“Mom says dinner will be ready in an hour.”
“You home tonight?” He drained the oil into a collection container.
“For dinner, but then I’m going over to the MC to see Cruz.”
“I hate you hanging out over there,” he grumbled but didn’t trash on Cruz.
“You watch too much TV. The Hellers are good guys.” Mostly.I think.At least, they weren’t bringing their troubles into the MC. Well, maybe they were, but my dad didn’t need to know that.
I sat next to my sister on the bench. She flipped through a racing magazine on the counter.
“I’m going to ride a bike like yours,” she said pointing to a picture of a BMW in the magazine. “And I want you to braid my hair like yours.” She brushed her bangs from her eyes. Mom said Cecely was a late in lifesurprise. More like a miracle that breathed life back into my parents. Grief nearly tore them apart. She was the magic in our family because I wasn’t the same without my twin brother, either.
But she was a little terror. At almost nine, she was tearing up the property on Cayson’s old 125cc dirt bike. “Cece, Mom wants you to help with dinner.”
She jumped from the stool and ran from the garage. Like me, she wanted to get where she was going, and she wanted to get there fast.
I glanced at my dad. “Cruz is coming to the track Saturday. Be nice to him.”
He heaved a sigh and lifted his gaze to me. “If he shows up, I’ll be nice.”
I closed the magazine and sat next to him on the concrete floor. “Ryatt will be there on Saturday, too.”
“Ryatt?” His thick, grease-stained fingers slipped a nut loose. “Do I know him?”
“No. But he’s a friend of a friend. He rides an R1 and wants to race.”
He growled. “Is that supposed to make me like him?”
“Yep. But you’ll like him because, from what I’ve seen, he’s a good rider. We need good guys at the track.”
“He can’t be worse than the asshole you’re dating now.”
“Dad.”
He waved me off.
“I’m not dating Ryatt.” He wasn’t wrong about Cruz being an asshole. In the dad dictionary of guys not good enough for their daughters, my dad would have a picture of Cruz.
“Where did you meet R1 Ryatt?”
“Through Kiss.”
He straightened and stared hard into my eyes. “You know, you and your brother used to bring home critters from the woods. They were wild and didn’t make good pets because they belong in the woods. You found a feral boyfriend and brought him home. He didn’t stick around, either. You need to quit looking for trouble. I know two things about Kiss. She runs with Hellers, and she’s had issues with drugs. Which one is Ryatt? A Heller or a junkie?”
“He’s not a Heller. And I don’t think he has a drug problem. I think he only goes to meetings because he has court-ordered treatment.”
“Christ, McKelle. I don’t need this shit.”
“Well, I don’t know all the details, yet. I just know he has a probation officer, not a parole officer so it couldn’t have been that bad.”
He shook his head as he recapped the plugs. “You’re killing me, kid.”
“I know.” I leaned in and kissed his cheek. “But you don’t need to worry. Ryatt is just a friend.”
“I’m your dad. I’m always going to worry.”
Chapter Four
