Another mistake was to talk to Lydia about her sex life—or lack thereof.
“It’s only been two weeks.”
“He’s nine days past Cosmo’s three-date requirement.”
“He’s cautious. I respect that.” Remembering back to that day at the liquor mart and that girl Mel, Sage didn’t get the impression that Cannon used caution with regularity. What made Sage different? “If I’m giving this place a try, I have to take my time. Make smart decisions. He does, too. It’s not like there’s an abundance of single men or women living here. We have to be picky and prudent.”
“I can’t imagine living there.” In the background, the hospital intercom paged someone. “I’ve got to go. I love you.”
“Love you, too.” Sage looked over the rail at Otis, who chased a bird into the water. It reminded her she needed to bring her winged creature out on the deck for its daily dose of fresh air.
When she returned from her room to the rail, she opened the box. The bandage had fallen off days ago. The bird hopped to the edge, like it did every day. It spread its wings and flapped. Each day, it grew stronger. It would exercise and then sink back into the fresh towel Sage had folded at the bottom of the box.
Today, it flapped and stopped. Flapped and stopped. Sage leaned on the handrail that held the cardboard container. The bird hopped to the edge closest to her and squawked like it was trying to get her attention. She took her eyes off Otis and focused on the demanding bird.
“What do you want, you little troublemaker?” She looked down at the critter that had bridged the gap between Cannon and her.
It squawked again. With its wings spread, it flapped with force and took flight. The journey was one of joy and sorrow for Sage. She had grown accustomed to the bird. Feeding it and caring for it had become one of her daily pleasures. She’d used the bird as an excuse to stay in town, but it was probably time to be honest with herself. She was happy in Aspen Cove. She’d overstayed her welcome in Denver, and it had been time to spread her own wings and fly. Bea made sure she landed safely in the little town.
She watched the tiny thing until it became a dot on the horizon.
Sage thought about Cannon, Katie, and Ben, her three best reasons to stay in Aspen Cove now that the bird had healed.
Cannon was at the bar doing inventory for his Friday liquor run. Katie was probably elbow-deep in muffin batter and supervising Ben, who despite having paid back his debt, showed up to help her each day. He had made progress. Down to three drinks a day, his shakes had stopped, and his skin had a healthy pink glow to it. He was still too skinny, but Ben was like Rome and couldn’t be built in a day.
“Let’s go, Otis.” The dog looked up at her like a child. “I’ve got a lunch date with Katie.”
He trotted up to the deck and shook himself off. Water flew from his fur in every direction, giving Sage an unexpected shower.
“Thanks a lot, buddy.” She pulled the towel she kept handy from the deck chair and gave him a good rubdown. “You’re staying here today.”
As long as he had a comfy chair and a bowl of kibble, Otis couldn’t care less where he stayed. She got him situated and left for Maisey’s Diner. This would be her first local dining experience.
Five minutes later, she walked into the little eatery. It wasn’t the fifties experience she expected, with records on the wall and Elvis posters everywhere. Nope, Maisey’s was a James Dean experience. Highly shined motorcycles were perched like trophies on pedestals between the booths. Hubcaps and handlebars decked the walls. On the soffit above the counter was a James Dean quote that read, “Dream as if you’ll live forever, live as if you’ll die today.”
Blonde hair drew her attention. In the center booth to the right was Katie. Her hand rose high in the air and waved. It wasn’t like Sage could miss her; she was one of two people in the place, and the other person was a frail bald man.
Sage tucked herself into the booth across from her friend. “Why haven’t I been here before?”
“Because they’re hardly ever open.” Katie glanced around. “Dalton says it’s off-season, but next week they open full-time.”
“Nights, too?” There would be another option besides her microwave.
“Nope. The nights are for pool and beer.”
