He was my first post-divorce boyfriend and the first man to get me onto a Harley…
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It took him months to convince me to do it. I’m not sure which scared me more - him or the Harley
“C’mon, do you think I’d ever let anything happen to you? And you’re gonna love it!”
He saw something in me that I couldn’t see. And every time he looked at me, I felt alive again.
We met on my mother’s gravel road. Just weeks beforehand Benjamin and I had been in my posh little urban neighborhood. Now we were completely alone in the woods. Even the sounds were quiet. Wild birds, big zipping bugs and occasionally an animal walking through the forest.
We had come this way before, but this time we heard voices. Seconds later a pack of dogs leaped out of the bushes and ran straight toward the stroller. And then I heard his voice, “HEY! Get back! NOW!”
The dogs came to a stop, my 7-month-old’s head was in tact and standing in front of us was a man who looked like he could have squished any of my city boys into a tin can.
He had camoflauge pants on, a red bandana and his brown and blond beard hit right above his belly. So not my type.
“Sorry,” he said as he pulled the dogs back into his yard. I could see a camp fire through the brush and around it sat three older, greying men. I glanced at the drive way. Three bikes parked by the garage.
Bikers. Real bikers. Wow. When he invited us to stop by any time I noticed his eyes - light crystal blue, soft and strong.
Soon we were coming by at least three or four nights a week. I needed to escape my mom’s house and the Biker needed some company. Each night we would linger, both unsure about how to ask each other out. The ink wasn’t dry on my divorce yet and he had been living alone in the woods for years. But despite his self-imposed isolation, a woman had found him. And he wanted me. Or maybe he just wanted me permanently affixed to his bike or in his kitchen, serving him and loving him forever and ever. I couldn’t really tell.
Three months later, I finally agreed to jump on the back of his Harley for our first date. I sprinted up the hill like a giddy teenager. I could hear his engine reving up and just seconds later there he was.
I stood still staring at him, not sure what to do. He smiled and then started laughing.
“What are you waiting for? I’m not going to bite.”
I climbed on the back. And then he just took off. I shrieked a little and then grabbed him tight. We rode past my mother’s house and then over the ridge.
“Look! Look at the sunset!” He screamed over the bike’s roar. I had already noticed it. The clouds were a deep pink and read against a bright blue sky. I lost my breath. Went it came back, I nestled my cheek against his back and inhaled his scent - musky, like the woods that surrounded us. He was free and finally, so was I.
In that moment this city girl fell in love with dirty bikers.
[Photo: A picture of a sunset on the same road a few nights later]
