Chapter 3

I sood and stared until she got nervous. “Maybe this was a mistake. I’ll just go now.”

I walked up to her. “No you won’t. Come inside and I’ll get you something to drink. Then we’ll talk.”

I turned around, wondering if she would follow me. I felt her footsteps on the deck as I unlocked the door. I held it open for her.

She gave the living room and kitchen the once over. “You got a maid?”

“Why would I need a maid?”

“Because no single guy I ever met was ever this neat. I bet you make your bed every morning, don’t you?”

All my years in service had instilled a liking to have everything neat and organized. Beside, when you’ree single and keep up as you go, it’s pretty easy to be neat.

“If it’ll make you feel any better I’ll go dirty some dishes and throw them in the sink while I get you something to drink. Beer?”

“Tea, or a soft drink if you have it. I got a kid at home and I don’t like to come home with alcohol on my breath.”

She scored some points with that one. I poured two teas from the pitcher I always kept and carried them into the living room. She’d taken a seat in the rocker I had so I handed her her drink and sat on the couch. She grinned. “Where are the coasters?”

I sighed and pulled them out. We stared at each other. She was about five eight, with almost platinum blond hair and cool green eyes. She was at least early thirties but she hadn’t gone to fat. There were little lines around her eyes that came out when she smiled. My first estimation of slender was right but she did have nice hips and a good ass as much as I could tell in the jeans she was wearing. Up top she was on the small size, B cups or a small C but they fit her body very well. She smiled.

“Did I pass?”

“The final grade hasn’t been tallied but it looks good so far. You know, you seem like you have too much sense to ever be tangled up with someone like Theodore.”

She sighed and squirmed. “Maybe one of these days I’ll tell you about my life and my uncanny ability to always make the wrong choice. Let me hit some of the highlights. I did a lot of things I’m not exactly proud of. Ended up pregnant at 19. My relationship with the father ended badly and I was just immature enough to keep her from him. By the time I’d wised up I was afraid to tell him. When Kinsey turned twelve she took things into her own hands and found her father. It was an ugly confrontation. Now he gets every other weekend, holiday, and week in the summer. She really loves him and his new wife. He tried to be as fair as he could be about all of it even though I knew at times he could have happily killed me.

The whole thing made me grow up just enough to take stock of my life and not like it. Being tied up with T ended up being the caboose on the stupid train so I cut him loose. He did not take it well but the .38 I got from my father made him reconsider. His parting shot was ‘you’ll never find anybody better than me’. I thought about it for a while.

Then I thought of you. I don’t think there’s anyone or anybody he hates more than you except for maybe my ex. The icing on his shit cake of a life would be me hooking up with you.”

She stopped to take a sip of tea. “I’m still friends with the girls. I know them by their real names but they go by Blondie, Mouse, and Red now, kind of a badge of honor for them. Slick swears you’re the most decent man he’d ever met. Gary has a case of hero worship where you’re concerned even if you did take his woman away. I’ve noticed a lack of decent men in my life so I’d like to try a real one out. How about it? Just one date? After that who knows but maybe I’ll have a good memory and hope for the future. Think about it. I have to go pick up my girl from softball practice. If nothing else it was nice to meet you.”

Well, it seems she had finally run out of things to say but I was wrong. I walked her to the car and she turned at the door.

“IF we go out, I want you to treat me like you treated the rest of the girls. It would be nice to be in the hands of a real man for a change.”

I decided the only way to stop her was to occupy her mouth with something besides speech so I kissed her. She pulled back and I swatted her bottom before she could speak. “Saturday, seven, at the clubhouse. Talk to the girls, they’ll tell you the appropriate attire for our night out. Bye, Allie.”

She was still standing by her car trying to process when I shut the door.

...

Slick gave me a little background on her Thursday. “I always thought she was a little too good for T. She must have been at a real low spot in her life when she hooked up with him. I’ve heard the girls talking and it seems she was quite the party girl until a couple of years ago. I don’t know what caused it but she straightened out, started paying more attention to her little girl, got a decent job. I remember when her ex came around. She was a mess for a while but seems to have gotten over it. Talk to the girls, they would know more than I would.”

