Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 86455 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 432(@200wpm)___ 346(@250wpm)___ 288(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 86455 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 432(@200wpm)___ 346(@250wpm)___ 288(@300wpm)
“Hey, Skylar.”
“What’s up, Matilda?” Skylar asked, sounding distracted. She was probably getting ready to go out herself.
“My car broke down,” Tildy replied.
Skylar paused. “You need a ride? Where are you? I can swing my on my way to-”
“No, I don’t need you to pick me up. I mean, I do. I need a ride somewhere.”
Skylar snorted. “On Saturday night? I don’t know, Matilda. Isn’t the library closed this late?” Skylar laughed at her own joke.
Tildy sighed. “No. There’s this bar I want to go to.”
At this, Skylar perked up. “Bar. Now we’re talking! Is Tate going to be there?”
“No. I...I was supposed to go out with him tonight, but I don’t want to.”
Skylar ignored her. “So, let’s go to this bar. And call Tate and-”
“We’re not calling Tate.”
“Matilda, what is the point of going out if-?”
“I met someone.”
Silence greeted Tildy from the other end of the phone.
“Who? Where?” Skylar demanded.
Tildy chewed her bottom lip, trying to decide how much to say. “Listen, Skylar, you know how my parents are. This isn’t-”
Skylar made an exasperated noise. “Okay, okay, I won’t breathe a word to Ozzy and Harriet. Who is this guy?”
“He helped me with my car today,” Tildy said, skirting the whole truth. “And he invited me out.”
“But he can’t pick you up?” Skylar demanded.
“Um, no.”
“Why not?”
“Well, he’s...older,” Tildy replied.
“How much older?”
“A little older. I don’t really know.” That was true. Tildy didn’t know how old Hawk was. She guessed early 30’s.
“Ooooh,” Skylar said. “Ozzy and Harriet definitely wouldn’t approve. Not unless he was a filthy rich sheik. He’s not a filthy rich sheik, is he?”
“No.”
“Damn. If he was, I’d steal him from you.”
“So, you’ll give me a ride?”
“Hell, yes! I’ll be there in 20. Let me get changed.”
“Oh, you don’t have to,” Tildy countered. “You can just drop me off.” In fact, Tildy had planned on having Skylar drop her off about a block or so from the actual bar and walking from there.
“No way,” Skylar protested. “There is no way I’m missing Matilda Fletcher going to her first bar.”
Tildy wrinkled her nose. “I’ve been to bars,” she reminded Skylar.
Skylar laughed. “Sitting in a corner with Club Soda doesn’t count. I’m on my way over. What bar is it?”
“Um,” Tildy hesitated again, not wanting to say. “I’ve never heard of it. But I know where it is.”
“What’s it called?”
“Maria’s,” Tildy replied reluctantly. Skylar was going to find out anyway if she was taking her.
“Never heard of it.”
Tildy sighed in relief. “Yeah, me neither.”
Chapter 9
Hawk took a pull of his beer and watched Tex and Easy shooting it out on the pool table.
“Any sign of your girl, yet?” Shooter asked from across the table.
“What girl?” Doc asked. Caleb “Doc” Barnes was the only member of the group who had followed Shooter to Rapid City after the Army that didn’t work at Burnout. Instead, Caleb chose to trade in his medic kit for a badge and a gun. Normally cops didn’t hang out at Maria’s, unless they were arresting someone, but Caleb had always had a dangerous vibe about him. Though technically he was a police officer, you could never quite shake the feeling that at any moment he might forget he had a badge and start pounding on someone.
Shooter grinned. “Hawk met a girl. Brought her to the garage.”
Vegas laughed. “It must be true love, then, if you brought her home to meet the family! When can I meet her?”
Hawk smirked. “I just met her this morning. She had car trouble.”
Vegas groaned. “Yeah, that sounds familiar.”
“She’s about your age,” Shooter told Vegas.
Vegas scoffed. “Cradle robber.”
Hawk shrugged. “Didn’t seem like anything at first,” he confided. “But then I offered her a ride on my bike and everything changed. She got real interested, real fast.”
Vegas grinned. “Yeah, some of us are suckers for big...bikes.”
Hawk scanned the bar again. The place was packed, as usual for a Saturday night. Maria’s had its nightly mix of bikers, ex-military, cowboys and roughnecks trading off between shots and beers. The dance floor was crowded too, thanks to a jukebox filled with country and 70’s classic rock.
Hawk caught sight of a leggy blonde coming in through the front door, cute, but not what he was looking for. However, right behind her, what he was looking for walked right in.
Tildy had brought a friend, so it seemed, and Hawk couldn’t blame her. It took a ballsy type of woman to come to Maria’s alone on a Saturday night. He got up from the table and began heading toward the front door.
If Tildy was surprised by the crowd at Maria’s, her friend was more so. It looked to Hawk, from the way the blonde kept eyeballing Tildy, that she was even more surprised that timid little Tildy would come here at all. The blonde herself couldn’t be all that uncomfortable, wearing a top that had her tits practically falling out and jeans that looked like they were painted on. Tildy was quite a bit more conservative in a short sleeved black silk blouse and jeans that were, unfortunately, the appropriate size.