Claimed by the Biker Giant (Maxine and Tank) novel Chapter 234

Storm POV

Cloe’s head was moving from side to side, up and down, as she took in all that was around us. I thought her eyes were going to pop out when Uncle Simon landed in the chopper, and Mum explained that the chopper belonged to Uncle Simon, but we owned some and a little bit more about our family, nothing too much, how we help out with the community. Too soon to give her too much information; she needs to get better before we reveal who we are. Mind you, when Great-grams visits, that will reveal a lot, hopefully by then Cloe will be more settled. Don’t want to scare her away because of our wealth. I know she’s not a money grabber; I already picked that when she admitted she hated shopping.

Here we are, in the office. I had opened my assignment, reading the questions I needed to answer two or three times over, and it was not sinking in, but my eyes kept moving to Cloe, watching her fingers deftly fly over the keyboard at an insane speed. Think that’s faster than even Mum, and Mum’s very quick. Guess Cloe didn’t need my help. In a way that hurt, but I get it, it’s the area of her study, Computers, so it might look odd needing help when you should already know how to do it.

“Storm, there are more than one printer listed in this house, which one is the one over there? I can’t tell from here.” I looked over at the printer; it had been a long time since I needed to check that out.

“The third one on the list, a brother one.”

“Got it, thank you.” Mum arrived with tea for Cloe and a decaf coffee for me, along with two blueberry muffins.

“All good? Need anything else?” Mum asked, looking at Cloe.

“No, thank you, I have all I need, have logged into my studies, with no trouble, you have fast internet here, it makes what I need to do quicker and easier.” Cloe was smiling at Mum, a real smile.

“Good, call out if you need anything. Storm you good?” I didn’t expect Mum to ask me.

“Yep, thanks, Mum.” I would rather be sitting somewhere getting to know Cloe better, but I guess this was good too.

Two hours later, I am rereading what I had done, having completed two modules in two weeks, that’s one a week, at this rate, I did a lot while sitting in the hospital, and for some reason, all this was at last starting to make sense. Uncle Simon had said it would eventually make sense; I guess I have reached that stage. It feels good, and at this rate, I will have the final four done and dusted in a couple of months.

“Storm.” I looked up at Cloe after pushing send and saving what I had done. Good timing, I am done, not interested in trying to start the next module.

“Have had enough for today, can you get my chair, need the bathroom, and a break?” Cloe admitted, not looking up from her computer.

“Sure thing, Babe.” I shut down my computer, grabbed the wheelchair, waited beside the desk as Cloe closed the computer, and turned to look at me, her smile was bright, and Cloe looked so much better than a few hours ago, Mum’s tea must have worked a treat, she has a number of remedy teas, some taste terrible, but most don’t and they work. Cloe’s face color was better, a soft pink glow, and her eyes sparkled again.

Cloe raised her arms, like a child wanting to be picked up, her face innocently looking up at me. I chuckled as I scooped her up into my arms, kissed her cheek, and lowered her carefully into the chair, mindful of her stumps and the recent accident. I will never forget seeing her damaged legs; both times were horrific, but that second time was worse, because it was preventable, and I failed her. Cloe used the facility, as I waited outside, with the promise to call me if she needed help.

We made our way to the kitchen.

“I will start the dinner preparation now, some will be fine to finish off later, some we can cook now, and reheat. Want to help?”

“Of course, we are a team, we rock in the kitchen.” I joked, turned on the radio, keeping the sound low, as it belted out some tunes while we worked.

“You can get out the chicken breasts and drumsticks, and I will look in the pantry for makings,” Cloe instructed and wheeled herself away, I am so glad this place was built with wide walls and lots of space to move around. Having Cloe here had got me thinking whoever built the house had mobility in the head, or liked lots of space.

I followed her instructions: slicing up the chicken while she made a crumb mixture and crumbed the drumsticks; then cutting up the vegetables and putting them in a roasting pan, and sprinkling something over them. I was getting hungry watching her work.

Suddenly, she started singing out loud to a rock song; she has a great voice. I turned the music up a little and danced around her, singing along as we worked and nibbled on food for lunch. The song finished, and clapping came from the kitchen doorway.

I turned and bowed. Mum, Dad, Uncle Simon, and Tandy, whom I wasn’t expecting today, were at the door, big grins on their faces.

“That was quite a show I’d pay to watch.” Tandy chirped out with his cheeky grin.

Dad went back to chuckling as he grabbed some plates and took them out. Mum did the same, and I followed with more. I did two more trips back to the kitchen before all the food was on the table, and Cloe was seated on my lap.

“This looks restaurant-made,” Penny said, as she filled her plate with a bit of everything, and tentatively took a bite.

“Wow, you sure you made this here?” She squawked out, with a mouthful of food.

“Penny, manners.” Dad barked as we all tucked in, compliments flying, hardly believing this food had been made here, better than our cooks.

“Hey, you cooked, no need to clean up or do dishes tonight,” Mum said as Cloe started to stack dishes. Every plate was empty.

“You can do that again anytime.” Razor, praised, rubbing his full belly.

“I have to admit you did better than our local restaurant, which we get our takeaways from,” Tandy added, wiping his mouth and sitting back, with a satisfied look on his face.

“Did you get lessons, Cloe?” Mum asked softly, asking the question that was on most of their lips. I already knew the answer, but I waited for her to say something.

“No, I was the cook, cleaner, and general fix-it person in the house, and had to learn to cook. reasonably well.” Cloe’s voice was sad as she spoke, but cheered up when she was praised some more, and told it was her turn to pick a movie, since she had cooked.

“Do you have the ‘Dirty Harry’ movies? Anyone would do.” That settled it, tonight was a ‘Dirty Harry’ night, we had the whole series.