Page 116 of X's and O's

She grumpily folded her arms beneath her tits, which only drew my eye to them, though that was clearly not her intent. But fuck, it was hard not to stare at her curves. The way her shirt pulled across them.

But I dragged my gaze back up to her face and silently commanded it to stay there. “You don’t need me, Violet. Just get on.”

She huffed, but it was clear a part of her really did want to do it. Maybe it was the little girl inside her who’d been ripped away from her big brother before he could teach her. Maybe it was that her parents had never cared, or that her foster parents had only been there to collect a payment for her and never actually given her any of the childhood experiences all kids deserved to have.

A tiny part of me wanted to believe she got on that bike because it was me standing there with her, and some small part of her knew I wasn’t going to let her fall.

Even if she didn’t want me running alongside her. I wasn’t going to let her get hurt.

It was a man’s bike, maybe an old one of Dax’s or one of the guys who worked for him, but she was tall enough that when she sat on it, she could touch the ground easily.

She didn’t need any instruction from me. The alley was wide and empty, nobody using it at this time of the day. Violet let the bike roll a bit, her feet trotting along with its momentum, so she wasn’t really using her balance.

I grinned. She was so fucking cute.

She steered the bike around at the end of the alley and did the same thing on her way back, glaring at me as she passed. “What are you smiling at?”

“You. You’re riding a bike.”

She rolled her eyes. “I’m walking one while sitting on it. It’s not the same thing.”

“Then lift your feet up and coast. There’s a tiny slope so the bike will keep going. Just don’t forget to squeeze the brakes at the bottom.”

“Oh, trust me. The brakes and I are already goodfriends. I know exactly where they are.” She gave them a tight squeeze, just to prove it.

Determination fell down over her eyes though, and she took my suggestion, raising her feet a little while the bike rolled down the gentle decline.

She wobbled, putting her toes down once, but then instantly lifting them again, balancing the bike alone. She stopped at the bottom, guided it around, then pushed off hard, getting the tires in motion.

Her feet found the pedals.

A rush of pride burst through me. “Thatta girl! Go!”

It didn’t surprise me that she’d picked it up fairly quickly. I’d felt her natural balance when she’d been sitting behind me.

All she’d needed was someone who believed in her to tell her she could do it.

Or maybe someone she got mad enough at to give it a go out of spite.

Whichever applied to me didn’t matter. Because she was fucking riding a bike.

She wobbled back to where I was, her feet turning around with the pedals, the bike staying upright the entire time. I caught the handlebars as she reached me.

“Happy?” she asked. “I rode a bike.”

“Question is, are you?”

She sighed. But then she flicked her thumb across the bell, and it let out a ping. She smiled, just a little. “That was actually kind of fun. I wish I could afford to buy it.”

“It’s yours.”

She shook her head. “No, I can’t accept that.”

I leaned my head back in the shop. “Dax, I’m buying your bike.”

“Sold!”

I raised an eyebrow at Violet. “I’ve already got a bike waiting for me back at Psychos. I can’t ride two home. So there’s really no choice. You’re going to have to take that one.”