Big Yellow Taxi

What if I fall off?

"Is that a Honda?," Andy asked as he slowed to a stop and started to look over the motorcycle that was parked closest to the long metal rack of bicycles despite his wife's obvious annoyance.  She was holding onto the newest member of their family by the makeshift leash Rowan had given her. The puppy was bigger than most fully grown dogs and seemed to be much more interested in staying with his former mistress than he was in going home with his new one.  After a few high pitched whines and one half hearted howl, the puppy darted back towards Rowan, yanking his rope leash taunt and dragging Andy’s wife Jenny back a few steps before she managed to get her footing and stop the young dog from running free.

"Some of it," Daniel answered with a small smile.  He had very few things in his life that he was actually proud of and his bike happened to be one of them.  When Andy had stopped to look at his bike without any urging it made Daniel more excited that it normally would to have someone look at his bike.  Showing the bike to Andy meant he could also show it to Rowan and Daniel was curious to see her reaction to the machine.  

"Built it myself from the frame out," Daniel added, leaving out the part about how most if not all the parts were either salvaged or stolen.  The men conversed back and forth a little about the bike while Rowan and her large black dog hovered nearby. Rowan knew as much about motorcycles as she did about cars.  Nothing. She didn't even know how to drive. The only thing with a motor she had ever tried to drive was a moped. And that had been a complete and total disaster. As soon as she got going on it her skirt had flown back into her face and she had panic clutched the gas, sending herself flying straight into a lightpost.  But as Daniel talked with Andy about his bike she leaned close, looking over Daniel's bike and nodding along like she knew what he and Rick were talking about when in fact it sounded to her like they were talking in another language. She might not be interested in bikes, but she was interested in Daniel and it was obvious the bike was important to him.

"Ever considered selling it?," Andy asked.  Daniel shook his head enthusiastically, earning him a chuckle from the other man.  He tried to keep his attention on Andy, who he was talking to, but he was distracted by Rowan's behavior.  Daniel had been watching her out of the corner of his eye. She walked a small circle around his bike, looking at it from all angles before she took a few graceful steps forward.  Tank had been shadowing her movements but when she stepped closer to the bike the large dog sat down and stayed back like he wasn't sure he wanted to get too close to the unfamiliar machine.  Rowan's arm stretched away from her body, one slender hand reaching out until it grazed over the seat of his bike. While Marv was fond of taking girls for rides on his bike, Daniel was not. Watching Rowan stroke her agile fingers over the leather seat felt more intimate than his contact with her in the pantry had been.  Watching her, he wondered what it might feel like to have her riding behind him, her arms wrapped around him and her breasts pressed in tight against his back.

"Nope," Daniel answered.  He had never considered selling his bike, though Andy wasn't the first person to ask him about it.  One man had been so impressed with it, he had even offered Daniel a job working in the garage section of the large motorcycle dealership he owned.  But Daniel turned him down, knowing a good steady job like that would require a background check. One he couldn't pass.  

"Andy!," Andy's wife hollered, not bothering to hide her impatience any longer, "wrap it up I can't hold this dog back."  The puppy had managed to wrap it's rope leash around Jenny's legs and she was dangerously close to falling forward onto her face into a large pile of freshly laid dog turd.  Andy and Daniel's conversation ended abruptly as the man rushed over to rescue his wife, leaving Daniel and Rowan alone near his bike. 

After she felt the well worn leather of the seat, Rowan trailed the tip of one finger up the frame to grip down on one of the handle bars.  Daniel hesitated, fighting the urge to move forward and wrap one arm around her waist. The normal insecurities he had reared up inside him.  No woman wanted a dirty redneck like him laying hands on her. He wasn't good enough. Wasn't smart enough. Didn't have a job and didn't even have the money to pay the power bill to get the lights on in his dumpy ass trailer.  No woman would ever want him.  He would always be alone.

Daniel took one long deep breath in and blew it out slowly through his pursed lips.  He forced all those feelings down inside him, emboldened by the way Rowan had been smiling at him just a short time before.  One foot after the other he closed the small distance between them and placed one hand over the hand of hers that was wrapped loosely around the handle bar of his bike.  His other arm circled her waist, the rough pads of his fingers coming to rest on the waistband of her long skirt. She didn't lean away from him as he had feared, but smiled and tucked herself into his side.

"Ever ridden on a bike before?," he asked her, feeling like he was using the worst pickup line out of the full book of worst pickup lines.  But Rowan just shook her head, her big eyes getting wider as she looked up at him.

"Seems like it would be scary," she added, sucking in the full middle of her lower lip and nibbling it before letting it slide out from between her teeth with an almost inaudible pop.  Her hand rose up, coming to rest on the center of Daniel's lower back. There was a nasty raised scar directly under her hand and Daniel was glad he had his shirt on. She wouldn't be able to feel the scar through the fabric.  "You must be very brave," Rowan told him. Daniel's first impulse was to assume that she was teasing him, but he could see nothing but complete sincerity in her big dark eyes.  

"Could take you fer a ride sometime," Daniel offered, his statement coming out sounding more like a question.  Rowan glanced down at the bike before she looked back up at him, her eyebrows now knitted together with concern.  

"But what if I fall off?," she asked.  Daniel smiled at the simple innocence of her question.  He would never let her fall off his bike.  

"That's why ya gotta hold on," he told her.  Rowan heard the timber of Daniel's voice change as the aura around him flushed with red.  Suddenly she got the feeling that maybe just maybe they were talking about a different sort of ride.  One she was much more eager to take than a ride on his bike. Daniel's eyes were as blue as the clear sky behind his head and she almost felt herself getting lost in them, forgetting everything that was going on around her.  His hand was resting on her hip and the callous on the side of his thumb was stroking a tiny circle of fire on the exposed skin above the waistband of her skirt. She blinked her eyes and got a tiny flash. Her visions were never precise as her mother's sometimes were.  Rowan had only inherited a glimmer of her mother's gift. All she saw this time was a delicious image of her hands against Daniel's bare chest, the tips of her fingers bending to scrape her nails gently over his skin.  

"Hold on to what?," she asked, her hand moving up his back as her body tucked in closer to his.  Rowan was on the tall side of average for a girl and she liked that when she was this close to Daniel she had to tilt her head back a little in order to look into his eyes.  It made her feel delicate, something she knew very well she wasn't.  

"Hold on to me," Daniel said, his voice low and quiet.  Rowan slipped the hand that was resting on the handlebar out from under his and shifted her body so she could wrap both her arms around his waist.  She hugged him close and rested her head against his chest.

"Like this?," she asked.  Daniel's tongue suddenly felt like it was glued to the roof of his mouth.  It was all he could do to let out a grunt of the affirmative variety. Rowan hugged him closer and hummed her enjoyment at finally being able to wrap her arms around the man.  His chest was as broad and strong as it looked. His body felt different from the men she had known before. Daniel was thicker and his muscles felt different from the ones the men in her community got from dancing and yoga and braiding rope hammocks. Rowan knew she had really only waited a few hours but it felt like she had been waiting a thousand years to get him in her arms.  And now that she had a hold of him she didn't ever want to let go.  

"Better come out to my car so I can pay you for the dog," Andy hollered over once he had succeeded in saving his wife from certain disaster.  He actually felt a little bad for interrupting the little love scene that was playing out over near the bikes. But if he didn't get this dog home and into the bathtub to wash the goat smell off Jenny was going to have his balls for breakfast.  His son Curtis also looked like he was getting bored and Curtis had a tendency to wander off when he was bored. If he wandered off around here nothing bad would happen but it would take them hours to find him.