Claiming Sunshine (3 page)

             
“Nikki, Scooter hired you, not me, but you're welcome. I sure hope you are better than the last gal he hired without me.” He walks out into the lot to retrieve a car to work on.

             
Did he just hire a constant flow of women? It figured, he was just being nice, she thought to herself and then looked back towards the building to the back of the lot where he had disappeared.

              Scooter had remained out back for the entire morning. She kept an eye out for him. Even though she knew it was silly, she just couldn't help herself. Just when she was getting really into the filing of invoices, the office door swung open and there he was. She involuntarily gasped.

             
“Didn't mean to scare you,” he laughed.

             
“Oh, it's cool,” she said, trying to blow it off. Truth was, he didn't startle her as much as overwhelmed her standing there, smiling at her.

             
“Just thought I'd see if you wanted to go grab some lunch and celebrate the new job?” He motioned towards his bike, parked out in the lot.

             
“No, that's ok, I don't have any money to spare and I brought a sandwich,” she said, motioning toward the small fridge in the corner of the office.

             
“What do you think I am, some sort of asshole that would ask a gal to lunch and then expect her to pay for it?” he said. “Now I will ask you one more time and then I'm off to grab some food... would you like to go grab some lunch with me? I will even let you ride on my bike again. You can tell all your friends, again,” he asked, standing there with the door held open.

              They pull into a little Mexican place on Main Street. He had asked her what her favorite food was, and here they were. She knows that what she is feeling for him is just plain crazy at this point. Yesterday she gets rescued by him, and today she is working for him and having lunch with him. What the fuck. She finds herself constantly questioning his kindness. Oh, and then there's Sam. What will he say about all of this? Does she care at this point? Fuck this is weird.

             
He opens the door for her. He is carrying his helmet so she carries hers in too. She feels pretty bad ass walking in with this big ol' biker. Everyone watches them as the waitress directs them towards a booth.

             
They order, the waitress asks him if he wants the usual.

             
“So you've been here before?” Nikki asks.

             
“Yep, one of my favorite places, I too, enjoy Mexican food, Sunshine,” he says, taking a sip of his Corona. “You don't mind if I keep calling you that do you?”

             
“No, I like it, makes me feel special.” She realizes how dumb and pathetic it sounds as she says it, but it just keeps spilling out. “I mean, it’s fine.” Again, her face is flushed with heat. Fuck.

             
“Hmmm, glad to make you feel special there Sunshine, but isn't that your husband's job? He doesn't answer his phone and doesn't make you feel special. He better be careful he doesn't lose you. I mean, you are already riding on a Harley with another guy.” He looks seriously at her to observe her reaction.

             
She goes red again... geez this is getting old. How many times is she going to do this? Every time he talks to her, she goes flush. Enough is enough.“ I guess so,” she responds, not knowing what the hell to say.

             
“I'm just kidding, didn't mean to scare you.” He laughs, and dips a chip in salsa.

             
The rest of the lunch is filled with mostly small talk, almost awkward, but she feels so safe with him. Sam always makes her feel like she's on her own. Even when other guys would hit on her, he would get mad at her, like she should have stopped them, and not drawn attention to herself. With Scooter, she felt like she was the only woman in the world, even over a friendly lunch date.

             
The rest of the day was busy, while she continued to organize the office that the last gal had really let go, considering she had only been gone a week. She answered some calls, even scheduled a few repairs for the coming days. She was feeling pretty confident and all the mechanics were very nice to her. She went and picked up the kids, listened to Nelly's complaints and Jen's excitement about getting to check the chicken coop for eggs. She went back and finished up the day with customers coming and going, picking up and dropping off vehicles, and paying for their repairs. It went fast but the highlight was the lunch and the ride.

             
As she getting into her truck, she hears gravel crunching under some footsteps coming towards her. She finally feels her keys in her purse, and looks up to see who it is. It’s  him, again.

             
“Hey Sunshine, I just remembered that I haven't looked at that gas gauge yet. You wanna pull 'er into bay 2 there? I can check it out for you,” Scooter says, pointing towards the one bay still open.

             
“I really need to go get the girls,” she says. “I told them that I would be there right after I got off.”

             
“Well, the owner wants you to stay a little later.” He cocks an eyebrow at her and winks.

             
Her insides jump a bit, and she pulls into the bay and gets out of the truck. As she turns to slam the door shut, he moves around behind her as he passes to get to the front of the truck, to pop the hood. Just the slight physical contact puts her in a tail spin and when she looks at him as he gets by her, she can see on his face that he knows what he is doing. She takes a breath.

             
He slams the hood and then opens the driver's door and messes with stuff under the steering wheel. He finds the disconnected cable and reconnects it. “There it is, get in and start 'er up and see if the gauge is working,” he tells her, as he gets out of the way.

             
She climbs into the truck, turns the engine over and watches the gauge needle move into place. “Thank you so much. That was a quick fix.”

