Chapter 2

“I can handle that part, if you’re serious,” I said. “I do IT work for a friend of the family that runs his own law firm. I can ask him about it.”

“You mean you’re willing?” she asked, looking grateful. The reduced stress also made her look 10 years younger. She never really looked like a woman in her thirties to me. When they moved in, I had her pegged for close to thirty. In that moment, I could imagine her as a college girl as relief washed over her.

“Sure,” I said lightly. “I spend most of my Saturday’s with her as it is and I only really work a couple of days a week for Brendan. She can even come hang out at my place if she wants company during the day. Of course, that’s going to curb my ROBUST lifestyle with the women, but if you keep smiling at me like that, I’m going to start thinking things I shouldn’t.”

She smirked at the tease. “Oh? And just what things should you not be thinking?” she asked with a little playfulness.

“Well, all my thoughts seem perfectly appropriate to me, but then again, I’m twenty-one and just out of a relationship, so the sky’s the limit. For starters, I was thinking about a second bottle of wine, soft music, pleasant company, a little cuddling, followed by ignoring ages, deep kisses, smoldering looks, rumpled sheets, obvious hickeys, moans that turn into screams and waking up with no regrets in a strange bedroom.”

She laughed at that. “You do swing for the fences, don’t you?” She shook her head and stirred the sauce before taking a small taste and deciding that it was ready. She turned on the back burner that she’d already placed a pot of water on for the spaghetti. “Thanks, Jake. It does me some good to be told I haven’t lost it after all these years.”

“Please!” I scoffed. “You look better than most of the girls I went to college with,” I told her honestly. “Most people put on about fifteen pounds when they get to college. I’d be shocked if you weighed 130. I haven’t seen you in a bikini, but I bet if you wore one to the beach this summer, you’d have a crowd follow you up the beach.”

She blushed and came to kiss me on the cheek. “You’re very kind to an old girl,” she said and patted my shoulder before she went back to the counter. She had a pan of frozen bread rolls to go in the oven and slid them in while she waited for the water to boil. “Truthfully, it’s still tempting, but I think that if you and I did something, it would cause a fight for both of us.” She nodded her head in the direction of her daughter’s bedroom. “I think you just deepened her crush for you with that little stunt with your bike. Really, Jake. Putting her on it and gunning the engine so she’d get a thrill? If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were jealous of her boyfriend.”

“No, I’m not jealous,” I said with a small chuckle. “I just happen to agree with you that letting her date someone that gets around on a racing bike is just asking to end up in the hospital or the ground.”

“But a bike like that,” she nodded out the window toward my garage, “is MUCH better?” she asked. She wasn’t being THAT sarcastic.

“Those bikes are a lot more stable,” I told her. “My accident last summer was because a drunk crossed the yellow line to try to pass a semi. I wiped out on the shoulder rather than face-plant into either the semi’s grill or his windshield. He still managed to sideswipe me and the semi both. After he bounced off the semi, he went through a guard-rail and into a ravine. It wasn’t pretty, but I walked away with a concussion and a dented helmet. If I’d have been on a race bike, I wouldn’t have lived, I don’t think. I wouldn’t have had the reaction time to get out of the way if I’d been riding for speed.”

She nodded. “So why DO you ride. You don’t seem like one of those Sons of Anarchy wannabes.”

“The bike was Pop’s,” I explained. “When I was a kid, he used to take me on rides. There’s a sidecar in the garage to bolt onto it. Mom, Pop and I would take rides in the summer like that.”

“Not your sister?” she asked.

“Naw. Angela never liked bikes and by that time, she was old enough to be home alone for a day or a weekend or a little longer a couple of times a year. Most times we’d pick a road, drive out, get lunch and dinner out and be back around dark. It was a bit of an adventure. That’s where I got my taste for riding.”

“That’s nice. It’s a more personal vacation than the ones we used to take Kelsey on when she was young. Sure, we went to Disney and theme parks, but those change so often that you can’t really go back and recapture the spirit. They dismantled the first roller-coaster we took her on so we can’t go back to it. Some of the theme parks don’t even have a similar layout anymore.” She shrugged. “I suppose I can understand how much you love to ride. You really want Kelsey along on your trip down memory lane?”

