Cade.
Her heart rate slowed and she released the breath she hadn’t realized she was holding. Then her heart kicked up again, for an entirely different reason. “Yes, you’re right. He’s a … friend. He won’t hurt us.” The latter she said for Tia’s benefit, but her daughter was already behind her, face pressed against Dawn’s back as if she could make the biker disappear just by erasing the sight of him.
He stopped a few feet away, and Dawn tensed. “Cade. What are you doing here?”
“Checking up on you. I gotta go out of town, and I just wanted to make sure you were okay before I left.”
He glanced down at Maia, and then at Tia, still pressed against her side. “Hello, lovely ladies. I hope you haven’t run in front of any more trucks.”
“Did you catch Jimmy? Did he do that to your face?” Maia tilted her head to the side and studied Cade’s bruises. He looked even worse than he had when he’d stopped by Dawn’s apartment on Thursday night, the bruises now a greenish yellow and covering most of his face. He’d removed the bandages from his forehead and cheeks, and the cuts were dark and crusted. No doubt, they would leave scars. And yet they only added to his rugged charm.
“Unfortunately, he caught me first.” Cade bent down, grimacing in pain and dropped to one knee in front of her. “But I’m pretty damn sure he looks worse than me today. Which twin are you?”
“Maia. I do the talking. Sometimes I get in trouble for talking too much. Mrs. Walker made me stay in for recess because she gave me three warnings and I forgot. Tia’s the quiet one, but she’s smarter than me and does more thinking. She likes purple. I like pink.”
He gently lifted her hand and gave it a shake. “Nice to see you again, Maia-who-likes-pink. Musta been important stuff you were saying to forget to follow the rules.”
She nodded, her face grave. “It was.”
Cade leaned to the side, trying to catch Tia’s gaze. “And this must be Tia.”
Tia tightened her grip and turned her face away. Dawn patted the tiny hand on her stomach.
“It’s okay. Cade’s a good biker.”
“He’s still a biker,” Maia said, withdrawing her hand from Cade’s grasp. “And bikers are bad.”
“Maia…”
“It’s okay.” Cade pushed himself to his feet. “I’m guessing living with Jimmy wasn’t all flowers and sunshine.”
“There were flowers.” Maia’s gaze dropped and she toed the grass underfoot. “He bought flowers sometimes after he hit—”
“Maia.” Dawn’s cheeks heated and she bent down and lowered her voice. “We don’t talk about that. Especially not to people we don’t know. That time is gone. We live in the now.”
Maia’s bottom lip trembled. “I thought he’d feel better if he knew that Jimmy hurts everyone.”
“Not for fucking long,” Cade muttered.
“Cade!”
“He swore.” Maia gave him an assessing look. “Just like Jimmy. And he wears the same clothes as Jimmy. But he has a nice face. Jimmy has a mean face.”
Unabashed, Cade twisted his lips to the side. “I’m nothing like Jimmy. First, I’m much better looking. Second, I save the swearing for special occasions. And third, I’ll bet he never bought you ice cream.” He looked to Dawn for confirmation. “If that’s okay with your mom.”
“Bribery. Very nice.” Dawn laughed and sent the girls to the concession stand to choose their flavors, pushing all thoughts about Shelly-Ann to the back of her mind. “I thought you’d scare the girls away in your leathers and chains.”
He gave her a cocky grin and placed a hand on her lower back, guiding her along the path. “What can I say? I have a way with the ladies no matter how old they are.”
“You have a way of finding ladies, too. How did you know where we were?” His hand was warm against her back, and she tried to ignore the curious glances of the other parents in the park. As far as her neighbors knew, she was a conservative, hardworking single mom with shared custody of her kids and no connection to unsavory biker types who looked sinfully good in worn, low-rise jeans.
“Drove by the park on my way to your house and saw Jimmy’s sister dropping the girls off. Decided to make sure she wasn’t giving you a hard time.”
Warmth pooled in her belly, and for a moment she considered sharing her concerns about Shelly-Ann. But her business wasn’t his business, and it wasn’t like he could help. “We’re doing fine. Thanks for checking up on us. I’m glad to see you’re up and about.”