Page 19 of Coyote

My mouth was watering already, his sister Callie was a fantastic cook. I had memories of her empanadas, which she made Puerto Rican style with sazon seasoned meat. “Do you need me to get drinks or anything? I can get something from our refrigerator?”

“All sorted, got a mini cooler in my luggage compartment,” he said as he handed me the spare helmet, “Ready to go?”

I fastened it in place and climbed on behind him, tucking the skirt of my dress under my legs so it wouldn’t blow in the breeze. I was pleased I’d worn my sneakers as I really couldn’t imagine doing this in heels, Reggie had told me this morning before I left for the shop that we had some orders to unpack today, so just to dress casually. I got myself settled and wrapped my arms around Coyote’s waist.

Once we were off it was just like old times, hugging his big body tight and leaning in, as his bike ate up the pavement. The bike was worlds more comfortable than his old one and I felt like I was riding on air, as he made short work of the miles of road.

***

I hadn’t asked where he was taking me, but when he pulled up at the lakeside park we used to hang out at, my heart skipped a beat. Some of my favorite moments with Coyote happened in this park. When we were together, he’d lived at the clubhouse, and as I was staying in the backroom of Grit’s gym that didn’t give us much privacy. Though back then we’d visit at night and sneak in past the security guards as the park didn’t allow visitors after dark. Today the area was filled with the cheerful voices of kids as they played, and I had a thought that maybe I should take Nessa here sometime. It hadn’t crossed my mind before as I tended to avoid old hangouts.

“I used to love it here,” I said, as Coyote parked his bike and started unloading stuff from the luggage box. There was a plastic container filled, no doubt, with his sister’s empanadas. Another smaller box that looked like it might have fruit in it, and a small cooler, big enough for a few drinks.

“Me too,” he said as he locked up the luggage box. He also had a checkered blanket, which I guessed we’d be using to sit on. That man had thought of everything.

“Do you need a hand?” I asked. He was pretty much laden down at this point.

Coyote did a showoff twirl, “I got it,” he grinned back. He started walking towards the lake and I followed behind. “Thought we could find a spot over on the far side of the lake, it should be quieter as the families generally stay close to the park office and facilities.”

We walked for around ten minutes after we left the main path and ducked through a lightly wooded area. If I had been with anyone other than Coyote, I would maybe have made some protestations, as it looked like we were heading way off the track. But I trusted him—still, I had a few concerns, “I don’t think we should go too far, I know my boss said I could have an extended lunch break, but I still have to get back in good time.”

“No, you don’t,” Coyote said as he waited for me to catch up with him. He had long legs and each of his steps was around four of mine.

“What do you mean?”

“This wasn’t a spur of the moment picnic, I already cleared it with your boss,”

I stopped in my tracks, “What?”

He grinned at me, a huge dimpled, charm-the-panties-off-a-nun grin, “Yep! You’ve been working really hard on my grand opening and even though we’ve been having working lunches, it was more work than lunch. I called Reginald and asked if he could spare you for a couple of hours because I wanted to thank you for all your hard work.”

“Oh,” I said, because I couldn’t think of any suitable retort.

“He said yes, he also said that you’d not taken any time off since you started working for him, so you were long overdue some personal time. You have the whole afternoon off and he said if we aren’t back in time, his nieces can collect your daughter from daycare.”

At that I rushed over to him and threw my arms around him, giving him a peck on the cheek, “Wow! Thank you, Coyote! I honestly don’t see my work as work because I enjoy it so much. This is really sweet of you, and of Reggie.”

“My pleasure, querida. Now let’s get this set up.”

I looked around, the part of the park he’d taken me to was simply beautiful. Away from the crowds it was much more peaceful and did seem more like an unspoiled natural resource rather than an overcrowded theme park.

After Coyote had laid out the blanket and opened the containers of food we got settled, there was something so right about being here with him in this environment and for a moment I could almost imagine us doing it as a family. That was enough to bring the dark thoughts front and center again. I tried to push them away as I bit into one of Callie’s empanadas, “These are so good. How does she get the pastry so flaky?” I asked.

He laughed, “That’s her secret, maybe when you see her at the grand opening you can see if she’ll talk and give away our abuelita’s recipe.

We ate in comfortable silence for a bit, and then Coyote asked the question I’d been dreading. Without the distraction of work and restaurant customers I knew eventually we’d have to have ‘the talk’. He swallowed his mouthful and looked at me, “I know you don’t want to talk about the attack, but I’m just curious as to what happened to you when you left, where did you go? I looked for you for months afterwards, before I realized you clearly didn’t want to be found.”

My heart almost broke at the sadness in his voice, I didn’t want to lie to this kind man, but I still wasn’t ready to tell him everything, “I took off for LA and tried to make a go of it out there. When I first arrived, I was couch surfing, then I found a live-in job as a housekeeper at a motel. It was a pretty run-down place, but it gave me a roof over my head, but around about then I found out I was pregnant.” I paused, it wasn’t exactly a lie, when I arrived in LA and skipped my period I was totally in denial, and pretty much kept up that denial until I was six months gone, and the appearance of an obvious baby bump made my mental excuses of stress or poor nutrition being behind my missing periods, a joke. “I had no insurance and had to work up until Nessa was born, we were managing, the guy who owned the place was okay he never tried it on with me, but then when she was almost a year old, the motel had to close, and we were out on the streets. I had enough savings to rent a room short term, but you know what LA is like. I knew that if I stayed, we were gonna end up as a statistic. Living rough is bad enough as a woman, but with an eleven-month-old in tow?” I couldn’t look at Coyote, instead I fixed my gaze on the picnic blanket. I felt his big hand on top of mine as I blinked away the tears.

“Babe, I hate to think of what you’ve been though.”

I heaved out a sigh, “It was hard, but we’re here now. Anyway, I packed what little we had and decided I needed to return home. Or at least closer to home, which was how we ended up in Patterdale. Me and Nessa were living in my car, it was awful, and I was terrified that someone would see me and report me to the authorities. The thought of my little girl being taken away was more than I could bear. But that’s where Reggie stepped in, he’d seen me in the supermarket feeding her samples and—” I stopped abruptly, I really wasn’t proud of the next part, “He saw me stealing a box of diapers, looking back I don’t know why I even tried to do it, it was a crazy idea, but I kind of draped my coat over the packaging. Anyway, he followed us out and to my car. At first, I thought he was going to drag me back to the manager and I broke down in tears knowing that I’d reached rock bottom. But instead, he asked what he could do to help, and the rest is history.” The tears were running down my face now and I couldn’t stop them. Even thinking back to that dark period chilled me to my bones, knowing how close I’d come to losing my daughter.

Coyote lifted his hand to brush away my tears, I looked up to see his soft brown eyes gazing intently into mine, “Querida, I wished you’d come to me or my club. I want you to promise me that if anything bad happens you, come to me, you tell me what you need, and I will make sure you have it.” His thumb brushed softly over my lips, and I leaned into his touch.

No matter how many years had passed or what life had thrown at me I couldn’t deny that my heart had always been with this kind man. I shouldn’t have run, back then I’d thought all MCs were the same, but the Dark Slayers had always looked out for me, they’d given me a place to live when I had nothing. I reached out and put my hand on Coyote’s shoulder, bringing him closer. As our lips met it felt as if I was finally home.

***