That seemed to be the way of it. It was as if there was an unwritten rule. The local businesses didn’t encroach on each other. Maisey’s didn’t sell muffins or other bakery goods except for pie. B’s bakery didn’t sell pie. Bishop’s Brewhouse didn’t sell food. Maisey’s didn’t sell alcohol. The Corner Store sold food and soda, but they didn’t sell pharmacy-related items. Doc’s didn’t sell food, unless you counted candy. Everyone had their little corner of the world here. They worked in harmony, except for old man Tucker. He bootlegged, which probably ate up some of Cannon’s profits.
The bell above the door rang, and in walked the devil himself. Cannon looked absolutely delicious in his jeans and black T-shirt. All he needed to do was grease back his hair and straddle a motorcycle, and he’d fit right in. Behind him, to her surprise, walked Ben.
“Oh wow.” Katie leaned forward so she could watch them around the edge of the booth.
“Wow is right.” If Sage thought Cannon was being cautious with her, he was more so with his father. The two men hadn’t talked much. Cannon kept a safe distance. Close enough to step in if needed, but far enough away that if Ben erupted into proverbial flames, Cannon wouldn’t get burned. So the fact that they were dining together was a big deal.
The men sat across from each other. Ben stared at the menu as if it was the first time he’d seen it. Cannon looked Sage and Katie’s way and smiled. He rose from his seat and walked over to where they sat.
“Dad said you were here.” He bent over and brushed a light kiss across Sage’s lips. “I thought I’d feed him.”
Katie flipped her hair over her shoulder. “I do feed him.”
He looked at her. “I know you do. Today is more than that.”
Sage wrapped her arms around his waist and hugged. “I’m glad you’re here with him.” She wanted to tell him she was proud, but it seemed a stupid thing to say. She didn’t have the history he had with Ben, and proud wasn’t a strong enough word. It was one thing to lose a parent because they died, another to lose a parent because they walked around like they were dead. Her situation was far easier to swallow.
“Come to the bar tonight?” His eyes were soft and bluer than green today. She’d learned over the days she’d spent with him that green was the color of passion for him. Blue meant something else. Generally, his eyes took on that icy look when he pulled away.
“Sure. I’ll be there.” He gave her another peck on the lips and walked away.
Dressed in a frilly apron and a bouffant updo, Maisey approached their table. “Hello girls, what’s it going to be?”
Although Sage had never been in the diner, she knew Maisey from the funeral. She also knew from the scuttlebutt around town that the blue plate special was the best thing to order.
“Blue plate for me,” Sage said. She looked over at Ben and Cannon and wondered if they’d order the same. She would have loved to invite them to join her, but they needed this time to reconnect.
“Same for me,” Katie said. Maisey moved on to Cannon and Ben’s table.
Out of the kitchen came Dalton. He walked to Sage and Katie’s booth and nodded toward Katie.
She jumped up and gave him a friendly hug. There was nothing intimate to the gesture. It was the kind of hug a person gave a friend or relative. “I don’t think you’ve formally met Sage.”
He looked at Sage with a scowl that could slice her in half. Dalton was central casting for Sons of Anarchy, all the way from the skull-and-crossbones bandana tied around his head to his black boots. In between were ink and muscle and attitude.
“Nice to meet you, Sage.” His voice was rough and low. “You get the special?”
They both nodded, and he walked away.
�
�Not long on words.”
Katie laughed. “No, but don’t let him scare you. He’s a really nice guy.”
Sage glanced right to see him stop at Cannon’s booth. All three men looked her way. Sage moved into the corner of the red vinyl bench. “He looks like a murderer.”
“He is,” Katie said, as if that wasn’t an odd thing to say. She liked the bad boys, but a murderer? “He’s on parole.”
“No way.” Sage leaned forward to glance at the man who was as big as an oak tree and as mean-looking as a rabid dog.
Katie’s blonde locks floated over her shoulders with the nod of her head. “No, seriously, he’s only been out of prison for a month or so.”
Sage was speechless. She’d been living in a town with a paroled murderer for weeks. Shouldn’t there be a neighborhood watch letter that informed people of the dangers in town? She lived two doors down from the man and could easily be his next victim. “Oh my God, and I had started to like this place.”
