Once Burned by Suzie O'Connell

driveway.
    Henry pulled the leather jacket out and handed it to her, then the helmet.
    “Melanie’s?” Lindsay asked.
    “The jacket was Mom’s, and the helmet is a spare.”
    “Mel never rode with you?”
    “Nope.”
    “She doesn’t like motorcycles?”
    “She likes them well enough. We just never took my old bike out. Then again, I think we only came up here four times when we were together, and two of those trips were over Christmas, which is not a good time to ride Harleys around here.”
    “I imagine not.”
    Once Lindsay had pulled on the jacket, which fit perfectly, and secured her helmet, she climbed on the motorcycle behind Henry and waved one last time to Evie. Her cherubic friend returned the gesture with a broad grin.
    “Any instructions, boss?” Lindsay asked.
    “Hold on to me, try to stay relaxed, and lean with me. Other than that, it’s pretty easy, so enjoy the ride.”
    She tucked her legs in behind his with her feet resting on the back pegs and wrapped her arms loosely around his waist. He started the bike and drove slowly down the Carlyles’ driveway to the main road through the valley. After waiting for Ben and June Conner to drive by on their way to the Ramshorn for work, he pulled onto the road, following them north on the Northstar Mountains Scenic Byway. The Conners stuck their hands out their windows and waved as Henry and Lindsay continued around the bend past the Ramshorn’s driveway. Lindsay said something, but Henry couldn’t hear it over the Harley’s engine.
    “What was that?” he called back to her.
    “I like it here!” she yelled. “Everyone’s so friendly!”
    “Yeah, they are!”
    The road snaked up through dense lodgepole pine and Douglas fir forest with occasional glimpses of the towering peaks of the Northstar Mountains until just after it crested the pass between the Northstar and Crystal Valleys. Then, the landscape opened up into lush alpine meadows still dotted with wildflowers even this late in the summer. To the east, the more rugged northern peaks stood proud against a deep blue sky brushed with long streamers of cirrus clouds. On the other side of the Crystal Valley, the road twisted around two sharp switchbacks on its way down into the Wise River Valley, and Lindsay asked if they could take a detour to see the Coolidge ghost town. He pulled off the scenic byway on the road to the ghost town but turned the bike back toward the main road rather than up to Coolidge.
    “It’s five miles up a gravel road to the trailhead, and another three-quarters of a mile to the ghost town on foot,” he told her. “I don’t want to take the bike up there, but how about we plan a trip up there the next time you’re in Northstar to visit Evie?”
    “I don’t know when that’ll happen, but I’d love that if you wouldn’t mind playing tour guide to me again.”
    “I would love to. You’re great company, and besides, playing tour guide to you is helping me reconnect with my home. I’d forgotten just how much I love this place.”
    She briefly wrapped her arms higher around him, and he captured her hands and held them against his chest in silent gratitude for her presence. Without his deal with her, he wasn’t sure if he would have bothered to take the time to visit all the places and do the things that made Northstar home. Most likely, he would have plunged into work on the ranch and gone on as the rope in the game of tug-of-war between his wanderlust and his soul-deep appreciation of this place.
    Always at odds, he mused. But not when I’m with Lindsay .
    If he let himself think about it for more than a moment, the realization that she somehow satisfied his desire for adventure and simultaneously provided contentment might have terrified him. So he didn’t let himself think about it and instead concentrated on keeping his Harley rubber-side down on the winding mountain highway. They spotted several whitetail and mule deer, a large coyote, a moose, and three cow