Page 9 of A Mountain to Climb
“Good, and after we find him, I’ll paint his backside red. Then we’ll talk more.” Mountain leans down and drops a kiss on my cheek. “Okay?”
“Yea,” I answer, not knowing what more to say.
Mountain takes off at a slow run, his long legs taking him out of my sight pretty quickly. I start my walk along the path, wondering what the heck I’m doing here. Not just in the woods, but in this town. Why did I think it was a good idea to try and find Roxy after not hearing from her for so long?
Roxy ran away with her drug dealer and has been dead for eight years. How did she get herself into that kind of mess? I guess years really can change a person, or I didn’t know her like I thought. Mountain seems like a decent guy. Even though I’ve only known him a few hours, I’d like to think I wouldn’t let some loser kiss me like that.
I’m getting worried about Connor. If we don’t find him soon, Mountain will blame me. I stop and just listen to the sounds of nature. Wait, is that a sniffle? I turn to face the way I came from and hear it again. “Connor!” I yell out. No response. “If that’s you, please say something. Your dad’s looking for you.”
“I’m up here,” a small voice answers back.
“Where’s here?” I look straight up, but all I see are the leaves of the tree canopy.
Laughter, that’s a good sign. “Not all the way up. I’m not a bird, ya know.”
“You can obviously see me, so help me out here.” I put my hands on my hips and retort.
“Look left and up about twenty feet.” When I do, I see two sneakers swinging back and forth over the edge of a wooden platform.
“How’d you get up there?’
“There’s a ladder,” Connor answers, leaning forward so I can see his face.
“While I got you cornered, I want to say something. I need you to know I’m not here to hurt or leave you. Now that I know you’re here, I hope you’ll let me be a part of your life. I didn’t even know what Roxy did until I got here.” He doesn’t answer, so I keep talking. “Would you mind coming down so I don’t have to look up so far? Your dad is tall, but this height difference is a bit much for little old me.” Hopefully, he can get down without breaking anything.
“Fine. If my Pops finds me in another tree, he’ll cut them all down. I’m not supposed to be up here without him.” He disappears onto the platform again, then I see him drop down the far side of the tree. Quicker than I can blink, he’s down on the ground and standing in front of me. “So, now what?”
“We stay here. Your dad will find us when he comes back this direction. Until then, I guess we sit and wait.” I point at a row of bigger rocks at the edge of the trail, then I sit down and wait for him to decide what to do.
He stands there and looks at me for a minute before sitting next to me. “Why did you kiss my Pops?” Connor asks, scratching the rock he’s on with a stick.
“I won’t lie to you. I’m not really sure why I did it. But your dad and I are the adults, so we can do whatever we want.”
That gets him to look at me. “That’s dumb. I can’t wait until I’m in charge of this club. Then I can do whatever I want.”
“What do you mean?” Why would a kid be in charge?
“My Pops is the President of the Rebel Vipers MC, and one day, I will be too.”
“So, because your dad is the President, that means you will be too? Like he’ll just give it to you?”
“Of course not. I have to work very hard for the next eight years. When I turn eighteen, the club will vote if I can become a Prospect.”
“What’s a Prospect?” Never thought I’d be getting a lesson on motorcycle clubs from a ten-year-old.
That earns me an eye roll so hard, I expect his eyes to disappear into his head. “Sheesh. Don’t you know anything about our club?”
“Nope. Didn’t even know it was a thing until today.”
“You have lots to learn if you’re gonna be with my Pops.”
“Be with your Pops? Who said I was gonna be with him?” This kid is jumping the gun big time. I can feel my cheeks flaming like they have a horrible sunburn.
“Why’d you come here to find my mother?” Connor does a major one-eighty in our conversation. Talk about verbal whiplash.
“You’re a little young to know all the details yet, but one day, I’ll fill you in. What I can tell you is that my parents aren’t the nicest of people and they kicked me out of their lives.” They technically are his maternal grandparents, so I don’t want to say too much. He doesn’t need to know that they disowned me because I refused to go along with my father’s crazy plans for me to marry his forty-five-year-old business partner, all because he wanted me to get him access to the millionaire bachelor’s money.
“So, you came here to find Roxy.” Smart kid.