God on a Harley Read online

  It took a lifetime, but finally he was standing in front of me, all flushed and exhilarated from the expression of his music.

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” I asked, feeling a little foolish that I had raved about his music without knowing who he was. What if I had said something unflattering instead?

  “Would it have mattered if you knew who I was?” he asked with a grin. “Besides, it’s nice to get an honest review,” he added before I could answer the question.

  “Well, what if I had said I hated your music?” I said defensively.

  “Not much chance you’d be here if you felt like that,” he answered with a victorious look in his eye.

  “Well, to answer your question,” I said, “no it wouldn’t have mattered either way who you were. I’ve learned to always give honest answers. Life’s much easier that way.”

  He lifted his bottle of mineral water into the air and toasted, “To honesty. How refreshing.” He took a gulp of the cool liquid and smiled down at me, causing me to blush. “I really do like your smile,” he said sweetly. “Something about you just strikes me as so real. I’m very attracted to you.”

  That was it! He’d said the magic word. He was attracted to me. I had attracted him, not approached him. Isn’t that what Joe had tried to tell me that day at lunch? Something about my enlightened and contented soul “attracting” an enlightened man. Now I knew for certain that somehow, some way, Joe was always going to be with me.

  “Listen,” Jim MaGuire was saying over the din, “you want to go for a quick spin on my motorcycle? I still have twenty minutes before my next set.”

  This was too perfect, except that now I knew there was no such thing as too perfect. Everything was just the way it was supposed to be. Jim MaGuire offered me his hand, and I took it, relaxing and letting him lead the way through the crowd and out into the steamy summer night. I didn’t feel like I was relinquishing anything like control or power. It just felt good to allow myself to receive something I never used to allow. I was in control; I always had been. What was different now was that I no longer felt I had to prove it.

  I stood aside fastening the helmet Jim handed me as he started the engine. He pulled out of the parking space, and I expertly climbed on behind him. I wrapped my arms around him as our heads jerked backward and we took off into the magical summer night.

  Life was such an adventure now. So many things had changed, but mostly I had changed, and that had been the catalyst my world had needed. I couldn’t think of a more fitting way to ride into my new life than on the back of a Harley with a man who exposed his soul through a saxophone.

  We pulled up to a red light, and Jim looked over his shoulder at me and smiled. I smiled back and touched the silver chain on the back of his neck. I pulled the thick sterling silver medal around to the back and examined it in the glow of the stoplight. I couldn’t quite make out the image on it, so I leaned closer into him for a better look. It was Joseph of Nazareth.

  And he winked at me.

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  Harley is a registered trademark of Harley-Davidson, Inc. This book is not authorized by or affiliated with Harley-Davidson, Inc.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Atria Books, An imprint of Simon & Schuster Inc.

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  Copyright © 1995 by Joan Brady

  All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.

  For information address Atria Books, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020

  ISBN: 978-0-6715-3622-0

  ISBN: 978-1-5011-2722-9 (eBook)

  First Pocket Books trade paperback printing July 1997

  ATRIA and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster Inc.

  Cover design by Steve Ferlauto

  Front cover illustration by Bela Mandl