He grabbed my helmet off the seat and settled it onto my head.His knuckles brushed my jaw, and I shivered.
Ender’s gaze flicked to my eyes.“Cold?”
“No,” I said honestly.“Just… you.”
His mouth quirked.
He didn’t say anything else.
I climbed on behind him and wrapped my arms around his waist.
The moment my hands locked together, Ender exhaled like he’d been holding his breath for days.
He started the bike, and the engine roared to life.
As we pulled out of the lot, I looked back once.
The clubhouse sat behind us, big and solid.Home.
I turned forward again and pressed my cheek to Ender’s back.
Wherever the road took us to, I knew one thing.
I wasn’t alone anymore.
Not with Ender.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Ender
The road was the only thing that made sense.
The hum of my bike under me, the wind biting through the afternoon heat, and the steady rhythm of miles ticking by.Clove was at the back, arms wrapped around my middle, her helmet pressed against my shoulder blade.Every time I felt her squeeze just a little tighter, it pulled me back from whatever cliff my mind wanted to sprint toward.
Clove shifted closer behind me and my left hand slid back to her leg.Rested there like it belonged.A small touch, nothing dramatic, but it was everything.
Mine.
I didn’t say it.Didn’t need to.I just kept riding.
Eventually, the fuel needle dipped low enough that I couldn’t ignore it.I slowed the bike on the edge of a small town that looked like it had been built around a single main street and never bothered to change.A few brick buildings, old storefronts with big windows, faded painted signs, and a gas station that looked like it had been there since the seventies.
I pulled up to the pump and killed the engine.
The quiet hit like a wave.
Clove hopped off behind me easily, like she’d been born on the back of a bike, which, in our world, she basically had.
I popped the gas cap and started filling up.Clove stood near the bike, stretching her arms overhead, and the simple sight of her standing in the sun, alive, free,andhere, made my chest go tight.
I glanced at the gas station window.There was a kid behind the counter, maybe nineteen or twenty, staring at my cut like it might bite him.He glanced at Clove, then back at me, and looked away fast like he’d been caught.
I’d seen that look a thousand times growing up.Thewho are youlook.Thedangerlook.
Clove noticed it too.I saw it in the way her shoulders pulled in slightly, like she was bracing for something.
I finished the tank and replaced the nozzle.“You hungry?”I asked.