All the Way (17 page)

“Now?
In the middle of the night?
In my
pajamas
?”

The corners of his mouth curved. “I’ll be the envy of the biker realm.”

“But that guy, or Jack, could still be out there. Will we be safe?”

He gave her a look that said,
D
o
fish swim?
“Cops are swarming the streets. We’ll probably get our own private police escort.”

She doubted she could stand another minute in this room. Riding would be the perfect distraction. She offered him a grateful look. “Let’s get out of here.”

*

Jack’s flagging hope to get Layla alone rekindled as he watched the police disband, the motel guests go back to their rooms, and Blake and Layla walk out the door. This was exactly the chance he needed. His fear tactic hadn’t produced the results he’d expected, but it was working all the same.

Jack started his engine, nudged it into gear, and followed quietly behind them. His nostrils flared and he turned off the CB angrily when he heard a description of his car go out on the airwaves. Momentarily Blake and Layla would be on the highway, and as soon as they got far enough away from this no-name town festering with police, Jack would—
Wait…what are they doing?

Riding the break, Jack slowed and followed them into the town’s public school parking lot. Right across from the police station.

His hands curled into fists. Why couldn’t they just get out of town, where he’d have anonymity again?

He’d have to lay low, real low if he didn’t want to get questioned. He didn’t have time for this crap. His eyes narrowed on Blake’s motorcycle as he parked it alongside the split-rail fence that framed the schoolyard. Blake thought he was being clever, having Jack’s car tracked? Well, two could play at that game.

Jack pulled up alongside the fence where the shadows were the densest and phoned into the local dispatch. He reported some suspicious activity, described Blake’s motorcycle and the drugs that they’d find in his saddlebags.

All he needed now was for Blake to leave the motorcycle long enough to give Jack time to plant the drugs. Then Jack would return to his car and wait in the shadows for the scene to unfold. If no one answered the call, Jack would see to it himself.

*

On the back of Blake’s bike with her helmet snug, Layla leaned against the backrest. Stars whizzed by overhead. All she heard was the roar of wind. No traffic to contend with. No clock to race against. It was almost…enjoyable.

It beat going stir crazy in a motel room, imagining a stalker outside her window, listening to people in another room have sex while she wasn’t.

Layla promptly decided midnight rides were a marvelous invention.

Then she realized they’d stopped moving.

Removing her helmet, she looked around in surprise. She identified the sprawling wood and plastic tangle in front of her as a massive playground.

“What are we doing here?” she asked as Blake shut off the motor and scraped down the kickstand.

“Having some fun.” Suddenly Blake tore off toward the jungle gym extravaganza.
“Last one to the swing set is a rotten egg!”

Startled by Blake’s abrupt departure, Layla stared after him. Then a grin spread on her face. She leaped into action, dashing across the pebbled ground and sprang onto the blue plastic swing. She beat him to it at the last second.

Gloating as she gripped the parallel chains, she pointed out, “Your legs are too long for this swing set anyway.”

“Who knew being vertically challenged would have its advantages?”

“You lost fair and square, pal. Quit with the short jokes and push.”

He did. Nicely, gently. He never touched her derriere once. She felt surrounded by his presence, but nothing seemed
forced between them. He pushed the edge of the swing without touching her body. He remained at the edge of her comfort level without pushing her boundaries, enfolding her in the awareness of his calm, steady strength.

Something had…changed.

A bridge of emotional intimacy arced between them. She smiled softly.

Then he cracked a joke. Their shared laughter broke the silence. After that, they began to share fun memories of playgrounds in their childhoods. They both agreed kids today were spoiled silly. Neither of them had
grown up with anything like this, but they could enjoy it now. And they did.

Gradually,
Layla realized, as she breezed through the warm night air
toward Blake’s waiting hands, they were becoming friends again.
It had been a long time since she’d recalled that Blake
had once been a man she’d
genuinely
liked
.

She’d forced herself to forget this other side of their past. Made of stolen moments when she picked up Robby, and other chance encounters. Like the concert they all attended, the three of them together. Then the
weeks afterward, when he’d drop by her house unexpectedly and help her with tricky home repairs and Rob with his geometry homework. Then the two months of dating that followed, filled with
nights of Chinese take-out, watching movies, reruns on the Discovery Channel of
American Chopper
, tucked into blankets awaiting the brush of his leg, the feel of his fingers lacing with hers.

