Ride Steady (Chaos #3)(94)

“I am not rushing my first Blizzard with Carson Steele.”

“You’ll get other ones from me.”

She straightened her shoulders and got even sassier.

“This is the first one. I’m savoring it.”

“Baby, you’ll savor more, you down that, get your ass in my truck and I get you home. Got a hankerin’ to make my girl feel naughty.”

Another eye flare before she turned her attention direct to her ice cream.

Joker sat back and turned his attention to his.

He did this smiling.

In the end, it was Joker who didn’t feel like making his girl feel naughty.

After their first Blizzard together, as ridiculous as it was, high school crap, a lost fantasy resurrected in a bed with a phenomenal mattress, he took his time. He painstakingly built it for her, for both of them.

But he didn’t f*ck Carissa.

He made love to her.

Slowly.

Gently.

So when he made her come, she whispered, “Carson,” into his mouth.

It was the best moment of his life.

And it was that in a way he was determined it wouldn’t remain that way making that moment the first time in his life he wanted more.

And he was going to get it.

Further, even if he had to bust his balls, eat shit, walk through hell…

He was going to give it to her.

* * *

Late the next afternoon, Joker had his ass resting on his bike that was parked next to a five-year-old SUV, his arms crossed on his chest, his eyes to the door of the high school.

The last fifteen minutes he was there, he’d gotten looks. He’d gotten questions. He’d given vague answers.

And he’d waited.

The wait was over when he saw Mr. Robinson walk out the door.

Through his shades, Joker took him in. He’d aged, but it was a testament to the man that he didn’t look beaten. He’d been through it to get a kid, but he was also a high school teacher. They got paid dick, put up with a lot of shit, had one of the most important jobs anyone could have, and got little respect, and all he looked like was a man who was leaving work, ready to go home to his wife and dinner.

Joker watched him walk to the SUV, and he wasn’t surprised when Mr. Robinson clocked him almost the minute he walked out the door. He kept Joker in his sights as he walked the ten parking spots to his SUV.

Joker also wasn’t surprised he didn’t let a biker hanging in a teacher’s parking lot slide like the others did.

He stopped and asked, “Can I help you?”

“Good to see you again, Mr. Robinson,” Joker replied.

His head tilted. His eyes narrowed. “I’m sorry, do I…?” he started before his face cleared. “Carson?” he asked quietly.

Joker nodded, pushed up from his bike, and walked to the sidewalk.

He extended his hand.

Mr. Robinson took it, his face cracking into a smile.

“Carson,” he repeated, clasping Joker’s hand and pumping it. “Yes. Definitely. Good to see you too.”

They ended on a squeeze before they broke off and Joker asked, “How’re things?”

“Things are things,” Mr. Robinson replied, still smiling, saying they were normal but he didn’t mind. “You?”

“Things are good.”

Mr. Robinson’s gaze grew intent as he studied Joker and said, “Good to hear.”

“Yeah,” Joker muttered, cleared his throat and told him, “Been back a while. Thought about you. Wanted to connect. Wasn’t in that place. Now I am.”

“That’s good to hear, too.” He seemed to struggle with what he wanted to say next, won it and asked, “You took off—”

Joker gave it to him easy. “Got my diploma. Took night classes. Now I’m a licensed mechanic. I’m a brother of Chaos and design and build cars at Ride.”

“What you wanted to do,” Mr. Robinson muttered.

He remembered. All the kids he saw year to year, the man remembered.

“Yeah,” Joker agreed.

“Are you married? Settled? Seeing a girl?”

“Yup. You remember Carissa Teodoro?”

At that, Mr. Robinson smiled huge and remarked, “I see she finally got you to notice her.”

Fuck. The man didn’t miss anything, even shit Joker, who wanted that to be true and paid attention, didn’t see.

“Yeah,” was all he said. Then he went for it. “Are things really good with you?”

If he remembered Carissa’s crush, Joker wanting to be a mechanic, he sure as f*ck wouldn’t forget where they were the last time they saw each other… and why they were there.

Even if it wasn’t his business, Mr. Robinson gave it to him, also easy. “They’re fine. We haven’t been able to…” he trailed off, cleared his throat and kept going. “We’ve settled into the we we need to be. We wanted more. But you’ve got to learn when to let go and focus on what you have.” He grinned, it was part sad, part defiant. “Prettiest girl I ever saw, best wife a man can have. It could be worse.”

It sure f*cking could.

Joker just hoped he could find a way to give him better.

He didn’t say that.

He said, “You always had it goin’ on.”