by Stacey Lynn
Her pink cheeks and intense focus on the steam from her hot tea gave me my answers.
“I don’t know what was wrong with it, but my car broke down the other day on my way home from an interview. Jaden came and got me.”
Her voice tightened near the end, and I couldn’t bite back my smile. Someday those two were going to explode, and I couldn’t wait for it to happen. I knew deep down, Jaden didn’t blame her for Scratch’s death, and I’d seen the looks he gave not only Jules, but Sophie too when she wasn’t looking.
“You get the job?” Liv asked.
Jules shook her head. “No… all the jobs around here are filled up since school starts next week. I’ve applied for substitute jobs, but I need to find something more permanent. When I moved back my parents only agreed I could stay with them for a few months until I had to be on my own with Sophie.”
“Harsh,” Liv whispered.
Jules shrugged. “Not really. I’m an adult and I’m able to care for the two of us alone. I just didn’t think I’d have a hard time finding a decent paying job. But we move into our new place next weekend, so I have to find something soon.”
“We have an opening for a receptionist,” one of the perky blondes chirped, smiling wide at Jules. “I mean, it’s not teaching, and I don’t mean to interrupt, but I’m sure if you can teach, you can answer phones and make appointments.”
Jules jaw dropped right as I blinked. The girl was so… happy.
“You’d hire her on the spot?” I asked.
The three girls looked at one another before sharing some secret smile and they all shrugged. At the same time. So strange.
“Yeah, we just opened, but we’re already really busy. Apparently some other salon didn’t have the best reputation and have recently lost a lot of their clientele, so all the other women in town who were going there are coming here instead.”
I felt a warm hand slide over mine. Liv squeezed my hand tightly while I pretended the bubbling water at my feet was fascinating. I knew what salon she meant. The one where Cain sent me and the rest of his girls. A lot of them had left town and I was sure, now that the finer citizens of Jasper Bay had a better option to go to for their salon needs, not many people were willingly gracing the doors of Kelly’s Hair Cuts and Stuff anymore.
Not that it was a great place to go in general. Plus, Bella Salon was ten times classier. Looking around the large and gorgeous spa, I wasn’t the least bit surprised.
“I’ll… I’ll think about it,” Jules said, her voice quiet and her expression uncertain.
The middle girl shrugged as she scrubbed the heel of my foot. It felt divine. “No rush. We can be flexible with your teaching stuff if you need us, too. But we could really use the help around here.”
“Are you related?” I asked, my mouth spurting out the words before I could stop them.
The girl in the middle smiled at me. “Twins,” she said, nodding to the girl at Liv’s feet. “Cassie over there,” her head flipped to the other side, “is our big sister, but we’ve always wanted to be in business together… so we did.”
They said it so matter-of-factly… but still happier than I’d ever heard people sound. But they made it sound so simple as they began telling us of growing up in Duluth but wanting a smaller town to live in. As if it was just so easy to want something and go after it and make it successful.
I listened with rapt attention while they giggled and laughed, while in the meantime, Jules, Liv, and I kept our smirks to ourselves at their exuberance. They seemed so sweet… so innocent… and clearly smart and beautiful, too.
When we were done, Liv paid for all of us because she insisted it was her turn to treat us on a girl’s day. Then, I waved them off and headed to Gunner’s to work at GetInked2.
Liv hadn’t been joking when she had said doing their books was easy. Gunner had hired me based on Liv’s recommendation alone.
I couldn’t help but smile as I walked the few short blocks, throwing on my zip-up hoodie. September quickly ushered in fall in northern Minnesota and the early crunching of falling leaves at my feet told me that we were nearing the end of summer and warm weather. Soon I’d be dressed in wool gloves and parka coats.
Snow would be knee-deep in a couple short months.
A slow breeze blew my hair over my shoulders, making me shiver and thankful I was headed south for the weekend. One last weekend in warmth and humidity was just what I needed.
“Hey, Gunner,” I called out over the pinging door chime as I entered the tattoo parlor.
