Crossroads (Beautiful Biker MC Romance Series) - DD Prince Page 0,26

stood up and looked straight into his eyes. His hard eyes. Ouch.

That was my cue to walk back to my door. He was standing there still and now his arms were crossed over his chest.

I looked at him with a sad smile. “Maybe I’ll offer to buy you a beer again some other time,” I said, opened the door and took a step forward.

“Jojo.”

Hearing my name in his voice for the very first time did something weird to me. Something profound. I backed up and looked at his face and my eyes were hopeful. Definitely hopeful. Was he going to invite me into his room to have a drink with him?

“Don’t bother,” he said. And then he turned his doorknob, went inside, then slammed his door.

4

I’ve gone to bed. Goodnight.

This was the reply I sent to Brady. I copied it and pasted it to Ella who had messaged me to ask me where I got to. I then sent it to Lulu, too, who had also messaged me to ask if I’d fallen in. I assumed she was talking about the toilet. I felt like I had fallen in --- into a pile of shit.

I was in my bed, my little cat lying on me, and my TV on the aquarium channel, which was the norm for me as I found it soothing to watch as I fell asleep. I discovered that if I left it on and stared at the screen it often stopped me from going over things in my head on a loop that I had no power to fix or change. I closed my message string to Lulu and then I scrolled and scrolled until I got to the oldest message string on my phone.

Luke.

Yes, I still had my text string with Luke. My thumb hovered over his name and my hand was trembling. I hadn’t looked in a while; I’d made myself stop looking. A hundred times I’d let my thumb hover over his name. I should delete it. I really should. I should delete it. Move on. Move forward.

I didn’t. I put the phone down and turned it to ‘do not disturb’, setting an alarm for nine o’clock in the morning.

***

It was early Sunday afternoon and I had managed to get out of the clubhouse without speaking to anyone. I’d heard Rider and Jenna arguing from the hallway in their clubhouse room. They’d often spend the night here on Saturdays, so they didn’t have to cab it home after partying downstairs. She still sounded pissed about the night before. I was glad I managed to get out of there without being noticed. I did overhear something against my will though.

“Just because I let you fuck me last night does not mean our fight is over, Rider.”

“Naw, gorgeous. It was over. It’s just you decided to get yourself some more of that fight-fuckin’ you love so much so you’re pretendin’ we’re still in a fight, hoping I’ll grab and pin you.”

I heard a crash (likely her throwing something) as she called him an alpha-hole and my face was contorted into a yuck expression as I locked my bedroom door and moved out of earshot quickly. Quickly, because if what he said was true, the next things I’d hear would be sex sounds and I did not need to hear sex sounds from one of my brothers or one of the girls getting touched by my brothers right now. I’d say ‘ever’ but too late. I’d heard them before, sadly, more times than I could count. The walls in this place were way too thin.

***

I was pulling into the driveway of a house four streets over from my childhood home in Sioux Falls. It was the Hanson house. I knocked on the door and as I did, the screen door swung open and a shocked Mrs. Hanson’s face dropped with relief.

“Oh. Jojo. It’s you. I thought it was her again. Come in.”

“Her?” I asked, following Luke’s mom inside.

“That Melanie girl. She keeps coming here and hounding me about money for that baby she says is Luke’s.”

“Uh, pardon me?” I stepped into the living room and sat on the couch. Because I had to. My knees had gone wobbly at what she’d said.

“Melanie. I told you about her, didn’t I?”

“No, I don’t think so…” I think I’d have remembered if she’d told me some girl was coming around claiming to have a baby that was Luke’s.

“She came here claiming that Luke was the daddy to her baby.