When she looked around for him she saw that he and William were in the restaurant’s bar area. Each with a fresh drink in their hands.
Kate decided the man didn’t deserve an explanation, and instead retrieved her coat and left the restaurant.
Ten minutes later, the subtle purr of an engine got her attention. She turned to see John driving up to the valet spot on what appeared to be a very large and very sleek black motorcycle.
“Oh my,” she whispered more to herself.
He smiled, and there was a bit of the devil in his eyes.
“Hop on, Red.”
Right, she thought. Because if she was going to be a biker chick now, she definitely needed a nickname. It would be without a doubt the most spontaneous thing she had ever done, and it felt good to not even hesitate. To do, instead of thinking.
She scrambled on the back and he handed her a helmet. She put it on and shoved her hair out of her face.
“Where do you want to go?” he asked.
“Whereever you’re taking me.”
John looked at her and smiled. “Good answer. Put your arms around my waist and lean with me.”
She nodded, and then he did something to make the bike roar to life and off they went.
The feel of it was surreal. The air, the smell of the city, the press of her body against John’s. When they turned and he leaned, she did as instructed and leaned with him. It became this odd sort of dance. He took her through the city, which past eight in the evening was free of heavy traffic. They drove past the art museum, down Kelly Drive and Boathouse Row, until he drove her up into Fairmount Park and found a secluded area where they could stop for a while.
“It’s my favorite part of the city,” John said as he took his helmet off and dropped the kickstand of the bike. “I wanted to show it to you.”
Kate wrapped her coat more tightly around her and took a seat on the park bench, which was clear of snow and thankfully dry.
“Is it crazy I did this? Is it too cold?”
She shook her head. Even though she could see puffs of clouds from her mouth, it wasn’t enough to make her give up this moment. It was breathtaking. Snow had fallen earlier in the week, and the white stretched out in front of her on the ground, some still in the trees. It was quiet in that strange way when snow covered everything. It felt like she and John were the only two people in a magical woods, even though they had only left the lights and noise of the city a few minutes ago.
He sat down next to her and took her gloved hands in his. He pulled them up to his mouth and blew hot air on them. An innocent gesture that felt shockingly intimate. Like she was his to be warmed.
“So what excuse did you give the guy?” John asked.
“I didn’t. That friend he was talking to… they went to the bar for a drink.”
“He left you there? Sitting at the table by yourself while he had a drink? Okay, you have to admit our date was way better than that.”
“I’ll concede better. Not way better.”
“Fair enough,” John said easily. “Want me to go back there and rough him up? I have a reputation as a badass, you know.”
“No, I don’t want to think of him at all really. Instead I want to know why you freaked out. And please don’t say it was because I’m out of your league. You know that’s ridiculous, right?”
He sighed and she realized he hadn’t let go of her hand this whole time. She liked that.
“It’s not ridiculous, Kate, but I will admit there was a fair amount of freaking out. I guess I just thought… that I didn’t deserve someone like you. I was married once. Did I tell you that?”
Kate shook her head. Their date hadn’t lasted much longer than twenty minutes. There hadn’t been time for any real exchanges of information. He said married. Past tense.
“Was it because of the jail thing… did she leave you?”
John shook his head. “Well, she left me, but not because of that. I met Becky when I was sixteen. We were married by nineteen, and together planned to own a fleet of commercial fishing boats. Our own little dynasty. We almost got there too, until she got sick. Cancer.”
Kate wrapped her other hand around the one holding hers and squeezed.
“All our effort went there, you know? To fighting it. For a while it seemed like we were getting ahead of it, and then she was gone. I had never felt so bereft in my life. I imagine it’s like when a soldier loses an arm or leg, and you look down at yourself that first time and you can’t believe that’s really you.”
Kate thought about how she felt after losing her mother. Like suddenly she wasn’t the same person she had been.
“When I buried her, I thought that part of my life was over. Then I went on a hell of a bender. I hit every bar in this city. Nice ones, seedy ones, it didn’t matter. Then one night I go out the back to take a piss because the bathroom was occupied, and I see this bully cop giving some kid shit for no reason. In my drunken state I thought I was doing the right thing. Instead I ended up doing eight months in jail.”