I was met with complete silence other than the vibrating door chime.
Odd. A tingle moved slowly down my spine until the hair on my arms stood on end. I peeked over the half wall that separated the reception area from the Gunner’s tattoo beds only to find them completely empty.
Hesitantly, I reached for my cell phone, unlocking the code and holding it in case something had happened to him. When I heard nothing coming from the back hall area where my office was, something simply felt off.
Gunner never left the tattoo parlor unattended. He certainly never left the front door unlocked. And every other time I’d been inside in the last week as he and Liv took turns training me on his computer software, ear-piercing music was always blaring from the speakers.
Sensing something wasn’t right, I retreated back to the entry area and dialed Ryker.
It had just rang once when the door chimed and a masculine voice behind me called my name.
I screamed. My phone tumbled to the floor as I spun around, one hand flying to my chest.
“You okay?” Gunner asked, his eyes wide opened. Two paper bags hung from his closed hands at his sides.
I gasped for a breath. “Damn it, Gunner,” I breathed out, reaching down to pick up my phone. From the speaker, I heard Ryker shouting my name. “You scared the crap out of me.”
“What the hell is going on?” Ryker shouted as soon as he heard my voice.
Heat suffused my cheeks as my shaking hand clamped onto the phone for dear life.
“Sorry,” I told Ryker. “I just freaked out, but it was nothing.”
“What happened?” His deep growl calmed my rapidly beating heart. Ryker cared. In my head, I knew he did. But as his voice rumbled, I could practically see his worry lines etched deep between his eyes through the phone line; his concern went straight to my overwhelmed and terrified heart.
“Nothing,” I said, taking another deep breath. My eyes stayed on Gunner as he lifted the bags and mouthed, “I went for lunch.”
I laughed softly. “Sorry to scare you, Ryker. I got to GetInked and Gunner was gone. It just freaked me out, I guess. But he’s back, so I’m sorry.”
“You sure you’re okay?”
I nodded. Then I realized he couldn’t see me. “I’m fine, I swear.”
A few seconds of silence passed where I knew Ryker was debating whether or not he believed me, and whether or not he should drive over and check it out for himself. His protectiveness made me grin.
“I’m fine, Ryker. But I do have to get to work. I’ll see you later.”
He sighed. I closed my eyes and pictured him running his hand through his hair as he continued debating showing up at the shop. “All right… but I’m coming to get you after work.”
I smirked. “I figured you would.”
“And don’t scare the shit out of me like that again.” This time, I knew he was grinning.
“I’ll do my best. Love you.”
His breath hitched and his voice went deeper and softer still. “Love you, too, Faith.”
I clicked the phone off, wanting those words to be the last ones I heard from him. Once I slid my phone back into my pocket, I met Gunner back in the break room.
“Sorry,” I said sheepishly as I leaned against the doorframe and watched him take out two enormous taco salads from their cardboard boxes. Salsa and hot sauce permeated the air, making my stomach rumble. “I got scared when the place was unlocked and no one was here.”<
br />
One side of Gunner’s lips hitched into a smirk. He pointed at the boxes. “I went next door for lunch and knew you didn’t have a key.”
“I figured,” I said, pushing off the doorway and joining him at the tiny table in a room that he used as a break room slash storage room. Boxes lined one wall and the table always rocked back and forth on two slightly crooked legs, but it worked. He also had a small fridge installed to keep our drinks cold. It was all we needed.
“Thanks for lunch, though,” I told him and dug into my taco salad.
He eyed me for a few minutes, watching me eat. Just as I was beginning to feel self-conscious under his watchful gaze, he began eating his own salad. “You always that jumpy?”
I chewed the bite in my mouth and wiped my mouth.
“Only in businesses that have had bombs thrown through the front windows.” I watched Gunner’s smirk turn into a full grin.
“Touché.”
Then the room filled with silence as we both dug into our massive, and incredibly delicious, taco salads.
The truth was, I would most likely always be jumpy and scared of some big, bad man coming for me behind a dark corner. I wasn’t naïve enough to be convinced there would be no retaliation from Black Death charters for this local charter’s decimation.
