Page 38 of What it Takes
When he dropped the T-shirt, her gaze lifted and he did his best not to show any reaction to the light flush across her cheeks and the skin exposed by the V-neck of her shirt. “Did I get it all?”
That made her laugh. “No. Unless you want me to get a hose, I think it’s a lost cause.”
“I’ll pass.” Not that being blasted by cold water would be unwelcome after the way she’d just been looking at him. “You ready for a lesson?”
Her eyes widened. “A lesson?”
He pointed off to his right, where a couple of ATVs sat. One of them was Beth’s, which was a lighter machine with a smaller engine, and it had the keys in it. “You want to learn how to ride?”
“Right now?”
While she looked hesitant, he hadn’t missed the way her eyes lit up when she first looked at the four-wheeler. “Sure. You can just drive around the field a little, like Sean.”
Not exactly like Sean, he hoped. While it might be smarter for him to be on the machine behind her, her butt between his thighs, he was hoping she’d take to it well enough so he could keep his feet on the ground.
“But it’s okay if you don’t want to,” he added. “Not everybody likes it. Hell, even Rosie doesn’t ride, though she’ll go out on the snowmobile with Andy if it’s not too cold and he promises not to go too fast.”
“I think I want to.” She bit at her bottom lip for a few seconds and he noticed her hands balled into fists at her side. Then she gave a sharp nod. “I want to.”
He grinned. “Then let’s do it.”
Operating the thing was fairly simple. Turn the key on and hit the start button. It had Park, Reverse, Neutral, Drive and Low. The thumb throttle was on the right grip and there were squeeze brakes, like on a ten-speed bicycle. There was also a foot brake on the right side foot well, but she wouldn’t need that.
“Okay,” she said when he’d explained it all to her.
“Just sit on it for right now. See how it feels.”
She stepped into the foot well and threw her leg over the seat. Then she put her hands on the rubber grip and looked it over. When she turned her gaze to him, he could see the excitement in her eyes even before she smiled. “It doesn’t feel as big when you’re sitting on it as it looks when you’re standing next to it.”
“Go ahead and start it.” He deliberately didn’t tell her how again. He wanted to know how much of the information she’d retained. When she double-checked that it was in Park before turning the key to the on position, he smiled. Then she hit the run button and the engine fired. “Okay, now leave it in Park and give it just a little gas. Get a feel for the throttle and how the pressure you put on it makes the engine rev up.”
A few minutes later, there was nothing else she could learn sitting still, so he handed her Beth’s helmet, which had been sitting on the front rack, and helped her buckle it. With Sean and his little guy out in the field, Ben wasn’t comfortable just letting her take off on her own. Sean was aware of what they were doing and he’d watch for her, but Ben wasn’t taking chances with a three-year-old out there.
“I’m going to sit on the back for a few minutes, until you’ve got the hang of it.” But he didn’t want to distract her from what she was doing—or torture himself—so he didn’t straddle the seat behind her.
Instead he stepped onto the foot well and sat sideways on the back rack. The metal tubes weren’t exactly comfortable, but he knew he wouldn’t be there long. He held on to the rack with his left hand, leaving his right hand free to yank her thumb off the throttle or grab the bar.
“Okay. Hold the brake and put it in Drive. Then let go of the brake and give it a little gas. Nice and easy.”
He didn’t think she’d mash the throttle and wheelie him off the back, but he tightened his fingers around the rack just in case.
But Laney was smooth on the throttle and she drove across the grass without a problem. Then, before he could prompt her, she squeezed the brakes and brought the ATV to a stop. She repeated the process a few more times, and Ben liked the fact she got a little more adventurous each time. Going a little bit faster. Braking a little more aggressively. Getting a feel for its turning radius.
“Okay, stop for a second,” he told her. Once she had, he hopped off. “Go ahead and drive around for a while.”
“By myself? Are you sure I’m ready?”
“Absolutely.” Plus, his hip couldn’t take sitting sideways on the metal rack anymore.
She drove around the field for about ten minutes. Once Sean saw that she had a good handle on what she was doing, he and Johnny played four-wheeler follow the leader with her. Sometimes she was in front and sometimes Sean pulled around her and led. It made Johnny happy and, judging by the smiles she sent his way, it made Laney happy, too.
Then Sean led her toward the woods and she stopped at the edge, looking at Ben. He waved for her to go and, after a few more seconds of hesitation, she followed Sean onto the trail and out of his sight.
Ben wasn’t worried about her. He knew Sean wouldn’t take her very far, especially since he had Johnny with him, and riding around in a grass field wasn’t the same as being out on the trail. He did wish he was the one taking her out in the woods, though. Seeing her embrace something new that she clearly enjoyed made him happy and he was sad he’d be missing out on part of the experience.
But then again, maybe being alone with her out in the woods wouldn’t be such a good idea, either. Sitting on a hard metal rack had caused him enough discomfort so he could handle sitting behind her on the ATV without his self-control slipping. But out in a clearing in the woods, with the machines shut off and nobody else around, he might forget he wasn’t touching her again.
