“Yes.”
“Do you have plans?”
“I’m going to do the same thing I do every Saturday.”
“And that is?”
“She’s going to visit her fiancé, Mom, remember? He was hurt in the same accident she was hurt in. She visits him every weekend.”
Though she was grateful Chance had answered for her, his explanation was curt, blunt, almost rude, and it rubbed her the wrong way. Since their conversation about keeping their distance, he barely spoke to her. He shouldn’t have the right to act as if they were friendly enough
that he could speak for her.
Gwen laid her hand on Tory’s forearm. “I forgot. I’m so sorry, dear.”
“It’s okay.” She turned toward the short hall that led to the nursery. “Let me pack some diapers for you and some outfits.”
“Don’t bother with the outfits,” Gwen called after her. “I bought a few things.”
Chance snorted a laugh. “A few things?”
But Tory kept going. By the time she came out of the nursery with the diaper bag, he was gone.
Which was fine. Their deal was not to speak, not to be friendly. She didn’t care where he went or when he went. She had her own life to live.
She helped Gwen get the kids in the strollers, then showered and dressed for the day.
But when she left the house and saw Chance sitting on the ground, by his motorcycle, polishing the chrome as if nothing were wrong, irritation thundered through her again at his attitude.
She marched over. “If you’re not going to talk to me, you shouldn’t answer for me.”
“My mom and I had talked a few days after the party and she knew about your engagement and Jason. I was just helping her to remember.”
“Great.” There was only one reason he would have talked to his mom about her after that party. “You told your mother you kissed me, didn’t you?”
“I asked my mother why she hadn’t told me you were engaged. There was nothing more to it.”
“Whatever.”
Suddenly she realized she was four inches away from his big black beast of a motorcycle. Chrome pipes, black fenders, white leather seats.
In her head, she heard the crunch of Jason’s motorcycle hitting the car that had pulled out in front of them, the shattering glass, the hiss of the sparks as the metal bike slid across the pavement.
Her chest filled with dread and she took a step back.
He looked at her, looked at the bike and his eyes narrowed. “The bike bothers you, doesn’t it?”
She wanted to say no. Or “none of your business.” Or almost anything other than what she had to say. “Yes.”
Wiping his hands on a rag, he rose from beside the chrome pipes. “So, go. Go see Jason. It’s your day off.”
But she stood there staring. And she wasn’t quite sure why, except that a bike like this had stolen her life. One ride. One minute. One second. And everything had changed.
“Tory?”
Her head snapped up.
“Are you okay?”
Her eyes filled with tears. “I’m just so damned tired of being afraid of everything.”
His voice was very soft as he said, “No one can blame you for being afraid of a bike.”
She pressed her lips together, then caught his gaze. “I suppose.”
“But you don’t want to be.”
She shook her head.
“I could give you a ride.”
She took a step back.
“Come on. If you were hurt in an automobile accident, you wouldn’t stop riding in cars.”
“This is different.”
“A bit, yes. But a fear is a fear. And you said you’re tired of being afraid.”
He held out his hand. She looked at it and looked up at him.
“This really is the only way to cure that fear.”
She slowly took the hand he extended. He pulled her closer to the bike, handed her a helmet and put one on himself. He straddled the fine white leather seat and motioned for her to slide on behind him.
She actually began to shiver. “I can’t believe I’m doing this.”
He quietly said, “Just climb on.”
She did. As her leg slid over the generous backseat, sensations and fears pummeled her. But she remembered the empty feeling she had every time she left Jason. The feeling that she had no life, had no one, nothing, except two parents and the adorable babies she cared for while their daddy worked. She hadn’t even been able to investigate schools because every time she tried terror would fill her. Just as she’d fought her parents about getting this job, she was now terrified about taking classes, studying, driving back and forth to school at night.