by B. C. Falls
“That’s bullshit. But I won’t push you,” she turns around and looks over at the view behind her. It’s breathtaking. Not just the view, but her. The sun is just about to set. The back of the house sits just before a small stream over looking a field that goes on towards the horizon. The sun will set here every day and it’ll be close enough that you’d feel like you could reach out and touch it. “Do you like it here?”
“Yes.”
“You don’t talk much, do you?”
“No,” she looks over her shoulder at me with a bright smile, dimples and all. “What do you do?” I ask.
“I’m a teacher. Well a substitute for now, but I’m hoping it becomes permanent.”
“I hope so too. Do you like shaping young minds and what not?”
“And what not,” she waves her hand in the air. “Do you like it here?”
“Yes,” I don’t question why she asked me twice. Maybe it’s reassurance for her. That she made the right decision in moving here.
“How long will it take to fix?”
“Couple weeks.”
“I can camp out here. Dad has an old trailer at the club house we could use,” Royce turns around and looks up at me, it’s not a huge height difference, but she still has to tilt her head up at me.
“I’ll bring it over.”
“You don’t have to….” I scowl, making her laugh and roll her eyes. “Fine.”
“I know some guys who are good and could use the work. We’ll make it quick and keep it looking just like it does now.”
Royce simply nods before she leaves me standing there, pining after her. I want to follow, but I hold myself in the spot I’m in. If I go after her, I don’t know what will happen, but I can’t let it.
Not yet, at least.
CHAPTER TWO
Royce
The sweet sweet sounds of my music coming out of the very large speaker I’ve got hooked up to the back of the trailer, makes me one happy girl.
I’m not listening to that annoying new Justin Beiber song or some dumb techno thump. Sure, I can get down to some country music, a pop song here or there, but what really gets me in the mood are sad songs.
Sad songs that make you feel. Make you want, or miss, or love someone. Songs that mean something or bring back memories of a time when things were simple. I could sit here all day reading my book, sipping on some coffee and listening to this playlist. I would do just that if it wasn’t for the hottie currently distracting me.
Dane had to work the day after he first came over, but he sent some guys to clean up the rubble on the side of the house. He didn’t come the next day, or the next. Today, four days since I’ve last seen him, he’s here, shirtless, and driving me insane.
The tattoos covering Dane’s body are sexy as hell. His entire left arm has black shaded designs that move around his arm like they’ve always been there. His back has a long script on it that I can’t make out from here, but when he turns around I see a small tattoo on his right hip. It’s two birds of some kind.
The bad boy looks with those mysterious tattoos and the fact that he has a very nice beard… swoon.
His muscles are defined, big, and oh-so-mouthwatering. I’ve read a lot of books and this is anything but a fantasy. Dane’s got a six pack with those v-lines going down his hips, a happy trail of hair that leads to my favorite body part on a man, and damn, if Dane doesn’t have the sexiest nipples I’ve ever seen.
A girl could get used to this.
My phone rings and I quickly answer it before Dane looks over at me and catches the very watchful eye I’ve been keeping on him. At the same time I answer, I turn my music down. “Hello?”
“Hey!” Blake yells through the phone.
“Oh cheezus.”
“Is that a new one?”
Blake is my best friend and one of the reasons I am sitting here in Miller Falls. If I had it my way, I would be back in Kentucky sitting happy in my house with Kady by my side and living a life less crowded. I had to be here.
“It is,” I take a long sip of my coffee as Dane leans over picking up 2 by 4’s. He effortlessly lifts two and carries them farther than I’d ever be able to.
“How is he?” Blake asks knocking my mind back into reality.
I sigh heavily, “I haven’t talked to him alone yet.”
“I know. You told me. I’m just wondering how he is.”
“Blake,” I whine. “You can’t live like this.” I push my glasses on top of my head. Sometimes I chose not to wear them. I don’t have horrible eyesight, just slightly unable to drive without fear of dying or maybe walking into things. So usually they are on, but I can go without them.