I nodded. “I think she’s got her sights set on riding. She’s picking out boys at school that can get her in the wind. If she can ride with someone responsible, then she might pick less idiotic boys.”

She nodded. “We’re in agreement about THAT pint-sized Romeo.”

“I’m a little indignant that someone riding a bike that small is calling himself ‘Chopper’,” I admitted. “If I knew her size, I’d pick her up a helmet and pick her up from school on Monday in front of all her friends.”

Lisa smiled and opened the basement door when she heard that. “Will this help?” she asked and passed me Kelsey’s bicycle helmet. I checked the size and nodded. “Perfect. I’ll pick her up on Monday and take her back to get fitted for riding leathers if you’re seriously okay with her riding with me.”

She nodded. “You’re responsible and you can take her for rides on weekdays this summer. I’m a little envious that you two will get to spend so much time together while I’m stuck inside.”

“Take some vacation time,” I suggested. “I can put the sidecar on the bike and the three of us can go for a few rides. We can go on weekends too.”

She shrugged and said she’d think about it and then firmly changed the subject. “So, tell me, how did you find out about Jennifer?”

“I got messages from five different friends that she was out with another guy that week that she had the flu. They all sent me a picture as proof. Unfortunately none of them photographed her with the same guy. Since the first round, I’ve gotten a lot more pictures of her and not always with just one guy. Seems like she likes to be passed around. I’m not the kind of guy that hands my girl off to a pal to play. I hope it pays well at least. It’d be a shame if she threw away her dignity like that for nothing.”

“Ouch. Even my whore-hound of an ex only got four that we caught him at,” she said in sympathy. “You’ve got to be smarting about it, though. Even if you try to hide it.”

I shrugged, but didn’t deny it. Finally, I nodded and sighed. “I got a lot of signals that told me she was cheating. That’s part of why I was so careful with her. I wouldn’t let her move in and didn’t let her know I was doing as well as I was. Deep down, I knew she’d shank me in the ribs when I wasn’t looking.”

“Why stay with her then?” she asked.

I shrugged. “Did you suspect Ryan before the evidence fell into your lap?” I asked.

She bit her lip and nodded, understanding. “Want to talk about the confrontation you two had?” she offered gently.

I thought about it and shook my head. “Not now anyway. It looks like dinner’s almost ready. It was a pretty ugly talk. Not the kind of thing for pleasant conversation over dinner.”

She nodded. “Maybe later then. That’s not an invitation to the rest of what you had in mind,” she said gently.

“Not a rebuke though,” I pointed out.

“You’re a young man. I’m a lonely old woman,” she said with a smile. “Allow me the pleasant fiction of believing I can still be attractive.”

“Now you’re just fishing for compliments,” I said. “We both know you’re a beautiful woman. Kelsey gets her looks from you. Same stunning blue eyes. Same killer figure. The only thing different is her hair. She’s blonde where you’re hair is dark. When she gives her heart to some lucky boy, I hope he knows he’s got something precious on his hands.”

She favored me with an almost pitying look. “Only if he’s smart enough to know that she’s smitten with him,” she said and turned back to the stove to stir the sauce. I saw her shoulders shake and wondered if she was thinking about her divorce. I went back through what I said and tried to figure out what part had upset her.

I was still cursing myself when I heard a little chuckle from her. She wasn’t crying, she was laughing. I frowned, trying to puzzle that out. I was smart, but sometimes clueless about girls. Angela had moved out before I hit puberty and the paradigm shift happened and I’d never really had conversations like this one through high school. I resolved that I might have to call my sister back tonight and ask her for her take on the situation.

I must have been lost in thought because I hadn’t noticed her approach until I felt her hand on my shoulder. I started and she pulled her hand back as if burned. “Sorry, Jake,” she said, looking concerned. “You just had such a serious look on your face and you weren’t answering me. Are you okay?”