Red called me the next day. “Ali called me. I can’t believe she had the nerve to come and see you. Listen to me Grant. Don’t be mean to her even if you’re playing. She doesn’t need that right now. Take her to the Piston, show her off, show her a good time, and bring her back in one piece. It might lead to something.”

I asked our cop about her Thursday and he frowned for a second. “She was headed the wrong way for a while. I popped her a couple times for simple possession and figured it was a matter of time before I got her on something serious, but she changed a couple of years ago and seems to have gotten her shit together. At one time I was so pissed at her I threaten to have Social Services take her kid. That scared the hell out of her. I think the only thing she cares about is her little girl.

I thought she might have slipped when she hooked up with Theodore. That guy’s been an ass and a joke since high school. Her ex kicked the shit out of him a while back and I think she saw him for what he really was, a poser and a loser. Then he ran into you. I think that iced the cake for her. Give her a shot, brother. You got nothing to lose and maybe a lot to gain.”

All this got me me curious so I decided to show her a good time.

I was waiting when she pulled up. Her hair was up in a nice bun, her jeans skin tight, a nice spaghetti strap top that was fighting a battle to keep her really nice rack in. Sometimes it won. After she teased me a bit she pulled a nice sweater on and grinned.

“I want to feel my nipples when we get there.”

I grinned. “I want to feel your nipples when we get there. Can’t be too careful with nipple health. We should make sure they’re all right before we go into the bar. I might have to have Wanda get some hot towels for you. I’ll be glad to apply pressure until they’re back to normal.”

She looked at me for a moment before she rolled her eyes. “Well, the girls did warn me.”

“Warn you about what?”

“They said you had a golden tongue. They also told me you were witty as well.”

I was still trying to figure out what she meant exactly when she got on the bike. “Let’s go. Those beers aren’t going to drink themselves.”

She snuggled to me as we rode. Not a hard, push her chest into my back snuggle, but a comfortable light contact snuggle. Her eyes went a little wide when we pulled up and then she grinned. “Ted would die if he knew I was here with you. He talked about this place all the time but was too much of a pussy to ever bring me here.”

“He wouldn’t have lasted five minutes after they got a look at you. I brought him once and it looked like he was going to piss his pants the whole time. He couldn’t even talk the talk much less than walk the walk for a place like this. Shall we?”

She locked down on my hand and we went in. She started relaxing when people started greeting me, grinning when they called me Stud. She asked me how I got the nickname.

“I had to go piss the first night I was here and a couple guys wandered in and saw me at the urinal. After that, they called me Stud.”

“That doesn’t explain shit.”

I tried to look embarrassed but ended up smirking. “They saw my cock and told everybody I was hung like a horse, so they called me Stud.”

She colored and then laughed. “You’re going to be a lot of fun! And as for the rest of it, I was born in Missouri and we’re a firm believer in seeing is believing.”

“You don’t know me that well.”

“I will pretty soon, I hope. Now get me something to drink.”

I was thinkin’ about that as we made our way to the bar. Wanda was standing there grinning. “Damn Stud, don’t you know any ugly bitches? Who’s this hottie? You need to slow down a little. I’m not good at names.”

“This is...” I stopped because I hadn’t thought of a name. “This is Princess. Don’t tell her the truth about me. Say nice things.”

She leaned over and gave me a little kiss and smiled at the expression on Allie’s face. “Don’t sweat it, Princess. We’re just friends.”

“Only because you keep turning me down.”

Wanda smiled that wicked smile. “Well, if you promise to bring Princess along I might let you get lucky.”

I figured she’d get embarrassed but Allie fell right into it. “If I ever came along you’d forget pretty quick why he was there.”

Her tongue snaked out and from where I was standing it looked like she licked her eyebrow. Even Wanda was speechless for a minute. Then she came around the bar and gave her a hug. “I believe Stud here may have met his match. What would you like to drink, honey?”

I never expected a whiskey sour to be her drink of choice. Wanda gave me a beer without asking. We found an empty table and sat. The band hadn’t started yet and we could have a conversation. We talked about general things. Allie told me about her daughter and her eyes lit up. We talked about the guys she knew and some of the new members of our club.

