by Eden Butler
“Maybe so,” I told my grandfather, “but I’m having a lot of fun figuring it all out.”
“Hungry?” Piper asked Tasso, offering him a sandwich.
“Thank you, yázhí, but I’ll wait.” He pointed over his shoulder, grinning when Lonan called after him.
“He’s bossier than his mama,” she told Tasso, her smile stretching when the old man tipped his hat and moved to the paddock, relieving Alex and his parents of their duties wrangling the crowd of kids vying for their turn at the three ponies moving in slow, ambling trots.
The Warrens looked a little lost among the crowd of three year-olds, but like most grandparents, went goofy anytime Lonan was around them, something I first noticed two weeks after he was born. It had been Evie who had suggested inviting them to the ranch after the kid’s birth and even if Alex wasn’t happy about it, his folks seemed to have given up their demands and expectations.
Now they wore blue jeans and button ups, abandoning their designer shoes for Wranglers and cowboy boots to chase after three-year-olds and let Tasso tell them how to handle ponies. Seeing that was enough to make me believe in miracles.
“You didn’t ask me if I wanted a sandwich,” I said to Piper when she bumped into me, throwing a wink my wave. My wife grinned at me when I nudged her hip, leaning down to steal a kiss. “I might be hungry.”
“Oh, I’m guessing you are, Mr. Mescal.” Piper glanced to the paddock then motioned toward the barn, leaning over to move the tray to the table next to the gate. “But I figured you were hungry for something a little more substantial.”
“Huh. What did you have in mind?”
That smirk, I liked. It had always led to good, golden things.
Today was no exception.
Dusty was a fine horse, stronger than she had been three years ago when I first came back from Stillwater. In that time Piper had worked hard with her, strengthening her legs, working out the sore thigh she’d gotten after a bad show the year before. And now, the beauty took to us easy, especially when we wanted to sneak away from the ranch, sharing the ride between the tall lavender fields that would hide us from the rest of the world.
“This is the farthest she’s ever been,” Piper said, smiling up at me as I tied her horse to a low cropping of trees along the fields from my sister and brother-in-law’s place. “I think she likes it.”
“I think she knows what we’re about to do,” I told her, taking my wife to the ground, softening the fall with my body as I tugged her on top of me.
Piper’s laugh was sweeter than a Dolly song, cut closer to the heart, and I never got tired of hearing it.
“You’re assuming I wanted to come out here for that.”
“Nizhóní, we’re still newlyweds. We’re supposed to sneak away for that. It’s written into our vows.”
She grinned down at me, pushing me onto my back to lower a kiss over my mouth and I took it, breathing her in, still drunk on her and the life we’d built together.
We were free from rumors and gossip.
Free from the lies of people trying to keep us apart.
Erin and Dexter, along with most of the department had been convicted of the embezzlement, racketeering and extortion they’d been charged with. That much hadn’t been a surprise. What had been was the slip Travis had managed to give Slim’s team as they made the transfer to county, and his subsequent foray into arson.
Thinking of that night had me reaching for my neck, rubbing at the scar that ran behind my ear. The movement had my wife pulling back, redirecting her lips to the raised skin there.
“That rat bastard,” she said, kissing her way along the angry mark that started at the back of my neck and dipped under my shirt.
“He got his, baby,” I told her, taking her face between my hands.
Travis had paid Red well, that much I could say for the asshole. It had bought him what little loyalty Red could muster. Enough that the bastard had gotten Travis out of the transport van bringing them all to county and into the car Red had waiting for him behind Lipton’s Mercantile.
“Half a million in damages,” Piper said, sitting up, her legs straddled over me and a scowl over her pretty features.
“Half a mill that insurance covered and that you’ve almost recouped and recovered. We’re good now, right?” She nodded, but the anger was still there, and I hated that for her. “Hey, come on now, baby. We talked about this.”
At length. Until we were exhausted. Piper was loyal. It was something she expected from the people she counted on. Sam hadn’t just betrayed her. He hadn’t just set me up and ran drugs out of her B&B. He’d escaped justice, or at least tried to, and then burned down her business because he was a petty, spiteful man.
She reached a hand toward my neck, rubbing a finger over the scar there, and I grabbed her wrist, kissing her palm to distract her.