I blinked. “Yeah,” I said, looking up at her. I smiled a little and got to my feet. I went to the fridge and got myself a beer from the six I’d brought with me and offered her one. She always refused and I knew she didn’t like beer, but I always offered her one anyway.

“No, but you could open the wine and pour me a bit,” she asked hopefully. I pulled the bottle out and got the corkscrew out of the drawer to open it.

“It’s funny,” I said, suddenly amused. “I’d have to think to remember where the corkscrew is in my kitchen, but here, I know where it’ll be as soon as I need it.”

She laughed. “Sounds like your kitchen could use a woman’s touch,” she informed me. “The rest of the house probably could too.”

I shrugged ruefully. “In some ways, I suppose it could. I mostly keep the house the way it was growing up, so I suppose Mom still has a hand in how things are kept. The kitchen though ... She’d probably ground me for the condition of her kitchen.”

“Your mother was a home-maker?” she asked.

“Yeah. Well, sort of. She was an artist, so she worked from home,” I told her.

“Really?!” she asked, excited. “What kind of art did she do?”

“She did a lot of sketches and painting, she did a little carving, but she made a LOT of jewelry. She used to make it all winter and then in the spring and summer, she’d ride around with Pop to the bike rallies and sell it there. There’s probably a lot of bikers around these parts that still wear some of her pieces or gave them away to girls who still wear them.”

“That’s nice,” she said. “I’d like to see what kind of work she did some time if you have any pictures.”

“A lot of it was biker art. So naked girls sprawled over bikes and across the hoods of cars, stuff like you’d see in magazines, but Mom wasn’t shy about what she drew, so horny bikers would shell out the bucks for a hot sketch by a hot girl.”

She laughed at that. “That’s almost universally true about men though. They’ll buy anything from a hot girl.” She looked like she was still watching me closely and came to a decision about something. “Will you watch the sauce and stir it every so often?” she asked. “I want to have a quick chat with Kelsey before dinner.”

I nodded and got up to go to the stove and she promised not to be long before disappearing up the stairs. They were only about five or ten minutes before they were back and both of them were looking at me oddly.

“What?” I asked, responding to their stares. “Do I have a fly on me?”

That seemed to snap them out of it and they laughed about it. “No. We were just concerned about you is all,” Lisa said.

“I’m okay. I seem to be going down memory lane a lot more than normal though,” I admitted. “Nothing caught fire while you were gone, so I think I succeeded in my task.”

She came over to inspect the sauce and put the spaghetti in the water as the final step. The rolls came out of the oven and went into a basket for the table, while Kelsey set the table for three and I returned to my seat to nurse my beer.

“You gonna offer a lady a drink?” Kelsey asked hopefully.

I smirked and nodded, not waiting for Lisa to approve this time, after our talk this afternoon. I got up and got her a beer out of the fridge. It was a big deal for her to have a beer with dinner, especially in front of her mother and this was her second of the day, which was a rare treat.

She grinned and took a small sip. “Thank you, Jake,” she said sweetly and set the can next to her plate while her mother finished up the rest of her tasks.

I topped up Lisa’s wine a little more and poured myself a little touch too.

When we sat down, we had an enjoyable meal together, talking about little things. Mostly Kelsey told us more about school and, toward the end of the meal, about Chopper, who she wasn’t quite so smitten with as she’d been when she started the day. “I never really thought about how stupid he was to ride without a helmet,” she said. “When I saw yours, Jake, I realized that if he had an accident like that, he’d be killed. I would be too if I was riding with him.”

Lisa relaxed visibly at this and nodded. “I’m glad that you think that way, Baby,” she said and took her hand. “I’d rather you ride with someone more responsible. That’s why you’re going with Jake after school on Monday,” she said with a smile that held just a hint of mischief in it. “He says you need to get fitted for a new helmet and a riding outfit. He’s going to take you to get fitted on Monday.”

Kelsey’s eyes got wide. “You mean it?!!? I’m allowed to ride with Jake?!!? For REAL?!!?”