“Ted took all the old Evil Revengers vests when you threw him out. He’s got a few more losers talked into riding with him. Be careful if you’re around him while he’s got his crew. He’s too scared to face you alone again but numbers might just make him stupid.”

“It won’t make him stupid. He’s already stupid. Numbers might make him brave. Even if we got in a scuffle and I lost, he’d never be right again. I can promise that.”

She looked into my eyes and believed me. Brain stopped by with a babe on his arm and had a beer. Leroy came over later and asked me to come by his shop soon. He had something he wanted to show me. They all ended up sharing a table with us and soon that table was too small so they pushed another one over. Allie finally relaxed and bantered back giving as well as she got.

The band started up. She was squirming in the chair and I leaned over so she could hear me. “I’ve never told anyone here this so promise me you can keep a confidence. I can’t dance. It isn’t that I don’t know how. I was injured in an accident when I was younger and dancing stresses me. That being said, you can dance all you want as long as I’m the only one that gets the slow ones.”

Brain broke the ice by asking me first, then Allie. That got them lined up and they all asked me first. I’d look at Allie and she would nod yes or no. She said yes to everyone and I said no to two. They were assholes who liked to maul everyone they danced with. One had got his ass kicked at a rally for grabbing another biker’s woman but he never learned anything from it.

He looked kind of pissed but I was sitting with Brain, Leroy, and half a dozen more bikers so he just stomped off.

The slow dances were very enjoyable. Her body would mould to mine and it was almost full body contact the whole time. She’d wriggle a certain way, brush against certain parts of her body slowly, all subtle but very effective. She’d grin every time we finished a dance.

We said our goodnights and left about midnight. She held my hand on the way out and it felt very comfortable. Back at the clubhouse she didn’t hesitate, going in and rummaging around behind the bar until she found the coffee machine. She made a small pot and we sat and sipped as we talked. She told me a lot about her history, how she was into the ‘recreational phamaceuticals’ available when she was younger, how she seemed to make one bad decision after another. Even having her child didn’t slow her down for a while.

“Then one day I was sitting around in a bar with my current fuckbuddy and looked around at the other women in the place. They all looked worn down and defeated, clinging to any shred of affection they could find. No one looked at them like a possible mate anymore. They were just meat to be used and then passed along. It shook me a good bit so I started going out less, paying more attention to my daughter. I got a good job that paid the bills and I wasn’t beholden to anyone and found I liked it.

It was petty of me to keep my baby from her father but we didn’t part on the best of terms. It was my fault but I held a grudge for years, thinking of what I’d lost. He owns a very successful business now and has a younger girlfriend that’s really hot. Kinsey says they’ll probably get married. When he found out about her he was surpringly calm about everything but made it clear in no uncertain terms that he would be in her life from now on. I still fought but eventually I learned to let it go. We can even tolerate holding a conversation now.”

I told her as much as I could about my life, parents dying at an early age and me finishing high school in foster home, how I had no relatives that I knew about, that I went to college on scholarship and really liked the profession I had chosen. She asked me why I wasn’t married and I sighed. “Haven’t found one I wanted yet.”

She stood up and I looked at the clock, surprised to see it was three in the morning. We’d talked for hours. We rinsed the cups and coffee maker. “This is the first time I’ve been out with a guy for this long that hasn’t ended up in a bed. Thank you for the evening. It was enjoyable, especially knowing the place I was in could be quite dangerous if I hadn’t been with you. I don’t think anyone was afraid of you but most seemed to like you and it made a difference.”

I grinned. “It’s not too late you know. To end up in bed I mean.”

“I thank you for the offer and I may take you up on that after we get to know each other a little better. One thing you need to know. If I’m in a relationship, it’s the only one I’m in. And if I’m going to be loyal, I expect loyalty in return.”

I kissed her softly before opening her car door. “Good enough. I feel the same. Good night Princess.”

She kissed me back a little harder. “Goodnight ... Stud.”

...

