Romance: New Adult: One Game at a Time - A College Football Romance (Bad Boy Romance) (Sports Contemporary Short Stories) Read Online Free PDF

Biker
     
    1
     
    Jennifer Walters groaned as her six-year-old son leapt atop her. She was in bed, and after opening one eye and squinting at her alarm clock, she saw it wasn’t even seven in the morning. In fact, it wasn’t even six thirty.
    “What are you doing up so early?” Jennifer asked the little boy. His name was Jaxson, and he had the same blonde hair his mother did though his green eyes were his father's. That man was long gone, out of the picture and out of the state. It was just Jen and Jaxson, together in Arizona, in a small town named Harrisburg. It was dusty and hot, and Jennifer owned a small bar right at the end of the main drag, a place called Chuck’s, the name inherited by the man she had bought it from . Chuck’s was the local biker hang out, and there were plenty of bikers in and around Harrisburg.
    “It’s not early, is it?”
    “Six twenty is pretty early,” Jennifer groaned. “Go back to bed.”
    “I don’t want to; I ’m too excited about school.”
    Jaxson was in first grade, and he loved it. He was bright and was already reading far beyond his level.
    “Why? You go five times a week. How could you be excited?”
    “Today is Chris’ birthday, and he’s bringing in cupcakes,” the little boy said with a huge grin.
    “You got me up so early because you’re excited about cupcakes?”
    “I guess so,” Jaxson said.
    “Do you know how late I worked?”
    “Yeah, you didn't pick me up until two in the morning. I woke up as we were driving home.”
    On nights that Jennifer worked, which was most of them, an older woman named Barbara, who lived down the street, watched Jaxson. After leaving the bar, Jennifer would swing by and pick him up. Being a single mother was tough, but Jennifer wouldn’t have her life any other way. Jaxson’s dad had been an asshole, one of those tough guys Jen always found herself chasing after, and when she had gotten pregnant, he had disappeared. She was better off without him.
    Jennifer’s mother lived across the country and wasn’t able to visit much, and had no money to send to help when Jennifer had needed such a thing.
    Buying Chuck’s had been a big gamble, but it had paid off. Jennifer hadn’t gone to college. She had worked in the dingy bar for a couple of years. And then, when she was twenty-three, Chuck retired and offered the bar to the few employees he had. Jennifer was the only one who expressed interest in buying it. She got a loan, and she did so. She wanted to make a better life for herself, and her son.
    Twenty-three turned into twenty-four, and that gave way to twenty-five, and the bar stayed afloat, and she finally had a monetary cushion. She wasn’t living paycheck to paycheck.
    But she did stay up late, and she was tired, and she felt as though she was missing out on Jaxson, particularly since he was in school until three, and she went to the bar at five, six times a week.
    “Turn on the TV, but keep it low ,” Jennifer groaned as her son cuddled up beside her. He searched for the remote, tossed amongst the blankets on the bed, found it, and turned on the TV that sat on a long dresser against one wall of the bedroom. A blue light flooded the dim room, and Jennifer groaned once more for good measure, before pulling her pillow over her head and going back to sleep.
    When she awoke again, it was because her alarm was going off. Seven twenty, time to get her son ready for school. Cartoons were on the TV, but Jaxson was sleeping beside her.
    “Get up,” she said, nudging her son.
    “I’m tired now,”
    “Mom’s are allowed to sell kids you know.”
    After they had climbed out of bed, she made breakfast and got him dressed. He was at school by eight, and she was back home ten minutes later. She collapsed into bed and went back to sleep.
    Jennifer rose again just after noon. Her cell was ringing. She searched for her shorts; her phone was still in the pocket, and she had taken them off just before getting back in bed. She found