Lakeshore Legend: The McAdams Series (By The Lake Series Book 2)

by Leah, Shannyn

  Colt shook his head. Why was he having all these thoughts of moving back to town and opening a business all of a sudden? After almost a year of being content and not leaving his flat he was suddenly sitting here where his thoughts usually sorted themselves out and contemplating buying Chet’s shop. It must be the result of Peyton opening her own shop that was triggering the former idea of his own.

  “It’s funny that I’m only beginning my career and you are already retired.”

  “Not by choice.” It slipped out.

  “Because of your accident?”

  He nodded.

  “That’s unfortunate if you weren’t ready to stop playing. I’m sorry.” She sounded sincere. “To everyone in town, you’re that lucky guy who is living the good life, you know?”

  He knew. He could live the good life that everyone was envisioning if he wanted too. But his insides felt empty like a hollow under-ground tunnel that led nowhere. Even if he thought he had the strength to dig out of that hole, in the end, he didn’t have any desire. Until these sudden new thoughts of revamping and re-creating Chet’s store...a store he didn’t even own yet...were stirring an unusual excitement in him.

  “Look at us being friends,” Peyton said.

  Friends. If the sudden inspiration that was feeding his empty insides was what it was like being friends with Peyton McAdams...he liked it.

  “I think we are both over tired,” he teased.

  She gasped and laughed. “You could be right.”

  “I hope not. Are you ready to call it a night?”

  She nodded.

  The chilly wind whipped the loose snow settling over the icy ground into the air and around them.

  Chet’s store would probably be open tomorrow during the festivities. Colt was considering popping in even just to say hello and if his retirement and the possibility of store sales came up−he would bite.

  “Colt, I’m sorry I brought up your bail over supper...in front of everyone and your mom.”

  He shrugged. “They all know anyway.”

  “Yes, but that doesn’t make it right.”

  “It must be your rock heart.”

  “I don’t have a rock heart.”

  “I did learn one thing today,” he said.

  She sent him a skeptical look. “Do I want to know?”

  “I now understand why you’ve been all over me. It’s been your lack of boyfriends.”

  Her eye lit up. “All over you, pffft. And I’ve had guy friends.”

  “Uh-huh,” he teased. He loved teasing her, even now that they were friends she lit up and gasped every time and was quick with a comeback, which he enjoyed.

  This time however her sentence was cut short when the arena door slammed open and shut behind them and loud voices and stumbling boots scraping the snow followed them calling out his name. The voices sounded impaired, angry and he could sense they weren’t trailing for an autograph.

  They turned.

  A handful of men followed by the pushy blonde Peyton had insisted he dance with caught up with them.

  “Hey you!” The leader of this drunken gang pointed at Colt.

  Colt held one of his hands up toward the men and the other went around Peyton’s front lightly pushing her back, protecting her and keeping her out of this guy’s reach. He wouldn’t let anything happen to her. If he could deter this argument without a fight, that would be a good ending to this evening. However, if these guys weren’t going to back down he wasn’t giving them the opportunity to get out of control.

  “I don’t want any trouble,” Colt said.

  “Then maybe you shouldn’t go around stealing other guy’s girls.”

  This evening was about to get interesting.

  ***

  The luminosity from the street lights above shone around them like the walls of a wrestling rink and Peyton had a feeling these men were ready to bust a move.

  “That’s right Josh, this jerk was all over me,” the blonde encouraged, doing a very unladylike jump in the air and grabbing Josh’s shoulder pounding it and promoting the violence that was beginning to surround them.

  Uh-huh. This was Peyton’s fault.

  Peyton knew for a fact, since a tinge of jealousy made her unable to tear her eyes from where the blonde’s hand touched Colt’s throat on numerous occasions pretending to adjust his collar, that Colt hadn’t been all over her...he’d been shrugging that hand off his skin the whole time extinguishing the ring of fire it was causing Peyton.