This was the man she’d fallen for not so long ago. And if he kept this up, it would be so easy to slip into their old comfort zone. She could handle him being lusty, possessive, push-all-boundaries Blake. But this open, gentle,
come to me when you’re ready, I’ll be waiting
Blake caught her unprepared. This change was unexpected.

She’d never expected to feel this again…this
falling
. Hard.
For him. It required the suspension of everything safe, a blind leap into the unknown of what passion, attraction and caring could be.

The swing swept high into the air. Without pausing to consider it, she leaped off the swing. A sting skittered along the soles of her feet when she hit the ground in her flip-flops. But it didn’t begin to compare to the strange sensations skittering along her spine and through her abdomen, a combination of excitement, anticipation, uncertainty.

All this wrapped up in the man she desired more than any other.
Blake
.

“What?”

Her shoulders jumped, hearing his voice behind her.
Had she said his name aloud?
She turned. “You
surprise me sometimes. That’s all.” She squeezed his arm, the first extension of herself she’d made to him since she’d offered herself up to his kiss. But this was different. She smiled up at him. “C’mon, I feel like exploring.”

“There’s only one way to do that
right.”
He grinned. Was that a spark of mischief twinkling in those dark green eyes?

“Okay…”

“Tag—you’re it.”

“Hey,” she said to his retreating back as he took off.
“There’s no way I’ll catch up to your long legs!”

But she couldn’t let him win without trying. Racing after him, she followed his lead through the twists and turns of an elaborate jungle gym, up the rope ladder, down the firemen’s pole, up some wooden steps, across a bouncy bridge, down a blue twirling slide that made her hair stand up with static. Her stomach hurt from running and laughing.

Had she ever had this much fun?
Or done something as spontaneous as play tag in a playground at midnight?

She stopped and smiled, eyeing the broad shoulders of the man who was disappearing into a fluorescent green plastic tunnel
with big cut-out polka dots scattered all over it.

“Aha!
Tag, gotcha.”

“Better run, baby.
When I catch up to you, there will be no mercy.”

She squealed like a girl being chased across the playground
by her crush, running like mad yet hoping he’d catch her. She swung across the monkey bars, scaled the tallest ladder, and narrowly slid from Blake’s reach when she zipped down the silver slide.

Heading for the wood and plastic again, she disappeared in the crazy maze, thinking herself clever when she spotted a day-glow orange plastic tube angled like an enclosed slide. She started down it, only to discover the moon beaming at her from the opening. Reflecting the sky, a huge puddle awaited her.

“Uh-oh.”
She whipped her head up to the opening at the top and saw Blake dive in feet first. “No, wait!”
Crunch
.

They got stuck in the middle of the tube, her between his legs, while he flattened his hands on either side of the tunnel to keep from crushing her. “You’re supposed to go
down
the slide, not crawl up it,” he said.
“Basic playground etiquette.”

“I told you to wait.
There’s a huge puddle down there.
I’m not getting soaked just to win a game of tag.”

“I see where your priorities are.”
He shook his head, feigning disappointment.

Licking her lips, she said, “So, um, what do we do now?”

“I’ll give you a boost up, since you’ve clearly lost your sense of adventure.”

She threw him a scoffing look.
“What’s
to complain about?
You won.”

“It’s not always about winning the prize, sweetheart. As long as you’re having a good time.”

Did he mean that? He was starting to confuse her all over again. This wasn’t Blake at all. Or was it?
“Are you having a good time?” she asked.

His eyes glittered at her. “Best ever.”

Her features softened. “Me too.”

Layla realized they were both wearing deeply silly grins on their faces. Clearing her throat, she began to crawl over him toward the opening at the top. When she felt his hands come to her waist to steady her, she paused at his touch. She looked down into his long-lashed green eyes. His face went as still as the night around them.

She couldn’t seem to move or breathe.
There it is again, that falling…
It would be so easy to follow that feeling, to dip down and press her mouth to his. He made no move to encourage her or push her away, lying there so still.

The silence broke when a dark barked in the distance.
He let out a sigh.
She inhaled.
The world swung into motion.
She blinked, felt his hands shift at her waist, and she followed their momentum upward.
Grasping the edge of the opening, she pulled herself through.

Moonlight washed the earth in shades of silver. She felt Blake at her back, not touching her but so close she could feel his heat, his gaze, his breath.