“I know I can’t,” I hear the sniff that tells me she’s crying, “I miss him.”
“I know you do, but we have a plan right? That’s why I’m living here now.”
“We do.”
“Stick to it.”
“Love you, Royce. You are literally the best thing to happen to me in years.”
“Love you too. Don’t stress okay? It’ll work out. If the love you two have is like what you described to me, you’ll be good.”
“Thanks, Royce. You always stick my head back where it belongs.”
“Not up your ass?” Blake laughs, and I can’t help it, I laugh too because I’m just that funny.
I catch sight of Dane picking up a hammer this time. He starts banging on the nails like they pissed him off, his muscles bunch and pull at each swing and my mouth goes dry. Honestly I couldn’t do what he’s been doing all day. My whole body would be aching from head to toe. “Are you breathing heavily?” Blake asks, but I don’t respond. “What are you doing?” she asks again. “ROYCE!”
“Sorry. Hot guy working on my new house.”
She giggles like a little school girl who just heard about a boy liking her for the first time. “Do tell me more!”
“Fuck, Blake. He’s so hot,” I rake my eyes over Dane’s body one last time before I pull my eyes away and focus on the book in my hand. I don’t really read it though. I just kind of stare at the words to see how long I’ll last before I look back up at him. I hear Blake rambling, but I ignore her.
I count to twenty-four before my eyes go up on their own accord. I thought I was better than that. My eyes land right on Dane’s deep green eyes, and I swear he can see right through all of my bullshit. The staring at me thing he’s doing makes me all needy down south, if you know what I mean. Now, he’s grinning at me. Holy shit, he’s walking towards me.
I’m in so much trouble.
“I’m in trouble,” I whisper to Blake, repeating what my mind and body already know. I just hope my heart catches up in time.
“What?” Blake asks. “Were you listening to me at all?”
“No. I’ll call you later,” I hang up my phone and drop it into my lap. I force my eyes away from Dane and go back to reading. Or, not reading.
Stupid, hot, sexy man.
“Hey, Royce,” Dane says, stopping in front of me. “How’s the book?”
“You know. It’s a book,” I close it and look up at him. “What’s up?”
“Got anymore of that?” he points towards my cup of coffee. “Also, the music is kind of sad.”
I stand bringing my body close to his before I hook a left and head into the trailer for the coffee. “And your point is?”
Dane follows close behind me and when I reach up to get a cup out from the top cupboard I feel my shirt ride up. “Is that a tattoo?” Then I feel his hand reach out and touch my hip where I’ve got a dream catcher tattooed. “It’s beautiful,” he says as he lifts my shirt higher, exposing more of my back and the top half of the tattoo.
I got it when I was twenty, for so many reasons.
Dane runs his fingers up and down my side making chills break out across my skin. My heart is racing, the touch of his hand is like fire on my skin. “Do you have more?” he asks.
“No,” I say.
“It hurt, didn’t it?”
he asks, stopping just under my ribs where the feathers fall down my side. “Right here.”
“It did,” I sound breathless. I sound pathetic.
His hand suddenly moves away from my skin and he drops my shirt. “Sorry,” he steps way back.
“It’s okay,” I pull the coffee off the stove and pour him a cup. When I turn and hand it over to him, I quickly notice a very nice size bulge coming from his jeans. “Here you go.”
“Thanks,” he takes a big sip as I admire God’s handy work. Seriously, no man should look this good. “Are you ogling me?” I gasp at being caught. He just smirks.
“Did you come over here for anything?” I put my hands on my hips.
“Not really. I just wanted to check you out too,” I roll my eyes and go back outside to my chair, book and sweet sweet music. “Have a good one, Royce.” Dane says right next to my ear, making me jump out of the chair just a little before he walks off towards my new house. I sigh at the sight of him and my new house together.
It’s really an awesome view.
