He brushed his lips over mine. “Because my number one job is to keep you and our little peanut safe.”
“Take that into account while you’re out there.” I poked him in the chest. “You can’t keep us safe if you’re not here anymore.”
The pregnancy hormones got the best of me, and I started to tear up. When I let out a little sniffle, Aiden wrapped his arms around me and stroked my hair until I calmed down. “I’m not going anywhere, little firecracker. You’re stuck with me forever.”
“I better be,” I mumbled against his chest.
He gave me a moment to pull myself together before grabbing the super-deluxe folding chair he’d bought for me to use. Once he got it set up, he led me over and made sure I was comfortable. Then he got to work on getting his bike off the truck, undoing all the straps keeping it in place. A few minutes into the task, a guy walked over and hopped onto the truck bed to help. He was wearing a cut from another MC, but Aiden greeted him as though he was family.
With the extra set of hands, it wasn’t long before Aiden had everything unloaded. As soon as they were done, his friend jerked his chin in my direction and asked, “You gonna introduce me to your girl?”
“Sure thing.” Aiden punched him in the shoulder. “Just remember that she’s mine and keep your filthy hands off.”
“As if I’d ever pull that kind of shit.” The guy shook his head before winking at me. “Although, I can see why you’d be worried. You pulled way out of your league, bro.”
“Can’t deny that. Wendy is the best thing that ever happened to me.” Aiden moved to my side and gripped the back of my neck in a claiming gesture. Jerking his chin toward his friend, he said, “This is an old friend of mine, Fenton Combs, also known as Maverick. He’s the one who first got me into BMX racing when we were kids with too much time on our hands.”
“It was a damn good call, too.” Maverick grinned. “Not only did it keep us out of juvie, but you got a gold medal out of our childhood hobby.”
I kind of wanted to get up and kick the guy’s butt for introducing Aiden to the sport that led him to racing Dune’s Point today, but I knew that was the fear and hormones talking. Mostly. So, I forced myself to smile and murmured, “Nice to meet you, Maverick.”
“Why do I have a feeling there’s a hell of a story behind your road name?” I asked.
“Because there is.” He wagged his brows. A growl rumbled up Aiden’s chest, making Maverick laugh. “But that’ll have to wait until after I kick your man’s ass on the course. After I’ve claimed the checkered flag, I’ll tell you all about it.”
Aiden gave my neck another squeeze before dropping his arm. “If winning the race is what it takes to share the story, then I’ll be the one to tell her what happened since there isn’t a chance in hell you’re gonna beat me.”
While they bantered back and forth, I noticed that quite a crowd had gathered, and the other two racers were rolling their bikes to the starting line. I tightened my entire body so I didn’t start shaking as my stomach roiled. Maverick looked over at me, his gaze dropping to my hands. “You’ve got a death grip on the arms of that chair. You might want to ease up before you injure your pretty fingers.”
“Give us a few minutes,” Aiden muttered, dropping to his knees in front of me.
“I’m okay,” I whispered as Maverick walked away.
He scanned my expression with worried green eyes. “I love you, Wendy.”
I let out the breath I’d been holding and sighed, “I love you, too.”
“You sure you’re going to be okay while I’m out there?”
The last thing I wanted was for him to be worried about me while he was racing Dune’s Point. The course was too dangerous for him to be distracted by anything. “Absolutely. I’ll be right here waiting for you after you do your thing.”
“Thank you, baby.” He leaned forward to claim my mouth in a passionate kiss. “I appreciate you giving me the chance to show off for you.”
If we were anywhere but Dune’s Point, I would’ve been way more excited. I wanted Aiden to be happy, and I could tell he loved racing because of how his eyes sparkled every time he mentioned it. And I knew he had to be damn good or he never would’ve won a gold medal at the Olympics. “Go win me that checkered flag, babe.”
“You got it.” He flashed me a wicked grin. “I’ll tell ’em I want to take it home with me after. I’d love to see you with nothing but the flag wrapped around your gorgeous body.”