  None of the five men that stood before them even compared in size to Colt, but there were five of them and one of Colt. Worry gripped Peyton like Colt’s five fingers digging into her side. Peyton tried to step forward to defuse this situation since she had created it, but Colt’s solid hand kept her at bay.

  “I wasn’t trying to steal any other guy’s girl.” Colt was calm and solid while these men were unsteady and slurred.

  “My girl not good enough for you Colt Patterson?” the thug asked, saying his name mocking and in turn getting a roar of laughter from his posse.

  Colt remained calm.

  Peyton on the other hand was not.

  “I think there has been a misunderstanding. I do not want any trouble tonight. I’m out with my girl having a good time. I would like to keep it that way.” She liked the way he easily said my girl while trying to diffuse a situation she was responsible for.

  “There isn’t going to be any misunderstanding when my fist hits your face.”

  Oh shit!

  The guys cheered, slamming their fists into their palms and gawking around at each other feeding their alpha male egos.

  “I’m not looking to fight here.” Colt was solid and persistent.

  “Then cower like a sissy as I beat the shit out of you.”

  Josh stepped toward Colt.

  “Hey! Back off buddy!” Peyton screamed, ripping out of Colt’s grasp and trying to get in front of him. The neanderthal wouldn’t hit a girl.

  Colt turned to grab her as Josh’s fist sliced through the air and slammed square into Colt’s jaw. She heard the contact and groan escape Colt.

  Peyton screamed.

  Colt stumbled backwards and she tried to help catch him but really the man was way too big for her. He had no problem staying on his feet. Thank goodness or he would have taken them both down.

  “Oh my God, Colt!” she cried, moving in front of him and blocking the cheering ox having a celebration party with his stupid friends. “Are you alright?” There was blood. “You’re bleeding.”

  He grabbed her arm with one hand and his jaw with the other. “Are you okay?”

  “Yes.”

  He stood up then with anger enraged eyes. Eyes that had only seconds ago been soft concern for her. He walked past her.

  She reached for his arm. “Colt. Let’s just go.”

  Colt turned back. “Get back and do not step in my way again,” he warned, but not in the tones he gave the men. His warning to her was underlined with concern. Peyton stepped back and glanced around. She couldn’t be certain but she suspected he wasn’t allowed to get into fights while on bail.

  Colt took two steps and grabbed Josh’s shoulder turning him around. “You got that one. Now take your friends and walk away or I get the next one and you won’t be walking after,” he warned.

  Peyton toes were doing an anxious dance in her boots. If Peyton was in Josh’s cowboy boots or any of these other guys she certainly would have taken choice number one and got the hell away from those hard eyes Colt was giving.

  These drunken fools didn’t know what was good for them. They all harassed Colt with fake cowering sounds and arm movements. Colt stood his ground and when Josh threw another punch Colt side-stepped it, grabbed his swinging arm, pushed it to the side and slammed his fist into Josh’s face. Peyton winced at the contact and it sent Josh down to his knees and the trouble-making blonde into a frenzy.

  One down but there were four more that looked angrier than all hell. The next one we
nt for Colt and he took him down even quicker than Josh.

  “Josh get up and show this prick what he deserves.” Why did this blonde hate Colt?

  “Shut your drunken mouth. You are not helping!” Peyton yelled at her.

  “You wanna make me?” Peyton felt like they were standing outside the school entrance.

  “Peyton stay back!” Colt ordered. “Any more?” he snarled.

  Another one braved a turn and landed in the line-up, but the other two weren’t waiting for individual matches and one grabbed Colt from behind while the other one took a punch from the front and hit Colt’s stomach much harder than Peyton’s tiny gut slam.

  Peyton ignored Colt’s order and decided two against one wasn’t fair and needed to generate a distraction.

  Chapter Eleven

  “Ouch, ouch, ouch. No, no, no,” Peyton argued, attempting to push away his hand and the ice bag he was pressing toward her squirming head.

  “Yes, yes, yes,” Colt told her sternly.