On the other hand, I tried every day to not live my life under that umbrella of fear. I had lived in it for years, and Ryker was helping me feel truly free from it.
But Gunner was boss, not my friend. He did me a favor in giving me a job, and I’m sure he knew what I’d been through via rumor mills and Olivia’s big mouth.
That being said, he didn’t need to know my dark secrets, and I didn’t feel inclined to share them with him.
By the time we finished our lunches, two of his next appointments were waiting in the entry area and the rest of the afternoon flew by in the same manner. For a small town, Gunner was highly recommended, and people drove for over an hour simply to have him do their tattoos. We were constantly busy, so while I worked on his accounting, I also stayed busy cleaning the chairs and equipment and taking appointments for people who phoned in as well as walk-in clients.
When the sun set and we were getting ready to lock up, I wasn’t surprised at all to hear the front door open and see Ryker’s presence immediately fill the space.
I grinned, one hand going to my hip as I stopped what I was doing and stared at him.
His jeans fit his thighs perfectly and draped over his black, scuffed boots. His shirt was pulled tightly over his toned chest; even his leather cut couldn’t hide his ripped muscles. And his eyes, although still covered by his sunglasses, hit my body. His head dipped down as he raked his gaze over me, making me flush, and leaving me feeling naked in the middle of the shop.
He closed the distance between us. Or maybe I did. I didn’t remember moving, but at some point Ryker’s hands were on my hips and we were pressed chest to chest to one another.
“I’m taking my girl home,” he yelled out to Gunner, who had disappeared back to the storage room. Then his lips met mine in a gently, sweeping kiss. My entire body burst into a warm, comforting blaze as Gunner’s muffled, “Okay!” came from the background.
“Miss me?”
“Yes.” I breathed it out on a shaky exhale, still trying to recover from the fleeting but powerful kiss.
“Ready for home?” he asked me when he pulled away.
Home.
With Ryker.
The mere thought made my heart skip a bit.
The fact that it was reality made my heart swell to such a huge size that I felt the pressure in my chest increase.
I couldn’t take my eyes off him or his sexy small grin. “You bet.”
“I still can’t believe how gorgeous this city is,” I told Ryker as we walked hand in hand through the French Quarter in New Orleans.
The sun beat down on my exposed shoulders and arms as I walked next to him wearing a navy blue and white, strapless maxi dress. It was Labor Day weekend and tourists abounded in the city, although Ryker told me the main part of New Orleans was always packed with tourists and visitors.
Ryker looked over my shoulder at the cemetery we’d left blocks ago and shivered as if he could still see it. “I still think part of this place is creepy.”
I bumped his shoulder and laughed. “I can’t believe you’re afraid of the tombs.”
Ryker feigned another fearful shudder, making me laugh harder. “It’s just not right… all those dead people behind the walls. It’s as if they could open the doors and walk out at any moment.”
“Like Zombies,” I supplied with a grin.
“I’ll never understand your fascination with them, either.”
He removed his hand from mine, wrapped his arm around my shoulder, and pulled me to him playfully. We walked in silence until we turned a corner and stopped to watch a street performer play his saxophone on the corner. The man was old with leathered, thick skin that said he spent most of his life working outside in the sun. But his playing was incredible. Ryker and I stood on the corner, our arms wrapped around each other, swaying back and forth to the music.
A gust of breeze blew by, cooling the thick, hot air and pushed my hair in front of my face, momentarily blocking my view from the jazz musician.
Ryker’s warm hand moved to my cheek and brushed the hair out of my face, while at the same time cupping my cheek and lifting it to him.
His eyes stayed on my hair in a hazy-eyed look as his fingers ran through the length of it.
“What is it with you and my hair?” I asked, my breath husky and soft at the same time. He shook his head and watched the end of the lock slip from his fingertips.
“Reminds me of back when everything was good.”
I swallowed through a sudden egg-sized lump in my throat. “I thought things were good now.”