Lisa nodded. “We talked a lot tonight. I asked him to look out for you this summer while I’m at work.”

Kelsey’s face turned from ecstatic to horrified. It was amazing how fast that switch flipped for teenage girls. “You asked him to BABYSIT me?!!?”

“No!” I said quickly to defuse the explosion that was seconds away. “Babysitting was NOT what we talked about. We all know you’re old enough and responsible enough to be on your own for the day,” I assured her. “What she asked me to do was to keep an eye out in case you needed a hand or something came up. We also talked about you and me taking rides while your mom is at work, so you’re not stuck around the house bored all day,” I told her. “I told her that’s how I learned to ride, taking trips with family on the bike and seeing the countryside with the wind in my face. She thought you’d like that kind of vacation for summer.”

“Oh!” she said. “That’s different. I thought she meant for you to be my babysitter.”

“Well how much time we spend together is up to you,” I told her. “I only work for a couple of days a week right now and we’ll see about the summer. I may have some time off to take some longer rides with you. If we’re just bumming around here, we can hang out like every day is Saturday or you can do your own thing. I know you’ve got friends that you want to spend the summer with. It’s no fun to spend the whole summer with us adults.”

Her whole face lit up. “You mean you’ll take me on rides?!!? Like long ones overnight?!!?”

“We’ll see how your mom feels about you being out overnight with a guy on a bike, but if she’s down with the plan, then I have a sidecar that’s actually just a luggage pod. We can put camping gear in it and head off to campgrounds around the state or even farther if your mom is okay with us being away for a little bit. I have another sidecar that we can use if she wants to come with us, so we can seat three.”

“That sounds awesome!” Kelsey thrilled. She was on top of the world, hearing that she was going to get to ride and go away for nights with me through the summer.

Lisa smiled a little at seeing the two of us talk about trips. She shrugged at the thought of coming with us, but then she’d probably never been on a bike.

Kelsey caught on to how ambivalent her mother was about the prospect. “Jake, after dinner, you should take Mom out to the garage and let her get a feel for the bike. She’ll understand.”

Lisa gave me a dry look and then gave Kelsey a very knowing one. “I’m aware of the kind of thrill you get out of being on a bike, dear,” she said with a wry smile. “I could practically feel the effect from here when you were on it earlier.”

Kelsey blushed and dipped her head a bit. We all knew that she’d had a pleasant orgasm when I gunned the throttle. “Alright, busted,” she admitted. “You should try it though.”

“Sweetie, has it occurred to you that if I were to go out to poor Jake’s garage with him after this conversation that we might be teasing him just a little bit more than a young man can be expected to resist?”

“Wadda you mean?” she asked, not catching on.

“Kelsey, young men get turned on when they know something they’re doing turns women on. Sitting on his bike got you very turned on today and Jake was very good about not pushing you further than just a little thrill. That was relatively innocent. Going out there and climbing onto his bike so he can do the same thing for me might start thoughts of wanting to do more for us than rev the engine for us to squirm.”

Kelsey thought about that and shrugged. “Are you telling me that if you go out to his garage that you might have sex with him?” she asked, being blunt.

Lisa blushed and it was her turn to look embarrassed by the directness of that question. “I don’t know,” she admitted. “I think it’s a distinct possibility. I haven’t thought about anyone like that since the divorce. I haven’t wanted to date for a number of reasons, but Jake’s been very nice to both of us today and I know we both feel close to him. I’m not sure how that would change things, but sex almost always does. I would worry terribly that it would change something that would take away from what we have right now.”

Kelsey looked at her mother and then at me and bit her lip, thinking about that more closely.

I knew that something was up. Lisa was so turned on that she was thinking about coming next door and seeing where the night led. Kelsey was chewing her lip and her eyes were flitting back and forth in deep thought. Regardless, my dick knew they were talking about Lisa coming over to visit with him and he wanted to voice his opinion. I sat and downed the last half-sip of beer, wondering whether to get another and risk one of them noticing the erection, just sit there and wait it out or excuse myself and call it a night.