  Sitting in the hospital bed waiting for a doctor to fix her wound, Peyton was being a mixture of stubborn and child, combined with exhaustion and a swelled eye. She hadn’t listened to him in front of the arena so what made him think she would now? Here in the small room Colt had her cornered on the hospital bed with his body sitting on the edge, so maybe that would force her to reason with him. He took her objecting hand away and pressed the soft ice bag a nurse had dropped off lightly against her cut eyebrow.

  Finally Peyton closed her eyes in defeat and leaned back against the wall. He moved with her, propping his free hand against the bed and keeping the ice pack firmly pressed against her eyebrow.

  “I don’t want stitches,” she moaned, her face so close her breath danced across his face.

  He chuckled under his breath. “Then you shouldn’t have tried to play super hero.”

  “It was all my fault.”

  “I told you to turn around.”

  Peyton opened her eyes. “I meant the fight, not my eyebrow. I made you dance with that awful woman.” She closed her eyes and groaned again. That was true but how was she to know there was a jealous lineup of jerks waiting to try and knock Colt to the ground.

  Peyton’s right eye was red and swollen. Ironically it hadn’t been from the fight he’d had under control. Peyton’s super hero scream had alerted him that her cape size ego was about to swoop in to rescue him. Rescue him? Her humorous plan to try and distract the men made him grin. What had she been thinking? Without another option Colt sent the last two guys to the ground in seconds so Peyton didn’t put herself into the dangerous direction her cape was leading her.

  Fighting hadn’t been his first choice but he also wasn’t going to stand around giving the sloshed fools, with impaired thoughts, the opportunity of harassing Peyton. He wanted her out of danger and if taking them all down was the means−he did it. It went against his bail condition but it hadn’t mattered at the moment as long as Peyton was safe. That was until she screamed past them, making such a ruckus and turning suddenly, slamming her face right into a hydro pole causing the gash over her eye-brow. If she hadn’t had blood oozing from her fingers he would have laughed. Who walked right into a hydro pole?

  “The eyebrow was your fault too.”

  Peyton opened her eyes creased her forehead and then made a groaning sound as the pain it caused. “Stupid hydro pole came out of nowhere.”

  “It was actually pretty grounded.”

  Her hand touched his jaw where it was still hot from the punch. “I’m sorry,” she said.

  “It’s alright.” He could handle a punch.

  “Will they give me drugs?” She was back on the stitches topic. She might be a super hero ready to jump in and save him from a herd of men but thought of stitches terrified her.

  He’d had to pick her out of the truck and carry her to the emergency door before she finally realized there was no getting out of it and she agreed she would walk inside the hospital on her own. He was pretty sure she debated running away when he set her down, but she huffed and went to the receptionist desk.

  “I doubt it.”

  “Will they give me a numbing needle?”

  “I don’t think so.”

  “How many stitches do you think it will need?”

  He shrugged. “Four? Five?”

  She groaned. “Can you suffocate me with the pillow?”

  Colt chuckled and shook his head. “No.”

  “I deserve it.”

  “Maybe.” Her warm hands encircled his and took the ice pack away and then she applied it to his jaw. In comparison his jaw was nothing to the open gash above her eye but he let her hold the ice there just for a moment to ease her guilt.

  “That woman was awful and I made you dance with her then her boyfriend tried to beat you up and I got you punched in the jaw. And now we are here getting stitches because I walked into a hydro pole. I’m not a very good sober-buddy.”

  “You’re a very good sober-buddy. Look at us...both sober.”

  She smiled. “Does it hurt?”

  Not whenever you-re touching it.

  “I will survive.” He wasn’t sure how he was going to survive her tired trusting eyes. It took all the strength he had not to touch her cheek or kiss her lips. “Looks like Sydney was wrong about that rock heart of yours.”

  “I told you.”

  When the doctor came in and said a little tape would fix her cut Colt didn’t know who was more relieved: Peyton because there were no stitches or Colt because he’d had a distraction from his wondering thoughts.

