Thorn's Challenge - Brenda Jackson [65]
After he hung up the phone he rejoined her and her mother at the table. Her mother asked what the sheriff had wanted before Tara got the chance to do so. Frank Matthews leaned back in his chair with his gaze locked on his daughter while answering his wife’s question. “It seemed that Deke just issued a special permit.”
Her mother’s brow rose. “What sort of special permit?”
Before her father could respond, the sound of thunder suddenly filled the house. “My God,” Lynn Matthews said, getting up from the table. “That sounds like thunder. I don’t recall the weatherman saying anything about rain this evening.”
Frank Matthews shook his head. “That’s not thunder, Lynn,” he said to his wife while keeping his gaze fixed on his daughter. “Deke issued a special permit for a bunch of bikers to parade peacefully through the streets of Bunnell.”
Lynn Matthews’s features reflected surprise. “Bikers? What on earth for? Bunnell is such a small peaceful town; I can’t imagine such a thing happening.”
A smile touched the corners of Frank Matthews’s lips when he answered. “It appears one of the bikers, the one leading the pack, who also happens to be the winner of yesterday’s championship motorcycle race in Daytona, is headed for our house. It seems he’s coming for our daughter.”
Tara blinked, not sure she had heard her father correctly. “Thorn? He’s coming here?”
Her father nodded. “Yes. It seems he and his band of followers are making their way round the corner as we speak.”
Tara frowned, wondering why Thorn and the other cyclists would be coming here and why her father thought he was coming for her. Before she could voice that question, the roar of cycles nearly shook the house.
She sighed deeply as she stood up from the table. The reason Thorn had come meant absolutely nothing to her. The bottom line was that she didn’t want to see him. “Send him away, Daddy, please. I don’t want to see him.”
Frank gazed lovingly at his daughter. Her heart had been broken once and he didn’t want to see it broken again, but he felt the least Tara should do was to listen to what the young man had to say. He told her as much.
“But there’s nothing he can say to change things. I love him but he doesn’t love me. It’s as simple as that.”
Frank sighed. If that was what his daughter believed then it wasn’t as simple as she thought. According to the sheriff, Thorn Westmoreland was wearing his heart on his sleeve. Frank knew he had to be firm and make Tara face the fact that she might be wrong in her assumption that Thorn didn’t love her.
“All right, Tara, if that’s how you feel, but this is something you should handle. If you want him to go away, then it’s you who should send him away. Tell him that you don’t want to see him anymore. I won’t do it for you.”
Tara met her father’s eyes and nodded. That was fine with her. She would just march outside and tell Thorn what she thought and how she felt. Evidently Dare hadn’t delivered her message. “Very well, I’ll tell him.”
Marching out of the kitchen Tara passed through the living room and snatched open the front door. Stepping outside she stopped dead in her tracks. Motorcycle riders were everywhere. There wasn’t just a bunch of them, there were hundreds, and they were still coming around the corner, causing more excitement in Bunnell than she could ever remember.
It seemed the entire town had come out to witness what was going on. And what made matters worse, Thorn and his group had gotten a police escort straight to her parents’ home. Blue lights were flashing everywhere. She had never seen anything like it.
But what really caught her attention was the man who sat out in front of the pack, straddling the big bike that had come to a stop in front of her parents’ home. She glanced around. In addition to Thorn, his four brothers were on bikes and two of them carried a huge banner extending between their bikes that said Thorn Loves Tara.
Realizing what the banner was proclaiming made tears appear in Tara’s eyes. In a