Broken Ride (Men of Valor MC)

"Look at you in your apron, the picture of domesticity" Rough said before slapping her ass.

"Miller, we were baking for the shelter" she said, giggling as she swatted his hand away. “You know I hate rainy days, so I make them better with homemade bread and cookies. Sky made brownies and they are—you must be starving by the look of you." She looped her arm in mine and walked me into the house.

"I'll have a brownie, but I’m really desperate for a shower more than anything else."

"You know where your room is, Dex. There should be clean towels," Claire said before patting my check. I commit a murder and Claire gives me brownies and clean sheets.

They always call it my room. When Claire and Rough married, she insisted that they give me a room in their home to call my very own. That's what the two of them did, collect broken people, make them feel like they belong. I never took them up on their offer to move in, but she insisted that I'd always have a real home with them if I wanted it. I smiled at her and nodded, leaving the two of them embracing as I went down the massive hall. The house smelled like cedar, like rain, like fresh baked bread and brownies. A man could get lost in all that love and comfort. A house didn’t make a home, it was the people inside it . As soon as I turned the corner, I came face to face with Skylar.

"Sky," I whispered, my eyes frozen, unable to turn away from her face. Every single time I saw the girl, I felt the ground under my feet shift. Big blue eyes, long blonde hair, a willowy figure that was somehow both delicate and strong. A long lost gaze filled with pain that she managed to extinguish every time that she smiled. There was something special about her. I knew it the moment I saw her. And not just because she was Rough and Claire's daughter. Skylar had been through it and not only had she lived to tell the tale, she was like a beacon of light to others who had suffered. She’d been to hell and come back with nothing but goodness to show for it. Sky wasn’t jaded or vindictive, she’d turned the pain into grit and conviction and painted her future with it.

We made eye contact. She scanned me, including the blood and sweat, the way the rain had streaked me pink with another man’s blood.

“Are you hurt?” she asked me, raising an eyebrow.

“Not my blood,” I told her frankly.

“Yikes!” she said to me.

I shrugged in response. “Claire said I could take a shower.”

She lowered her face and blushed, her long hair fell in front of her face and obstructed my view. I hated her hair at that moment for hiding her face from me. The girl made me fuckin' crazy.

"Okay, Patriot. I’ll see you downstairs."

“I’m sorry, what did you say? I have to see your lips,” I said, pointing to my ear when she raised her face to look at me.

“Oh, shit. I’m so sorry,” she said fidgeting with her fingers. “I, um really didn’t say anything.” This time I saw her lips, it was as if she was being tortured being forced to look at me. I hated that my fucking hearing was making an issue. She was red in the face and obviously flustered.

"It’s fine. Everybody does it.”

“There was something I wanted to ask you, but I don’t want to be rude or ignorant.”

“Ask away. I got nothing to hide from you, Skylar.”

“Okay. You let me know if I’m um, overstepping boundaries or anything like that. I was wondering if you spoke sign language?”

Out of all the things she could have asked me, this maybe surprised me the most.

I bobbed a “yes” with my fist in sign language. Skylar smiled and then kind of squealed.

“That is so cool!”

I cracked a grin in spite of myself. “I don’t really have anyone to use it with, so I’m probably kind of rusty, but yeah, Sky, I speak sign language.”

“We did a semester in the fifth grade. Like maybe two years before I left school. I don’t remember much from those years, but I loved that module. I always thought it was just amazing. Really always wanted to learn it.”

“That’s nice. I was more reluctant to learn it, but I’m glad I did.” Sky was so beautiful and it made me feel out of control. She was bright and magnetic, a ball of joy and ambition and despite her beauty, super easy to talk to.

“I barely remember anything.”

She made an L with her hand and then set down her pointer finger and lifted her pinky. All the while smiling, she signed it at me. My heart dropped to my stomach and I had to consciously control my face.