Free Harddrive Holidays (Rebel Wayfarers MC Book 14) by MariaLisa deMora Page B

took several pictures of them, the bright flash attached to his camera momentarily blinding the boys each time.
    Landon shifted in the chair and looked owlishly around, blinking as if startled by something. With a sigh, he settled back into the chair, drifting back into sleep.
    Delores stood in the space between the motorcycle and the porch of her parent’s house, looking back at him with her fingers resting on her lips. She lifted and held them in front of her mouth, pretending to blow him a kiss. He reached up, catching it from the air and pressed his hand to his heart. Watching her walk inside he sat for another moment, waiting for the front porch light to be extinguished. Once the light was off and darkness had crept in around the small house, he kicked the bike to life, carefully walking the vehicle backwards out of the gravel driveway.
    Riding back to Cheyenne in the dark, he thought back over the songs she had chosen to play on the jukebox at the diner tonight. Keeping his eyes on the cone of light stretching out in front of the bike, the headlight illuminated the lonely road as he sang his favorites loud and long. Pulling up behind the garage where he worked, he parked the bike underneath the stairs that led to his apartment. Stepping off the machine, he stretched with a groan and then trotted up those stairs, still humming under his breath. He had decided tonight, with her sitting beside him, hand in his, he was going to marry her. She was it for him and being with her gave him every feeling he had ever wanted.
    Opening the door, he saw the envelope that had been pushed underneath onto the floor and stooped to pick it up. There was an official looking seal in the corner, but no postage stamp. He ripped the letter open, letting the envelope flutter to the floor as he read the words that would change the course of his life. “You are hereby directed to present yourself for Armed Forces Physical Examination…”
    Dropping slowly into the upright chair near the door, he ran his hand across his face. Drafted. He had been drafted. He wasn’t opposed to serving his country, not at all. This was exciting, and he wanted to share this moment with Delores. He knew her parents wouldn’t look kindly on him roaring back into their driveway at this time of night, but he just couldn’t hold it in until morning.
    Rodney was already overseas, an enlisted soldier in the Army. Their parents had passed away several years ago, and Isabel…well, she was wherever she was, which wasn’t here.
    That left only one person he could think of that he could talk to, one person he could count on no matter what. Back straight, he jerked to his feet and looked around the apartment, thinking that everything now looked different, changed. Or at least it should. He had been drafted. A soldier.
    Slamming the door shut behind him as he ran back outside, he shoved the letter into the pocket of his jacket, started the bike and recklessly pulled back out onto the road. Driving fast and hard back to his hometown, he slid the bike to a stop in front of his best friend’s home a little after two in the morning.
    There were still lights on in Mike’s house, and he suddenly wondered if he was the only one who had gotten news. Running up the back steps as he had a million times over the years, Landon burst into the kitchen to find Mike and his parents gathered around their kitchen table. They were all three somber-faced, sitting with what looked like a copy of the same letter he had received resting on the table between them.
    Breathlessly, his voice filled with equal parts fear and excitement, he asked, “LeRoy, you too?” Mike nodded, and Landon sank into one of the chairs at the table.
    No one spoke for a long time, and then lifting his chin, the senior LeRoy said, “Proud of both of you. This is not a small thing; it is a life-altering moment. Our boys, going over to the hellhole that is Vietnam. You gotta make sure you come back whole, come back to