The biker froze for a second.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That word\u2014Grandpa<\/em>\u2014hit something deep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He slowly lowered his hand from her back, staring at the little girl like he was trying to place a memory he had buried long ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhat did you just say?\u201d he asked quietly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The girl hugged him tighter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMy grandpa used to pick me up when I cried\u2026 just like you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The mother stood there, unsure whether to pull her away or thank him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The biker looked away for a moment, jaw tightening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then he exhaled slowly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cKid\u2026 I\u2019m not your grandpa.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The girl pulled back slightly, still holding the ice cream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But then she nodded like she understood something bigger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI know,\u201d she said softly. \u201cBut you feel like him.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Silence fell between them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The biker stood up slowly, dusting his vest, trying to hide the emotion in his face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then he glanced at the melted cone on the ground, then at the fresh one in her hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cDon\u2019t drop it again,\u201d he said gruffly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The girl smiled through her tears.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI won\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n As he turned to leave, the mother quietly spoke.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThank you\u2026 for not walking past.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The biker didn\u2019t stop walking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But he raised a hand slightly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And for the first time that day\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n he didn\u2019t look scary at all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The biker froze for a second. That word\u2014Grandpa\u2014hit something deep. He slowly lowered his hand from her back, staring at the little girl like he was trying to place a memory he had buried long ago. \u201cWhat did you just say?\u201d he asked quietly. The girl hugged him tighter. \u201cMy grandpa used to pick me […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":5396,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5394\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}