Free Hard Rider (Bad Boy Bikers Book 1) by Lydia Pax Page A

dinner.”
    Colt adjusted his belt, standing up. He walked to the kitchen and pulled his hat from the post. “Just as well,” he said. “I don’t have the cash to buy you some new car anyway.”
    “You didn’t pay for any car of mine, Dad,” June said, voice false-saccharine, “so don’t worry about it.”
    Sheila was ever the diplomat. She guided June back into the kitchen, toward the fridge, and started pulling out food. “Now, I made you some dip, I know you like it with the carrots and the ranch? And there’s a few cookies in the jar over there. I’ve had drip beef cooking in the crock pot all afternoon, so I think it should be ready to go by dinnertime, and, well—”
    Colt interjected. “She’s going to be having dinner with Paxton, though. Wasn’t that what we said?”
    Sheila made a face, and then flashed an apologetic look at her daughter. “Well,” said Sheila. “That was one of the possibilities we discussed, yes.”
    June fought hard not to start yelling. “Paxton asked me out. I said no. So I'll be having dinner here tonight.”
    Colt crossed his arms. “I told him you'd go out with him. Let him show you the town. And you, you're telling me you told him to blow off? That ain’t right. That’s the mayor’s son. I can’t just tell him to—”
    “What the hell are you talking about?”
    Both of them looked with some surprise at June.
    Yes, people, I’ve added “hell” to my retinue of swears. Wait till you hear the rest.
    “I'm talking about Paxton Prince. He’s David Prince’s son,” said her father, as if this explained everything. “You know, the mayor.”
    June waited for the rest, jaw set to one side.
    “We just thought,” said her mother, “with you being single and all, why, you must be wanting for some fun . And Paxton is very handsome, and neatly well-to-do, and he’s been asking about you a lot. Apparently he thought you were real cute back in high school.”
    Colt nodded. “The two of you are going out tonight. You’ll have fun together.”
    The way her father said this indicated to June that this was more than a chance encounter, more than something put together at the last minute by Paxton. This felt like some kind of arrangement.
    A sardonic part of her wondered what the dowry was.
    “I really don’t think it’s appropriate for me to go out with him,” said June. “Or for you to make me a date.”
    “Why not?” said Colt. “You’re a woman. He’s a man. Men and women go on dates.”
    This was her chance. This was where she could tell him off. This was the time she could use to put her father in his place, finally , to let her know she was an independent person outside of the bounds of his ever-reaching claws.
    But she had wanted more time than this. She wanted a little time to ingratiate herself, to re-familiarize herself with him and his habits, to get her pathway in. But her father didn’t need any such allowances—oh no. His little girl was his little girl, and would be no matter what she had to say about it.
    “I can’t,” she said again. “I won’t. It’s not...it’s not what I want.”
    She was starting to get angry, and because she was getting angry, tears started forming in her eyes. It was her automatic response to anger to start crying, and she hated it. It made her feel weak and feckless, even though all it meant was that she had so much emotion that it was literally pouring out of her eyeballs.
    Her brain scrambled to find something, anything, to break this stupid cycle before it even got started—to cut these two dead in their tracks.
    “Honey,” said her mother, “are you even sure you know what you want? You haven’t dated anyone since that Simon fellow, is that right? And you didn’t even let us meet him but the one time. I mean, it would be one thing if you were dating someone now, but since you aren’t—”
    “I am!” June blurted it out without even thinking about it—and then she kept going. “I am dating