Lily’s boyfriend approached and Winter watched him hand her a drink. Lily looked at him with a grateful smile. Winter’s heart lurched at the emotion evident in Charles eyes. He had always loved the girl, and everyone in town knew it. Winter had experience being around hormone crazy young adults and knew when the chemistry was there. With them it wasn’t. Something was missing and it was missing on Lily’s part. The passion was plainly visible in Charles’ face and body language; Lily treated him like a friend. They had dated since high school and now that Lily was in college, she didn’t see them together as often. It hurt Winter to see someone make her own mistake of caring for someone who would never return their feelings. She had a feeling Charles would one day learn his own painful lesson.

Lily handed Charles the cup and as he took it, he reached out to place his arm around her shoulders and pulled her closer to his side. The two with the baby between them gave a false image of a small happy family. Winter could almost imagine them one day looking just as they did now, with their own family.

A sudden movement from across the yard where the Last Riders were standing drew Winter’s attention. The guy with all the tattoos was flipping out. He was headed towards Lily with an expression of lethal intent and it was focused on Charles. Charles had never been in a physical altercation in his life.

Razer tried to hold him back and Winter gasped as he was punched in the face. Viper moved forward and tattoo guy’s boot flew out and nailed him in the balls. Winter fell in love. She was unable to keep the smirk from her lips as Viper lay on the ground in a crumbled mess. Two of the other bikers ran forward to stop him and were promptly smashed together. They were just infuriating him even more. Winter looked for Beth and not seeing her, knew she was going to have to take charge.

“Charles, I left a couple bags of clothes in my car for the rummage sale. Could you get them and take them to Pastor Dean’s office for me?”

“No problem. I’ll be right back,” Charles told Lily before moving towards the parking lot.

Lily went back to playing with the kids while Winter wasn’t able to stop herself from looking back at the Last Riders. The four men who were holding tattoo guy released him and quickly backed away. Winter felt the questioning gazes of the group on her, wondering why she had interfered and truthfully, Winter didn’t know. Giving them her back, she began rounding the children up to play horseshoes.

The game was fun and the excited pleasure from the children made Winter forget that Viper was nearby.

“The little hellions are going to wear us out,” Winter said, out of breath.

Lily laughed. “I know.”

The sound of an argument was drawing the attention of those close by to Carmen and her boyfriend. He had her pinned against the tree with his hand at her throat. Winter moved forward, but remembered the baby on her hip. Motioning for Emily, who had seen her signal and was hurrying towards her, Winter was unable to believe what was happening before her eyes. A metal horseshoe was flying across the yard, striking Jake in the back. Surprised into releasing Carmen, he turned to see Lily glaring in his face.

“Don’t touch her,” the girl hissed. Winter couldn’t believe it was Lily standing up to the young man. There she stood with the baby on her hip, demanding that he didn’t lay a hand on a cringing Carmen. Quickly, Winter passed the baby to Emily and hurried to Lily’s side.

“What business is it of yours?” Jake tried to intimidate the young girl.

“I am making it my business. You were hurting her,” Lily replied.

“Perhaps Jake, you could take a breather until you calm down,” Winter interrupted, using her authoritative principal voice.

“You two cunts need to back off.”

Winter stiffened. Jake had dropped out of school last year. She had done everything she could to persuade him not to leave school. He had a hostile attitude then and now it was even worse. She was smart enough to know that there were situations better left for someone else to handle and this was definitely one of them. The problem was extracting Carmen and Lily from the volatile situation safely.

“We can do that. Lily and I were just going to get the kids a drink and we could use some help. Carmen would you mind?”

“She isn’t going anywhere. We’re leaving.” Jerking Carmen to his side, he shoved Winter out of his way. Almost losing her balance, she felt an arm go around her waist, holding her steady until she was able to regain her balance. Jake and the women found themselves surrounded by the Last Riders.

Stiffening, Winter didn’t need to turn around to see who was behind her.

“That was a mistake,” Viper said at her back. Winter quickly moved away from him, finding a place to stand to the side of the group.

“You need to let the girl go and take a walk with me.” The cold voice of tattoo guy drew everyone’s eyes as he stood directly in front of Lily, blocking her from view.

“What’s going on?” Pastor Dean hurried toward the group with Beth at his side. She immediately went to her sister, while thankfully Dan and Jenny came to retrieve their baby from Lily. They had drawn a crowd around the couple, preventing Jake from leaving with a frightened Carmen.

Winter moved forward, taking Carmen’s hand in hers, tugging her away from Jake. For a second he looked like he was going to explode, but even as furious as he was, Jake knew he was outnumbered. Gratefully, Carmen let herself be led away from her boyfriend. Winter left the Last Riders to handle Jake.

“Can I get you a drink?” She asked Carmen.

“Yes, please.” Winter went to the cooler and took a soda, placing it before Carmen as she sat down next to her.

“Are you alright?”

“Yes, it’s not the first time Jake has lost his temper with me. He will cool down and apologize,” Carmen excused her boyfriend’s behavior.

“Of course he will honey, but Carmen he shouldn’t be laying his hands on you when he’s angry.”

“He doesn’t mean anything,” Carmen argued.

“Carmen, he could hurt you. Does he lose his temper often?” The girl instantly became guarded. Winter took that as a definite yes.

“He was just mad because he caught me staring at those bikers, he was jealous.”

“It doesn’t matter what the reason was, he doesn’t have the right to hurt you.”

“Look Ms. Simmons, Jake was just angry at me for doing something I shouldn’t be doing. I made a mistake. Where is he?”

Winter saw her trying to find him in the crowd, but she wanted to get Carmen out of there before he returned. She didn’t have as much faith as Carmen that his temper had calmed down.

“Why don’t I take you home and he can call you later?” The girl did not want to leave, but Winter ushered Carmen to her car despite her protests of leaving Jake behind. She only lived a block away from her, so she was able to reach the small house without asking for directions.

Following her to the door of her house, she could tell Carmen just wanted her to leave. “Are your parents home?” Winter asked.

The girl thought about lying. All the years of experience of dealing with teenagers enabled Winter to push the doorbell with confidence that her parents were home.

“I was going to go in,” Carmen lied.

Before Winter could answer, Carmen’s mother answered the door.