And they were. We had been in New Orleans for two days and the break away from the stress of the club had been exactly what I needed to relax. And Meg and Brayden were incredible. Even at his small height, the kid knew how to tackle hug with the best of them, which is what he did to Ryker and me as soon as we’d walked through their door. His head had rammed right into my crotch, almost making me lose my breath.
And that was how I met Meg. Hunched over and trying to keep Brayden’s head from knocking into my crotch with a grimace on my face. She simply laughed, waved him off, and then wrapped me in small arms that were deceptively fierce. She kissed my cheek and whispered in my ear, “I’m so glad he found you.”
When she pulled back, tears clouded her vision, but her grin was contagious.
I fell in love with their easy banter and laid back disposition in about five seconds.
I had thought everything was perfect.
I had thought we were perfect.
Based on the tightened jaw in Ryker’s expression and the way he stared at my hair as if I was threatening to chop it all off and burn it, I realized I might have been mistaken.
“Hey,” I whispered when he didn’t answer. I shook him gently with my hand on my hip only to realize that it trembled slightly against his cargo shorts. “What is it?”
He pulled his dark eyes to mine and blinked slowly. His nose wrinkled before he pressed his lips together. He cupped my cheeks with both of his large hands, effectively encompassing my whole face in his strong, protective hands. I’d placed everything I was into those hands at the promise he’d never leave. As he lifted me onto my tiptoes, I felt as if the floor was dropping under my feet.
My heart thudded against my chest as his lips finally brushed against mine. It was a whisper of a kiss that left me breathless and more confused.
When he pulled back, he kept me lifted onto my toes and my eyes stayed frozen on his.
He tripped over his words. “I’m sorry.”
My brow furrowed. “Sorry for what?”
He shook his head and then leaned down, pressing his forehead to mine. “I’m so sorry I ran that night.”
I gasped. “That’s what this is about? I thought… I thought we were past all that. You said—”
“I know,” Ryker nodded, and then set me on my feet. His eyes glanced over my shoulder behind me and he directed me to a nearby metal bench. The heat from the sun burnt through the thin fabric of my dress, almost frying the backs of my thighs in the sweltering heat. “And I wasn’t lying when I said we’ve wasted enough time. I want it all with you, Faith.” He dropped to his knee, but my head was spinning so quickly from his words that I didn’t recognize the gesture as he crouched in front in me. “The thing is… that night when you hopped out of my truck, right before you did and I ran my hand through your hair, I knew, that at that moment, I had everything I’d ever wanted sitting in the cab of my run down pickup.”
Tears welled in my own eyes as I saw an unknown expression in his. My hands trembled in his and my knees shook from nerves and fear at whatever he had to say next.
“We messed that up back then… or I did.” His forehead dropped to my knee. He ran his head against my knee as one of my hands threaded through the hair on the back of his head. I could feel his nerves falling off him in rolling waves that only increased my pulse until it was all I could hear. “I’m screwing this up,” he said as he leaned back and finally… finally… a small smile appeared.
“Screwing what up?”
He laughed once, shook his head, and then held onto my hands firmly in one of his. “It was just over five years that I pulled my truck into this town, parked it two blocks over, walked in Mickey’s pub, and asked for the largest whiskey he’d give me. The bartender slid me a glass, leaned his elbows on the bar, and said, ‘what the fuck did you just mess up?’” Ryker laughed again once, reliving the memory in distant eyes. “And do you know what I said?”
I shook my head, too terrified to speak, too uncertain as to what he was trying to tell me.
“I told him, ‘the best thing that ever happened to me.’” He paused and took a long breath as one of his hands went to his front pocket. “What I’m trying to tell you, Faith, is that when we were younger, for years I couldn’t get you out of my head… and that was even before we went out on a date. And as soon as we went on our first date, I knew… I knew then that there would never be anyone else for me. When I showed up here, I still knew there’d be no one else for me and there hasn’t been. What I don’t want to do is wait another day to give you the future I always wanted you to have.”