“You know, it’s a year already, wife.” I never got tired of the dimple that deepened her cheek anytime I called her that. Piper liked being married. She’d told me as much. Seemed to wear my family name with pride, and I had to say I didn’t hate that.
“It’s over a year.”
She had to know where I was going, and it had nothing to do with putting Sam Travis out of her head. God knew that asshole was paying for the damage he’d done to our lives with his freedom—thirty years of it. Plus the twenty-five to life he was likely to get for his part when Red went to trial for Maddox’s murder. At least, that was what our new sheriff, Slim Farlow was thinking would happen.
The agent had shocked everyone in the Clement County Special Investigations Unit when he had stepped down from his undercover work and run for sheriff in the sleepy town of Midland. He claimed he wanted a slower pace and a calmer life that didn’t involve sting operations. Piper, though, guessed Slim’s real motivation came from the attention her receptionist Eliza had given him while we’d worked on the B&B and kept giving him long after his assignment was over.
“And,” I tried again, pulling her closer, resting my hands on her hips, “you remember the promise you made me?”
“Hmm…” Piper tilted her head, brushing her index finger to her chin. “Refresh my memory. I’m getting old. It’s hard to keep track with—hey!”
The yelp that left her mouth was deeper than a squeal, higher than a moan, but died on her lips when I flipped our position and pinned her to the ground, fitting on top of her, pulling her leg over my hip.
“Our wedding night. I reminded you that I’m not getting any younger.”
“Did you?” she said, teasing me with that grin.
“And…” I pulled that leg farther up my hip, “you asked for a year before we could get busy with…”
“Catching up to Evie and Alex?”
“If Tasso has his way, Lonan will be riding bareback, backward with no boots before he’s five. That’s an unfair head start for any of our kids…”
Piper blinked, shooting her eyebrows up. “Kids? As in more than one?”
“Oh yeah, baby. I’m guessing, what? Three? Four?”
Her laugh was sweeter this time, but it didn’t remind me of Dolly’s songs. “You gonna stay home and raise them?”
“If you want me to,” I said, being honest and the truth seemed to give her pause. Piper let her smile lower, and she reached for me, rubbing her fingers across my face.
“Eddie…”
“Whatever you need, baby, that’s what I’ll give you.”
“I just want you…” She pulled me down, kissing me once, “and me,” another kiss, this one longer, deeper before she reached for my hand, moving it to rest against her stomach, “and whoever this one will be.”
The breath in my lungs froze as realization rearranged itself in my head. Piper held her hand over mine, kept my fingers rested there as she waited for me to understand what she tried to say, that beautiful smile easy, those eyes getting wetter the longer I watched her.
Then, like the gates being flung open, like the darkest, dimmest room being
flooded with light, I finally understood.
“Piper…are you saying…”
“I am,” she said, kissing my mouth. “Eddie…we’re going to have a baby.”
They took my freedom. They took my name. They tried to take my soul.
It lay hidden for a long time. It had been dimmed by shadows so many people tried to cast in front of it, but Piper brightened it back up. And now, all these years later, she gave me back the things I believed could never be mine again. Freedom. Hope. Love. Family. I’d spend the rest of my life holding tight to each of them.
- The End -
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THIN LOVE
Want to read more from Eden Butler?
Check out her Amazon best-seller, THIN LOVE. With thousands of 5-star GoodRead ratings, this second-chance romance will leave you breathless.
Love isn’t supposed to be an addiction.
It isn’t supposed to leave you bleeding.
Kona pushed, Keira pulled, and in their wake, they left behind destruction.
She sacrificed everything for him.
It wasn’t enough. But the wounds of the past can never be completely forgotten and still the flame remains, slumbers between the pleasure of yesterday and the thought of what might have been.
Now, sixteen years later, Keira returns home to bury the mother who betrayed her, just as Kona tries to hold onto what remains of his NFL career with the New Orleans Steamers. Across the crowded bustle of a busy French Market, their paths collide, conjuring forgotten memories of a consuming touch, skin on skin, and the still smoldering fire that begs to be rekindled.
