Grinning, I started the bike up and headed for the exit, being sure to watch her in my mirrors.
At one point, she passed me because she’d gotten into a different lane, and a slow motherfucker in front of me had kept me from catching up very quickly.
Meaning that I got a front row seat to her sort of running a red light.
And I say sort of only because she hadn’t realized that she ran it due to the big ass truck that was blocking her view of the light until she was halfway into the intersection.
I wasn’t the only one to see it, either.
The cruiser that’d been on the side of the road checking for speeders saw it, then immediately flipped a bitch and turned his lights on, rolling right up behind her.
I couldn’t help it.
I laughed.
All of her ‘I don’t get tickets’ and ‘I won’t get pulled over’ replayed in my mind as I watched in fascination as she pulled into the driveway that was off a gas station, put her car in park, and placed her hands on the steering wheel.
The police cruiser with the pulsing blue lights pulled in after her.
I burst out laughing.
She was so damn adamant about driving the damn car home that I almost decided to drive straight to her store.
Instead, I drove to the gas station and decided to fill up my bike while I watched and waited.
I was kind of unsurprised to find Ford Spurlock being the one to get out of the cruiser.
Ford was one of my childhood best friends, along with Ashe Trammel, now known as Ashe Spurlock.
I hadn’t seen them since I’d gotten out of prison, and that’d not been for their lack of trying.
I just… needed a break from Kilgore. Kilgore being where it’d all gone down—me breaking my medical oath, and the law, as well as committing a mortal sin, all at once.
Today had been my first real trip back into the city, which had also been the real hesitation on my part for why I hadn’t taken Crockett up on her invitation to the wedding sooner.
But, as I filled my tank up, then leaned against the seat as I watched Ford approach Crockett’s driver’s side door, it was with a smile on my face.
I’d missed my friend.
And I knew the moment that Ford saw her he’d know that she was mine.
I mean, the t-shirt she was wearing said ‘Dixie Wardens MC’ on it in big bold print.
The Dixie Wardens MC was the motorcycle club that my father had been a part of since he’d gotten out of the service over twenty years ago now.
Ashe and Ford, like me, had been Dixie Wardens kids all born around the same time.
That t-shirt was in red, with black lettering on it. Once a year, all of us got together and all of the families chose a color so that we could all tell each other apart when we went to the Big Dixie Wardens reunion that happened between all the clubs in the fall every year.
Red had always been the Caruso color.
So when Ford walked up to the car and saw the shirt, he visibly took a step backward.
His frown was ferocious when he saw the shirt, then said a few words to her that had her reaching for the door.
I took that as my cue to walk up.
“Don’t you dare make her get out of the car,” I called out to him.
His head snapped up upon hearing my voice, and then his face transformed from one of indifference to one of fucking happiness.
Yeah, I’d stayed away too long.
I was such an ass.
I hadn’t even gone home, either.
And his wife, Ashe, had a new baby.
I was such a fuckin’ jerk.
“Stay in the car,” Ford ordered her as he rounded the front of the car.
Then he was on me, pulling me into a hug so tight and fierce that it was hard to breathe.
But I gave just as good as I took, and he was wheezing right along with me seconds later.
“Where the fuck have you been?” he rasped against my head.
I slammed my hand down hard twice on his back, thankful when I felt the body armor underneath his police uniform, then pulled back.
“Getting my head on straight,” I admitted quietly.
His eyes went hard then, narrowing dangerously. “When are you going to come meet your godchild?”
I felt a rawness to my throat when I said, “Tomorrow, if you want.”
He looked back over his shoulder at the woman. “She the reason you’re back?”
I looked back at her. She was staring at us through the windshield of Murphy’s car.
“Yeah,” I admitted. “She is.”
“Then you’ll both come,” he ordered. “But tomorrow isn’t good for us. We’re headed to Benton for the week. When we come back.”
I grinned then. “We’re headed there ourselves this weekend for my mom’s birthday. How about you come over Saturday and help us celebrate. I’ll meet him then.”