My book got boring after a while so I chose to work on my school plan for the time that I’m substituting. With only a few days left in the summer, I have a lot to worry about. Kady needs new school clothes and this being her junior year, I know the work just gets harder. Plus, she’s on the swim team now. I have faith she’ll be able to handle anything thrown at her, but at the same time, I worry. I worry a lot. Especially with us moving down here and with her starting a new school. Not to mention this is a new town for the both of us. I know we have a lot of family here, but it’s never easy to change suddenly like this.
I adopted Kady last year for many reasons. One being that she had no one. I was not about to leave a little girl out in the cold or let her be thrown into the foster system. She would get pushed out at eighteen anyway and I was not going to let that happen. I lost a lot, but it didn’t matter because I had Kady.
“Hey, sis,” Kayden says coming into the trailer. I scowl at him from my place on the small couch.
“Does anyone knock?” I ask, irritated. Kayden grabs one of the beers out of my small fridge before he sits down next to me. He sighs loudly. “Long day?” Kayden is two years older than me and the only one I tell everything to. After I told the family I was adopting Kady, he flew up to Kentucky to talk to me about it. It didn’t take much convincing on my part. Once he met Kady, he was in. Everyone was in.
“I’m a rookie on the police force I was basically raised by. So yeah, it was a long ass day.”
I giggle. “You know dad would have been happy if you’d done football or something else. You didn’t have to join the force.”
“I know. I wanted this,” I take a sip of my beer as he asks, “How’s Kady?”
“Good. We have to go get her some new clothes and she has pictures on Tuesday. She’s at swim practice now.”
“I remember the days before school started again. New clothes, shoes. Man, the shoes.”
“Seriously, the shoes!” We click our beers together. “So what do you know about Dane?”
“Dane, huh?” Kayden lifts an eyebrow at me. “Dane is a very interesting guy, I guess. He’s my training officer, actually.”
“Hmmm,” I take another long pull from my beer.
“You know him and dad are close, right?”
“Doesn’t Dane have a family?” Kayden nods. “Then why the closeness?”
“Dane was in a bad place when he came to this town. Dad helped him and I think he feels like he owes dad something.”
“He’s hot!” Kayden laughs. “Do you think dad would be mad if Dane asked me out?”
“No.”
I’m kind of shocked when he says no. My dad has always been ridiculously protective of me. Even growing up in Kentucky, away from him, couldn’t stop him from controlling or seeing over some part of my life. I lived a good life in Kentucky once I was of age to take care of myself. My mom wasn’t always there, her drugs always keeping her out of my reach. Dallas wasn’t one to drop everything to help me, not that I gave him much choice after he owned up.
“Are you coming out with all of us tonight?”
I look out the trailer window catching a glimpse of Kady and my niece Lucy, Danny’s daughter, walking towards us. “I have a teenager.”
“So? You have a life too. Kady can go hang out with Danny and the kids.”
Danny is the oldest brother, married with three kids, and two point five dogs. He’s got the grown up life. The life everyone knows they’ll have one day. It’s just how the world works. Danny just got that life way before anyone else did at fifteen.
“We’ll see,” I nod towards the door as Kady opens it. Putting my beer down and going to greet her, I hear the laugh of a man who’s been on my mind since I met him. “Hi, baby girl. How was swim practice?” I ask Kady, but I’m looking behind her at my new house.
Dane is standing there. He’s now dressed with his Devil’s Patriots vest, or cut as I’ve learned it’s called, over a red flannel, dark blue jeans, and a Braves cap on his head that is turned backwards.
I’ve never been this attracted to a man before and I’ve never found hats to be sexy, but he looks like a goddamn model.
“It was good. Lucy waited for me because she wanted to see if I could hang out at Uncle Danny’s house tonight.” Kayden snickers behind me and I force myself not to shoot him a look.
“Hi, Lucy,” I greet her. Lucy is a spitting image of Danny and Beth. This whole family looks so much alike, but me? I’m a bit different. I have lightly tan skin, naturally dirty blonde hair with waves instead of stick straight, and my boobs are probably the smallest out of all the women in the family. Not that there are many of us.