  Chapter Twelve

  It had turned out to be a good weekend...even with Colt hanging around and ending up staying the entire holiday. His truck was still parked in the laneway that morning...Peyton had only noticed when her fingers touched the curtain to let the sunny warm morning caress her face and her healing eyebrow. It had nothing to do with her waking up from visions of him invading her sleep every second of the night like the lingering scent of essential oils remaining in the air for days after each recipe. Nothing at all.

  Elaine and Kent seemed inseparable like they’d found the missing pieces in their puzzle of life. This meant piecing Elaine into more of Peyton’s days, which in turn meant piecing in more of Colt.

  Peyton saw him walk through the main doors at The Cliff House restaurant the night before looking like a run-way model, showcasing the black slacks and pinstripe matte dress shirt that stretched tightly over the expanse of his wide chest. It was hard not to notice him. It looked like a professional artist had styled his hair, shaved his amazing jaw line and highlighted every hard edge on his face as he sauntered his sexy body toward their table. No wonder every woman in the place turned to look at him like he was eye-candy and yet his alluring eyes sparkling from the chandelier lighting above never strayed from her own.

  Why did he have to go do that! And what was that look he’d been giving her all night? It wasn’t lust, alright it was a little lust, but there was something else and it was making his game plan a distant thought. A very, very distant thought. It seemed the four of them had become best friends this weekend. Peyton wondered if Colt was ever going home.

  Peyton also saw him earlier when he and his mother showed up at the back door with invitations to an afternoon of skiing at the Caliendo resort. Invitations which she’d thought her dad had given as a solo invite to just her.

  If Peyton didn’t know better she would think Kent and Elaine were trying to set them up, or at the very least Elaine. They might have to suggest a sit-down with their parents to discuss the game plan and set everyone straight.

  All weekend Colt took his agreement very seriously and made no attempts to seduce, touch or tease her in any form except friendly. Thank goodness! Although his friendly, accidental hand caresses, body bumps, laughter, and practically everything else he did turned her on, so she couldn’t imagine where they would have ended up if he’d been trying. The private guest lounge at The Cliff House, or the change ro
om at the ski chalet, or multiple times in the shower at her dad’s house. Why was he always at her dad’s house?

  Back to reality. She began this gorgeous morning, by sleeping in later than usual. She was grateful to see her life resume its normal routine. Her days would consist of full-time work at the shop, which was her dream and her real reality, and would leave no free time for Colt, his steamy eyes or their parents attempt to set them up.

  Peyton rubbed her hands together with a positive outlook and flipped open her schedule book to review the days leading up to the grand opening of the soap shop. It was less than two weeks. Her toes curled in excitement, but Sydney’s reservations subdued her morning glory. It seemed every morning, afternoon and night her sister’s words harassed her thoughts in attempts to upset her stomach and give her anxieties like she’d never felt before. Zantac was becoming a regular morning settle-her-nerves-down routine.

  Back to work. The remaining skids of ingredients for the bath bombs would be arriving Thursday between eight-thirty and nine which meant bath bomb production would be in full blast. She allowed two full days to get it all done.

  She scribbled a quick note to remind her sisters to be at the shop by eight-twenty at the latest that day to help unload the delivery and dive right into production.

  Peyton filled another mug of coffee and sat back in front of her work load. They would be spending the beginning of the following week finalizing the pricing for each product, including grand opening sales and giveaways using the specially designed price tags Kate had drawn up for each product. It sounded simple enough, but with four sisters offering different opinions all at once she could just imagine how long it would take them to agree on the final decision. Luckily she had printed off and made four booklets with prices of the same products elsewhere to compare and, in the end, use as a guideline. They would also be filling the seven foot antique harvest table in the middle of the shop with enough gift baskets of their product for the giveaways and offering the remaining for sale. They were also hosting two private parties Wednesday and Thursday before their grand opening where they were giving demonstrations of all the products.