Katie’s trophy smile turned into a thin line of disappointment. “Unless you’re beating up women, you have nothing to worry about.”
“What?” Sage’s head was still wrapped around the word murderer.
Katie rearranged her silverware and then leaned into the center of the table. “He came out of a bar one night and saw a man beating up a woman. He stepped in. The two men fought. Dalton knocked him out, and the other guy never got up.”
“Wouldn’t that be self-defense?”
“No, not in this case. Dalton was angry to see a woman abused, and he stepped into a fight that didn’t involve him. It was considered an act of passion. The guy hit the ground dead.”
“How do you know all this?”
Back was the smile. “I own a bakery where people sit, eating muffins and chatting.”
“Geez. I need to get out more. The only chatting I hear is from people complaining about skin conditions and sore throats and hemorrhoids. I don’t get the good stuff working for Doc.” Like Ben at the bakery, Sage had been showing up to clinic days to help Doc because it gave her a purpose and made her feel like a member of the community.
“You need to bring a book and sit in the corner of the bakery for a day. It’s amazing what you can learn. This town is like a soap opera.”
“I’m missing everything. If I’m going to stick around, I need more information.”
“So you’re staying?” She said it loud enough for everyone in the place to hear. Cannon turned to her and stared.
“I’m not committing to anything permanent, but I don’t have plans to leave.”
Katie squealed with delight. “I’m so happy.”
When Sage looked at Cannon, he looked happy, too.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Cannon had watched the door since he opened the bar at six. His regulars trickled in, but he was looking for one person—Sage. She’d become an important part of his life over the last week. She’d given him a reason to smile.
Doc walked in and sat at the bar. He held up his finger for his first beer. “How are things in the heart department, son?”
Cannon pulled a lager and set it on a coaster. “I’m not talking about my love life with you.”
Doc lifted his beer to his lips and took a long, lazy drink. The foam stuck to his whiskers. “So you’ve got a love life now. That’s good to know. Don’t screw it up like the last time.”
Cannon knew he was referring to Mel. “That was different.”
Doc’s brow lifted. Not a day went by that Cannon didn’t want to reach into his drawer for the scissors and trim off the winged brows that shot skyward from the old man’s forehead.
“She’s a girl. You like her. What makes it different?”
“Mel was nice enough, but Sage is special.” When he was with her, every emotion was intensified.
“Special, huh? I once had a special girl.”
Cannon leaned against the counter, waiting for him to go on. He knew how this worked. He would be getting some advice. The doc wouldn’t come out and say what he wanted to say. He’d wrap it in a story.
“I met her for the first time on my family’s farm. She was stealing my prize hog.” Doc chuckled. He closed his eyes and smiled, obviously reliving the memory in his mind.
“She stole your pig?” Cannon knew the girl he was talking about was Phyllis, Doc’s wife of over forty years.
“No, son, she stole my heart. I gave her the pig. Her family was hungry.” He pulled the bowl of bar mix forward and picked out the spicy peanuts he loved. “I knew then I’d do anything for that girl. I butchered that animal and took it to her house.”
“What did she say?”
“Nothing, I didn’t see her that day. I met up with her ornery-as-snot father and told him I wanted to court his daughter.”
“And?” Cannon took Doc’s half-empty beer and filled it up.
“He took my gift and told me he’d think about it.” Doc still wore his wedding ring, even though Phyllis had passed several years ago. “I went to her house every Friday with offerings that ranged from freshly baked bread to a butchered chicken. My family wasn’t rich, but we ate, and we had extra. Six weeks later, I showed up and her father, Hank, was waiting on the porch. His shotgun leaned against the door, and Phyllis stood by his side. She was the prettiest thing I ever saw, and she was dressed in her Sunday best.” He sipped his beer. “It was a blue and white polka-dotted dress that reached past her knees. She had on white bobby socks and shiny black shoes.”
Cannon leaned in toward the old man. He was completely enthralled by the story. “And . . . ?”
“It was the start of forever. Her father let me walk her to the end of the driveway and back. That was our first date. He sat on the porch with his shotgun and watched.”
