Owned by Scott Hildreth

place it,” I looked him in the eye.
    “The third thing is , if you’re with Kelli, you’re a part of this family. I am not offering to be a replacement for your father, but I want you to know this - I’m here for you, if you need anything. She’s accepted you, you’ve accepted her, and I am accepting you. Hell, I’m talking in circles. You understand me, don’t you son?” I felt like I was stammering for words, and paused for a response.
    “I do. We’ll resolve the dealership, and Kelli’s involvement. I’ll take care of her and make her feel special, always. And I appreciate your acceptance of me, I truly do. I suppose, in summary, I’m honored, sir,” he nodded his head as he gripped my hand firm.
    We broke our handshake, and Kelli looked up at Ead. He turned her direction as she stood up from her seat and hugged me. As she turned to hug Ead, I studied their faces. A lot can be understood from watching a person’s eyes – my time in the military taught me that.
    As I studied them both, I didn’t think of whether or not these two had the ability to last.
    I knew.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    ERIK. “It’s not bad back here at all,” she said over my shoulder.
    “It’s just going to get warmer,” I screamed.
    She tightened her grip on my waist as I accelerated up the on ramp and onto the highway. Having a rider on the back of my bike was something that I had never really become comfortable with before I met Kelli. Having Kelli ride on the back was satisfying to me. As I found my place in the Saturday morning traffic, she eased her grip on my waist.
    The ride to the bar was about fifteen minutes from Kelli’s house. As always, getting away from the house and getting on the road had taken longer than anticipated, and we were running a few minutes late. Speeding wasn’t an option, so we were just going to be a few fashionable minutes late. My anal retentive way of thinking and living didn’t allow me to digest being late very well, but I was doing my best.
    Typically, for poker runs, we agreed to meet at a particular satellite location, and smaller groups of us would meet, and ride together to the secondary location that the poker run started from. This morning, we had all agreed to meet at the starting point of the poker run, because it was close. This was the club’s annual poker run, and we had sold over one thousand entrees so far. As always, there would be people that show up the day of the run, so the turn-out would exceed a thousand bikes.
    As we exited the freeway, I slowed to a stop at the traffic light. It was the middle of September, and still quite warm at about seventy-five degrees. The forecast for the day was low nineties, and sunny. As I stopped, Kelli rested her head on my right shoulder.
    “Are we going to be late?” she screamed into my right ear.
    “Damn, I’m right here, you don’t have to scream. Yes, we’ll be a few minutes late,” I said after looking at my watch.
    “Sorry, this thing is loud. I’m sorry for making us late,” she apologized quietly.
    “ You didn’t make us late. We’re just late. It isn’t anyone’s fault,” I looked at my watch again. About twelve minutes late, we were going to be twelve minutes late.
    As we pulled up to the bar, there were bikes parked along the street for approximately a mile. Police cars had parked in the street to direct traffic in and out of the bar where we were to meet. As we approached the entrance, a police officer waved for me to continue through traffic.
    I shook my head, and motioned toward the bar, indicating that I was going to pull past him into the parking lot. He stepped aside, and allowed me to pull into the lot, nodding as we passed.
    “Holy crap, all these people will be riding today?” Kelli asked as we pulled into the lot.
    “Probably a lot more, we don’t leave for an hour or so,” I responded as I rode slowly into the lot.
    I looked at my watch. 9:13. Although we