Moving On (Rolling Thunder #7) - P.J. Fiala Page 0,55

herself up and get dressed. And the music of the motorcycles out front continued to grow.

Her hair fell over her shoulders as she stepped from the bedroom and walked toward the living room. Chase soon joined her at the window where they saw a large group of bikes, many of them from Rolling Thunder, stopped in the street out front.

Smiling Chase opened the front door and stepped outside and waived to his friends, who waived back, some of them walking up the lawn to meet him halfway. She stayed put. They came here to see him before the Veteran's Ride, and it was bad enough he had to miss it this year, she wasn't going to spoil his little time with friends. Backing away from the window she walked to the kitchen and began making breakfast. Their coffee now cold was gathered, poured out and new coffee replaced it.

Pulling her egg bake from the oven, she set it on top to set. The sound of the motorcycles revving outside caught her attention and she stepped into the living room but stayed away from the window to watch Chase wave goodbye to his friends. He watched as they pulled away from him, down the street and then out of sight. Today would be hard for him; he'd never missed a single ride with Rolling Thunder. At least this wasn't her fault. But she still felt some guilt over it.

He entered the house, walking a bit slower than before, his head down and she wanted to cry for him.

Trying to lighten the mood, she said, "That was really nice of them."

"It was. I have great friends."

36

Chase huffed out a tired but proud breath as he set the weights down on the bar.

"You've done great this week with your therapy. You're almost at 100%. How are your headaches?"

Wiping the sweat from his face with the white towel the therapist handed him he chuckled. "Better, I only had one day this past week that I had a dull headache."

"That's wonderful."

He watched as the therapist, a man about 10 years younger than himself, wrote in his chart. After writing a few sentences, he looked up at Chase. "That's it for us today. Did you want to schedule your next appointment before you go?"

"I'll have to give you a call to schedule it. I'm heading for Colorado tomorrow for a few days."

"Sounds awesome. Have a great time and give us a call when you know your schedule moving forward."

"Will do."

Walking out of the building to his truck he smiled as the bright sun hit his skin and warmed him. He'd been in a bit of a funk this past week. Missing his first Rolling Thunder Veteran's ride had gotten him down.

Climbing into his rented truck, he nodded as the sharp pains that had run through him earlier in the week were now replaced with a dull ache and nothing more. He'd pulled muscles in his upper back during the accident and the therapy was helping tremendously with that. The trembling in his hands that he'd had in the hospital were completely gone and he was now getting excited for the trip to Durango. Though he'd vacillated over this past week about whether he was doing the right thing, he and LuAnn had decided to go and check out the area and Chief's and talk about it after.

As he left the clinic parking lot, he made a snap decision to stop at Rolling Thunder and see what was happening there. He and Dog needed to have a conversation, their last one was not something that sat well with him and Dog deserved better from him.

Pulling into the Rolling Thunder lot he saw Dog's truck parked close to the backdoor and Joci's Jeep alongside and thought it might be a great time to sit and chat with both of them.

Walking into the garage he was happy to see Ryder working away on a bike. Ryder turned his head and smiled when he saw Chase. Quickly separating the distance, when they were close both of them stuck out their hands and shook, then hugged quickly.

"Nice to see you up and walking."

"Thanks. It feels fantastic to walk and not be in pain. How was the Veteran's Ride?"

"It was good. No issues, raised a lot of money to add an addition on to Donaldson's house and do some small repairs for a few other veterans."

"That's fantastic." He looked toward the door that led to the store and the staircase that led