by Lexi Blake
He stopped breathing for a moment. His momma never talked like this. Never. “What’s happened?”
“I had some tests run. Damn Doc insisted on it and Teeny finally made me go in. I haven’t told her this because I don’t want to worry her. My heart is failing. Doc says if I don’t change my ways, I’ll have a heart attack in a year or two. If you weren’t in trouble, I wouldn’t mention it, but I need to know you’ll be here for Teeny when I go.”
Momma Marie? No. She was stronger than anything. She couldn’t have a weak heart. She couldn’t. It was always so strong, so damn steady. Panic threatened to set in. He couldn’t imagine a world where Marie Warner didn’t stand tall and proud. It shook the very foundation he depended on. “You need to do what Doc tells you. What did he say? Did he give you guidelines? You have to tell Ma.”
If she needed to change her diet, then that was what would happen. She did tend to treat a pound of bacon like an appetizer.
Her chin firmed stubbornly. “I am not telling your ma. And yes, Doc gave me all kinds of things I can’t do anymore. If I follow his advice, I’ll end up eating Nell’s cooking from now on. I don’t think this old dog can learn any new tricks.”
She wasn’t taking this seriously at all. “You damn well can and Ma will help you. We all need to sit down with Doc and talk about this. You have to change. We need you.”
She shrugged. “Well, we need you, too, but you don’t seem ready to try to change.”
Oh, he was surrounded by devious women. “Momma, you can’t put that on me. And I am changing. I have a steady job and I haven’t beaten the shit out of anyone in months. I’m trying.”
“No, you’re not. You’re biding your time. I might have a weak heart, but my eyes work fine. You’re in love with that young woman and you’re going to let Seth walk off with her. Do you think I don’t know that you and Seth always planned to find a girl and settle down? You’ve practically got her name tattooed over your heart. But you say you’re just ‘training’ her? The way I figure it, it’s all the same. It’s hard to do the work it takes to fix what’s gone wrong. You’re so young and strong. I’m not. If you can’t do it, there’s no damn hope for someone like me. That’s how I see it.”
His stomach flipped over. She was putting him in a horrible position. She was shoving him in a corner, but he wasn’t going to be the only one hurt if he didn’t come out of it. “You can’t do this. This is blackmail. You can’t put your whole damn life on the line.”
“For my son? Oh, for my son I can do anything. You don’t have a drop of my blood in you, Logan. But I put my soul in you. You think I won’t fight? I’ll fight and I’ll die if I have to, but I won’t leave you to this. I won’t. I don’t show it the way Teeny does, but I love you. You’re the best thing I ever did, and I’ll bet everything on you.” She patted his arm and took a step back. “I’m going to get to know your girl. I think we’ll have a lot in common. Both of us are waiting for you to wake up and realize that this life means more than what happened to you. What we gave you, the life we made for you…it means more, Logan. I have to believe that a lifetime of love means more than three hours of pain. I have to.” His momma took a step back, her face set in stubborn lines. “I think you need to stay here in Bliss. You’ve done all the work you can there. I think you need to find a way to forgive Alexei Markov. You can’t move on until you do.”
He felt his jaw tighten, his hands becoming fists at the mere mention of the man’s name. “I can say the words all day if you want me to.”
“The words don’t mean anything if you can’t let go of that hate that’s in your heart.” She was almost to the door. He was almost home free. And she turned. “I want you to ask yourself some hard questions. If you love that girl in there and she was in danger, would you put Seth in the same position if it was the only way to save her? You don’t have to answer me now. Just think on it.”
“We’re going to have to talk about your health, Momma. You can’t keep this from Ma.” She couldn’t walk away from this.
“Well, I guess if you want to tell your ma about this, you’re going to have to come out to the house and have a long talk. I think we have a lot to discuss.”
She turned and walked out, and he could hear the laughter coming from the kitchen. Seth said something and he could hear Georgia and his ma break into peals of laughter. The smell of coffee wafted through the house. Muffins and coffee and his family. They were all within reach. All he had to do was walk out and they would welcome him and try to make him comfortable.
