Peace. That was the feeling.
The peace wasn’t only for him…it was also for his mother. She was at peace, he could feel it. Maybe now her spirit could fly away toward what it longed for the most, the ocean, the home of her heart.
“Ready to go?” he asked Nicole.
She nodded and rested her head against his shoulder. With one last lingering look at the forest that had nearly claimed her, he took her crutches and tossed them into the car. Gently, he helped her into the passenger seat.
Together, so filled with happiness that they needed no more words, they drove back up the mountain, home to Rocky Peak.
Epilogue
Griffin
“Excuse me. Hi. Hello?” The husky female voice brought Griffin to immediate attention. How long had the waitress been talking to him? And how had he missed her, with that dark red hair and tiny diamond in her nose? Unusual look for a casual pub like the Last Chance in a tiny town like Rocky Peak.
“Sorry. I’ll have a beer.”
“Think you maybe want to narrow it down a little?” She swept her hand to indicate the wide array of options lined up on the shelf behind the bar. It was his brother’s bar, but Jake was in the back, apparently, and this unhappy waitress was stuck with him instead.
“Whatever has the highest profit margin,” he told her.
She gave him a look that had him scratching his head. Something was missing from that look. What was it? Oh yeah. Interest. He’d been semi-famous enough, for long enough, that he saw it in most women he met.
Not this one.
“Do I look like an accountant? I mean, I could be. I’m great at math, which is why I know that you’ve been taking up a stool for at least eight dollars worth of drinking time, if it was beer, and fifteen if it was the hard stuff. But I’m not an accountant. I’m just a waitress, standing in front of a customer, asking what kind of beer he wants.”
Cute. A Notting Hill reference. Come to think of it, he did get a bit of a Julia Roberts vibe from her. Not from the Pretty Woman era, but more like Erin Brockovich, with that attitude.
“I really don’t care. In fact, screw the beer. Just bring me a glass of water.”
“Care to know the profit margin of water?” she asked dryly as she stuck a pencil behind her ear.
He pulled out a fifty dollar bill and set it on the counter. “Make it nice and cold. Good old Rocky Peak well water, if you can manage it.” He flashed his dimple at her, the one that always did the trick when his almost-celebrity didn’t.
Not with her.
“Fifty dollars for a glass of water?” She sniffed in disapproval. “You’re either trying to show off, or you’re really bad at managing your money.”
“I thought you weren’t an accountant,” he shot back.
Finally, finally, he got an unwilling smile from her—just enough to make him want to see the real deal. “Alrighty then. One glass of our finest Rocky Peak well water, drawn from the depths of a mountain aquifer, half a degree warmer than a glacier, coming up. We keep the good stuff in the back. You don’t want it running through the soda fountain. Be right back.”
He watched her go, appreciating everything about her—full figure, sassy walk, that red hair. What was a bombshell like her doing in a tiny mountain town like this? Had she been here all along? Nah, that was impossible. He would have noticed someone like her working in his brother’s bar.
“Griff. Griff!”
Damn, it had happened again. It kept happening. Sounds, missing. That was why he needed to be here, not on a race course. “Jakey.”
He stood up and hugged his brother hard. He saw Jake pretty often, but this was different. He was home and he was planning to stay, at least for a while.
“Great to see you, man,” said his younger brother. “You were on my TV the last time I saw you. Nice race.”
“Thanks.” That race was nothing but a nightmare memory to him. “Any chance Kai’s around? I gotta meet this girl of his.”
“He’s up at the lodge, but she’s more than just his girl, dude. They’re planning a damn wedding.”
“Shit. That was quick.”
“Not really. Not when you see them. They’re about as perfect as it gets. What can I get you?”
“Oh, the waitress—”
“Nope. Anything but her.”
“What?”
His brother’s eyes had gone hard with warning. “Just saying. None of your usual roguish charm around Serena.”
“Serena? That’s her name?” He didn’t pick up much “serenity” from her, to be honest.
“So she says.”
Okay, this was definitely getting interesting. Was there more to the waitress’s story? He shook it off, since sassy redheads weren’t part of his agenda here.
“I’m not here to scam on your waitresses, Jake. Don’t you worry your pretty head.” He ruffled his brother’s hair, which he could get away with—barely—since he’d been doing it all his life. At thirty, he was two years older than the twins, Jake and Isabelle. He’d always envied them their closeness, even though Isabelle was flitting around the world about as fast he rode around a race course.
Jake let out a tired sigh and sat down on the stool next to him. It was past closing, at least two in the morning, and he realized he was an ass for keeping that poor waitress up so long. He’d never had a good sense of time, except for the micro-seconds measured around a course.
“Why are you back, Griff? You just won a big-time race. Shouldn’t you be out there racking up more wins?”
Griffin hesitated. He’d planned to tell everyone at once. But of all the members of his family, Jake was the best when it came to listening. So maybe this was the perfect moment to drop his bombshell. “I’m quitting.”
“Quitting what?”
“Racing.”
“What?”