“No kiss?”
“No, we didn’t move along as fast as you youngsters do nowadays. In a way, I think it’s better to wait. You get to know a person’s heart before their body. One can satisfy you for life, the other for minutes. Anyway, by our fourth walk down the driveway, her father had moved into the house. I knew he was watching, and my only move to touch her was to wipe the dust off her shiny shoes when we returned. Two months later, he didn’t bother to chaperone. A month after that, she was able to take a drive with me. Two months later, I walked her down the aisle of a little church in Gold Gulch.”
“Was that the first time you kissed her?”
“Hell no, I kissed her nonstop from the minute we got out of shotgun range. That’s my point. You know they are special when all you get is a kiss, and it’s enough for now. Are Sage’s kisses enough?”
Cannon smiled. “For now.”
The door opened, and like Doc said, Cannon’s forever started. It was a daily thing for him. His days began with her smile and ended with her kiss.
Dressed in pink, she was as pretty as he could remember. She climbed up onto the end stool, the one he thought of as hers. He poured her favorite beer and went to greet her with a kiss.
The doc threw a five on the table and stood.
“You want to play for that beer?” Cannon asked.
The old man shook his head. “You got better things to do with your time, son. I’ll be next door with my shotgun.” He laughed all the way out the door.
“What was that about?” Sage looked at him with a confused expression.
“I think he likes you, and he’s warning me to treat you right.”
When Sage smiled, the whole room warmed. “I think he wants to keep me around for free labor.”
“You work for free?” He knew this town worked differently than most. If not for the people, he’d have given up long ago. It was Bea who really kept him glued together. She never gave up, and she didn’t allow him to either.
“Not really, I work for peanut butter cups and Skittles.” She smiled over her mug of beer. “I’m cheap, but I’m not easy.”
Cannon went to the only other customer in the bar and settled his tab. When the man walked out, he closed and
locked the door.
Sage looked up at the clock that hung over the bar. “You closing early?”
He approached her and spun the bar stool around so she faced him. He stood between her legs with just a piece of pink material keeping them apart. “I realized today that I’ve been an awful boyfriend.” He watched her face for any hint of discomfort at his chosen word. He didn’t see anything but affection. He was an exclusive kind of man. He didn’t want to share what he considered his. After a week of kisses, he wasn’t about to share Sage with anyone. “I’ve never actually asked you on a date.”
Her fingers trailed the buttons of his shirt until they sat at the waist of his pants. “You want to be my boyfriend and date?”
Cannon couldn’t remember a time where he’d blushed, but he felt the heat rise to his cheeks. All he knew was he wanted Sage. Not in the same way as Mel. From Sage, he wanted more, and he’d wait for as long as it took to get it.
“Let’s just say I want more, and want to be more.” He leaned in and gave her a sweet kiss before he led her to the empty spot where people often danced. He put a coin in the jukebox and selected D-47, one of his mother’s favorite tunes by Etta James. As the oldie “At Last” played, Cannon pulled her into his arms. It was a bittersweet moment. He reflected on a past where his mother and father danced in the same spot to the same song. He looked to the future for the first time in a long time. He towered over the girl who was the size of a grade-schooler. His body was bigger in every way, but somehow her curves filled all his hollows. It was perfect. She was perfect. The moment was perfect—at last.
Chapter Twenty-Five
On Friday morning, Sage kissed Cannon goodbye. He was off to make the liquor run. Although he invited her to join him, she’d made a personal commitment to garden and get moved into the other wing of the house.
She had ventured little into Bea’s quarters because it made her sad. Like somehow, by taking over her space, she’d be erasing her memory.
While she tugged at the weeds sprouting from the ground, she was surprised to find her favorite flower growing. With care, she cleaned around the lilac bush. She had always loved the big blooms. They reminded her of happy days, cotton candy, Ferris wheels, and her mom, who had a vase of the big flowers on the table all summer long. They were nostalgic and romantic. Blooms of hope.
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