Levy

"Where is your head at, Man?" Lex frowns at me. "Your game is shit tonight. I'm gonna whip your ass so bad with my hand of cards you are going to walk out of here a broke man." He chuckles. I flick him the bird.

It's poker night with our team, Roger, Jax, Michael and Dean are all sitting around the table with a bottle of beer in front of them. I'm not drinking since I got over here on my bike.

"I have no idea, Mate. Not myself tonight." I try to avoid the question because I am not going to mention my evening with Harper and the embarrassment of some park ranger almost catching me with my pants around my ankles. Fuck's sake, I am thirty-eight not a horny teenager.

"How's the dating going, Levy?" Roger takes a drink of his beer. "Folding, I'm out," he says as he throws his cards on the table. I've got a shit hand too, but I want to hang in a little while longer before I fold.

In the background the flat screen television is playing rock music, it's always rock music at Lex's where we are in his basement. Every week we take it in turns at one of the gang's houses. The wives generally get together for a gossip. No doubt talking shit about their men. It's a nice, cozy set up.

My brothers and I go way back even before our biker days. We all grew up together, went through school together. It wasn't until college that some of separated and went to different states. It's good we're all back in my hometown. I don't know where I'd be without these guys. They have gotten me through some real shitty times. It was these fellas that had my back when I lost Lilly and who helped me father Dylan when she passed on to be an angel and I lost the plot.

Honestly, if it wasn't for my friends I am pretty convinced I would be sitting in a cardboard box somewhere down a back alley nursing a bottle of hard liquor.

"No dating, Man. You know I don't do dating."

"You ought to, it's been two years. You gotta get yourself out there. Ease yourself into it. Hey, how about we put you on a dating app?" Michael pipes up. Fuck me, a dating app what in the world are they saying?

"I don't need no dating app guys. Pack it in. I'll date when I am ready which isn't right now." I give them the ice stare they don't buy it and flick their middle finger at me. Lex gives me a shoulder punch.

"What about getting your rocks off, man? Your hand must be damn worn out," Roger says as I almost choke on the diet Coke I'm drinking straight from the bottle.

"Fuck you, it's none of your business. Come on guys, you know I don't want to date just anyone. She's gotta be smart, funny, intelligent and like motorbikes." Am I describing Harper? I think I am. "Not to mention have a smile that is like the sunrise." Yep, definitely Harper.

"Ha, who the hell with a smart mind is going to pick you, Levy anyways? You're rugged as they come, she'd have to be out of her mind. On second thoughts, stick to fucking the hand." God, Jax is just not funny.

"Folding too," Michael says.

"Yeah, me too. Lex you won again." I say with resignation. Damn I am a sore loser but I hide it well.

He cheers himself and takes a swig of his bottle of beer. "I knew you girl's blouses weren't going to win tonight."

"Man, you're a cheating son-of-a-bitch," I say good naturedly.

"Nah, your game is just off tonight. So, you wanna tell us brothers what the hell is going on with you? You've hardly spoken all night either. Not like you, Levy. Usually, you've got some tale to tell."

I let out a sigh. I guess I do need a little help with what's going on with me and my desire for Harper. Fuck, I can't get her out of my mind. She is living rent free in my head constantly. All I do is think about her. How beautiful she is, how her smile lights up the room. The way her hair falls down her back and over her shoulders. And she's fiercely smart. If she didn't have to look after her younger sister and her mother, Harper would fly high in the sky like a free bird.

And yeah, about that. How can this really go anywhere? I'm an old man compared to her. I'd like to settle down one day and have something similar to what I had with Lilly. A wife, a kid before I am too late. Dylan would love a younger sibling. The whole white picket fence. Oh, listen to me would you. I sound like a woman. What the hell is going on with me right now?

"I met someone," I say. The guys all stare at me with bug eyes. Did I say I had just met a Martian or something?

"You met someone? Where? Who? What's her name? What does she look like?" Jax is one helluva nosey fucker ain't he?

"Hold your horses. I ain't giving no names away. Just to say that she is younger than me." There I said it now it's out in the open.

"How much younger?" Michael asks.

"Eighteen years."

"Holy fuck, Man that's like," Roger gives me a funny look. "Wait, hold on. Isn't Dylan eighteen years younger than you? Are you telling me this chick is the same as your own son?"

And when he puts it like that it kind of makes me squirm in my chair.

An hour later and I am back home laying flat on my bed with my jean clad legs hanging over the edge and one arm across my face. When Roger put it like that it made me feel weird, and yeah it did creep me out. However, I don't see Harper like a woman eighteen years younger than me.

She is more mature for her age than most women at twenty are. She has had so much to endure, and her story isn't done yet. Her mother has to get through rehab successfully and when she gets out, Harper is going to have to be the one who keeps a close eye on her to make sure she doesn't fall back into her way. God, I hope her mother is successful this time and knocks those deadbeats on the head who keep calling round.

Luckily, I've not seen any of those meat heads knocking on the door. Hell, if I had my way, I'd put up a whole load of security cameras on Harper's house and monitor them. Actually, that isn't a bad idea, I wonder if Harper would go for it. At least I would feel like I am protecting her in some way.

I hear something and lift my arm away from my face and sit upright. What the hell is that? It sounds again. Then it hits me, like something is hitting my window. Weird.

My intrigue is piqued as I stand up and go to the sash window and slide it open. The window faces onto the back yard with open fields behind it. The surround is a hefty six-foot wooden fence with trellis on top. There ain't nobody coming over the back.

What the hell?

"Harper what are you doing standing outside in the darn cold."