But they couldn’t because his momma was right. He couldn’t feel at home here. He’d chosen to sleep alone in this room where his damn feet hung off the bed. Not that he’d slept much. When he wasn’t dreaming about what had happened, he’d been sitting up wondering what the hell he was going to do.
He moved away from the door and turned to his window. It was typical of the whole house with its spectacular view of the river. He stared out. This was exactly the place he and Seth had talked about building when they were teens. He remembered it like it was yesterday. They’d sat by the river and talked about finding a wife and how they would build a life here in Bliss after they both got out of college. Seth was going to move down here after graduation, but that hadn’t happened. After Seth had gotten perfect scores on his SATs, MIT had come calling and then he’d built his business and Logan had refused to let Seth pay for his college.
And somewhere along the way they’d drifted apart, except Seth didn’t seem to notice that they were on two different planes of existence. Seth seemed to think that all he had to do was waltz into town, build a dream home, offer Georgia up on a platinum platter, and Logan would fall in line.
Logan set his forehead against the windowpane. It was smooth and cool. He was stuck, and he was rapidly discovering that he had a choice to make. His momma couldn’t be serious. She couldn’t. Except Momma Marie never lied. She couldn’t be bothered.
If she was sick, he would have to stay, and if he stayed, he wasn’t sure he could watch Seth and Georgia get married and settle down.
He had to figure a way out of this corner.
He caught a glimmer off the river, a glint that told him someone was watching. He brought his head up, his eyes focusing on a spot across the river. It was nothing but forest past the water. National forest land with deeply restricted hiking and camping protocols. Logan expected bears and moose and elk to walk out from there, but not humans with cameras—or scoped rifles.
Nothing else would make that glint. Nothing natural.
Someone was watching the house. Someone was taking pictures or taking aim. One of the two.
He damn well intended to find out.
Chapter Eleven
“Are you sure I should be here?” Georgia walked into the back room at the Trading Post, following after Momma Marie. The older woman had insisted that she call her Momma Marie and she was going along with it, but not for the reasons Seth thought. Seth had held her hands and promised that Marie Warner wouldn’t actually kill her. He’d acted like he was sending her off to some sort of battle he wasn’t sure she would return from.
Seth was scared of the gruff woman and Logan had gone a little green when she’d turned on him, but Georgia didn’t see what the big deal was. Marie was rough on the outside, but there wasn’t anything scary about her, not really. She sort of reminded her of Win. Oh, Marie had claws and fangs, but she wouldn’t use them except to protect.
“You’re practically a member of this club, honey. You didn’t shoot a son of a bitch, but you did get shot by one.”
Georgia couldn’t help but laugh. She was pretty sure she should be all PTSD’d out, but the thought that there was a club for women who had gone through hell, and it had lemon crème cake, was actually kind of cool. “It was quite painful.”
“But the way I heard it, you made it through real good. Even after you were shot, you had to make your way out of that hellhole.”
She’d had Nat. Nat had gi
ven her the strength to get up that damn ladder even though her arm hadn’t worked at the time. And she’d wanted to see Logan. Even after she’d been shot, all she had been able to see was his face. When she’d been struggling up that damn ladder, all she’d been able to hear was Logan’s voice telling her to get the hell on that ladder and get herself to him. She’d done it. She’d made her way up that ladder, and she’d promised herself that no matter what happened, she’d find a way to live through it. “But it was my brother who shot the guy who shot me. And it was Logan who came in and saved me.”
Marie shook her head. “Just staying alive in the face of adversity is impressive, girl. And if you’re going to be with Seth and my Logan, you should start getting to know the women of Bliss. We stick together here. We have to protect this town. Oh, the men think they protect the town, but we know the truth.” Marie stepped through the doors into a big room that had been decorated in lace and antique furniture in one section. The rest was a bunch of organized boxes and looked like the back of a retail store, but there seemed to be a small salon in there as well. A group of women were already sitting around, coffee mugs in hand, talking amongst themselves. “You see the men like to think they’re in charge.”