So we started dating. Once a week at first, maybe twice on the weeks that her daughter was with her father. The kisses got harder, longer, hands wandered, but it was six weeks before things got serious. She showed up at my house right after I got off work.

I didn’t remember a date so I looked at her. “No, we don’t have anything planned. Well, you don’t. I’ve got an overnight bag in the car and I don’t have to be home until Sunday evening. How would you like to spend the time?”

“With you.”

I took her out to eat at a nicer place than we usually frequented. She had on a very nice sundress that was enticing but not revealing and I dressed a little better than normal. We looked like every other couple in the place, most out on a date night with their spouses. We were affectionate but not overt, little touches, a simple kiss now and then, nothing over the top.

Then we were off to a new place. it was a piano bar. There was a three piece combo, piano, drums, and standup bass that was playing old standards Allie smiled. “I brought you here so we could dance every dance together.”

That’s what we did. A few times she was asked to dance by others but she refused with a smile. “This night is just for us. Maybe next time.”

They all took it graciously and wished us a good night. After about an hour and a half of rubbing bodies I’d reached my limit and Allie knew it. She danced me over to a dark corner and her hand slipped between us. She grabbed my erection and squeezed. “Are you ever gonna take me home so I can do something about this?”

I paid our tab and was out the door in record time. The sundress hit the floor as soon as the front door closed. She posed in her strapless bra and thong for just a second beofre dropping both on the floor.

It was so incredible I have a hard time trying to describe it. She was fit and lean, muscled where she should be and soft as silk where she wasn’t. I don’t think there was more than a square inch of her body I didn’t kiss, and that was scattered over a wide variety of places. We started out with oral before she pulled me around and on top of her. “Now, honey, Now!”

All the adjectives, hot, tight, silky, were nothing when describing how she felt. She felt ... right. The first time was pretty quick because we were both backed up, but the second and the third lasted a long time. We both passed out with her spooned to me, my hand latched on to her breast. When I woke up it was still there. I tweaked the nipple a little and she moaned before pushing me away. “Get up! We need to shower and I’m starved. Clothes will be optional today.”

We tried to shower togehter but hands kept wandering so she shoved me out. I got done and found her in the kitchen wearing my grilling apron and nothing else. It was one of those with the goofy logo ‘Kiss The Cook’. I thought it excellent advice and did just that. Allie responded hard then shoved me back. “I’m making pancakes and I don’t want the first meal I cook for you burned. Get the syrup and a cup of coffe while I finish.”

I keyed in on the ‘first’ statement and it made me all warm and fuzzy. The pancakes were excellent and I remarked I didn’t know I had pancake mix. “You don’t, these are made from scratch. You’ll find I’m not much on mixes.”

As good as pancakes were it wasn’t nearly as good as licking maple syrup off an erect nipple.

We eventually took another shower and decided to go for a ride. We tooled around for a couple of hours with no direction, going where the next turn took us. Then we rounded a curve and I saw a place I’d read about in the state magazine. It talked a lot about how good the food was so I stopped. There were maybe a dozen bikes and three times that many cars in the lot.

The place was packed but we managed to get a table and ordered off the chalkboard. It listed the specials and gave credit to the farmers who had provided the vegetables. The carrot soup was nothing like I’d ever tasted, smooth and buttery. I got braised pork on a bed of vegetables as an entree and Allie went with the chicken. We were almost groaning when we asked for the check. The dark haired teen waitress seemed surprised. “You don’t want dessert? Mom made banana pudding and it’s been rated best in the state. There’s not much left so if you want it you need to order now.”

We really were groaning when we got back on the bike. I knew we’d be returning soon.

We didn’t go out that night and spent it snuggling and watching movies. The night was just as exhausting and glorious as the night before. It might have been a little better because we were familiar with each others’ bodies and knew out triggers. Sunday was kind of bittersweet. Allie had to go home to her child and I had to rattle around in an empty house.

We dated twice more and she spent the next weekend her child was with her father. It was surprisingly comfortable to wake up beside her and I think it hurt us both when she had to leave.

