I finally spy the building that Brianna and Zoey live in and carefully back my bike into a parking spot, with Kyle easing his in beside me. We both cut our engines simultaneously and remove our helmets. I place mine on the small seat behind me, and Kyle hooks his to a handlebar.
With my feet firmly planted on the ground, I twist slightly so I can reach my saddlebags and pull out a bottle of water I have in there. I remove the cap and take several long drinks, then look over at Kyle and hold the bottle out to offer him some.
He shakes his head full of long, shaggy blond hair, which is tamed only by the Harley Davidson bandana he wears over it. “I’m good.”
Finishing the bottle off, I put the empty back in my saddlebag before getting off my bike. I look around the area with a discerning eye and note good security lighting and open-access parking.
“Nice place,” Kyle says as he swings his leg over the bike and stands up with a long stretch.
“Seems like,” I tell him as I look around with interest. “You want to hang for a bit and see Zoey?”
“Yeah,” he grunts as he reaches up and re-tightens the tie on his bandana. “I’ll give my ass a break for a bit before I move on. Besides, I have to take a monster piss.”
I nod in understanding. We may not have a lot of words pass between us, but men seem to be much simpler in our dialogue. Besides, it’s not like I didn’t know Kyle’s plans at this point. We rode together from Wyoming to Raleigh so I could see my daughter, Zoey. She moved here with her mom and my ex-wife, Brianna, about two months ago, and this has been the first opportunity I had to visit.
No doubt, a plane trip would have been easier and taken less time, but right now, I have the luxury of time on my side. I quit my job last week after much thought and deliberation over Zoey and her new home in North Carolina. I can’t fucking stand to be away from her and while Brianna and I share joint physical custody for Zoey back in Wyoming, since Brianna has primary legal custody, she gets to dictate where they live. Bolstered by a very healthy savings account I have diligently added to from every paycheck, as well as the sale of my house in Wyoming, which netted me a pretty penny, I can afford to take some time off and evaluate this area for a potential move to be near my daughter.
Pisses me off because it’s not like Brianna wants to live here. She merely took the first opportunity she could find to leave Wyoming as a means to punish me by taking my daughter away. The thing that sucks is she fully expects me to follow them here. She figures that I won’t stand to be parted from Zoey, and she’d be right about that. But the crazy bitch that she is, she sees this as me following “her” and not following my daughter. Still harboring hope that I’ll get back with her, but that ain’t ever going to happen.
That’s definitely something I’m going to set her straight on during this visit.
When Kyle found out I was heading east, he offered to go with me as he has a sister that lives on the coast of North Carolina in the Outer Banks. He took two weeks off from work, a move that did not go over well with his boss, since that also happened to be the same job that I just quit.
I met Kyle five years ago when I needed to get a new paint job done on my Heritage, which I had bought for a song and a dance on Craig’s List and rebuilt the engine myself. That landed me at Teton Choppers, a custom motorcycle shop offering full engine and bodywork services. Kyle was the manager and the senior man when it came to bodywork. He took one look at my bike and was extremely impressed with the rebuild I had done on the engine. One thing led to another and before you knew it, I was talking to the owner about my experience as a mechanic. Granted, everything I knew about engines came from my work in the motor pool while I was in the Marine Corps, but I found an engine is an engine is an engine. It just sort of makes sense to me and I have a knack for it, but most of all… I just like figuring out how to make things work right.
And because I absolutely hated working on my father’s cattle ranch in Wyoming, I was more than ready to make a move. Much to my dad’s dismay, I started working at Teton Choppers as a mechanic and gave up my legacy as a cattle rancher.
Well, I gave it up temporarily. Whether I can walk away permanently remains to be seen, but that’s another story for another day.
Kyle and I head up to the second floor of Brianna’s building. My nerves hum with anticipation, a mixture of frenzied excitement to see Zoey and anxiety over having to deal with Bri’s shit that I’m sure I’ll be handed in spades.
When we reach the second-floor landing, I immediately see the door to her apartment with a note attached to the front. Warning bells go off inside my head, because nothing is ever easy when it comes to dealing with Brianna.
I stalk up to the door and snatch the paper, which is held in place by a piece of transparent tape.
Tenn,
Change of plans. Kip got discounted tickets to Disney World, and we’re taking Zoey there. We’ll be back next week and you can pick her up then.
Bri
My hand squeezes the paper, curling it into a tight ball within my grasp.
Motherfucking son of a bitch.
“What is it, dude?” Kyle asks from behind me.
I ignore him and pull my phone out of my pocket, stabbing at the screen with my finger until I pull up Brianna’s contact information to dial her. As expected, she doesn’t answer but lets the call go straight to voice mail.
After I listen to her short message, I grit out my own. “This is fucking unacceptable, Brianna. You knew I’d be here today for Zoey, and you had no right to take her. Call me back ASAP.”