Oh, she knew all about that. “Absolutely. It’s best they don’t know they’re being manipulated, but I thought all the law enforcement around here were men?”
Marie winked her way. “Not a one of those women in there would put on polyester to save her life, but you don’t have to wear a badge to shoot a son of a bitch. You see the woman with strawberry blonde hair? That’s Rachel Harper. Two husbands and she still had to take her son of a bitch down. All she had was a gun and her dog and cold steel in her veins. Callie there, that’s the sheriff’s wife, and her other husband is a big mean-looking son of a bitch. Who had to save them when the chips were down?”
“The woman with the baby shot someone?” She didn’t look like she would hurt a fly.
“She took down a DEA agent.” Marie nodded. “There’s Holly right there. She had to kill a US Marshal gone bad, but only after my boy had taken down a paid assassin. Yeah, that was a rough day. Hope and Lucy there didn’t actually shoot anyone. They took down their son of a bitch with a paring knife and a chair. They tag-teamed the nasty bastard. Real proud of those girls.”
Georgia gulped. That was a whole lot of body count. “What did their bad guy do?”
“He was a horrible human being,” a familiar voice said from behind. Nell Flanders practically floated into the room. She was ethereal with brown hair and wide eyes that reminded Georgia of the fairies in some of the games Seth played online. Oh, he tried to shut them down when she walked in a room, but she’d seen them. Dweeb. Hot dweeb. Stinking hot, make-her-crazy dweeb. God, she loved geeks. Why had she spent all her time on douche-nozzle jocks?
She forced her attention back to Nell, who was talking. “He pretended to be an environmentalist to bilk people out of money.”
“He ran a cult,” Marie said flatly.
“Not all environmentalists are in cults, Marie.”
“You say potato,” Marie shot back. She slid Georgia a look. “And Nell is an ancillary member. She never shot a son of a bitch.”
“No. I’m completely nonviolent, but I do support the right of all creatures to survive. Therefore, I support this group. And I have been shot at by a…person of ill repute.”
“He was a son of a bitch,” Marie corrected.
Nell shrugged. “What she said. I’m not so much into cursing either. Do you think those shoes are good for the environment?”
Georgia heard a gasp coming from the salon. “Those are so pretty. I love the color.”
It had come from the woman with the strawberry blonde hair. She was lovely, but there was a red rim to her eyes that told Georgia she’d been crying. Not recently, but she’d cried hard enough that her face was still slightly puffy. Damn. A woman only cried that much over a man or a broken heel.
“Thanks. I got them at Nordstrom. They’re Puccis.” She loved the five-and-a-half-inch platforms. Seth had seemed to like them, too. He’d stared at them for a while after she’d gotten dressed and muttered something about how they would look around his neck. They were gorgeous and hot pink, with silver buckles and perfect leather soles.
“I have no idea how you walk in those, but they’re pretty,” Callie said with a smile. She patted her baby on the back. There was another identical baby asleep in a car seat at her feet.
“Do not let Laura see those,” the redhead named Holly said. “She likes to have the best shoes in town. You’re about to be the foot queen of Bliss.”
Actually, that sounded kind of nice. All the women were looking at her with smiles, and they seemed awfully welcoming.
Of course, sometimes people could smile and then turn around and stab a girl in the back, but suddenly it seemed like her heart was as optimistic as her pussy had been. Her pussy had known deep down that all she needed to do was keep trying until she found the right penis. What if it was the same with friends? What if all it took was to survive getting beaten down until she found a place where she belonged? She’d always thought it would be a big city, but she’d woken up this morning with arms wrapped around her and hope in her heart, and she’d known the mountains and river were the setting for her rebirth, not the city. Seth loved it here. Logan had been raised here. Clearly there was something beautiful about this place. “Thanks. I brought a bunch of my shoes. You should see the Pradas my sister-in-law gave me this year. They’re white Italian leather mules with pretty gold studs.”
“I have no idea how you walk in them, either,” Nell said with a sad frown and a shake of her head.
The room groaned collectively.