A month later her mother fell and broke her ankle and we didn’t get to go out. The weekend after that she had her daughter and couldn’t go out. I thought about that for a bit and called her. “If we’re gonna spend time together I’m going to have to meet her sooner or later. Why not now? I’ve been craving banana pudding and I’m going to Sam’s Grill. Why don’t both of you come with me?”

There was a moment of silence before she said she’d call me back. I had just about given up when the phone rang.

“Hello?”

“Hi. I’m Kinsey. Your ol’ lady’s daughter.”

“Huh?”

“You ride without a helmet much? I’m Kinsey, your girlfriends’ daughter. Allie, remember? So tell me about this banana pudding.”

I gave her a link to the article about the place and she hung up. Five minutes later she called me back. “Come and get us. That banana pudding better be really something.”

I think it surprised them when I pulled up in my ‘weekend’ car. It was a ‘86 Caddy, a true land yacht. It looked brand new inside and out and I’d picked it up at an estate sale. It wasn’t even listed but I found it in a shed that held some other stuff for sale. It was tarped but I peeked. I bought a few things and kind of hung around until the crowd thinned.

“Any chance the car is for sale?”

The two middleaged women looked at each other for a minute before one spoke. “We hadn’t even considered it. Our grandfather bought that new when he was seventy. I thought he’d never get much use out of it but he lived to be 101 and drove it until he was 97. What will you give us for it?”

“let’s go look at it.”

It had about an inch of dust on it even under the tarp but there was no rust, no body damage, and the interior looked shiny. I opened the door and wrinkled my nose. They grinned. “Pops coated everything with vaseline to keep the leather from cracking. He did the same thing to the exterior and tires. I think all the way to the end he thought he’d get well enough to drive it again. How does fifteen hundred sound?”

“Let’s look it up.” I pulled up the blue book price and was surprised to see the cost was on the low end of the value. I knew they were having the sale to pay for the expense of his funeral so I made them a deal. If I put a battery in it and it ran I’d give them two grand. If it didn’t I’d still give them the fifteen hundred.

I had it pulled over to Leroy’s garage and he drooled all over it. Then he grinned. “All you need now is a gold tooth, a purple derby, and a tag that says “Where’s My Money, Bitch.”

After he got done laughing he told me to give him a week. When I got back to the garage it was shining like new and purring like a kitten. The ladies got their two grand and I got a conversation starter. When I asked Leroy what I owed him me asked me to come in the garage. I thought it odd that he locked the door, then took me to a smaller room. I think the guy before him used it as a paint room. After swearing me to secrecy he pulled a tarp and my mouth hung open. I was looking at a 1941 Indian Scout, the military version. It still had the leather saddlebags and the ammo tins hung on the front forks.

“It was my grandfather’s. He bought at a surplus auction right after the war. He used to show me pictures of it but couldn’t remember what happened to it. He had dementia pretty bad there at the end so none of us thought anything about it. Last year Gram decided to sell what was left of the farm and had a guy out to clean out the buildings and barn. Gramps was a packrat and every stall was filled head high with junk. They found this buried in the last stall they cleaned out. Gram still had the title. She decided I was the one who should have it, boy did that lead to a bunch of pissed off cousins.

The engine is blown. You told me once you worked on a couple of old bikes so I’ll trade you what I had to spend on the Caddy if you’ll help me rebuild her.”

I was practically drooling. “Screw that. I’ll pay for what you did on the Caddy and throw in helping you with the other bikes if you’ll let me help you.”

Back to the present, Allie and a little clone of her came out and looked over my ride. “Where did you get that?”

“Bought it at a yard sale. I nearly had to beat an old lady to death to get it but damn it, I was there first. Still got the scar where her dentures got stuck in my arm.”

The Kid, that was the nickname her father gave her and she liked it enough to want to use it grinned. I was used to people having nicknames from the military and the biker community so it was no problem for me. “My Dad would drool if he saw this. Come on, lets’s go. I’m hungry.”

I was a little surprised when she made her Mom get in the back and jumped in beside me. She sure asked a lot of questions and she had my life story, fabricated as it was, before we got to the restaurant. I got a glimpse of Allie in the back and she was smirking.

