Page 45 of Wheelie's Challenge
“Earlier tonight when I was talking about my grandma, I got the impression that you lost someone you loved very much. That got me thinking that after knowing you for several years, and all the car trips we made to Canon City, I don’t really know much about your background.” Sofia took a gulp, nervous all of a sudden by the way he stared at her. His face was impassive, so she couldn’t read what was going on inside him. “I know you love hard rock and metal, barbecues, country music, and the smell of a crackling fire in the dead of winter. You love when the leaves change in the fall, the ghost towns in the area, and playing pool with your buddies. There’s so much more… and I know you have a good heart… a kind one, and you’re a loyal friend.” Another gulp. Wheelie’s gaze still held hers. Still no reading on what he was thinking. “But I don’t know anything about you before Pinewood Springs. I know you’re from Denver, but I don’t know how many siblings you have, if your parents are still together, if you still keep up with old friends from Denver. I know nothing about you ‘pre-Insurgents.’”
Wheelie took a drink of beer, his gaze still fixed on hers.
Sofia finished the vodka cooler and put the bottle on the side table. “Do you want to share any of that with me? I’d like you to, but if you don’t that would be okay.”
“Do you want another one?” Wheelie’s eyes flicked over to the end table.
“Okay.”He doesn’t want to talk. I wish he would. I want to know everything about you, Wheelie.
He handed her the opened bottle then cracked open another bottle of Coors. “My dad and I were real tight. I worshipped the fuck outta him, and he was the best dad in the world to me and my sister. He was a pretty damn good husband too, and my mom adored him.” Wheelie took a gulp of beer then turned slightly toward her. “My childhood was pretty normal but it all went to hell when a semi-truck slammed into my dad’s car on the freeway. The driver had fallen asleep and it was raining, and… my dad never stood a chance.”
“I’m so sorry,” Sofia whispered, reaching out and rubbing his hand.
Wheelie pressed his lips together. “Shit happens. It fuckin’ sucked, but there we all were—left with a gaping hole in our lives. I thought I’d never feel normal again. I don’t know… maybe I still don’t. I know there are times when I miss the hell outta my old man.” He chuckled as he stared past her with a faraway glaze over his eyes.
“How old was your sister?”
Wheelie snapped his gaze back to her. “Fourteen. She didn’t handle it well at all. She had just started high school, and all the usual rebel shit teenagers do was magnified by our dad’s death. She gave my mom a real hard time.”
“Is your mother still in Denver?”
“Yeah. She remarried about six years ago. Al’s a good guy. He brought the smile back in my mom’s life, so I’m thankful to him for that. She’s doing okay.”
“And your sister? Did she straighten out?” Sofia picked up the vodka cooler and ran her finger down the condensation on the bottle.
“Her husband killed her.” Wheelie looked away.
A sudden coldness hit at her core, and Sofia spread her fingers out in a fan against her breastbone. “Oh, my God! That’s awful. How did it happen? When? Why?” The horror and sadness of what Wheelie had told her left her limbs numb.
“The fucker strangled her ten years ago because he’s a sick sonofabitch.”
“How awful.” She leaned toward him, but he shook his head and she pulled back. “Did he go to prison?”
“Yeah.”
“Tigger never told me about your sister. I had no idea.”
“He wasn’t even prospecting when it happened. Not all the brothers know. I don’t talk about it. No reason to. The brotherhood was there for me all the way.” Sadness tinged his voice, bringing Sofia back to the reality that Wheelie would most likely get kicked out of the club he loved so much.
“What about you? I don’t know shit about your background either. I know you love blueberry and vodka. You’d kill for spareribs. You’re the most genuine woman I’ve ever met. You’re crazy for dancing, Jason Aldean, and good-looking men.” He caught her eye and winked. Sofia playfully swatted him then giggled. “And you’ve totally captivated me for the last six years.” Wheelie reached out and tugged her to him then pressed his lips on hers.
“You’re the best man I’ve ever known. For real.” Sofia blinked rapidly.
He sat back, picked up his beer, and smiled. “So tell me about you before I met you. I bet you were cute as fuck.”
“I was, but my dad made it a point to tell me I wasn’t. You know that my dad beat my mother.”
“Yeah. I know you had it tough, baby. Did you have anyone around to share the misery with?”
“Two brothers. My oldest brother is ten years older than me so he left when I was still young. Once he got out of high school he took off to Denver then got married. He was always nice to me, taking me out for ice cream or to a movie to get away when my dad was drunk or beating on my mom.”
Wheelie jerked his head back. “He didn’t try and protect your mom when he was older—like in high school?”
“No, but that was my mom’s doing. She’d get mad if we interfered or called the cops. She’d tell us to leave it alone.”
“But even so. How the fuck could he just stand by and let your old man beat your mom? And what about your other brother? Why the fuck didn’t they gang up on your dad?” Anger flashed in his eyes.
Sofia’s stomach tightened and she crossed her arms over her chest while shaking her head. “You weren’t there. Don’t judge my brothers. Like I said, my mother would flip out on us if we tried to call the cops. The times we did, she’d be on the phone the next day explaining that she didn’t want to press charges and she needed her husband back. Then she’d take it out on us by blaming us for breaking up the family and all kinds of stupid shit. Sometimes, if my brothers tried to pull my dad off of my mom, he’d get madder and hurt her worse.” Images of her mother’s bruised, swollen, and battered body cowering in the corner of the kitchen pierced her mind and she covered her face with her hands.
