Killing Me Softly(A Broken Souls Series)

We pull into an old fashioned gas station, the kind without a place to insert your debit card. He goes in to pay and comes out with two bottles of water. I feel silly standing next to the motorcycle with my helmet on. I’m not sure why I find it silly, but I do.

“Were you laughing back there?” Tate asks, his voice startles me out of my thoughts.

“Yeah, could you feel it?” I barely say the words and I realize that I’ve left myself open for an embarrassing moment.

“Hon, I was very aware of your movements. I was hoping you were laughing and not crying.”

Hon? He called me hon. “No, I was thinking about the wind in our faces. Too much alone time in my head can lead to crazy thoughts. Not crazy like my dad kind of cray cray, more like too much idle time.”

“I do the same thing. I forgot to give you a job before we got on the bike. When we pass another biker going the other direction, we hold our left hand out in a too cool to wave but we’ll let our hand float in the wind kind of wave.”

“Oh yeah, I saw you do that a couple of times, I just thought you knew a lot of bikers. They aren’t your friends?”

“No, just a way of being friendly. Every once in a while you’ll hear a bell go off under my bike. Whenever I hit a bump in the road the bell will ring to keep the road demons away,” Tate says in his serious voice.

“Road demons? There are demons on the road and a bell scares it away? Okay, so my flavor of cray cray isn’t too far away from the Kool Aid you’re drinking.”

“They’re a superstition that some bell maker invented I’m sure. A biker never buys one for themselves, it has to be a gift. My mom bought me my first one.” He finishes up with the gas pump and puts his gas cap back on. I climb on behind him and he pats my leg and leans back into me. “Hang on.”

I wrap my arms around him and he starts up the bike. For the next twenty minutes I get lost in the ever-changing scenery and the feel of his abs under my hands. Every once in a while, he rubs my leg or gives my knee a squeeze. We pull into a long driveway, set back behind tall evergreen trees is a ranch style house. It is newer, maybe ten years old. I’m not a good judge about things like that, considering I live in a shack that cave people built. We drive the bike all the way up to the house, passing a couple of cars parked in the drive. Voices from the backyard yell out Tate’s name. They must have heard the bike as we pulled up.

The big wooden gate opens with a loud squeal. There’s only four people on the deck that Tate and Don built.

I’m introduced to a stocky Hispanic guy, his name is Marcus and his girlfriend June, but ironically she was born in October. She’s fiery redhead with a big personality, that’s the only thing big on her. Don is ruggedly handsome, he reminds me of the vampire named Eric on True Blood. It was Andy’s favorite TV show and my least favorite. I happen to like a sparkly vampire. Tracy is a petite brunette with a larger than average sized nose and long straight auburn hair. Don and Marcus have apparently had a few beers throughout the afternoon by the way they high-fived every couple of minutes. Another fun thing they enjoyed doing was screaming out, Thunder Up! Obviously they’re all basketball fans. The Oklahoma City Thunder is a NBA basketball team that has a point to prove and are doing it with their star ball player.

“Hey, Holland, June and I were about to frost cupcakes, would you like to help?” Linda asks.

The three of us gather around the large kitchen island. Tracy has prepared frosting bags filled with colored frosting and fancy metal tips. She gives us a crash course on how to frost like bakers do. It occurs to me fairly quick that I’m not very good at decorating a cupcake. June isn’t much better than me, her cupcakes look like a six year old attacked them. Mine look more like a kindergartener decorated them.

Tracy asks if I want a sangria and after seeing all the fruit bouncing around in the pitcher, I couldn’t resist having a glass. From the very first sip, I’m convinced I’ve died and gone to heaven. Why haven’t I had these before? Andy was well versed in the all frills girly drinks. She never said anything about sangrias.

Tate comes inside and I step up and kiss him, my sangria-covered lips are a little sticky but he doesn’t seem to mind.

He smiles at me and takes a sip of my drink. Okay, so I didn’t announce I’m under twenty-one, but one glass of heaven isn’t going to kill me. His hand goes to the back of my neck and he pulls me up close to where I’ll be the only one to hear what he whispers to me. “You’re a bad girl, and I like it.”

“Do you have any flaws?” I waggle my eyebrows up and down at him.

“Too many to count,” He says out loud.

“What’s too many to count?” Tracy asks as she puts the final touch to her bakery perfect cupcakes.

Tate glances at Tracy before answering. “She’s wondering if I have flaws.”

Tracy had just taken a sip of her drink and she almost spit it out all over the cupcakes. “Honey, he has some serious flaws, the kind that will make you crazy if you let them.”

What the hell?

“Holland, I’m kidding. Tate’s a good guy, he’s not flawless for sure.” She squeezes some frosting on her finger and sticks it in her mouth. “You’ll figure them out once he’s off good behavior.”

Tate puts his hand over his chest like she shot him. “I thought we were friends,” he teases. “Are these for eating or do I have to wait?”

“Have at it,” Tracy says. She has a hint of an accent, I think Tate told me she’s from Michigan.

Tate takes one of the cupcakes in front of me. “Very festive,” he flashes me his crooked grin.

“Isn’t it?” My insides go mushy as he takes a bite of his cupcake.

“You want a bite?” He holds it up close to my lips.

I shake my head no.

“Are you sure?” He inches a little closer to me.

“I’m sure.”

Without warning, he swiped a finger full of frosting and puts it on my nose. I scream like a girl, I guess because I am a girl. I run out of the house and go leaping off the deck as Tate chases me with the cupcake. I’m laughing so hard I don’t realize how close he is.

“No! DON’T PUT IT IN MY HAIR! STOP CHASING ME!” I scream out breathlessly.

His arms go around my waist and we fall to the ground laughing. He has me on my back and he looks down as he hovers over me.

“You’re cute,” He says.

“So are you. Where’s the cupcake?” I’m suspicious of him as he looks at me innocently.

“It’s in the house. You ran out like crazy so I figured I’d go with it and see where we end up. Lucky for me, you ended up on your back and in my arms.” He kisses the tip of my nose.

“Oh you’re going to get it!” I lick my lips trying to make sure I don’t have any frosting on me. “I embarrassed myself in front of everyone because you faked me out? You wait!”

His arms tighten around me and he somehow flips to his back and I’m on top of him. “Why, are you going to punish me? I already told you that you can paddle me.” His laugh is contagious and soon we’re both laughing. After a minute, we stop laughing, as though someone hit the pause button, now we’re just watching each other. I’m straddling his abdomen, it felt safer than sitting across his pelvis. Tate’s hand goes up and tugs on my shirt, pulling me down to him. In my mind, the world has stopped spinning on its axis, and started revolving around us. My hair cascades down, causing a curtain of hair to guard our soon to be epic kiss. It only lasts a moment, but I’m lightheaded as I come up from kissing him.