“Come with me,” he whispered.

She followed him single-file across a narrow bridge, down six log steps, and over the path of pebbles to a double swing. They sat facing each other, rocking gently to and fro as he boot kicked to the side every so often to support their rhythm. Moonlight, starlight and fireflies touched the scene with magic. Sparkles reflected in dewdrops glistening on blades of grass and the delicate threads of spider webs.

Layla felt at ease inside. She felt completely free to think or say whatever she wished.

One question popped into her mind. She blurted it out without thinking.

“Blake, whatever happened between you and Jack?”

The night froze. Stark silence reigned.

She panicked, realizing what she’d done. But it was too late to take it back.

The night seemed to echo with her question like the ripples that follow a stone cast into water. An act that could disrupt the placid surface of their new, tentative emotional bond.
It could change everything.

And whatever the result, it could not be undone.

When Blake recovered from the shock of her question, his jaw hardened. He tilted his head back to look at the sky. His throat worked hard at swallowing.

The sky above them seemed to change from starry and romantic to austere and remote. The breeze blew a little colder. The moon shone a little dimmer.

But Blake knew he had to tell Layla the story.

Not only to reveal his past to her. Not only to show her another facet of how their experiences paralleled each other’s. But because if he opened up about the past…maybe Layla would too.

Even if jealousy poisoned his blood so badly it could make him physically ill, he would listen as Layla finally talked about her own past with Johnson. Jack was the one physical obstacle that still stood between them, lurking at the perimeter of whatever future Blake might have with Layla. He
refused to lose her
to Jack again.

Blake drew in a lungful of night air, perfumed with the smell of cut grass and the damp scent of dew.
Tell her, then
show her
.
His new mantra circled his brain. Like the flashing lights on top of the ambulance when he arrived at the scene of the accident that fateful night.
Tell her
.

“Blake, I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I don’t know what made me blurt that out. You don’t have to talk about it.”

He inclined his head, letting her know he intended to talk. Fixing his gaze on the stars that seemed so far away, he spoke quietly.

“The call came just after
midnight.
My parents had been in a car accident.
My brother, Tanner, went directly to the hospital. But I couldn’t stand waiting around helplessly. I called my buddy, Will, an undercover cop who told me the location of the crash. I drove to the scene as the ambulance screamed away. One car waited in the berm. I parked behind it and went up to the officer who’d responded to the call.”

Layla gasped. “Jack?”

“Yep.”
Blake shifted his gaze from the sky to the nearby field where crickets added their chirping drone to the night air. “With no compassion, he told me my parents were being rushed to the hospital. I wanted details. Jack gave me nothing.” His fists clenched.

Layla’s pressed her hand to her lips. “That’s awful. I’m so sorry.” She blinked hard. “I know what a horrible feeling that is. Like your guts have been ripped out through your throat.”

He closed his eyes briefly, nodded. “Normally, I’d never talk about this. But it’s easier to tell you, because I know you understand.”

“I do.” The compassion in her gaze, the understanding that came with their shared experience, soothed the old scars inside him. “I wish you’d told me sooner.” She asked softly, “Did you find out what happened?”

“The middle-aged lady who was the only witness looked almost as miserable as I felt. She said when she got there all she saw was a car taking off. She’d watched Jack let the driver go, just like that. But it was her word against his. Whoever crashed into my parents’ car didn’t pay for his crime.”

Layla shook her head. Blake could almost see the wheels of her mind churning, gathering momentum toward outrage. “You mean,
Jack let him leave the scene of the accident? But he can’t do that!”

“I thought so, too. Turns out a crooked cop can get away with a lot. Later, a few rumors trickled in that there’d been a BMW weaving along the road. I traced the route and time to a political function earlier that night.”

“You think some politician paid off Jack to avoid a DUI?”

“And charges of double-manslaughter.”
Blake released his fists, flattening his hands on his thighs. “Mom and Dad never made it to the hospital.”

Layla’s round eyes filled with disbelief, sorrow, and tears. Blake felt her hand drape over his. “Blake, I’m so sorry.”

It took effort to just relax and let her reach out to him. Blake murmured, “If Johnson had done his job right and called an ambulance to the scene first, instead of taking a bribe, maybe my parents might still be alive.”

Her voice came out thinly. “Jack can be such a monster.”

“Someday I want to see Johnson behind bars. Where he belongs.”