The rest of the men smiled—apart from Zane, obviously —and thankfully Lucky continued on.
“We’ve got a loaner car that we give customers that need transportation when their cars are getting fixed. Problem is, we have to gas her up first,” he said and my thoughts dampened at the time this would take. Lucky must have seen this on my face because he gave me a panty-melting grin.
“The bright side is, I’m done for the day and I’d be happy to give you a ride and accompany you to the movie, unlike my brother here.” He jerked his head at Zane, who stiffened, “I thoroughly enjoy any cinematic experience.”
I failed to garner any sense of irritation at the fact this guy was essentially inviting himself to the movies with Lexie and I. This may be because he was kindly offering us a ride. It also may be because he was fixing Betty and giving us something to drive in the meantime. But it was most probably because he was hot. Now, I held no illusions; there was no way I was going to turn cougar, but I was still a red-blooded woman. Still, it wasn’t exactly setting a good example for my daughter to accept rides and movie invitations from random—no matter how friendly—hot, biker strangers. I seem to remember one of my main—there were only a few—rules being: don’t get into cars with strangers. Unoriginal yet relevant.
“Thanks....” I opened my mouth but I didn’t know how I was going to politely decline when I was interrupted.
“I’m taking them,” a tight voice declared, the anger in the tone cutting through the easy atmosphere.
All eyes, including mine, cut to Zane who was no longer glaring at me—yippee! — but at Lucky.
“I don’t mind....” Lucky started but Zane cut him off yet again.
“I’m taking them,” he said slowly, with a hint of warning in his voice.
Lucky grinned, right in the face of the laser beam death stare. “Okay, brother,” he said knowingly and winked at me. “Get Bull to drop you here after the movie. Your loaner will be all gassed up and ready to roll,” he said easily, as if he had not just almost been pummeled by a raging bull. Pun intended.
I smiled back at him weakly. “Thanks, Lucky.”
The others, namely Brock and Cade, were not grinning but staring between Zane and I with blank faces. I didn’t know what to make of them.
Cade threw some keys that Zane caught in his fist. “Take my cage, bro, I don’t need it,” he told him, his voice not as easy as before and he inspected me with a slightly furrowed brow.
Zane didn’t reply, merely nodded tightly. His gaze moved to me. “You wanna make your movie, get your shit,” he said roughly.
I jolted, shocked at the fact he was addressing me directly and more than a little pissed off he was swearing at me. In front of my daughter, no less. I wasn’t against swearing. Back in the day I swore like a sailor. Partly because parents who didn’t censor themselves surrounded me. Also because I was a confused, angry teenager who did a lot of crap, and swearing came part and parcel with said crap.
But when I had Lexie I vowed I would be nothing like my parents. I would not do things like lock her in the bedroom when I had drug dealer friends over, I would not forget to feed her for a day, and I would not swear in front of her. Hence my slightly eccentric words I used in lieu of curse words.
At this moment, I couldn’t really voice my distaste for the words he was using or the manner in which he was addressing me, especially since Lexie’s face had lit up when he uttered them. I pursed my lips and nodded, going to the car to get my bag. Lexie did the same, except she practically skipped to the car.
“How cool is this?” she asked me across the front seat, gathering her stuff, including her brick of a book. “Zane’s actually coming with us!”
“I doubt he’s coming with us to the actual movie, Dollybird. More like he’s dropping us off outside. We’ll be lucky if he even stops the car,” I told her seriously, muttering the last bit of my sentence.
She gave me a perplexed look and shook her head. “He’s totally coming with us. Now hurry up. You’re going to be the reason we get lumped with unsatisfying snacks,” she ordered.