My mom is not the same mom that all my brothers have. I was a mistake, though Dallas will never let anyone say that. His wife, Kris, would also tell you that I was a blessing. I love them both for it, but I know I was a mistake. A night my dad wishes never happened. It’s why he never fought for me.
“Hi, Aunt Royce,” Lucy says, in a very timid voice. Lucy has only met me one other time way back when she was a little kid and I was only sixteen.
“Can I go over to Uncle Danny’s house?” Kady asks. I reach out and brush back a piece of her dark brown hair. We look nothing alike. Kady is short, has deep green eyes, has never worn glasses in her life, her hair is brown but kind of curly and she has a longer nose than I do. I wish most days that I was her real mother and that we looked alike.
“Sure. Why don’t you pack a night bag and I’ll call Danny to make sure it’s okay,” Kady squeals and pulls Lucy back into the trailer where she sleeps. I hate that we’re in a trailer at all, but it’s necessary until the house is livable.
“You know Danny is cool with it,” Kayden says from behind me, but my eyes have caught sight of Dane again. He and Luke, who is also in his Devil’s cut, are still standing out back laughing about something. Dane has his hands in the pockets of his jeans and I have no idea why I find that so sexy, but I do. “Dane might be coming out tonight.”
I quickly look at Kayden who’s grinning like a baboon. “I’m in,” I say quickly. Kayden laughs at me before he pushes me out of the way and walks out towards Dane and Luke. As soon as he’s next to Luke, he nut taps him. I swear men have the weirdest greetings. Women would never do that unless they hated each other.
Dane looks up from laughing at Luke’s expense and catches me staring. He stops grinning and just stares at me until I can’t stand the intensity and turn away.
An hour later, I’m driving Lucy and Kady to Danny’s house. Blake calls again, but I don’t answer. I have no more information for her and I’m kind of focusing on Kady right now. Lucy went inside Danny’s house already, but Kady stayed behind. “You okay?” I ask.
“I just wanted to say thank you,” I feel the tears coming. Whenever Kady gets this way or says something about her past I get teary-eyed. I can’t help it. Most of the time I wish I had gotten to her sooner.
“K
ady, you don’t have to thank me for anything,” I repeat. She knows she doesn’t, but she never stops.
“I know what you lost back in Kentucky. What you’ve given up for us to be here.”
Sometimes she has the maturity of a twenty something.
“You deserve to have a family, Kady, and this place is good for the both of us,” she looks down at her lap, her fingers are pulling at each other, a nervous tick she’s always had.
“I love you, Royce,” she looks up at me.
It takes me a couple seconds to respond because this is the first time she’s ever said that to me. “I love you, too,” I lean over, kiss her cheek and pull her in tightly for a hug. “I’m always here, Kady, and I always will be. I promise you,” both of us smile. “Now go have fun with your cousins,” we both smile at each other.
Kady quickly gets out. Danny is waiting at the front door for her and he hugs her before waving goodbye to me. I’m thankful for my family, thankful that they accepted Kady as one of them.
Bo’s is a very popular bar downtown. It’s open most of the day through the night until 2 a.m. It has pool tables and a whole lot of crappy music playing. I say crappy because it’s all EDC music that only makes me want to drink more. Maybe that’s their plan though. Get the people hating the music so they spend more money on the alcohol to help drown it out.
I’ve only been to Bo’s twice. The first time was about five years ago when I came back for Anderson’s wedding. Anderson is my second cousin. I think. I don’t really remember how it works with him, but my dad insisted I go. The second time I came here was the second time I ever came back to town. Kayden dragged me here and I got hit on by every sleaze ball you could imagine as I watched my brother make out with two different girls in the same night. That was not fun.
“You came!” Trent yells, once I get out of my truck in Bo’s parking lot. I swear, the man is always happy.
“I came,” I wave my hands in the air and sound ridiculously unhappy to be here.
Trent is in the same clothes he was in back at my house except his biker’s cut is now on. I never understood those things, I mean I’ve seen people wear them and read about them in books, but actually having one never seemed attractive until I saw it on Dane. The man looks so freaking sexy in that. And everything else he wears.