Dog Days of Summer (5 page)

Joci climbed up into his truck. Jeremiah walked around and got in. He took a long look at her. She peered at him as a smile spread across her face, and he winked. That one wink shot right to her private areas and made her wetter still. If that was even possible.

She was going home with Jeremiah. She could hardly help herself after he kissed her. Oh. My. God. She was going home with Jeremiah.

He started his truck and put it in gear. As he started driving away from the building, he put his right hand on Joci’s leg and gave her a little squeeze. Joci looked down at his large hand on her thigh. He had great hands. Big, strong hands and fingers. Her leg looked positively small under it. Her mind was reeling; she was going home to have sex with Jeremiah Sheppard.

After almost a year of thinking about this, dreaming about this, fantasizing about being with him, it was going to happen. It felt kind of dirty, the way they were driving away, knowing what they were going to do, like a booty call. Never in her life had Joci ever done anything like this.

“Hey, what are you thinking about?”

Joci looked up at Jeremiah and sighed.

“I feel like a…a tramp…leaving with you. I’ve never done anything like this before.”

Jeremiah shrugged his shoulders,
“I’m sorry. I should have insisted that I swing by and pick you up so it felt more like a date. It isn’t dirty or clandestine. We’ve known each other for a long time. You’ve kept me at arm’s length, even though I knew you wanted more. You’re not a tramp.”

“
But,” Jeremiah continued, “I want to see if we can forge a relationship. I’ve known that this past year you were scared, so I get that. A few months ago, when we started over, I wanted you to get to know me and know I’m good. I think you want a relationship with me, too. We don’t owe anyone an explanation—we’re adults.”

Joci sighed and looked out the window. He was right, of course. She did want more but was afraid of it. She was afraid of falling for Jeremiah and having him hurt her the way Keith and Derrick had. She wasn
’t sure she could trust anyone again after that. Trusting Jeremiah was going to be difficult. She saw the way women looked at him, sighed when he walked in the room.

She knew for sure LuAnn would do anything in her power to get Jeremiah. Joci wasn
’t sure she would be able to hold on to him with that temptation constantly in his path. LuAnn was trashy, but pretty and had a great body. She also had large breasts she liked to flaunt at everyone. Joci didn’t have large breasts, and she sure as hell didn’t flaunt the ones she had.

Jeremiah pulled into his driveway and then into his garage. He had a huge Rolling Thunder logo in the back of his garage, painted on the wall. He also had a big workbench and three hot bikes in his garage, Rolling Thunder bikes, of course. Joci looked at the bikes and snickered.

“Nice bikes!”

Jeremiah followed her gaze and smiled.
“Thanks. I own a bike shop, you know. These are mine.”

He got out of the truck and walked around to the passenger side. He was smiling as he reached in and helped her down.
“The yellow one is the first bike I ever designed. I keep her for nostalgia; I hardly ever ride her anymore.” He pulled Joci forward with their hands linked together. “Nowadays, there are better parts and components that make bikes more comfortable to ride. But she was my first love, and so I keep her.”

Walking to the orange bike, he lovingly caressed the handlebars as he said,
“This is the first bike the boys helped me build and design. I keep her because of that. It was our first project together. We worked out here in the garage for days and nights, pulling it together when the boys were freshman in high school. That was about ten years ago or so now. Every once in a while, I hop on her and take her for a ride. The boys do as well. They love this bike. Eventually, I plan on finding a place at Rolling Thunder to put her up and keep her there as the beginning of the Rolling Thunder garage. It was during the build of this bike that we talked about opening a bike shop and building for other people.” Joci loved looking at him when he talked about his sons. His features became soft and his eyes sparkled with pride and love.

Moving
around the orange bike to the black bike, he touched the seat and looked at Joci, “Of course, this is the bike I ride now. More comfortable, different frame than the other two bikes, different motor and exhaust, a whole new design I wanted to try out. I wanted to show customers that they can have a bagger, and still have it look cool. I love her. She’s fun to ride. Comfortable, stylish, classy. I get tons of compliments on her.”

Joci didn
’t miss that he called his bikes
her
and
she
. Interesting, but not uncommon. Lots of people referred to their bikes as
her
and
she
.

He hung onto Joci
’s hand and started walking to the door of his house. He opened the door and stood back to let Joci walk through first. When she walked in the house, she gasped. There were candles burning everywhere. In the kitchen, they covered the counters. She had a view of the living room and saw that they were everywhere as well.

Joci turned and looked at Jeremiah with a question on her face. Jeremiah looked at her and kissed her lightly on the lips.

“I’ve been telling my sister-in-law, Staci, about you, and that I wanted to bring you home tonight. I asked her what she thought would be special and romantic. I have to admit, Joci, I really don’t know a lot about romance—I’m just a guy. I trust Staci. She helped my mom and me raise the boys, and she’s been a fantastic sister to me.

“
She’s married to my older brother, Dayton. She told me to fill the rooms with candles and have some chilled wine to offer you. She came over here a little while ago and lit the candles for us.” Turning toward the refrigerator, Jeremiah said, “I have white wine in the refrigerator and some cheese and sausage as well. Are you hungry? Would you like a glass of wine?”

Joci looked at Jeremiah with skepticism on her face.

“So you were sure I would come home with you tonight?” she said with her eyebrows raised.

Jeremiah smirked.
“I haven’t been sure about anything with you, Joci, except that I wanted more from you, from us. I hoped like hell you would come home with me.”

He was still smi
ling when he said it. Jeremiah walked over to the refrigerator and pulled out a bottle of wine, opened it, and poured two glasses.

“
You didn’t answer my question? Are you hungry?”