“You ever run out of steam?” I asked her that when she stopped to draw a breath.

“Not often. Mom tells me you know how to work on bikes. Dad has three and his wife has her own. I’m going to get a dirt bike for my next birthday.”

By the intake of breath in the back I got the feeling this was news to Allie. “Well, good for you. Just remember to respect whatever you’re riding. It could kill you if you don’t.”

“You sound just like Dad.”

“No, I sound like everyone who’s ridden for a while. I got road rash scars and a broken arm from not paying attention so I know what I’m talking about.”

She seemed down for a minute and then grinned. “Well, maybe you can help me out when I’m home. I’ll need all the instruction I can get.”

“We’ll have to let your mother make that decision.”

“Then it’ll never happen. If it was up to her I’d still have training wheels on my bicycle.”

We pulled into the parking lot and it was jammed. We had to wait ten minutes for a table. The got the same waitress as before and she remembered us. “Hi,” she said, handing us a printed menu that had the night’s choices. “If you don’t see anything you like you can order off the regular menu. We got banana pudding but we’ve only got two pans left. If you want it you better order now so I can reserve it.”

We immediately ordered three servings for dessert. I chose a rack of lamb with mint sauce as a main dish with braised asparagus and basil roasted potatoes. The Kid got a steak with a baked purple sweet potato and an endive salad while her mother got stuffed flounder and crab legs. Kinsey was so impressed she took pictures of every meal. Then she insisted her mother give her a taste of of her flounder and looked longingly at my lamb. “Kinsey, would you like a...”

Her knife and fork flashed as she carved a piece of lamb, tasted it, then carved off another piece for her mother. We ended up tasting everything we each had on our plates. I thought the Kid was gonna cry when she tasted the banana pudding.

We semi-waddled out to the car and Kinsey was gracious enough to let Allie sit in the front. I thought the heavy meal would make her drowsy but she was as chatty as ever. We were almost halfway home when she sat up straighter and said “Look!”

It was a drive-in. Neither Allie or I had been to a drive in in years and Kinsey had never been and she wheedled us into turning around. There was some teen horror/slasher movie playing. Not exactly what I liked to watch but I figured I could endure it and it seemed to really make Kinsey happy which by extension made Allie happy, which made me happy. We had to park towards the back because of the size of the car and just as soon as we got settled in Kinsey looked at me.

“I like chocolate stars and Mom likes chocolate covered raisins. We both like Coke and make sure you get a large popcorn.”

“You just ate! Thirty minutes ago you were almost comatose. Where you gonna put all that?”

Allie smirked. “Welcome to the world of teenagers. Hurry, honey, before the movie starts.”

I was halfway tot he concession stand when it hit me she’d called me honey. There were in a serious discussion when I got back but stopped immediately. Talking about me, no doubt. Kinsey decided to sit between us up front to see better so I didn’t get to snuggle with Allie but it was all right. Kinsey did the typical teen thing of yelling at the screen when the the actors did something stupid, warning them to turn around and not go into the creepy old house, knowing they weren’t going to listen.

I had my arm across the back of the seat, playing with Allie’s hair, and Kinsey got quieter and quieter until she slumped against me, out cold. I looked over at Allie and discovered she was asleep as well. Kinsey snuggled into me tighter. Allie snugglerd into her and started snoring.

For one of the few times in my life I had regrets about my life. I had done great good but it had cost me and I doubted I’d ever have my own children. I enjoyed the moment for a while before gently waking them. The final credits were rolling as they rubbed their eyes.

“Time to go home,” I told them. Kinsey stayed in the front and for once I was glad of the bench seat and three seatbelts.

Kinsey asked me how the film ended. “It was disappointing. Right after you went to sleep it turned into a gay musical. The killer didn’t look nearly as scary in a pink tutu.”

“What?”

“Nothing. You’ll just have to watch it on cable.”

They invited me in but I declined. “I have stuff to do tomorrow. you guys get some sleep. Allie, I’ll call you sometime after lunch. Goodnight, honey. Goodnight, Kinsey the Kid. Ya’ll sleep well.”