             
“No problem, it's on the house. I will see you later, have a great weekend,” he says, patting his hand on the truck hood, as she slowly backs out of the bay and drives out of the lot.

              He can't help but think what an ass her husband must be. There was just a cable disconnected and here she was running out of gas because he couldn't fix it for her. He reminded himself that she was married. After being a victim of a cheating spouse, he really didn't want to be the reason for a family break up. He also couldn't ignore the attraction that he was pretty sure was there from the few times he was able to take her breath away.

             
What's a single MC President supposed to do with that? Go on a run, and get the fuck away from her for a bit. Clear his head and ride his bike with a few brothers at his sides.

              The weekend went by slowly for Nikki. Even with Jen's soccer game and a trip to the farmers market, it just dragged. She was so looking forward to Monday and seeing him again.

             
Saturday night, Sam was feeling like it was time for some “sugar” as he liked to call it. She called it that too when they first got together. Now, it was just something that she needed to do to keep him from nagging about it. He always wanted it the same way and they always did it the same way.  It was routine and done. She had suggested that they try some new stuff and even bought a few toys from one of those parties back home. He always shot her down, saying that he should be all she ever needed. She always conceded and resented it, over and over and over.

             
The whole time he was on top of her pumping away, she tried to remember a time in the last few years that this was remotely good for her. She couldn't. The only time she had it good, was when she got out the toy and took care of herself. He started going faster, and she knew it was almost time for him to be done. Surprise, surprise. All done and then sleep.

              The following week went by fast, because, she was getting into that rhythm that Georgie had mentioned when she started. Invoicing, scheduling, ordering parts, the occasional parts run and dealing with the customers. The only thing missing, was him. Scooter had not been around all week. She looked every time another MC member would come out of the building out back, and it was never him. From her office window, she had a clear shot to see the door that most of them used to come and go.

             
She got to know all the mechanics a bit.

             
Georgie ran the garage, and was married with three kids that were grown. His wife, Joanne, had come in a few times to bring him lunch and she seemed nice. Nikki could tell that he really loved her, just the way he looked at her. He had been a part of the MC and even wore a vest on occasion, but it seemed that his main job was to run the garage. He rode a Harley.

             
Charlie was the tow truck driver and one of the members of the MC. He was in his mid to late 40's. She liked Charlie, for one, he had helped save her from the side of the road, and he was very respectful, almost scared of women. He wasn't married, but had a son that also worked in the garage... Pete.

             
Pete was young and seemed to be a natural at fixing anything. For the most part, he showed up on time and did his work, but she noticed that he liked to take long lunches and left early a few times that first week. She didn't really know why and figured it would be reflected in his pay. Whatever.

             
Joel was the outcast of the bunch. Not because he was a bad boy, but because he was a good boy. Clean cut, kept to himself, went to work, did his job and left without much to say to anyone. She wanted to figure him out because... well, that is just what she liked to do. It was second nature for her to analyze people and figure out what their stories were. She had tried to chat with him a few times but he was always short and polite, and then would just walk off in mid conversation. Was he shy?

              Her weekend following that week was about the same. They had company. Sam's parents were passing through, and stopped and took them all out for dinner. It was a nice treat since they were broke and didn't get too many meals out of the kitchen. The girls enjoyed their time with their grandparents that they hadn’t seen in a while.

             
Nikki's mom was not much of a grandma to the girls. She was still married to the asshole that Nikki grew up with. Her mother had insisted that she call him Dad from the time they got married when she was ten, and that was the start of the hell that man had put Nikki through. She couldn't wait to get out of the house after high school. He never touched her, but was verbally abusive. Her mom had given her a ton of freedom to speak her mind as a kid and he brought that to a screeching halt. She was grounded pretty much that first year after they married. She eventually learned to obey and push her feelings down. She tried to patch things up with her mom after Nelly was born, but she didn't want to go behind Ron's back, so now the girls just got birthday and Christmas cards.

             
So Sam's parents were all the girls knew as far as grandparents went. They were nice, and always came bearing gifts. Judy, his mom, took her role seriously and always tried to make special time with them. They baked cookies or planted flowers, or sometimes did a craft project. George was under the belief that they, as well as women, should be seen and not heard for the most part, and didn't interact with her or them very often. He wasn't mean, just disinterested in them. He let Judy do her thing while he and Sam had their time together. Nikki could see where Sam got his attitude  about  her and the girls. She saw it years ago, but ignored it. Oh well, life goes on.

              Sam was starting to get pissy about her not having dinner on the table when he got home. She knew that was coming. She explained to him the obvious, and he said he understood, but still made comments about it. The girls were doing great at Kate's house after school. Nelly even decided that it wasn't so bad. Kate was letting her borrow a camera to take home and use. Jen kept begging for a pet, but understood that they couldn't have one in the house they were renting.