Joci shook her head. No way she could eat now.

He handed Joci a glass, then picked up the other glass in one hand and Joci’s hand in the other. Then he walked her to the living room to sit on the sofa in front of the fireplace, which about twenty lit candles of different sizes and shapes. It was beautiful. Joci looked at the fireplace and was mesmerized by all the candle flames flickering and winking at her.

“
It’s very beautiful. Thank you for going to all of the trouble.”

Joci looked at Jeremiah; he was watching her very intently. Her breath caught and held at the look on his face. God, he was breathtaking. In the candlelight, he was even more beautiful. She would never get enough of looking at this man.

She took a drink of her wine, “The wine is delicious. Did you pick it out?”

Jeremiah smiled at her.
“Yes. Staci made me go to the wine store with her this morning and taste several different kinds to see which ones I liked. This particular one is Dayton’s favorite. Tell me about your life with your sister. Gunnar said you lived together while he was little.”

Joci smiled at the memories.
“Yes, Jackie and I stayed in our parents’ house after they died. Jackie had just turned 18. We were able to keep the house. There wasn’t a lot of money, but enough that we could stay there and live. We both got jobs to buy food and stuff and not have to touch the little bit of money there was. We wanted that money to go to the house, repairs, taxes, utilities.

She continued in a low voice.
“Jackie was able to finish college, and I started college. I was still in college when I got pregnant with Gunnar, but we were able to work our schedules out so that I didn’t have to hire a babysitter. Jackie loved Gunnar instantly. She was amazing with him. We would take him to the park and read to him and make sure he didn’t feel the stresses of not having a lot of money and not having a dad around. When Jackie met David, her husband, Gunnar was three months old. David immediately loved Gunnar, too. Jackie and David fell in love almost instantly and he was constantly around. He moved in with us after only about a month of them dating.”

“
Where was Keith all this time?”

Joci grimaced.
“Turns out, Keith didn’t want the responsibility of being a dad. We didn’t use protection because he said he hated it and there was no issue with me getting pregnant. He had it figured out. We never lived together. I was young, dumb, without parents, and maybe a little too adventurous. I can see things clearly now—long disappearances, late-night phone calls when we were together, a distance of sorts. After Gunnar was born, Keith really backed away and didn’t want the responsibility of a child. Thank God, Jackie was there to help me. She was great. I wouldn’t have been able to make it without her.”

“
When did he leave you and Gunnar?”

Joci looked at Jeremiah for a while.

“Are you sure you want to hear all of this? It isn’t exactly a fun subject.”

“
Yes, Joci, I want to know about you. More than I already know. I want to know what you like and don’t like. I want to know about your life.”

Joci took a deep breath.

“Okay, well, after Gunnar was born, I could tell Keith just wasn’t interested at all in him. Keith didn’t even come to the hospital when I had Gunnar. Jackie was with me. And, my best friend, Tori.”

Joci winced when she mentioned Tori. She took a drink of her wine and another deep breath.

“Anyway, when Gunnar was two months old, I caught Keith in bed with Tori. I had gone over to his apartment to talk with him. I walked in and they were in bed together. It wasn’t like he was the love of my life or anything, but with my best friend? Needless to say, it wasn’t pretty.”

Jeremiah slid his hand over on top of Joci
’s hand. “I’m sorry. That must have sucked.”

Joci looked at Jeremiah for a long while, his green eyes never wavering from her gaze, strong, steady, loving. Yes, he was a different kind of man than those she had been around. He genuinely seemed interested in her life. He was a great listener, and he never took his gaze away from her. She was starting to relax. She took another drink of her wine and set the glass on the coffee table.

“What about you? Where is JT and Ryder’s mother?”

Jeremiah
’s lip turned up in a scowl, but he never looked away from Joci.

“
Not sure. Barbara rides through once a year or so. She didn’t want to be a mother. It was an accident when she got pregnant. I was always careful, so when she called me and told me she was pregnant, I thought she was trying to scam me or something. I was in the Marines, had come home on leave, and met her in a bar. I spent time with her while I was home. Then I went back to California where I was stationed when leave was over. I got a phone call a month or two later that she was pregnant. I asked for a paternity test. She was bitchy about it, but got one. My brothers Dayton and Thomas made sure she did it right. Turned out the boys were mine.”

Joci nodded.
“It must have been hard. Good thing you didn’t have little girls.”

“
God, I don’t know if I would have been able to raise girls. They would have been tomboys if I had. I don’t do girly things.”

Joci burst out laughing at the look on his face.

“You would’ve learned. I learned boy things. As kids, Jackie and I were girly-girls. Our dad liked us in dresses and to have pretty things in our hair. Of course, we loved it. But, I had a boy, and Jackie and I learned boy things out of necessity. Then Jackie and David had two boys.”

Jeremiah sucked in a breath watching Joci laugh. She was so beautiful it took his breath away. He was in over his head with this one. He had never had feelings for any woman. But feelings like this were new. He felt primal and feral and, at the same time, protective and possessive. He wanted to lock her up in this house and never let her leave. He wanted her naked and in his bed every fucking day. He wanted to spend the rest of his life with her, sitting like this in the evening, talking to her, working like they had been working this past year on the ride or other ventures at the shop. He wanted to wake up every morning with her in his arms, sliding into her, smelling her, tasting her, touching her.

Jeremiah leaned forward and kissed her, gently at first, but Joci whimpered, which revved him up. He broke the kiss and set his wine glass on the coffee table. He turned back to Joci and reached over to touch her hair. He dug his fingers into her hair and ran his hand through it, cupping the back of her head. Jeremiah leaned forward and kissed Joci again, licking across her lips and nipping her bottom lip.