Jake was so shocked that he reared back on the stool, not realizing that Serena had stepped next to him with a tumbler filled with water. Everything happened in slow motion after that, the way it did sometimes during a sweet ride. The glass arced through the air. Water cascaded onto Serena’s white blouse. Griffin reached out one casual hand and snagged the tumbler out of the air. He even managed to catch some of the water inside it.
As the other two stared, he took a sip. “Ah, now that’s what I’m talking about. Sweet Rocky Peak nectar of the gods.”
Serena looked at Jake in utter confusion as she brushed water off her blouse. “Serena, this is my brother Griffin,” he said. “He, uh, has very quick reflexes.”
From her suddenly wary expression, she’d heard all about Griffin Rockwell, playboy motocross racer. And wanted nothing to do with him. “Here’s your change,” she said, handing him back the fifty.
He took it and left it on the bar. “For your dry cleaning.”
“We don’t have a dry cleaners in Rocky Peak.”
“Then this will cover the gas to get to a dry cleaners. Jesus, is she always like this?” He turned to Jake, who was getting that “stay away from my waitress” look again.
“She’s right here,” said Serena, “and she can confirm that yes, she’s always like this. Keep your money, big spender. It’s a glass of water.” She glanced at Jake. “Am I done, boss? I need to change.” She shivered as she unstuck the wet fabric from her skin.
“Yup, I got it from here. Sorry to drench you like that.”
She turned on her heel without so much as another frown in Griffin’s direction. His fifty dollar bill sat on the counter, and suddenly he was acutely embarrassed by it. She was right; he had been showing off.
“You know, things went much better with the ladies back when I was a pro racer,” he said lightly.
“I’ve heard the stories. I’m sure Serena has too. Don’t worry, you’ll have no trouble. You’re the biggest almost-celeb we have around here. The girls will be ten thick at the bar. So are you going to tell me what’s going on or what?”
Griffin nodded slowly, his thoughts still wit
h Serena the waitress and how very unimpressed she was with him. “Yeah, but let’s wait until everyone’s together. You coming up to the lodge in the next couple of days?”
“Wasn’t planning on it, but now I will. I want to see Kai’s face when he sees you. Did he know you were coming?”
“I didn’t even know. I got the itch and hit the road.”
“Same old Griff, huh?”
Griffin didn’t say anything, because the answer to that was a big fat “no.” He wasn’t the same old Griff, and he never would be again.
Out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of Serena, now in jeans and a thick red wool jacket, slipping out the front door into a swirl of early snow.
He definitely wasn’t the same old Griff, because that guy would have already moved on. But this guy—the Griffin Rockwell of right now, wounded, retired, and scared shitless—wasn’t going anywhere.
He needed to be home. He knew that much. What he didn’t know was if “home” could handle his return—and everything that was about to come with it.
He shrugged on his jacket, waved goodbye to Jake, and headed into the night.
* * *
The Rockwell Legacy continues with THE ROGUE, coming this fall.
* * *
Thank you so much for reading! Want to be the first to hear about new books, sales, and exclusive giveaways? Join Jennifer’s mailing list and receive a free story as a welcome gift.
About the Author
Jennifer Bernard is a USA Today bestselling author of contemporary romance. Her books have been called “an irresistible reading experience” full of “quick wit and sizzling love scenes.” A graduate of Harvard and former news promo producer, she left big city life in Los Angeles for true love in Alaska, where she now lives with her husband and stepdaughters. She still hasn’t adjusted to the cold, so most often she can be found cuddling with her laptop and a cup of tea. No stranger to book success, she also writes erotic novellas under a naughty secret name that she’s happy to share with the curious. You can learn more about Jennifer and her books at JenniferBernard.net. Make sure to sign up for her newsletter for new releases, fresh exclusive content, sales alerts and giveaways.
Connect with Jennifer online:
JenniferBernard.net
[email protected]
Also by Jennifer Bernard
Jupiter Point ~ Firefighters
Set the Night on Fire ~ Book 1
* * *
Burn So Bright ~ Book 2
Into the Flames ~ Book 3
Setting Off Sparks ~ Book 4
Jupiter Point ~ The Knight Brothers
Hot Pursuit ~ Book 5
Coming In Hot ~ Book 6
Hot and Bothered ~ Book 7
Too Hot to Handle ~ Book 8
One Hot Night ~ Book 9
* * *
Seeing Stars ~ Series Prequel
The Bachelor Firemen of San Gabriel
The Fireman Who Loved Me
Hot for Fireman
Sex and the Single Fireman
How to Tame a Wild Fireman
Four Weddings and a Fireman
The Night Belongs to Fireman
Novellas
One Fine Fireman
Desperately Seeking Fireman
It’s a Wonderful Fireman
Love Between the Bases
All of Me
Caught By You
Getting Wound Up (crossover with Sapphire Falls)
Drive You Wild
Crushing It
Double Play
* * *
Novellas
Finding Chris Evans
Forgetting Jack Cooper
Copyright © 2018 by Jennifer Bernard
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Created with Vellum
The Rebel Page 23