When Kona realizes the trifecta of betrayal—his, Keira’s and those lies told to keep them apart—his life is irrevocably changed and he once again takes Keira down with him into the fire that threatens to ignite them both.
My immense gratitude goes out to Heather Weston-Confer, my always-first reader for never failing to pinpoint every issue in each manuscript and hone each plot and structure into something resembling a decent story. I love you, my friend!
Thanks so much to the immensely patient Vi Keeland and Penelope Ward for allowing me to play in their world. Thanks as always to Chelle Bliss, my friend and ride-or-die for always having my back and supporting me so fiercely.
My eternal appreciation to Mary Cain, my wonderful editor who waited and waited and waited even more while I wrote this book through a pandemic and many deadline extensions. You are amazing.
Thank you so much to Kathryn Tate, Luna Joya, and Marie Anderson-Simmons for your incredible copy edits. You made things so much clearer and concise and I am so humbled by your encouragement and support. I love you all!
Thank you to the wonderful Dani Sanchez, my marketing guru and to Koriee Noelle and especially to Andrea LeBeau for your careful sensitivity read.
Thank you to Lori Jackson for your beautiful art and unflappable patience when I needed more tweaks and more changes. Immense gratitude goes out to Stacey Blake with Champagne Formats for her patience when I had to reschedule again and again. Your work is worth waiting for.
Thank you to my wonderful family Chris, Chelsey, Trin, Faith, Grace and Jax for all their love and support, to my Sweet Team, betas, and Corporate Hell sisters Marie, Barbara, Sherry, Kalpana and Sarah for always supporting me and giving me constant encouragement.
Finally, to the Navajo people and my indigenous friends and family who have been a source of friendship and companionship my entire life, especially Nina Martinez, my sister and friend: thank you for the beautiful lessons you have taught me, for the legacy of your culture and the importance of sharing the reality of your lives with others. I will forever be changed by your influence on my life and humbled by your friendship.
Indigenous women are murdered at a rate ten times higher than any other race in the United States and they make up nearly a quarter of trafficked victims in America’s sex trade. In 2016 alone there were over 5,700 known cases of murdered and missing indigenous women, many who are often killed by non-native people on native lands (Source).
Learn about and support the Murdered & Missing Indigenous Women movement at their website. Donate here.
Don’t forget to do your part to support Indigenous business and creators!
FROM CITY OWL PRESS / PARANORMAL & FANTASY ROMANCE
Infinite Us
CRIMSON COVE SERIES
Forgotten Magic
Love and Magic (Forthcoming, 2021)
Haunted Magic (Forthcoming, 2021)
INDEPENDENT TITLES / CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE
THE SERENITY SERIES
Chasing Serenity
Behind the Pitch
Finding Serenity
Claiming Serenity
Catching Serenity
THE THIN LOVE SERIES
Thin Love
My Beloved
Thick Love
Thick & Thin
My Always
SAINTS & SINNERS SERIES
The Last Love of Luka Hale
Roughing the Kicker
Offsides
GOD OF ROCK SERIES
Kneel
Beg
THE CARELLI FAMILY SAGA
Smoke
Dario (Forthcoming, 2021)
Dante (Forthcoming)
Toni (Forthcoming)
STANDALONES
I’ve Seen You Naked and Didn’t Laugh
Platform Four
Fall
COLLABORATIONS
Nailed Down, Nailed Down Book One, with Chelle Bliss
Tied Down, Nailed Down Book Two, with Chelle Bliss
Kneel Down, Nailed Down Book Three, with Chelle Bliss
Stripped, Nailed Down Book Four, with Chelle Bliss
Santa, Baby, A Carelli Family Christmas Novella with Chelle Bliss
Eden Butler is a writer of contemporary, fantasy and romantic suspense novels and the nine-times great-granddaughter of an honest-to-God English pirate. This could explain her affinity for rule breaking and rum.
When she’s not writing or wondering about her possibly Jack Sparrowesque ancestor, Eden patiently waits for her Hogwarts letter, reads, and spends too much time in her garden perfecting her green thumb while waiting for the next New Orleans Saints Super Bowl win.
She is currently living under teenage rule alongside her husband in southeast Louisiana.
Please send help.
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Find out more about Eden’s books on her site www.edenbutler.com