Georgia waved her off. Oh, she knew where Nell was going. Nell was wearing Birkenstocks and a cotton skirt that obviously needed an iron. Yep, she was a very polite granola, and there was only one way to handle a granola. Never engage. Smile. Talk a little dumb. Never give a granola a target they could fixate on. The good news was, granolas were almost never cruel. They were kind and sweet, and they would take her Emilio Pucci heels from her cold dead hands.
“It’s totally easy. These have a two-inch platform, so it’s really like I’m walking in three-inch heels. Easy, breezy.” She gave the Rachel girl a smile. “Do you want to try them?”
Georgia was a sucker for a teary girl. She’d been the girl who cried in the bathroom way too many times.
Rachel shook her head. “Oh, no. I couldn’t. I haven’t worn shoes like that in years. I’m pregnant. I can’t walk in heels.”
But she had worn them once. There was a look of longing on her face. Georgia would bet that she’d been quite the fashionable girl once. She pulled the shoe off. “I’m an eight.”
Rachel’s eyes got a little sparkle. “Me, too.”
The granola wasn’t done. Nell got in between them. “Do you like those shoes more than the earth?”
A totally easy question to answer. She made sure she looked deeply unthreatening as she responded. “Oh, absolutely.” She passed the shoes to Rachel. “The shoes are gorgeous and never tried to kill me. The earth is actually quite violent. Earthquakes. Volcanoes. Poison ivy. The poison ivy was the worst. I got it up my hoo-ha. Seriously horrible. None of my shoes have ever made me want to scratch my own vagina off. My brothers used to take me camping. They didn’t always remember toilet paper.” She turned back to the strawberry blonde. “Those look awesome. Look how tall you are.”
Rachel was smiling, her eyes lit with happiness. “They do feel nice. Wow. Laura would be so jealous.” She looked down, admiring the heels. “I bet I’m as tall as Max and Rye now.”
Sexy heels could give a woman so much confidence. “They look great on you.”
“I think we should talk about how those shoes are made. And the sole is obviously leather.” Nell had a look of deep consternation on her face.
Never engage the granola. Georgia gave Nell a big hug. “I’m so
glad you noticed. You’re so nice, Nell.”
Nell sputtered, but her arms wrapped around her as though she couldn’t possibly resist a human hug no matter whether said human was mad about leather or not. “Thanks.”
“I’m so glad we’re neighbors.” She pulled back and winked. “We can be such good friends.”
Nell nodded and found a seat in the salon.
Marie was suddenly next to her. “I think I might love you, Georgia. You might be the daughter I never had.”
Rachel was shaking her head. “I’ve never seen anyone who was able to shut down Nell. I’m in shock. You kept right on talking. I never thought to do that. I always try to argue.”
And that was where Rachel went wrong. “Oh, no, you can never win an argument with a granola, but that’s okay. They’re nice and stuff, so you have to hug it out. If you hug them enough, they totally lose their powers.” Georgia turned a smile up to Marie. “Thank you for bringing me here, Momma Marie. I feel so at home.”
Marie stopped, her face flushing, and then she nodded stiffly. “Well, you’re a sweet girl, Georgia Dawson. A damn fine girl.”
She turned and walked away.
“Holy shit. I think I saw a tear in those eyes. I didn’t think Marie had working tear ducts.” Rachel’s mouth was hanging open as she watched Marie start toward the podium. “You are a miracle worker. And you’re Logan’s girl?”
She’d been feeling so happy before. She’d seemed to actually fit in with these women. But she didn’t because she could never truly live here when it was Logan’s hometown. Someday he would come back here and he’d bring his pretty subs with him or worse, he would get married and bring home his wife and she would look nothing like Georgia, be nothing like her. She would be classically lovely, and she would likely never scream at him and beat on his back as he had to carry her away. “No. I’m sort of dating Seth Stark, I think. But I might still be his admin. He hasn’t actually gotten around to firing me. When I think about it, he shouldn’t fire me. I should be allowed to quit gracefully after what I did to him in the shower this morning.”