Survivor: Steel Jockeys MC by Evelyn Glass Read Free Book Online

again.
     
    She also knew, though she wouldn’t admit to Heather, that she didn't want to become completely dependent on Fox Keene. If there was any chance their relationship could grow into something deeper, she was determined it should be as equals. "If he wants to be with me," she said shyly as Heather nodded, "I want it to be for the right reasons. Not because he feels obligated to me. I'm a person, not a project. Besides, I want to go to college. I'm applying for a scholarship from Berkeley."
     
    "Oh?" Heather raised an eyebrow. "What do you plan to study?"
     
    "Sociology I think," Ruby said quickly. She hadn't told very many people yet, and the idea still sound awkward coming from her mouth. Presumptuous, somehow. Nothing that felt right on her, at least not yet. "It won't cover all my expenses, but working here full time and going to school at night, I think I can make it work." She took a sip of champagne, swirled it around in her mouth thoughtfully, feeling the bubbles dissolve on her tongue then cascade to her head. "I just want to be independent. Kyle would want that for me."
     
    She gazed down at the sole photograph on her desk. It had taken almost six months before she could look at it without wanting to scream, throw something, or crawl under her desk, curl up into a ball, and weep. She knew there were still emotions she needed to unpack about the night Kyle died, but her philosophy, since then, was to keep moving. To keep her eyes on the horizon. To never look back. "Kyle wanted to give me everything. But he could never figure out how. He didn't know how."
     
    The photo, of course, had been taken in front of his bike on an autumn day, when the sun hung had hung hazily in the sky then burst from the clouds at the second the shutter clicked, making the entire side of his face silver, like a cloud. He was grinning, and pointing to his chest as if he wanted her to come closer. He was never very good at standing still for photos. Even as a child, all of his school pictures had a funny, artificial sort of smile with his teeth clenched together. It wasn't his real smile, which flooded his face with humor and light. No photo could capture it, but this one came close. Funny that a tattooed guy in a biker's cut could look angelic, but there it was.
     
    "Trust me, honey. Independence is overrated. A man like Fox isn't hanging out on every street corner. Or in every college quad."
     
    "I know what a catch he is. For most of my life, the only guys I knew were thugs and burnouts and low-life bikers who wouldn't know how to make an honest living if it rolled up in a limousine," she explained. "And the only alternative was some trust-fund brat who had everything he ever wanted handed to him. But Fox is different. He's something else. He's self-made. He knows what hard work is, and he never takes it for granted. And I don't, either. Besides," she added. "I don't think Fox is looking for another serious relationship. He was married once before, you know."
     
    "Oh?" Heather primly took a stick of gum out of her purse.
     
    "Yeah. I don't know too much about what happened. But from what I've gathered, it didn't end well, and I think it burned him. He doesn't talk about it much."
     
    "One kiss from you and he'll forget he ever knew her," whispered Heather.
     
    "Heather!" She knew she was blushing.

CHAPTER SIX
     
    "Three, two, one," she heard Chace calling from his office, staring up at the clock on the wall.
     
    Ruby heard the door dividing the sales floor from the garage swing open, and in came Belen Bermudez, a petite, caramel-skinned mechanic, her jet-black hair wound up behind her in two braids, still looking cute despite her oil-stained overalls. She pointed down at her clothes. "Sorry I didn't have time to clean myself up before our little get-together," she said, grabbing a plastic cup from the stack and holding it out to Chace to fill. "But I couldn't miss the toast.”
     
    Fox appeared, poured himself a glass