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No pearl-clutching moments here. Kara swallowed hard, feeling all of seventeen years old again. She handed the helmet to Jace, who dismounted and then hung the helmet on the bar on the bike’s back.
The sissy bar, they called it. Funny how she remembered things like that at moments when her mind was foggy. She’d barely gathered her composure to reintroduce Jace when he pulled off his helmet. Claudia’s expression changed.
“Do I know you?” she asked slowly.
“Aye, matey, I’ve sailed the seven seas with you,” he said in a pirate accent.
Kara bit her lip in a smile at the memory. Her mother brightened.
“Jason? Is that you under all that fur?”
He gave a little courtly bow. “One and the same.”
“Oh! Jason. How lovely to see you again. We’ve missed you.”
Jace embraced her mother, who hugged him like a long-lost son.
Gently disentangling himself from her mother’s grip, Jace grinned at her. “Kara, your mouth is open.”
After shutting it, she looked her ex up and down, squinting in the bright sunlight, trying to make sense of things. When they broke up, her parents had been upset, but now she wondered if they were more upset over losing Jace as a future son-in-law than her own pain.
Claudia gave the motorcycle a cursory glance and then studied him with calm assessment, as if Jace was driving a BMW instead of a motorcycle, his hair shaggy.
“Jason, are you on a special assignment?”
Jace was quick to speak up. “Yes, ma’am, my assignment is to deliver your daughter to you, safe and sound. Here she is.”
Kara gave him a puzzled look. “It’s a long story, Mom. I’ll tell you. We just came from visiting Aunt Wanda.”
Her mother’s quick gaze darted between the two of them. “Well, no use standing in the sun. Come inside and have coffee.”
“Yes, ma’am. Thank you. I was rather hoping to get a quick bite of breakfast, if you don’t mind.”
Claudia actually smiled. “Now, Jason, you know I cannot abide thema’amtitle. I’m Claudia. I recall you like Spanish omelets with extra peppers. Coffee, black and strong.”
Jace grinned and nodded. Her mother was the only one who seemed to get away with calling him the more formal Jason.
Still slack-jawed at her mother’s reaction, she followed her into the house like an obedient puppy. Before she could fill in her mother on Dylan’s disappearance, Jace told her a brief version, indicating they needed to find Dylan because he was in deep trouble.
Kara watched him. He didn’t lie, but evaded details, probably out of concern for her mother. Jace always liked her mother and never wanted her to worry.
Claudia listened, nodding, her face tightening. “Dylan has had a hard time of it in recent years. I hope you can find him, and straighten out all this, Jace. He needs a mentor like you.”
A mentor in a criminal biker gang? Kara shook her head and went into the kitchen to greet Lucy, who was cooking at the stove.
Lucy turned down the heat from the cast-iron skillet and beamed at Kara in greeting.
But with Jace, Lucy ran over to him, exclaiming in Spanish as she hugged him. Their cook stood nearly half a foot shorter than Jace, who laughed and hugged her back.
Claudia poured coffee into a large mug.
Jace nodded. “Thank you.”
He eyed the lanai and the boat docked out back. Whistled. “You still have it. Sweet.”
Kara followed his gaze.Claudia’s Dreamboat. Sleek and polished, the yacht was her father’s pride and joy. The boat was a constant reminder of her little brother, and how much Conner had enjoyed being on the water with them.
How Conner adored sailing! His little fingers learning to work the lines with her father. That time he’d never listened and leaned over too far and fell overboard.
