His heart throbbed in my hands, though he handled the motorcycle like a pro. I didn’t think my nerves would recover.
I was so done. I needed to feel the ground again.
“Please stop,” I managed to say.
We were vertical once we emerged from the corner and headed toward the cabin. Deliah stood on a pile of logs with her hands above her head, motioning to the helicopter in the sky as it turned into a dot above the horizon. I couldn’t think about the helicopter or what Mr. Halden thought of the remains found in Gabe’s field. I could only concentrate on preserving my life as the motorcycle tilted sideways.
After we flew past Deliah, Lane drove the bike off the road and onto the hard packed dirt trail that led to Caleb’s neighboring lot. He wasn’t planning to stop. “Rainbows on the road. Sorry about that back there. Had to avoid the oil spot.”
“I need to get off,” I cried.
We emerged out of the field and met the road. Lane didn’t look to see what was coming. He put the hammer down, and my sweaty hands slipped on his middle. One finger at a time let loose. I lost my ability to breathe as I grabbed my wrist as fast as I could and repositioned. At that exact second, Lane was wrenched from my hold and I was forced to let go.
The bike flew out from underneath us. I got a fleeting glimpse of Travis’s horror-struck expression. The tractor came out of nowhere.
* * *
“Hey, hey now—keep your eyes open,” said the familiar voice as he tried to hold my neck. “Legs, open your eyes.”
I jerked my head back and forth to get the helmet off. I couldn’t keep my eyes open. The sun was blinding, and the air inside was sweltering. I clenched the grass at my sides. I couldn’t let go. I was rolling and rolling and couldn’t stop.
“It goes against everything I know, but I’m gonna pull this off carefully since you’re wiggling around,” Caleb said as he lifted the helmet over my face and stuck his nose in mine. “Does anything hurt? Can you feel this?”
I jerked my knee when his hand skated up my leg. I could smell panic in his breath when he laughed. It made me queasy.
He straddled my legs and kept a hand on my shoulder so I couldn’t sit up. Then he ran his hand down my arm and held my wrist above my waist. “Your pulse is coming down,” he said. “Look at me so I can check your eyes.”
I opened my eyes and tears pooled. His cowboy hat obstructed the sun. I blinked back the tears and stared at his furrowed eyebrows under the rim. He used a finger to pull my hair off my face where it stuck to my eyelashes and cheeks.
“Do you remember what happened? Y’all sparked the pavement.”
I tried to wet my lips and open my mouth. “Where’s Lane?”
“My bonehead brother’s licking his wounds at the cabin. Lucky dog limped his way back with Nurse Mona and the Ingarson boy. He’s got some serious explaining to do.”
“I need Gabe,” I said, then curled over and vomited in the grass. My head weighed as much as a bowling ball.
Caleb moved off me and held my hair until I was finished heaving my guts and fell back. He whisked his shirt over his head, balled it up and wiped the puke off my mouth and arm. “That bike’s parked horizontally. Looks like he ripped it up on purpose.”
“There’s something wrong with my shoulder,” I said.
Caleb lifted my arm and gulped his breath. I bit my lips in agony.
“
Sonofabitch—you got a nasty case of road rash.” His hand scooped my upper back and an arm slid beneath my knees. “Up we go. Easy does it.” He hauled me to his chest and sighed as he uncurled his spine to stretch. I let my ear rest above his heart instead of resisting his bare-chested Hercules act. I didn’t have an ounce of fight in me anyway.
My phone buzzed in my back pocket. I hadn’t lost it in the grass. “It’s Gabe,” I said. “He’s calling me back.”
Caleb answered through his teeth, but didn’t help me answer the call. “I tried him. Couldn’t get a damn call out to anyone. I’m gonna run to town and fetch Meggie and your folks as soon as I look you over.”
My throat narrowed. I squeezed his arm with all of my might. “No,” I hissed as loud as I could manage. He halted his jog and adjusted his grip under me.
“Let’s get you safe.”
I clamped harder on his arm.
“No, Caleb, promise you won’t tell my mother. Maybe we shouldn’t tell Gabe either. He’ll kill Lane.”
Three
“Bite this,” Caleb told me. He took a washcloth from Deliah and rolled it. “I gotta clean the big gash.”
“You’ll die from an infection if you don’t get that taken care of. Here’s the scissors,” Deliah said as she dangled them above my legs and covered her eyes so she wouldn’t have to look at my bloody shoulder and arm.
I lifted my head off my pillow. My arms were trembling. “Why do you need scissors?”
Caleb put his knee into the mattress and leaned over to nudge me onto my side. “Would you rather I get a chainsaw? I need to cut your shirt off.”
I gasped and tears rolled down my cheeks.
“No way,” I sniveled and buried my face. “Leave me alone.”
When I tried to kick him back, he tugged at my boots and tossed them at the wall. “Lift your arm, and I’ll ditch the scissors. Or else I’m going to town on this sleeve. I need to get the road out of your skin, so suck it up.”
“Y’all need to tell me if she’s okay!” Lane shouted from the couch. I saw him for a split second when Caleb carried me past his brother and Travis, who was standing inside the front door with his tail between his legs, apologizing profusely.
The Luxury of Being Stubborn (The Stubborn Series Book 4) Page 5
