I understand the feeling. The busier I am, the less time I have to think.
“I’ll hold you to that.” I hop up and go to take my plate to the sink to rinse it off. Coop grabs it from my hands with a smile.I prefer to clean up after myself, but I know he won’t let me. Instead of arguing, I just give him a quick hug. “Thanks. See ya later, Coop.”
I jog out of the kitchen to catch up with Charlie, who’s already getting on her blacked-out R1. After quickly putting on my helmet and gloves, I turn on “Animal,” needing something to hype me up for the photoshoot that’s probably going to last all night. My bike rumbles to life underneath me as I pull out of their driveway and follow Charlie to the river.
CHAPTER 5
LARK
“All right, now look off into the distance over your right shoulder while keeping your left foot on the peg,” Charlie instructs from where she’s kneeling on the black asphalt.
I groan, more than ready to be done taking pictures. We’ve been out here for two hours, and the sun has long since set. Although, I have to admit, the lights twinkling across the river are gorgeous at night. “Char, I thought you said that was the last one.”
She gives me a sheepish smile. “Yeah… I lied.” Raising her hands in a what-can-you-do gesture, Charlie doesn’t look even slightly sorry about it.
I huff a laugh but get into the pose she told me to. “You’re lucky I love you. Why, exactly, do I need two million pics of me? It’s not like I have any social media to show them off.”
Trying to disappear and being on social media don’t really go hand in hand, so I don’t have any accounts.
“They’re for you.” All the humor from earlier is wiped from her tone. “So, maybe, one of these days, you’ll see yourself how the rest of the world does.”
Scoffing, I look back at Charlie. “By the rest of the world, you mean, you, Coop, and your parents. My parents, extended family, and all the lovely shifters of Oakridge Park are the reason I see myself how I do.”
Unlike my siblings, I was never in the popular crowd. I hung out with Charlie, and that’s about it. But, as hard as I tried, I was never able to fade into the background. There was always someone there to remind me what a disappointment I was.
“And Wren,” Charlie whispers. “She always saw who you really are, even though you never saw it yourself.”
My breath whooshes out of me, and it feels like I’ve been punched in the gut at the reminder of Wren’s ever-present belief in me. Even when I was blind to what my sister was going through, she never stopped believing in me or pushing me to be the best person I could be.
And now, I’m doing everything I can to live up to the person she thought I was and to live the life she wanted for me. No matter how much I feel like I’m failing at it, I wake up every day and do it because I owe Wren that—and so much more.
“Can we go back to taking pictures?” I croak, my voice too choked up to sound normal. I turn to look out at the river before Charlie responds, needing a moment to compose myself.
At my roiling emotions that make it hard to breathe, my creature perks up in my chest. She wants out so she can lay waste to my enemies and remove what’s making me so upset.
Since there’s no one she can hurt to make me feel better, I try to redirect her attention to the river, promising her a swim soon. That does the trick, and my animal quiets down, silently watching everything through my eyes without demanding to be let out.
Charlie doesn’t answer, but I hear the telltale clicking of her shutter as she does what I asked without saying anything. One of the things I love about Charlie is that she never pushes me to talkabout anything. Instead, she just offers silent support as I try to sort out the mess my head has been for the past six months.
We’re taking pictures for probably a half hour longer when a deafening roar sounds from behind me.
When the noise stops, Charlie groans. “Ugh. Some Ducati douchebags just pulled up. We might as well call it a night. I’m sure they’ll find some way to ruin the pics.”
I can’t help my snort at her disdain for Ducati owners. As a Yamaha fangirl, she has strong opinions about anyone who rides a different bike brand. She thinks all Ducati owners are rich assholes, which, honestly, isn’t far from the truth for a lot of them.
Coop and I are the only ones not riding Yamahas who get a pass, but the randoms who pulled up aren’t as lucky.
Secretly glad for the interruption, because I’m all pictured out, I hop off my ZX-6R and turn to look at the bikes that pulled up.
I stop in my tracks when I recognize two of the four of them. I’m pretty sure the two red and black ones belong to Hal and Rook. A tiny part of me is disappointed that I don’t see Azrael’s bike, but I squash it down.
I’m debating if I can leave before they catch sight of me when Hal takes off his helmet and hollers, “Hey, wild girl!”
Because of my ingrained politeness, I give a small wave in acknowledgement while internally wanting to ignore him and leave. I’ve had a long day, and I’m not in the mood for more peopling.
“Who isthat?” Charlie hisses as she gets a good look at Hal in his charcoal hoodie and black ripped jeans.
My stomach drops as I watch her check him out. Charlie’s everything I’m not. She’s short, busty, has curvy hips, and a model-worthy face. There’s no way Hal or Rook would beinterested in me when they could have someone like her, who’s funny as hell and wicked smart to boot.
