Read Wild Ride for Free Online

and having put in a full eight hour day at the shop he was feeling pretty good as he headed to the Johnson’s house.  He’d stuffed the two gifts, a kid’s sized helmet and his own Nerf gun in his backpack and, after parking his bike, he took his Nerf gun out and put it in the bushes next to the front door.  He’d no sooner done so when the door swung open.
    “Chuck!  It’s my birthday!” Ben yelled .
    “Well Happy Birthday , buddy!” Chuck said ruffling the boy’s hair.
    He laid his gifts for Ben on the table next to the ones already piled up there when Matt entered the kitchen.  He held out his fist to Matt and the boy bumped it and smiled at him.
    “She said no , Ben… sorry,” Matt said.  Ben’s little face looked sad as he climbed onto one of the kitchen chairs.
    “Who said no?” Chuck asked Matt .
    “Meredith… he wanted her to eat dinner down here with us but… she wants a plate in her room like usual,” he said looking at Ben.
    Seeing the disappointment in Ben’s face made him… angry.   He rarely ever got angry but seeing a five… now six year old disappointed seemed to be having that effect. 
    He probably shouldn’t get involved but… when had that ever stopped him before.  Hell he wouldn’t be here now if he had that kind of control over himself.
    “You want Meredith to be down here for dinner , buddy?” he asked.  Ben nodded with his sad little look.
    “Alright then… I’ll go get her,” he said.
    Both boys looked at him and then at their mother just as Judge Patterson stepped through the doorway of the kitchen.  Chuck stopped mid stride and looked at the old man.  He looked… normal … without his black robe on. 
    Judge Patterson waved a hand motioning Chuck through and holding his other arm outstretched as though pointing at the stairs.  Was he daring him?
    Nodding his acknowledgment of the challenge to the old man , he headed up the stairs taking them two at a time.  These people were nuts but he’d take the dare and raise them one older daughter delivered to the dinner table!  He stopped in front of the door to her room and knocked.
    “Are you decent in there?” he hollered through the door.
    “Go away!” he heard a female voice holler back after several moments of silence.
    “Not going to happen.  I’m going to count to five and then I’m coming in there ,” he threatened, getting angrier at her by the minute.  It was her little brother’s birthday for God’s sake!
    “One…two…three…four…five ,” he said loudly to the closed door.  Then turning the handle he opened the door.
    The room wasn’t frilly as he expected… or pink.   The walls were a tan color with a white border that cut through the middle.  A dresser set along the wall nearest the open bathroom door and a smaller table with a mirror was positioned directly ahead of him on the far wall.  A bed with a peach colored comforter was located along the wall to his left.
    As his eyes made it to her he felt his breath catch.  God she was a vision … like the stuff of a teenage boy’s dream.  Long blond hair was pulled up carelessly in a loose pony tail and wisps of it had escaped to frame the prettiest face he’d ever seen. 
    The brown eyes he remembered peering out at him from behind the curtains seemed to take up most of her face only to be out done by her lips… full and pink.
    The problem was she wasn’t a girl… she was a woman… closer to his own age if not older… not the teenager fresh out of high school he’d expected.  Not good … his brain tried to tell his dick… which didn’t seem to want to listen.
    “Get out!” she yelled at him.  Forcing his eyes away from the vision she made, he noticed the wheelchair that sat next to her bed.
    “No… my boy Ben is having a birthday party and you’ve been invited.  So we can do this the easy way… or the hard way,” he heard himself say.  His brain seemed to be lacking oxygen or blood that was readily