Parker reached out and placed a hand over Austin’s.

For a few breaths they all let the moment sink in.

Matt walked up to the table and broke the somber mood. “Why the long faces? This is a day of celebration.”

Erin scooted over in the booth to make room. “Mallory wrote an emotional message in her card to Austin.”

Matt reached into his back pocket and tossed a card in Austin’s direction. “Must be a girl thing. I just shoved money in mine.” He winked at Austin, who brushed away the last of the tears and tore open the envelope.

As Matt scooted in next to Erin, he turned his face toward hers and smiled. Without hesitation, he kissed her. The kind of kiss that said they did that kind of thing all the time. The kind that made her look forward to seeing him again, and often. Under the table he placed a hand on her thigh and squeezed. “You look amazing.”

“Aww, thanks, Matt. I didn’t think you’d notice,” Colin teased.

Matt laughed and started to lean across the table. “Do you want a kiss, too?” His kissy lips made plenty of noise and had all of them laughing.

Austin waved a hundred-dollar bill in the air. “Thanks!”

“Did you read the card?”

For some reason, Parker’s question made them all laugh except Matt. “Why do I feel like I’m late to the party?”

When they finished their meal, Austin was already texting a few of his friends and making plans for the night. Mallory drove separately, and Colin and Parker were slated to take Erin back to the house. That was until Matt suggested he play chauffeur.

All that was well and good until he walked up to his motorcycle and handed her a helmet.

“You’re kidding.”

“Are you telling me you’ve never been on the back of a motorcycle?”

She looked around and realized that Parker and Colin had already left in Colin’s car. “I have never gotten on the back of a motorcycle let alone dated anyone who owned one.”

He walked straight up to her, placed a hand under her chin. “Well, you’re dating someone who drives one now.”

She snapped out of her motorcycle trance and into Matt’s vortex. “Is that what we’re doing?”

He grinned. “Do you trust me?”

She didn’t have to think about it, but she hesitated nonetheless. “I do.”

He lowered his lips to hers and took advantage a little bit more than he had while seated in the restaurant. When he drew back, his eyes traveled over her face, her hair. “I really like this new look.” Matt took the helmet he’d just handed to her and placed it over her head.

It felt exactly how she thought it would. Snug, warm, and it filtered away the outside noise.

“We’re really going to ride this?”

He adjusted the strap under her chin. “I’m going to drive, and you’re going to wrap your arms around me and hold on.”

Her stomach flipped. “Oh, God.”

Once the helmet was in place, Matt took the leather coat he had swung over his arm and opened it for her to put on. “My mother wouldn’t be happy if you weren’t wearing this.”

Erin positioned her cross-body purse before turning to let Matt tuck her into the coat.

It was a warm, late spring night, and the jacket was too hot.

“What are you going to wear?” she asked.

He winked and put his helmet on. “You.”

He swung a leg over the bike and flipped back the kickstand. A turn of a key and the bike roared to life.

Am I really doing this? She was probably too naive about the bad things that could happen, and what replaced that was excitement over something completely new.

“You coming?”

Blinking away the anticipation, she tossed her leg over the bike and butted up right behind Matt.

“Put your feet here,” he said, pointing to small foot holders on each side of the bike.

“Okay.” Once her feet were up she felt unsteady. “Now what?”

He reached for her hand that was resting on her thigh and placed it on his waist. Then he turned to the other one and repeated the action. Once her hands were where he wanted them, he tapped down the visor of her helmet and then his. “Ready?”

Erin shook her head, smiled, then nodded. “Don’t kill us.”

He winked. “I won’t.”

The second he put the bike in gear and it started to move, Erin pushed flush against Matt, and her arms around him tightened. All the years of driving in cars with seatbelts and doors with windows, and now she was on something that could go just as fast . . . no, faster than a normal car, without so much as a single airbag.

“This is crazy,” she said as they hummed through the parking lot.

“You’re gonna have to talk louder if you want me to hear you when we’re on the road.” He turned the corner and waited at a red light to exit the parking lot.

“I said, this is crazy.” It felt like she was shouting.

He placed his left hand over her arm. “I got ya.” And the light turned green.

It was twilight and the roads were busy, but not stop-and-go traffic.

Erin felt her thighs tighten against Matt’s legs to help stay on the bike. She liked to think she was adult enough to not get worked up over her position, but she’d be lying to herself to say she wasn’t. It was exciting both sexually and emotionally. The closeness to the man and the realization that she did trust that he would get her home, in one piece, were as foreign as they were serendipitous. Instead of overthinking, she tried to relax and simply enjoy.

Once they got away from the traffic of the city, Matt pointed the bike down the canyon road that led to the house. As they cut around corners, and the walls of the canyon closed in, she was very thankful for the jacket. Parts of her body felt the pockets of cold but they didn’t really bother her. She was too busy smiling and feeling the freedom of the ride. She compared it to cutting off her hair. Somehow the bike felt as refreshing as a cool dip in the pool on a warm day.

And she was curled around Matt like corn batter on a hotdog at the county fair.

She loved it.

From the buzz of the bike under her, to the warmth of the man in front of her, to the great outdoors all around her. She got it. Why people rode bikes. One trip and she got it.

Twilight was fading fast, and the half-moon night was closing in. When Matt turned up the long street to the house, she was actually disappointed the ride was over.

“What do you think?” he asked once he was driving at a slower pace up the residential street.

“I feel like a kid with a new toy.”

He turned his head and looked at her with a huge grin. “Good.”

Erin eased her grip and let one of her hands fall from Matt’s waist to his thigh. The man was firm. He wore jeans, but she could feel the hardness of him through his clothes.

At the gate, he punched in the code and covered her hand on his thigh with his.

He drove the remainder of the way to the guesthouse and parked his bike next to her car.

Once he turned the bike off, Matt just sat there and looked down.

It was then she realized that she was spreading both her hands over his thighs and enjoying the sensation of him under her fingertips.

He was breathing hard. Aroused, she thought. Maybe as much as she was.