We walked around the back toward the deck where it jetted out over the water.
"Oh, my gosh, it's beautiful," she said, and I looked at her. She was so pure and sweet. All I could think was that she was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen.
We made the rounds. I felt so proud introducing her to everyone. Everyone took to her right away. I could tell. Kaylie gave me a secretive thumbs-up. But I didn't know if that meant she liked Melissa or that Melissa liked me.
I offered her a drink from the cooler and she took a beer. Of course, she was a college kid. College kids drank beer. I wasn't going to drink, though. Not even a beer. Not with her on the back of my bike.
I watched her drink it. I didn’t say much. I exhaled as the girls surrounded her and dragged her away. And then I waited.
“Relax, man, it’ll be okay,” Drake joked. I gave him a dirty look. He’d never even had to think about whether he was doing the right thing. The guy wouldn’t know a nice girl if she kicked him in the face.
Actually, that was probably the only way he’d get the attention of a nice girl.
Not that you’re much better, my friend. Perving on some college girl.
But she wasn’t just some girl. She was Melissa. Over the past few weeks, I’d fallen for her, hook, line, and sinker. And I prayed to God that she felt the same way about me.
Chapter Nine
Melissa
“I’m Kirsten,” a stunning brunette said as I was guided onto a wood bench that ran the length of the railing.
“But everyone calls her Angel,” an equally beautiful girl named Molly said. She was close to my age, I realized. Most of them were a couple of years older, at least, with two girls who might be in their early thirties. But all of them were extremely good-looking and ageless. I felt like a duckling hanging out with a bunch of swans.
All the girls here were gorgeous. Ridiculously so. I imagined Nick’s view. I looked like an awkward dumpling in the middle of them. A redhead with the longest legs I had ever seen cocked her head to the side and stared at me.
“Have you known Nick long?” she asked, her aquamarine eyes boring into me. A beautiful girl with golden brown waves giggled at her. Her name was Kaylie and the barbecue was at her house.
“Don’t mind Janet,” she said with a twinkle in her eye. “She doesn’t beat around the bush.”
“Understatement.” Another pretty girl giggled. “I’m Becky.”
“But we do want to know all about Nick,” Kirsten said.
“I’ve known him for . . . I guess it’s five years?”
“So you were a teenager when you met?”
I nodded, looking at them. It felt a little bit like an interrogation, although a friendly one. But I wasn’t sure what they were after.
“Do you have a boyfriend?”
I shook my head.
“No.”
I was about to say that I never really had a boyfriend, but that was too embarrassing. I had kissed a few boys in college but that was it.
"Girlfriend?" one of the girls asked. I shook my head with a smile. I wasn’t offended. Lots of horsey girls were playing for the other team.
"I'm kind of a loner, I guess. I've always just hung out more with horses than people. Not romantically," I joked.
I saw them all exchange glances and looked up to find that Nick was watching me from across the deck. He looked distracted, his handsome face worried with a furrowed brow.
I was getting the feeling that he wasn't having a good time.
"Is he always so serious at parties?" I asked. The girls exchanged another meaningful glance.
"Nick is pretty low-key. Don't you think?"
"He's great with Hendrix," I said. "He's a really good guy. I could tell the first time I met him."
Shut up, Melissa. Don't gush.
"But you were just a kid then, right? So you thought of him as an older brother?"
"Uhh . . . no, not exactly," I hedged. How do you tell people you just met that you were madly in love with a guy from the moment you met him? I would sound like a stalker. And it's not like I wanted him to know how badly I’d crushed on him. Not ever.
“You consider him a friend of your family?" the redhead pressed.
"Yeah, my folks really always liked him."
"Some people don't appreciate bikers," one of the girls said hesitantly. "They judge them on appearances."
"Oh, like the tattoos? I think they're awesome."
They all smiled and nodded at me.
"Nick said you were a competitive rider."
"I used to be," I said, surprised that he even knew that. I'd stopped years ago. "Life kind of got in the way. But I still ride when I have time."
"Nothing else? No hobbies or anything?"